New Tampa Players Co-Founder Announces New Show & Master Theatre Class

There may be little news to report right now about the oft-delayed New Tampa Cultural Center, but one of the main beneficiaries of the proposed center is keeping busy.

Doug Wall, who founded the non-profit New Tampa Players (NTP) community theatre troupe that will one day call the cultural center home, has a number of projects scheduled that will keep the budding thespian communities in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel busy.

First, Wall is bringing in renowned Broadway star Danny Zolli to give an Acting Master Class as a fund raiser for NTP, at the troupe’s current home at the University Area Cultural Development Center (UACDC) on N. 22nd St., just south of Bearss Ave.

“We want to reach out to all of the thespians all over the Tampa Bay area,’’ Wall said.

Scheduled for Saturday, March 11, 2 p.m.-5 p.m., the class will allow area performers to learn from Zolli, who has been heralded for his enormous vocal range and is best known for his record-breaking number of productions as Jesus, Judas and Annas in more than 25 productions of the Broadway hit “Jesus Christ Superstar” throughout the world.

The cost for the class is $100, and the class will be limited to the first 40 that sign up.

“With a master class, you want to keep it small,’’ Wall says. “If you’re working on something, you can audition that piece so he can critique it and work with you on it. There will be pulled readings and improv, a lot of the things that go on in New York and Los Angeles that he’s bringing here.”

Except for the price – Wall says a similar class held in those cities would cost at least $350. “This is a great opportunity for people,’’ he says.

Zolli’s appearance at the UACDC coincides with the NTP’s own production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which kicks off the troupe’s 2017 season and will be performed on Fri., Mar. 31, Sat., Apr. 1, Fri.-Sat., April 7-8, 8 p.m., and at 2 p.m. on Sat.-Sun, April 1-2, and Sat.-Sun., April 8-9.

Zolli will actually give two Master Classes, but Wall has reserved one for the NTP’s current “Jesus Christ Superstar” cast of 25 performers.

“As soon as we chose ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ as a show we wanted to produce, I reached out to Danny and said, ‘I would really like to do something special and (have our group) work with you in a workshop environment to understand the show like you do,’’ Wall says. “It means everything to our group and our production to work with Danny.”

Zolli starred as Jesus in the 30th anniversary concert of “Jesus Christ Superstar”, and, in the 25th anniversary North American Resurrection Tour of the show, he won critical acclaim for his portrayal of the high priest Annas.

ROCKTOPIA, TOO!

Wall is just as excited these days about a new venture of which he is the associate producer – “Rocktopia,” which might be best described as putting an opera, a Broadway play, a light show and a classic rock concert into a blender, with a dash of Mozart, Queen, Tchaikovsky and Pink Floyd.

Wall says it’s a brand new concept he has been working on with Rob Evan, a member of the multi-platinum selling rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the developer of “Rocktopia.”

“You have a symphony orchestra, a rock band, rock singers, a gospel choir, a light show and a video show,’’ Wall said. “It’s a great concept.”

Wall says the “Rocktopia” group performed its first concert in June at the Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest for PBS-TV, featuring six vocalists, five rock musicians, the Hungarian Opera Choir and the 65-piece Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert aired in Cleveland during a telethon and helped raise more than $35,000; you can catch the concert on PBS on Thursday, March 8.

The first “Rocktopia” tour kicks off Tuesday, March 28, in Portland, ME, with concerts planned in 23 cities over 28 days.

“Rocktopia” is scheduled to appear at the STRAZ Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Tampa on Saturday, April 22.

“This is eight years in the making,’’ Wall says. “We’re hoping to take the same path  Trans-Siberian Orchestra took – they partnered with PBS, started in performing arts centers and graduated to stadium concerts.”

Two other projects Wall is hoping to bring back to the area are his “Broadway Comes To Tampa” (BCTT) dinner gala, and a two-week Broadway camp that he previously held at Hunter’s Green Country Club 2004-09.

That camp was called the “NTP Broadway Summer Camp,” but Wall says it will have a different name when it returns in 2018. Instead of a day camp, like it was before, the new camp will be a two-week overnight camp that Wall says he is hoping to hold at Saddlebrook Resort  & Spa in Wesley Chapel.

The camp will be open to actors from all over the southeast, and Wall hopes to provide scholarships to this unique program and to colleges with money raised by the BCTT, which was a fund raiser for the Masque Theatre in Temple Terrace in 2000-01 and for NTP from 2002-15.

“We’re still working out all the details,’’ Wall says about BCTT and the summer camp. “But we really want to bring them back.”

For more information about the upcoming performances by the NTP, visit New TampaPlayers.org or call 644-8285. For more info about “Rocktopia,” check out Rocktopia.com.