As summer begins so does free and exciting shows at The Straz Center. Learn more about the exciting and unique events at The Straz center this summer season.
Broadway Star of the Future
The Straz Center presents this showcase to honor Tampa Bay area high school theater productions, programs and students.
Celebrating artistic excellence in theater and musical theater, this event features performances from the 2023-2024 Outstanding Musicals and Best Performer finalists. Educational scholarships will be presented and Best Performer winners will be announced and move on to represent the Straz Center in the 2024 National High School Musical Theatre Awards, The Jimmys, in New York City.
Broadway Star of the Future will be presented Sunday, May 19 at 6:30 p.m. Regularly priced tickets begin at $29.25. Tickets can be purchased by calling 813.229.STAR (7827) or 800.955.1045 outside Tampa Bay, in person at the Straz Center Ticket Sales Office or online.
Arts & Mind Village Convening
On May 22 there will be the Second Annual, Arts & Mind Village Convening of 2024. In partnership with Johns Hopkins University’s International Arts & Mind Lab and as an extension of the virtual Arts & Mind Village Chat, this event will create an engaging environment where scientists, researchers and members of the community discuss the impact and actualization of the arts and healing.
Related: The Straz is All in for Veterans in the Arts
This year, participants will explore the bridge that connects the research provided by the scientific community and how that information can lead to practical application and actualization in the arts and healing community. Through a series of sessions, mini workshops, panelists, and leaders of the arts and health community, we are empowered to embrace art more deeply as a vital part of health and wellbeing.
Admission to The Arts & Mind 2024 Village Convening is free but pre-registration is requested here.
Izzie M: The Alchemy of Enfreakment
The Straz Center’s BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People-of-Color) Play Reading Series continues to be an integral part of the organization’s efforts to be inclusive and to diversify artistic offerings. This series offers the dramatic experience of hearing excerpts from plays written by talented local and national writers and read by actors. A question-and-answer period follows, during which writers provide insight into their creative processes. The fourth and final play, Izzie M: The Alchemy of Enfreakment by Monique Mojica, will be held on May 26.
Izzie M: The Alchemy of Enfreakment is a performance that explores a time in the not-too-distant past when “Indians” were considered freaks and exotics. Set during the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and performed by Monique Mojica and Barry Bilinsky, Izzie M reveals the ways in which things that are sacred in indigenous societies became profaned for entertainment and profit. Mojica’s exploration of the freak show was sparked by her own family’s experiences. In the 1930s, her mother and aunt (the future founders of New York’s Spiderwoman Theater) performed in the Side Show at the Golden City Amusement Park in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, New York.
June 19th Celebration
On June 17th The Straz Center will recognize the importance of the date June 19th, 1865, also known as Juneteenth, when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been set free. Come and see spoken remembrances, writings of historical importance and an original performance of music, poetry and dance created especially for this commemoration.
The event will be held at the Jaeb Theater at 7:30 p.m. Space is limited so registration is highly encouraged.
