ThinkTank Theatre Announces 2021/22 Season Of Partnerships

ThinkTank Theatre is set to announce their 2021/2022 season - A Season of Partnerships, which will begin November of 2021 and ends in August of 2022. The season includes five exciting titles, ThinkTank's International TYA Playwrights Festival, and collaborations with The Tampa Repertory Theatre, Stageworks Theatre, The Straz Center and Dark Door Spirits. ThinkTank's 3rd season offers a spread of celebrated classics and contemporary comedies, promoting challenging, elaborate, engaging storytelling that, at its core, is just-plain-fun, and perfect for ages 8 to 108.

"ThinkTank is over-the-moon to be able to announce a full season. I am so thankful for the professional theatre community here in the Tampa Bay area and the love they have shown ThinkTank Theatre," says Producing Artistic Director, Georgia Mallory Guy. "I believe we are doing important work to find the throughline of what it means to be a theatre for young audiences in today's society. We firmly believe that TYA work should speak to young people and not at them, as they have experienced more in their 8 to 21 years of life than most of us who are 40+. We start with The Giver and finish with our TYA Playwrights Festival, sprinkling in comedy and cabarets along the way, with the intention of reflecting the world in which our young people and their families exist, right now."

ThinkTank Theatre's 2021 season begins this November with a co-production with the Tampa Repertory Theatre. The two theatre companies will come together to produce The Giver and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in rep with each other. The shows will both perform at Stageworks Theatre in the Channelside district. They will share the same set and five actors who will be featured in both shows. The Giver was adapted by Eric Coble and based on the Newbery Award Winning novel by Lois Lowry. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was adapted by Simon Stephens and based on the book by Mark Haddon. The play won five Tony awards in 2015 including Best Play. The Giver opens on November 19th and runs through December 12th with a relaxed performance on November 20th and a preview performance on November 18th. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time opens on November 26th and runs through December 19th with a relaxed performance on November 27th and a preview performance on November 26th.

The season continues in February 2022 with All the Great Books (abridged), written by Reed Martin and Austin Tichener and directed by Brianna Larson. "Confused by Confucius? Wish Swift was swifter? Moby a bit quicker? Then prepare to enjoy another outrageous assault on the senses with over eighty of the greatest literary masterpieces brought humbly down to Earth." This show features three actors as they attempt to quickly give the audience a run-down of every classic book. The show opens February 4th and runs through February 13th with a relaxed performance on February 5th and preview performances on February 2nd and 3rd. This will be ThinkTank's first time performing in the Shimberg Playhouse at the Straz Center for Performing Arts.

Next in the lineup, ThinkTank will present a Spring Cabaret series with a boozy twist titled Boozy Broadway. Partnering with season sponsor Dark Door Spirits, ThinkTank will host a few nights of Broadway fun for the whole family with booze for those old enough. The performances of these cabaret-style shows will be held at Dark Door Spirits' open air facility on May 13th and 14th and a second production a month later on June 10th and 11th..

Continuing with the boozy theme, ThinkTank will once again partner with season sponsor Dark Door Spirits for a fun side project simply titled, Drunken Shakespeare, written, of course, by the bard himself. "You have no need to fear Shakespeare if you pair it with a drinking game!" says Georgia Mallory Guy. These performances will also be held at Dark Door Spirits' open air facility. ThinkTank hopes to make this an annual tradition, with the inaugural production taking place July 8th and 9th.

The grand finale of ThinkTank's season comes to us in August of 2022 with The 2nd Annual TYA Playwrights Festival. The goal of the festival is to provide a working forum for progressive and forward-thinking TYA productions for today's theatres. ThinkTank will begin accepting submissions from playwrights beginning in January of 2022 and a panel will begin to narrow down the top four plays. The finalists will receive staged readings directed and performed by theatre professionals from the Tampa Bay area. For the 2021 festival, over 300 plays were submitted from across North America. Two were selected as finalists and given professional staged readings - Year of Thirteen Moons, by Germaine Shames, and Exhibits in the Zoo, by Matt Harmon. For this year's festival, in addition to the selected play readings, ThinkTank will also fully produce one of the plays from 2021's Play Fest selections as part of the 2022 Festival. The 2nd Annual TYA Playwrights Festival will take place the weekends of August 19th - 28th, at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts.

Performance schedules, casting and full creative teams will be announced at later dates. For more information visit https://www.thinktanktya.org/. ThinkTank Theatre can also be found across social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Like and follow us to receive the latest in ThinkTank news and special offers.