Emilia Sargent News

Tampa Repertory Theatre and New York City based Broadway Arts Community are joining forces to bring veteran Broadway and screen actress Chryssie Whitehead (Chicago, A Chorus Line, West Side Story film, Radio City Rockettes) to Tampa for a one-night-only performance of her autobiographical play with music.

 Tampa Repertory Theatre has announced the cast for its production of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical Next to Normal, with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt.

Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men is a 2014 Dramatic Comedy that premiered off-Broadway at the Public Theatre in New York City on November 7, 2014. Directed by the playwright Lee, and featuring Austin Pendleton as “Ed”, Pete Simpson, James Stanely, and Gary Wilmes. Following its run off Broadway, the play was then produced by Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, opening in February 2017 and running until March 26, 2017. Young Jean Lee’s play made its transfer to Broadway with Previews beginning at the Hayes Theatre June 29,2018, with its official opening night on July 23. Directed by Anna D. Shapiro, and featuring a cast of Armie Hammer as Drew, Josh Charles as Jake, Paul Schneider as Matt, Kate Bornstein and Ty Defoe as “Stagehands-in-Charge,” and Stephen Payne as Ed. Both Tom Skerritt and Denis Arndt had ties to the production but left before opening and during previews.

STRAIGHT WHITE MEN explores identity, privilege, and masculinity in contemporary America as three brothers, Matt, Jake, and Drew, reunite with their father, Ed, for Christmas. Guided by the 'Persons in Charge,' the audience gains a new perspective on heterosexual males.

TampaRep presents Straight White Men, a provocative comedy exploring identity, privilege, and masculinity in contemporary America. Follow three brothers as they navigate family dynamics during the holiday season.

Tampa Repertory Theatre and ThinkTank Theatre will co-produce a stark and powerful production of Arthur Miller's classic play The Crucible, running from September 29th through October 15th at Stageworks Theatre in Tampa, with the Opening Night Celebration on Saturday, September 30th at 6:30pm.

Led by a top-tiered cast, Tampa Rep’s ALL MY SONS finally gives us the production that this tremendous script deserves!

Arthur Miller's subliminal masterpiece in a Three-Act structure All My Sons is what Miller considered his last-ditch effort at writing a commercially successful play. You see Miller's first play The Man Who Had All the Luck failed miserably on Broadway lasting a total of four performances. Miller considered throwing in the towel prior to writing All My Sons.

ThinkTank Theatre is teaming up with freeFall and Stageworks Theatres for their May Cabaret Series appropriately named ‘Both Sides of the Bay Cabaret’. The cast will feature local favorites and newcomers as well members of ThinkTank’s Young  Artists’ Ensemble Company. 

Tampa Repertory Theatre has announced the cast for its production of Arthur Miller's Tony Award-winning drama All My Sons. The play will run June 1-18, 2023 at the USF Theatre Centre.

Sometimes a show comes along that is so powerful, at times shattering, with a top-flight cast, that it deserves two Broadway World reviews. Tampa Rep's production of THE ELEPHANT MAN certainly fits into that category. My BWW colleague, Drew Eberhard, saw the show at its final preview, and I had the honor of attending its opening weekend. At the play's center is a performance by Paul Potenza in the title role that should have anyone reading this sentence to stop what they're doing and obtain their tickets ASAP. THE ELEPHANT MAN runs at the HCC Studio Theater in Ybor City thru February 19th, so you better hurry.

Bernard Pomerance’s The Elephant Man, premiered at the Hampstead Theatre in London in November of 1977. Pomerance’s play also transferred to the National Theatre in London for an “In Rep” residency. From January to March of 1979 it played off-Broadway, and made a transfer to the Booth Theatre on Broadway later in 1979, but the production closed in 1981 after 916 regular performances. The Elephant Man received revivals in 2002 and 2014.

This production is especially poignant as it was a conversation between the late beloved C. David Frankel, co-founder and artistic director of TampaRep, and Paul Potenza that set the show in motion.

TampaRep's second show this season will play throughout February at the Hillsborough Community College Ybor Campus in the Performing Arts Building.

Under the direction of Stephanie Gularte, this award-winning comedy features a recognized cast of L. Peter Callender (Torvald), Emilia Sargent (Nora), Karla Hartley (Anne Marie), and Bria Matthews (Emmy.)

Playwright Lucas Hnath was born and raised in Orlando, Florida. Later his move to New York led him to study Pre-Med, but soon he changed his major to Dramatic Writing, where he studied at Tisch School for the Arts earning a BFA, and subsequently following an MFA. Hnath is the playwright of 10 Dramatic works. His Broadway Debut and most notably his best work A Doll's House Part 2, debuted on Broadway in April of 2017 and closed in September later that year. Commissioned by South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, Hnath's contemporary spin/sequel to the Ibsen classic starred Laurie Metcalf, Chris Cooper, Jayne Houdyshell, and Condola Rashad. Metcalf later went on to win a Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her portrayal of Nora Helmer. Subsequently, Hnath's work was also a nominee for Best Play at the time.

Theatre is not theatre without an audience. Throughout the pandemic, many wondered when it would be safe to gather together again for the enjoyment and enrichment of a well-told story. Now that theatre lights are slowly rising to full again, TampaRep is extending an invitation to every household and budget level.

In the season opener for TampaRep, freedom, choice, and responsibility are on display.   Playing four shows a week through Nov 20, 2022 A Doll's House Part 2 by Lucas Hnath will open wide the door to Nora, who famously left her husband and children in the original play by Henrik Ibsen. One doesn't need to know “Part 1” to enjoy this funny and compelling new look at divorce in the modern age.

The Tampa Repertory Theatre has announced a new season of three plays for 2022-2023, continuing its collaboration with local venues and artists.

John Patrick Shanley’s The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, is a complex and intricate story that dives not only into the depths of our subconscious but boldly sits on the surface level of our emotions as well. Allowing us as the audience to not only deep dive within the minds of these characters, but into our own past or current circumstances. Shanley’s piece while complex is told within the length of 3 scenes ultimately ending with the audience making up their own conclusion to not only the events of the story but our own lives as we’ve grown so accustomed. John Patrick Shanley achieves masterful work here even with this being an earlier part of his repertoire. Shanley, most famously known as the Pulitzer Prize/Tony Award-winning playwright for Doubt, and the Oscar-winning Moonstruck has written 23 plays most of which he has gone on to direct, and is a Screenwriter on 9 Feature Films. Out of his 23 plays few have been performed in the Tampa Bay area, so it’s a much-needed breath of fresh air that TampaRep has decided to produce one of his earlier works, and still find relevance in the piece today. Director Chris Marshall, who has wanted to direct a Shanley play for some time says it best in his Director’s Notes, “...Our process has been about using the power of language to connect, though to do so is terrifying. It’s been equally about fierce listening and seeking to be affected as a listener, something we do less and less of these days. In these spaces (the theatre as theatre and as the room to hold scenic representations), we have finite opportunity, space, and time to connect, to learn, to discover. What a gift.”