Tampa Rep Opens Second Season with PHOENIX, Now thru 10/28

The second full season for Tampa Repertory Theatre kicks off with the regional premiere of the two-character romantic comedy Phoenix, by Scott Organ. The play opens tonight, October 11, at 7:30 PM in the Studio Theatre at Hillsborough Community College, Ybor City, and runs through Sunday, October 28. Performances are at 7:30 PM on Thursdays, 8 PM on Fridays and Saturdays, and 3 PM on Sundays. Ticket prices remain $20 for adults and $15 for students, seniors, and military personnel. Tickets can be purchased at www.tamparep.org or at the door.

Directed by Connie Lamarca-Frankel, who staged Tampa Rep’s critically-acclaimed production of Cold Storage, and first seen at the prestigious Humana Festival of New American Plays in 2010, Phoenix sparkles with witty banter as two twice-shy strangers, Sue and Bruce, navigate a feckless evening with implications neither of them could have predicted. TRT Artistic Director C. David Frankel calls Phoenix “a serious romantic comedy about life, death, and regeneration.”

The play stars Georgia Mallory Guy as Sue and Jon Gennari as Bruce. Newly settled in Tampa, Guy appeared most recently in Crimes of the Heart at Banyan Theater Company in Sarasota and The Rocky Horror Show at American Stage in St. Petersburg, and has appeared at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, and others. She holds an MFA from the prestigious Professional Actor Training Program at Ohio University. Gennari just appeared in Fahrenheit 451 at Jobsite Theater, and has been seen locally at American Stage, the Gorilla Theatre, and at TRT in last season’s A Streetcar Named Desired. A graduate of Northern Illinois University’s BFA acting program, he was nominated twice at the very first Jeff Norton theater awards ceremony last year.

Phoenix kicks off a season more ambitious than TRT’s first full season last year. It is followed in January 2013 by Tennessee Williams’ groundbreaking, heartbreaking drama The Glass Menagerie, featuring Emilia Sargent as Amanda. In April 2013, TRT joins forces with Hat Trick Theatre Productions (www.hattricktheatre.org) for a co-production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, featuring Jack Holloway in the title role.