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The Play's The Thing

STAFF/CLIFF MCBRIDE

Site of the new Stageworks Theater, at Grand Central at Kennedy. Stageworks will have space on the ground floor of the building.

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By JANIS D. FROELICH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 2, 2008

CHANNEL DISTRICT - For $300,000, someone's name could go up in lights.

It's part of Stageworks' push to open a community theater in the Channel District.

The nonprofit theater group, incorporated since 1983, has a shell of a future theater and office in the new condominium complex Grand Central at Kennedy. For the next few months, the focus will be on matching sponsors with nuts-and-bolts needs of theater life, such as $10,000 for naming a dressing room to help turn the 5,565-square-foot space into an engaging place for prize-winning plays.

The big-ticket item: naming rights to the theater for a $300,000 donation.

"This is fun," said Andrea Graham, chairwoman of Stageworks' capital campaign, as she sat recently in the lobby of the Grand Central building, 1208 E. Kennedy Blvd. The theater soon will have a bright sign and canopy to stand out among the row of condominiums.

Graham and Stageworks founder Anna Brennen say donors will gladly give if they can visualize what the theater will become. They have raised half of the $1 million needed to begin construction, with completion by June 2009.

"This will be where drama unfolds on so many levels," said Graham, citing the hundreds of artists involved in local theater, from costume makers to stage designers.

Brennen said Stageworks' future would be uncertain if Grand Central developer Ken Stoltenberg hadn't donated the space. She has seen many small theater groups come and go in the Tampa Bay area.

"I truly believe to survive you have to own your own space," she said.

It will be the first permanent home for Stageworks, which stages many of its productions at the Shimberg Playhouse at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center downtown or at Gorilla Theatre, 4419 N. Hubert Ave.

The theater will have 99 stadium seats, eventually increasing to 125. The biggest challenge, Brennen said, was how to plan a theater around the building's two columns.

"Figuring out the sightlines was a challenge," she said.

Brennen enlisted one of her New York City friends to help: R.T. Williams designed the theater to fit the space.

There also are the problems of dealing with noise from the complex's parking garage overhead and the sound of flushing toilets through the exposed ceiling pipes.

"These are solvable problems," Brennen said.

She has a long list of locals who have volunteered time and money to build the theater, including Scott Cartwright and Kevin Jarmon from Doug Johnson Architecture.

Stageworks also uses its $380,000 yearly budget for its Rainbow Tribe outreach program, which teaches juveniles in custody and students about anger management and other issues.

A recent Bank of America grant of $200,000 for operational support noted how Stageworks, in its 25th season, is part of a pioneer movement to include artist space in construction projects in revitalized neighborhoods.

Walking by a red wall facing the complex's elevators, Brennen said she plans to plaster the space with theater posters.

She already has propped up a few fliers from past plays.

STAGING A BALL

WHAT: Masquerade Ball 2: Carnevale di Venezia, a masked ball to support Stageworks' new theater in the Channel District

WHEN: 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Jan. 12

WHERE: Centro Asturiano, 1913 N. Nebraska Ave.

TICKETS: $100

INFORMATION: Call Andrea Graham at (813) 784-6832.

Reporter Janis D. Froelich can be reached at (813) 835-2104 or jfroelich@tampatrib.com.

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