New Tampa Players Cut Ribbon On Uptown Stage Home

After years without a permanent home, the New Tampa Players could soon have two homes — at the University Mall, where the theatre troupe celebrated signing a lease (above), and at the forthcoming New Tampa Performing Arts Center in the new Hunter’s Lake development.

Although the New Tampa Players (NTP) have big plans for when their permanent home at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (PAC) opens behind the Village at Hunter’s Lake plaza (off Bruce B. Downs Blvd.), the theatre troupe isn’t missing a beat in the meantime, as it brings the performing arts art to the community in and near New Tampa.

Last month, NTP officially cut the ribbon on Uptown Stage, its black box theatre at the University Mall on E. Fowler Ave. 

Moving from space to space is nothing new for the local community theatre troupe, which is made up of performers from all over the Tampa Bay area. In the nearly 20 years since New Tampa Players were founded in 2002 by Doug Wall, it has never had a permanent home. 

While NTP signed a lease for the Uptown Stage in early 2020 and began performances and activities there earlier this year, the troupe held off on an official ribbon cutting until September 14.

“We used Covid to remake the space,” which used to be a Radio Shack, says Nora Paine, NTP’s producing artistic director.  “We did a soft opening through the summer, just to get our bearings and get used to producing stuff in that space. Then, we scheduled the ribbon cutting for September so more people could attend after summer vacations.”

Paine’s role as producing artistic director is new. After serving as NTP’s volunteer president since 2017, and volunteering for the organization for 13 years overall, NTP named her its first official employee.

Because of NTP’s growth and expanded vision, the organization agreed to a governance change and chose Paine to serve in a role that functions as both the troupe’s CEO and artistic director.

She oversees all of the activities at Uptown Stage and is looking forward to when NTP can move into the PAC, as well.

“We will keep Uptown Stage even when we move,” says Paine. “It’s a good space for small shows.”

She says the PAC will be a big stage with 350 seats, allowing NTP to bring back big musicals that are loved by the community, such as “Annie” and “The Little Mermaid.”

At the Uptown Stage ribbon cutting, Hillsborough County commissioner Ken Hagan said the PAC will be ready to open sometime between Aug. 2022 and Jan. 2023.

“But, if we want to do smaller shows with less name recognition, or do some things that are normally not done, Uptown Stage will be a great spot,” says Paine, “so we intend to keep both going.”

The Uptown Stage space also allows NTP to stage smaller productions, where people who have never been in a show and would like to try can gain a small experience to help them develop their acting “chops.”

Uptown Stage keeps NTP close to the audience they’ve developed while performing at the nearby University Area Community Center the last few years. As the Center’s own programming grew, however, the performances could no longer be supported and NTP had to find a new location.

The first show at Uptown Stage was held in May. For NTP’s summer season, small groups performed “The Amish Project,” “Motherhood Out Loud,” “Bloom” and “Polka Dots.”

The space also is used for Saturday morning arts classes for students at nearby Muller Elementary. These often bring in guests to connect kids to the arts, and range from puppet theatre to acting to painting.

“Uptown Stage allows us to continue to pursue our mission to give as much access to the arts to as many people as possible in Tampa,” says Paine.

More than a half-dozen additional shows remain for NTP’s 2021-22 season. In January, for example, the troupe will present “Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Pinata Woman and Other Superhero Girls Like Me,” in cooperation with Tampa City Ballet, combining the arts of theatre and ballet for the audience. Tampa City Ballet’s Paula Nuñez will choreograph pieces especially for the NTP production.

Coming up next is a production called “The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later,” which is a follow-up to “The Laramie Project,” a show about the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard. “10 Years Later” is from the same creators, looking at what happened in the decade after that tragedy.

“Lots of people do ‘The Laramie Project,’” explains Paine, “but I haven’t seen ‘10 Years Later’ done anywhere in this area.”

“The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later” opens on Friday, October 15, at Uptown Stage. Tickets are available at NewTampaPlayers.org /tickets.

In addition, this fall will mark Season 2 of NTP’s “Amazing Arts Challenge,” a reality show modeled after “The Amazing Race” on CBS-TV. It sends teams all over Tampa as a way to bring arts organizations together and share with the community all the “cool arts stuff” in the area. 

Last season featured well-known spots like the Tampa Theater and Straz Center, along with lesser-known murals, dancing companies, and more.

“We were looking for a way to brings arts organizations together during Covid,” Paine explains. “We wanted to be outside and not have people packed closely together, and give people the opportunity to watch from home but not be sitting in front of a computer for hours.”

Last season’s Amazing Arts Challenge can be viewed on the website, as well.

Anyone interested can learn more on the NTP website at NewTampaPlayers.org or by emailing Nora.Paine@NewTampaPlayers.org.

New Theater Company To Take Over The Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment

The Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment

Dusted off, cleaned up and renovated by developer Mark Gold after landing on the bankruptcy heap due to coronavirus in 2020, The Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment has been turned over to B&B Theatres, which will take over operations of the complex.

The 16-screen theater will be renamed B&B Theatres The Grove 16 at Wesley Chapel. According to a press release, the new company plans on spending $1.5 million in upgrades, which will include replacing the seating in the downstairs theaters with reclining chairs similar to the ones used upstairs. Other renovations and amenities will be announced in the future.

Founded in 1924, B&B Theatres  is a family-owned and operated theater chain based in Liberty, Mo. It is the fifth-largest theater chain in North America, with 517 screens at 56 locations in Kansas, Iowa, Florida, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Washington, and Georgia. The Grove will be the fifth Florida location.

SideSplitters Comedy Club will continue to offer comedy shows and Cycle Cinema, featuring spin bikes inside the theater, still plans to open.

We will have more information in our upcoming Wesley Chapel edition on Oct. 26.

For more information, visit bbtheatres.com

I-75 traffic to be detoured weekend of October 15

Due to concrete beams being set for the new Overpass Rd. bridge on I-75 in Wesley Chapel, the Florida Department of Transportation says to expect detours this weekend.

Southbound detour

Southbound I-75 traffic will be detoured off the interstate at exit 285, or S.R. 52 between 9 p.m. Friday night, Oct. 15 and 9 a.m. Saturday morning, Oct. 16. Travelers who get off on exit 285 will turn right onto S.R. 52 and continue for approximately one-half mile. At the next traffic signal (Old Pasco Road), turn left and go south on Old Pasco Road for approximately 6.75 miles to S.R. 54/C.R. 54. Turn left at the traffic signal onto S.R. 54/C.R. 54/Wesley Chapel Blvd. and continue east about 7/10s of a mile to re-enter southbound I-75. 

Northbound detour

Northbound I-75 traffic will be detoured off the interstate at S.R. 54/C.R. 54 between 9 p.m. Saturday night, Oct. 16 and 9 a.m. Sunday morning, Oct. 17. At the bottom of the ramp, turn left onto S.R. 54/C.R. 54/Wesley Chapel Boulevard and continue west about 8/10ths of a mile to Old Pasco Rd. At the traffic signal for Old Pasco Rd., turn right and go north for approximately 6.75 miles to S.R. 52. Turn right at the traffic signal onto S.R. 52 and go east about 3/4 mile. After passing under I-75, turn left onto the entrance ramp to re-enter northbound I-75.

FDOT asks drivers to be careful on Old Pasco Rd., which is one lane in each direction and will be congested during the hours of the tour. Motorists are urged to plan plenty of extra time to drive the detour and return to the interstate or consider alternate routes. Law enforcement officers and traffic management personnel will be active along the detour route to assist with traffic flow, as well as detour signs and message boards.

Kobé Steakhouse Moving Down The Road

KobĂ© Japanese Steak House’s move to its new location at the former Vuelo’s Mexican Grill on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. (above) is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

KobĂ© Japanese Steak House, which has been located at the corner of Bruce B. Downs Blvd. and Pebble Creek Dr. since 2011, is moving down the road to the old Vuelo’s/Señor T’s/Romano’s Macaroni Grill site in front of New Tampa’s Home Depot.

According to Hien Nguyen, a spokesperson for the family-owned mini-chain, as soon as remodeling is completed on the former Vuelo’s, KobĂ© “will transition from our current location.”

Nguyen says the new location, “will be larger to accommodate our growing team and business. We aim to transition by the end of this year.”

The new site for KobĂ© is 7,000 square feet — giving the restaurant roughly 1,000 more square feet to accommodate a larger kitchen for it’s growing to-go business —and offers more parking.

The successful and highly-rated Japanese steak house, one of 12 located in Florida, is now going to try to succeed where others have not when it moves into the former Vuelo’s Mexican Restaurant location, which was previously Señor T’s and before that Macaroni Grill, which closed in 2013.

Señor T’s opened in November 2015 but was poorly received and scathingly reviewed by many. It failed to make it through even a year, closing its doors for good in July 2016.

The Mexican eatery was rebranded, redesigned and opened with a new, but still Mexican-based, menu as Vuelo’s a few months later, in November. But, whether it was the food or the location, Vuelo’s died out just over a year later and the restaurant has been empty since 2018.

Can another restaurant succeed in that seemingly cursed location, which can be difficult to get in and out of from BBD?

Probably, considering that Chili’s has had staying power right next door. Plus, KobĂ© has an established reputation and is popular in New Tampa (at least according to our annual Reader Surveys, which always give the restaurant high marks). And, according to 2,756 Google ratings, KobĂ© has a 4.7 out of 5 rating. Yelp reviewers give KobĂ© 4 out of 5 stars.

In addition, KobĂ© has been the most successful/longest lasting of all of the restaurants to have come and gone from its location in front of the Pebble Creek Collection. 

The saga began when Tampa Bay media personality Jack Harris leant his name to (and co-owned) Harris & Co., the original restaurant in Kobé’s location, which opened to rave reviews in 1997 but closed in 2000. But, Harris & Co. would just be the first of five restaurants in the building, which also has been home to Durango Steak House (2000-02, 2003), the Durango-owned Sammy Frogs (2004) and Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse (2006-11) prior to Wasabi selling its spot to KobĂ©.

Coyote’s Poekert Is Eager To Return To State

“Last year wasn’t…that good. I didn’t run a very good race at Regionals. But it definitely motivated me on a new level . Not making it to State probably helped me. It got me more fired up for track.”

— Cypress Creek High junior Zack Poekert

For most cross country runners, the offseason is all about putting in the miles. However, after putting in the miles before his sophomore season, Cypress Creek’s Zack Poekert switched things up a bit for 2021.

Instead, the Coyotes junior built more “tempo” runs —  longer distances at a slower pace, shorter distances at a faster pace — into his training regimen and the results are paying off this season.

After winning a preseason jamboree in Palmetto — his first-ever first-place finish in high school — Zack reeled off four straight top-5 finishes against stiff competition, including a first-place finish at the River Ridge Invitational, and has emerged as a State contender in Class 3A.

Getting in the tempo work this summer, he says, has made him stronger and more confident.

“I notice the difference,” he says. “It made me a lot more confident going into these meets knowing that my training was there, and that I could compete with these (other runners) now.”

Zack Poekert (left), with coach John Hoffman, after his fifth-place finish at the Florida Horse Park Invitational in Ocala on Sept. 3 (Photos courtesy of the Poekerts)

Zack, who broke 17 minutes for the first time at the jamboree, broke 16 minutes for the first time when he ran a 15:58 to finish fifth at the Florida Horse Park Invitational in Ocala on Sept. 3.

Zack has been ranked as high as No. 18 in the state according to flrunners.com, and earlier this season had the third-best time in Class 3A.

Zack says his goal this year is to run a 15:30, a steep drop from the 16:30 or so he has been averaging. But, he is motivated and ran a 15:43 in his River Ridge win.

He was a freshman on the Coyotes team that made it to the State meet in 2019, and as a sophomore in 2020 helped the team win its first-ever district championship. However, the Coyotes did not qualify for a return trip to States, and Zack just missed going as an individual.

A strong track season (4:28 in the mile, 9:48 in the two-mile) has him ready for a bounce back.

Zack’s passion for running started when he was younger, running with his mother Ronda, a former track and cross country standout for Plant, who helped the Panthers to the 1991 and ‘92 State cross country championships. 

When Ronda got back into running after years away from the sport, Zack asked if he could join her. Together, they trained and eventually ran in a handful of 5K races, like Miles for Moffitt and Gasparilla. Eventually, Zack got to the point where he was leaving Ronda in the dust.

“I would see him at the beginning of the race, and at the end of the race,” says Ronda, laughing. 

His passion for the sport, however, grew quickly during his freshman year at Cypress Creek, buoyed by his trip to the State meet.

Ronda gives credit for Zack’s success to his coaches, John Hoffman and Elsa Rehberg, and dad Bryan will occasionally go over the course with his son.

When Ronda does have a tip to lend, it’s usually about the mental aspect of racing, and strategy. Primarily, running your own race even if the rest of the field decides to go out either too fast or too slow, and then maintaining where your tempo needs to be during the race, is paramount to success, she says.

“It’s 100 percent,” Ronda says. “If you let that slip throughout the race, it can throw off everything.”

That’s good advice in a tough District 3A-2, which features last year’s State runner-up Sunlake High and standouts like Colby Robbins and Alex Pena. Poekert already has run against both at multiple meets this season, finishing behind them by roughly 10 seconds in a few races, with more head-to-head opportunities to come. That competition will make Poekert, and the rest of the Coyotes, better by season’s end.

Poekert says he is looking forward to the challenge.

“Our team is really young but you can see that they are starting to get really good,” Poekert says. “But if we don’t go as a team, I plan on getting back to States as an individual. My goal is to run that 15:30, and be All-State at the State meet.”