Tampa's Stageworks Theatre Announces 40th Anniversary Season

TAMPA, FL — Stageworks Theatre, Tampa’s longest-running professional theater company, will raise the curtain on its 40th season with one of its most ambitious productions yet.

The 2022-23 season features a mix of award-winning dramas, musicals, audience favorites and a world premiere.

The six-show season includes “The Color Purple," “Christmas Contigo," “The Smell of the Kill," “When the Righteous Triumph," “Talking With…” and “The Great American Trailer Park Musical.”

“As we celebrate this important milestone, we wanted to honor Stageworks’ history but also look to the future,” said Karla Hartley, producing artistic director. “We’re extremely excited to bring our audiences plays that have a deeper meaning for our times, but are also fun to watch. Live performance should inspire, motivate and open our minds, and I think we achieve that with this season of shows.”

The 2022-2023 season kicks off on Sept. 9 with “The Color Purple.” With an award-winning musical score of jazz, gospel, ragtime and blues, “The Color Purple” is an intensely moving musical based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and the Oscar-nominated film.

The largest musical Stageworks has ever performed, “The Color Purple” is a stirring family chronicle about a young woman’s epic journey through joy, despair, anguish and hope that leaves its mark on the soul.

Beginning Dec. 2, get ready for the holidays Cuban-style with the East Coast premiere of “Christmas Contigo.” It’ll be a noche buena for the ages as Iris Delgado Piñeira heads home to Hialeah to introduce her soon-to-be fiancé to her parents and her aging abuela. As the lechon is roasting, the yucca bubbles and the flan is steaming, the family falls in love, reconnects and rediscovers their beloved traditions in this heartwarming holiday play.

“Christmas Contigo” will offer select performances in Spanish as part of Stageworks’ Hispanic Initiative, which highlights the work of Latin artists and Hispanic culture.

To start the new year, take three delicious, malicious wives, add three miserable, unloving husbands—and chill. That’s the recipe of Michele Lowe’s tantalizing dark comedy, “The Smell of the Kill.” Described as a “deft little anti-love story” by New York’s Newsday, this comedy kicks off on Feb. 10.

The world premiere of “When the Righteous Triumph” takes stage beginning March 17. Step back in time to relive Tampa’s civil rights lunch counter protests with this play written by Tampa playwright Mark E. Lieb and commissioned by Stageworks. This play highlights Stageworks’ ongoing commitment to supporting and performing work by local artists.

Stageworks founder, the late Anna Brennen, directed “Talking With…” three times during her tenure with the theater. To honor and celebrate her unwavering vision and accomplishments, the theater company will perform these 11 monologues featuring a baton twirler, a fundamentalist snake handler, an ex-rodeo rider and an actress willing to go to any length to get a job. These idiosyncratic characters amuse, move and frighten, but always speak from the depths of their souls. “Talking With…” takes the stage starting on April 28.

“The Great American Trailer Park Musical” caps off Stageworks’ 40th season. This show about Armadillo Acres' newest tenant will have audience members laughing out loud. At Florida’s most exclusive trailer park, Pippi, the stripper on the run, comes between the Dr. Phil-loving Jeannie and her toll booth collector husband. That’s when the storms begin to brew. This toe-tapping musical starts June 9.

Tickets and season pass options are available for purchase online. This year, ticketholders can select several new options:

• A First Look Pass allows ticketholders to pick from any Saturday or Sunday performance on the first weekend of a play or musical
• Gold Flex Pass ticketholders receive six tickets to use any way they wish during the season
• Silver Flex Pass ticketholders allow for six flexible tickets for matinee performances.

Additionally, monthly subscriptions are also being offered for the first time. For $15 a month, students, senior citizens or active military personnel can attend any Friday or Saturday evening Stageworks performance and receive a 50 percent ticket discount on shows that Stageworks co-produces with theater companies such as Tampa Repertory and Think Tank Theatre.

A $20-a-month option entitles the passholder to see any show at any time and receive a $75 ticket discount on co-produced shows.

Additional subscription packages will be announced soon. Monthly subscriptions require a 12-month commitment.

Stageworks shows are performed on Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. with matinees on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 3 p.m.

• The Color Purple — Sept. 9 – 25,
• Christmas Contigo —Dec. – 18
• The Smell of the Kill — Feb. 10 – 26
• When the Righteous Triumph — March 17 – April 2
• Talking With… — April 28 – May 14
• The Great American Trailer Park Musical — June 9 – 25