Jobsite Theater’s 2024-25 season announced

Although the current season hasn’t come close to running out of steam, Jobsite Theatre is already making plans for 2024-25. The resident theater company of Tampa’s Straz Center for the Performing Arts is cooking up “wild comedies and dark delights,” according to producing artistic director David Jenkins, with the yearly Shakespeare adaptation right in the middle.

The new season – Jobsite’s 26th – won’t start until September, but tickets are on sale starting this week. Because most of Jobsite’s performances take place in the Shimberg Playhouse, a small (perhaps “intimate” is the more appropriate word) black box space, tickets are usually grabbed up quickly by the company’s loyal subscribers and followers.

Still to come in the 23-24 season is The Smuggler: A Thriller in Verse, a one-man show with Jobsite favorite Giles Davies, May 15 through June 9. Ronán Noone’s dark comedy is written in rhyming verse.

The Rocky Horror Show returns July 10-Aug. 4, in the larger Jaeb Theater. The season ends with another one-person production, Thrice to Mine, written and performed by Roxanne Fay as tormented Lady Macbeth (foreshadowing another show, in the upcoming season). That’s onstage Aug. 14-25.

With nary a breath in between, the company of players will return to start the ball rolling for Season 26. Here are the shows, with Jenkins’ own plot descriptions and synopses. Unless indicated, all performances are in the Shimberg Playhouse.

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, by Selina Fillinger, directed by Summer Bohnenkamp, Sept. 4-29. One four-letter word is about to rock 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. When the President unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis, the seven brilliant and beleaguered women he relies upon most risk life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble.

Gorey Stories. Based on the stories of Edward Gorey, adapted by Stephen Currens, music by David Aldrich, directed by David Jenkins, music direction by Jeremy Douglass. Oct. 23-Nov. 17. Performed first by Jobsite in 2009 and then in new form in 2012, the 2024 reimagining of the gothic cabaret weaves together a changed-up compilation of stories, poems, and limericks from the late, great Edward Gorey. Full of wild creatures, weird characters, and humorous, horrid happenings, Gorey Stories is a play with music.

Macbeth. By William Shakespeare, adapted and directed by David Jenkins, original score by Jeremy Douglass; Jan. 15-Feb. 9, 2025 in the Jaeb Theater. A tale of ambition, greed, and murder under the influence of supernatural forces, Macbeth is a haunting examination of one couple’s ruthless quest for power and its bloody aftermath. In addition to standard mainstage performances, Macbeth will be offered as weekday field trip matinees for high school students.

The Pillowman, by Martin McDonagh (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Banshees of Inisherin), directed by David Jenkins, Mar. 12-Apr. 6, 2025. Comedy-drama about a fiction writer in an unnamed totalitarian state who is interrogated when several bizarre incidents occurring in town resemble the gruesome content of their short stories. When the writer’s mentally disabled brother is also brought in by two officers, the police procedural takes unforeseen twists and turns. This thriller was one of London’s hottest tickets when it premiered in 2003 with Billy Crudup and again just last year in a revival starring Lily Allen.

The Butterfly’s Evil Spell, adapted by the Jobsite ensemble from the play by Federico Garcia Lorca, May 7-June 1, 2025. Fuses live music, visual art, puppetry, theater magic and aerial and circus arts into a theatrical experience. Lorca’s mystically poetic world of beetles, fireflies and other magical creatures is disrupted when a hypnotic, wounded butterfly enters their dewdrop paradise. A young beetle is cast under a love spell, but a hungry scorpion is sure to shake things up in this timeless tale of beauty and desire.

PUFFS: Or, Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic, by Matt Cox, July 9-Aug. 3, 2025, Jaeb Theater. Director TBA. This clever show “never goes more than a minute without a laugh” (Nerdist) giving you a new look at a familiar adventure from the perspective of three potential heroes just trying to place fourth at a very dangerous magic school for kids. Overlooked and underestimated, the Puffs are a perky, well-meaning, loyal group of outsiders with a thing for badgers. Their journey takes the classic story to new places and reimagines what a hero can be.

For tickets and additional information: Jobsite website.