Tampa Rep announces its return to indoor performances
The long pandemic slumber has officially ended for the Tampa Repertory Theatre. The 2021-22 season has been announced.
“We have been eagerly anticipating coming back together with our audience in a shared space,” said CEO and Producing Artistic Director Emilia Sargent. “There is nothing that even comes close to the unique, communal connection of the human spirit that live theater provides.
“It seems fitting that we begin our season with two solo shows which remind us of the infinite number of things we have to be grateful for and of the importance of hope in our darkest moments.”
Every Brilliant Thing (Sept. 16-Oct. 3). It makes perfect sense that this one-man show, which Tampa Rep mounted last month in an outdoor setting, come back as the opening salvo for the new season. Ned Averill-Snell’s performance was – and will doubtless be – a knockout, in the Duncan Macmillan/Johnny Donahoe story of a young man’s search for meaning by listing the 1,000 most “brilliant” things worth living for. At Hillsborough Community College.
Open (Sept. 16-Oct. 3, paired with Every Brilliant Thing). Crystal Skillman’s one-woman show is about a magician attempting an impossible feat of emotional trickery. At Hillsborough Community College.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Nov. 26-Dec. 19). Based on Mark Haddon’s bestselling 2003 novel, the play by Simon Stephens centers around an autistic British lad in the center of a dark mystery. Presented in collaboration with ThinkTank Theatre, at Stageworks.
The Giver (Nov. 19-Dec. 12). ThinkTank is also working with Tampa Rep on this adaptation of Lois Lowry’s novel about a 12-year-old questioning the utopian world in which he lives. Adapted by Eric Cobble. At Stageworks.
King Lear (Feb. 4-20). Actor Michael Mahoney as the anti-hero of Shakespeare’s royal tragedy, in a production postponed by the onset of Covid. Directed by Connie LaMarca-Frankel, this adaptation uses “minimalism, magic, and a cast of new and familiar faces,” and will be staged at University of South Florida.
There is a “To Be Announced” slot at the end of the season, with specific dates not yet confirmed.
“Our focus this year,” Sargent said, “is to ‘Come Back Together.’ After being separated for so long from both our audiences and creatives, we are now collaborating with more people and organizations than ever before.”
Tampa Rep was founded in 2011 by the late C. David Frankel, a longtime University of South Florida professor of theater, his wife Connie LaMarca-Frankel, Sargent and Averill-Snell.
