Firm Picked To Design New Tampa Performing Arts Center!

The New Tampa Performing Arts Center (in red) off Bruce B. Downs Blvd. will be part of the Village at Hunter’s Lake mixed-use development. (Photo: Charmaine George)

In one of the more significant steps in the long, sometimes-tortured history of a proposed cultural arts center in New Tampa, the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) has approved the hiring of a firm to design the facility.

Last month, the BOCC awarded a $598,413 contract to Fleischman Garcia Architects to draw a plan for the long-awaited facility, which is now officially being called the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC), after years of being referred to as a “cultural center.”

“It’s an extremely significant and critical step in the process,’’ said District 2 county commissioner Ken Hagan, who represents New Tampa and has been involved in the project in various forms since it first sprouted in 2001. “It’s an important move.”

The design of the center — which will be located directly across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the main entrance to Hunter’s Green, in the new Village at Hunter’s Lake development — is expected to be completed by the end of the year, with bidding for the construction services tentatively scheduled for May of 2020.

It is hoped that the $6-million construction of the NTPAC will begin sometime by November 1, 2020, and is expected to open by Jan. 1, 2022.

The facility — long-heralded to be the centerpiece of the New Tampa community — will be 20,000 square feet on its first floor, with the capability to have a 10,000-sq.-ft. second floor added later. 

The building will include a 350-400-seat theater/multi-purpose room and stage to be used for community theater performances. It will be the home of the New Tampa Players (NTP) acting troupe, which currently stages its performances at the University Area Cultural Development Center (UACDC) on N. 22nd St., just south of Bearss Ave.

The stage area at the NTPAC will be more than 2,000 square feet, and Hagan said it will include an orchestra pit that he helped add after meeting with the NTP and addressing some of their requests.

The center also will host cultural/arts education classes, as well as meetings, banquets and other events.

There will be 1,040 square feet dedicated to NTPAC operations and education programs employees, including an office for the NTP.

The education wing will feature two studios with ballet and dance floors, mirrors and movable walls.

Hagan made note that the NTPAC also will be sustainable, incorporating solar power and electric vehicle stations.

Plans for the NTPAC date back to 2001, when a Connecticut firm was paid $27,000 by the City of Tampa for a study that determined New Tampa could support a small cultural center of its own.

A nonprofit group, called the New Tampa Cultural Arts Center, was offered the six acres of land it requested for the project, but the city requested the group come up with a $10-million endowment to pay for it, which killed the effort back in 2005.

Doug Wall, who was involved with those initial efforts, revived it again in 2007. But Wall, the New Tampa Players president and founding artistic director, could not secure the funding and he passed away in 2017.

Former county commissioner and Tampa Palms resident Victor Crist helped keep the project alive as he worked on finding funding. In 2014, the larger Village at Hunter’s Lake project, of which the NTPAC is a central part, was approved. 

In a 2016 meeting at Hunter’s Green, Crist told the NTP he had secured partner-ships with the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, the Patel Conservatory and the Prodigy Cultural Arts Program to bring gravitas to the project and elevate it to a high-level arts center.

NTP’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ Ready To Be ‘Part Of Your World’

Before Disney chose Halle Bailey to play the role of Ariel in the live-action version of “The Little Mermaid,” Patty Smithey of Land O’Lakes (above) had already been chosen for the same role in the New Tampa Players’ production, which opens tonight.

When Disney announced recently that Halle Bailey, a teenage African-American actress, was going to play the lead role as Ariel in the live-action remake of  “The Little Mermaid,” Patty Smithey thought that was really cool.

The idea, she figured, made perfect sense. And why wouldn’t she? After all, before Disney chose Halle Bailey, the New Tampa Players chose Patty Smithey.

An African-American actress herself, Smithey has been working hard to perfect the role of Ariel, which she was selected to play in the upcoming New Tampa Players (NTP) production of the 1989 Disney animated blockbuster.

The show opens tonight at 8 p.m. at the University Area Community Development Center (CDC) at 14013 N. 22nd St. in Tampa. There are two showings on Saturday, one on Sunday, and then showings the weekend of August 2-4.

For the past month, Smithey, who lives in Land O’Lakes, has been rehearsing with the rest of the NTP, a local acting troupe, at the CDC.

An acting hopeful in middle and high school, Smithey set aside her thespian dreams when she went off to college at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Smithey earned a degree at FSU in International Affairs, studying abroad in places like Panama, Prague, Poland and Croatia, as she focused on human rights. 

The acting bug, however, never went away. And, at the age of 25, Smithey is returning to her first love.

“It’s my big comeback,” Smithey says, with a chuckle. “I definitely feel honored I was chosen for this role.”

When she auditioned in May, she considered herself a longshot for any role. “The Little Mermaid” wasn’t exactly a movie rich with non-white characters.

On the paperwork for NTP, she put down a number of roles she felt suited to play, like Ursula, or one of Ariel’s sisters, or, she jokes, “maybe a fish in the background.”

She also, on a whim, wrote down Ariel.

Nora Paine, the president of NTP, says the troupe didn’t go into the audition process looking for a white actress to play the role of Ariel. She says that is never part of the process. “We looked for the person who could best embody the character,” Paine says. “For Ariel, we were looking for that innocence, a teenage kind of spunk, for lack of a better word.”

Because the movie revolves around a mermaid’s yearning to explore a new, forbidden world, the role had to be filled by someone who embodied Ariel’s way of looking at that world with total awe. 

“Patty had the facial expression of Ariel, the innocent and the curious face,” Paine says. “She did really, really well.”

Not to mention the voice. Smithey took on the movie’s iconic ballad, “Part of Your World,” for her audition, considered one of the best Disney songs ever, and nailed it. 

The role of Ariel was filled by someone who had the complete package that director Derek Baxter, choreographer Anne Tully, musical director G. Frank Meekins and Paine were looking for all along.

“I knew I could sing,” Smithey says. “But, when I got that call, wow, it was just amazing.”

Smithey’s enthusiasm for her role, and the significance of being a black Ariel, has not been tempered by some of the backlash Disney has received in social media for also picking an African-American for the role.

There have been hurtful memes passed around, and the hashtag #NotMyAriel actually trended on Twitter.

“I saw some of that on social media, and I was shocked,” Smithey said. “I mean, where are these people coming from, that they would be that upset about this mythical creature (being played by a black woman). Some of the stuff I saw was very negative.”

Smithey hasn’t received any backlash, and instead prefers to think of it as inspired and inclusive casting by Paine and the NTP.

The controversy over Disney’s decision has been noticed by Paine as well. While she admits that NTP may have smiled a bit when Disney made the same decision NTP did while casting, she says the debate over inclusivity in theater is a good one. She said diversity was a strong theme in many of the speeches at this year’s Tony Awards as well.

“We’re really glad it can be a national conversation, and a local one as well,” Paine says.

She says the NTP has always strived for inclusivity, no matter the production, no matter the role. The troupe has hosted productions like the Penguin Project, which provided opportunities for those with special needs, and inserted a host of actors into non-traditional parts for other productions.

In 2016, NTP reached out to residents in the University Area, where most of the troupe’s productions are performed — until their new home in New Tampa is completed — and asked them what they wanted to see. Residents in the area, which has a large African-American population, told the NTP they would love for their children to come to productions that had actors that looked like they do.

In 2017, NTP heeded that advice and did a production of the “The Wiz”, which re-imagines “The Wizard of Oz” with a primarily African-American cast.

Choosing Smithey was nothing out of the ordinary for NTP.

“ I think it’s great how they are modernizing the role,” Smithey said. “Maybe other little girls and little boys can see that anyone can be a princess or a prince.”

Smithey will lead 52 other castmates in what will be one of NTP’s biggest productions yet.

NTP is bringing in a choreographer from the Shinobi School in Temple Terrace, which focuses on acrobatic performances relating to parkour (movements used in military obstacle course training), ninja warriors and the circus arts.

“It’s going to add a circus twist to Disney,” Paine says.

Long pieces of silk cloth will hang from above to provide the illusion of being underwater, with performers artfully working their way around the silky streams.

“This is new, as far as I can tell, combining a traditional Broadway musical and circus arts done by a non-professional company,” Paine says.

“The Little Mermaid” opens Friday, July 26, at 8 p.m. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit NewTampaPlayers.org.

A Whole New World For Performers With Special Needs

The joy in the room is palpable as the New Tampa Players’ Penguin Project group practices dance steps for “Prince Ali.” Peer mentor Olivia Carr dances with her Genie, Connor Olsen. (Photos: Libby Baldwin)

The cavernous main hall at the University Area Community Center swelled with a chorus of voices. The booming energy of the song “Prince Ali,” from the classic Disney film “Aladdin” sounded like a seasoned community theater production.

In fact, however, it was just a regular rehearsal for a very special group of New Tampa Players (NTP).

“Aladdin” will open on Friday, April 5, at 8 p.m., with additional performances on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. 

All performances will be at the University Area Community Center, located at 14013 North 22nd St. in Tampa. Tickets can be purchased online for $15.

The local community theater troupe’s president, Nora Paine, was attending a theater conference in summer 2018 when she learned about the Penguin Project, an initiative that gives children with special needs the chance to perform onstage. 

Established in 2004 by Dr. Andrew Morgan, who spent more than 35 years as central Illinois’ primary medical specialist for children with disabilities, the Penguin Project matches each “young artist” with a peer mentor. These mentors, who  are mostly children the same age as the performers who don’t have disabilities, volunteer their time to work side-by-side through four months of rehearsals and during the final performance.

“The New Tampa Players had been looking for something like this, but didn’t want to re-invent the wheel,” said Paine, herself a mother to three special needs children. “This program is unique because it gives these kids a chance for social networking outside of the special needs community.”

“Aladdin Junior,” which wasn’t modified from the original script, will be the first Penguin Project production not just for NTP, but in all of Florida.

The performing artists and their mentors attend 3-4 rehearsals per week that run for no longer than 90 minutes, to ensure attention spans don’t run out. Each peer mentor learns every line, every dance move and every blocking move, along with his or her artist. 

Rehearsals are no slower-paced than regular children’s theater; peer mentors are expected to keep their artists on task.

If a special needs child becomes upset, the show still must go on.

“The young artist and their mentor go off to the side until they are able to calm down,” Paine said. “Then, they come back and join us. No big deal.”

The special needs actors get plenty of support from the all-volunteer New Tampa Players’ staff if they become overwhelmed. Music director Brad Roberts and choreographer Charis Lavoie comfort a young artist. 

Paine has years of stage managing experience, a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Montessori Education, but she and her staff of choreographers, costume designers and musicians are all volunteers.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to see the happiness that it brings these kids,” said Brad Roberts, the music director for NTP’s “Alladin Junior,” who says he previously has worked with special needs children.  “A lot of these kids, despite working at a different speed than I’m used to, have really impressed me with their raw talent and ability to learn and retain.”

While some of the artist-and-mentor pairs rehearsed, others sat patiently off to the side, using the time to run lines or go over dance steps. Even the youngest mentors, some under the age of ten, offered only smiles and  gentle encouragement to their artists.

“They’re just so open and ready to go for it, and that makes them be a really supportive family for each other, which you don’t always see in groups of ‘regular’ kids,” said Roberts.

Truly A Special Bond

The young mentors don’t seem to mind that all their hard work will lead to someone else getting the spotlight.

Olivia Carr works with Connor Olsen, who is playing the Genie, on his lines.

“I’ve found a really good friend, and an understanding for how these kids think,” said 13-year-old Olivia Carr, who peer mentors the young actor playing Genie. “I have a lot of fun with him because he’s very energetic, and we have the same personality.”

Olivia’s mom, Tami Carr, enjoys watching her daughter be part of such a selfless undertaking.

“She looks forward to rehearsals all day; being a kid in general is rough, so seeing anyone struggle makes her want to help,” said Carr. “I wish everyone would come and see how much joy they have. It’s contagious, and hopefully, it will ignite a spark here that will catch fire.”

Paine said she plans to put on one Penguin Project show each year, and said the response from the community has been overwhelming. She credits District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who is very involved in the special needs community, with helping her secure local sponsors, including Pepin Academies, the Arts Council of Hillsborough County, MOSI and more.

Paine’s 12-year-old son, Sebastian, mentors Jaden Figueroa, also 12, who landed the title role of Aladdin. Jaden said he wants to be a movie star when he grows up.

“He (Sebastian) helped me with my lines; we’re good friends,” said Jaden.

Paine’s 7-year-old daughter also Zoe is a peer mentor, and although the mentors don’t get the spotlight, Paine believes they gain something much more meaningful from the experience.

“She’ll come home after mentoring her friend Jack, and she’ll be so excited and proud that she helped him learn his lines and perform well,” she said. “They get a very special relationship.”

Penguin Project Offers Special Opportunity For Aspiring Special Needs Performers

One of the goals of the New Tampa Players (NTP) performance troupe has always been to introduce people to the theatre, and make it accessible for everyone.

The Penguin Project will help NTP meet its vision.

The project, a national effort to involve special needs actors in stage productions, is coming to Tampa, as NTP will adopt the Penguin Project for a production of a “Junior” version of “Aladdin” which is scheduled to run April 4-6, 2019.

Informational meetings about the production will be held on Monday, November 5, 7 p.m., and on Sunday, November 11, 5:30 p.m., at Family of Christ Lutheran Church on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in Tampa Palms.

As a parent of special needs children, NTP president Nora Paine says she can’t wait to get started, adding that the response already has been greater than she expected, with interest from Bradenton to Brandon to Town N Country.

“We are well on our way,” says Paine.

The Penguin Project was founded by Dr. Andrew Morgan in Peoria, IL, in 2004. Dr. Morgan not only had a passion for helping disabled children, which he did as a pediatrician, but also for local community theatre. He saw no reason why he couldn’t combine the two, starting the Penguin Project, which pairs disabled children and adults ages 8-21 with mentors who aren’t disabled.

Dr. Morgan has described the experience of Penguin Project productions as life-changing for the special needs actors who take part.

Paine had been brainstorming ways to incorporate special needs actors into productions, but it was at a theater management conference in Venice, FL, earlier this summer that convinced her to reach out to Dr. Morgan.

“There were several theaters all around the country there (at the conference) talking about it,” Paine says. “After I heard everyone talk about it, I thought it would be a perfect fit for the New Tampa Players. There’s nothing like this in New Tampa.”

In Penguin Project productions, actors are paired with a same-age peer mentor, who will help the special needs participant learn his or her role.

The mentor, who also has to learn all of the lines and choreography, will perform on the stage with their special needs counterpart, usually in the background of a scene, offering encouragement and whispering lines that may be forgotten. The mentors also help with stage footwork.

“But, the special needs kids still get to be the stars of the show,” Paine says, “and they get to have that great theatre experience.”

The special needs of Penguin Project participants range from Down syndrome and cerebral palsy to learning and intellectual disabilities and other neurological disorders.

“I know there are organizations devoted to specific disabilities that do great things,” Paine says. “(With the) Penguin Project, however, it doesn’t matter what the disability is. They take the child where they are and supply the support that they need.”

The NTP troupe has already done productions with children involved that have some learning disabilities, but Paine thinks expanding that effort will be a good thing for the entire Tampa Bay area.

“I know the need for something like this is great,” she says.

During the four months of preparation for “Aladdin,” Paine says Dr. Morgan and his team will visit Tampa six times — including at the informational meetings at Family of Christ — to provide assistance with the production.

Already, Paine says she has more than 30 interested performers and production workers, and almost as many peer volunteers.

It will be a rewarding experience for both, she says. “It’s a two-way street,” Paine says. “Mentors are going to get a lot out of it. They can teach a lot of skills to the kids with special needs, and also get the reward of being able to help a child.”

For more information about the New Tampa Players and the troupe’s upcoming productions, visit NewTampaPlayers.org.

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

Danny Zolli will give an Acting Master Class on Saturday, March 11, for the first 40 area performers to sign up.

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.