Daily Loaf

Last December, just a few months into Jobsite’s 10th anniversary season, I wrote this blog for Creative Loafing about lessons learned trying to run a theater for an entire decade.

We’re now just a few days away from the end of this 10th season, and I’ve had time for further reflection.

Left to right: Amy Gray, Chris Perez, Ami Sallee Corley, Spencer Meyers, Katie Castonguay, Stephen Ray and Jason Vaughan Evans in "Pericles." Photo by Brian Smallheer.

We finish the final show of our season, a rousing and hilarious punk rock mob reimagining of the Pericles story, with a video tribute to 10 awesome years in Tampa Bay.  From the genesis of the company, represented by a photo of five awkward and rebellious 20-somethings on the loading dock of USF’s Theater I, cycling through all of our productions and major milestones, to a staged promotional shot of our dead-sexy board in one of the Carol Morsani Hall dressing rooms, photographed by Steve Widoff.

It moves me every night.  Oh, yeah, I’ve watched every single performance of Pericles — from lights up to lights down — something I’ve never done before. Read the rest of this entry »

Talia

Editor’s Note: Actor/director/teacher/playwright Ami Sallee Corley (right) continues her series of posts about the challenges of being a freelance artist in Tampa Bay. Today’s topic: Self-esteem (or lack thereof)

So I have had the incredible honor of being one of the cast of Pericles, Jobsite’s newest Joe Popp rock musical.  I get to play the love interest, a post-graduate hippie chick rebelling against her Cape Cod “old money” roots.  I’m in jeans and braids and half the time I am barefoot and tote around a nice chip on my shoulder for Daddy’s attempts to assimilate me into “society.” Daddy: “I thought you were going to see that Kennedy boy?”  Talia: “No.  That was your idea, and I told you I don’t want to end up at the bottom of a lake.”

So, in a very favorable review, CL’s Mark Leib refers to me as Read the rest of this entry »

Ami Sallee Corley and Stephen Ray in "Pericles." Rehearsal photo courtesy of David Jenkins.

Pericles is a fitting cap to Jobsite Theater’s tenth season, a noisy, funny, unpredictable rock musical featuring the impressive guitar work of Joe Popp and the splendid performances of seven inspired actors.

Neil Gobioff and Shawn Paonessa’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s play makes more sense than Shakespeare does; by turning the Bard’s characters into Mafia thugs, and his locations (Tyre, Tarsus, Pentapolis) into recognizable American locales (Coney Island, the Bronx, Cape Cod), Gobioff and Paonessa have succeeded in domesticating one of the wildest, hardest-to-follow plays in the canon, while still showing remarkable fidelity to the original. Read the rest of this entry »

I interviewed Joe Popp the weekend before opening night of Pericles in a dark, smoky bar in downtown Tampa. He was affable and talkative — I guess I expected more of a pissed-off punk guy. I mentioned that I had seen his punk rock Macbeth at American Stage’s Shakespeare in the Park series in 1997. It was a kick-ass production that still stands as one of the theater’s best-attended events ever. For that reason, I can’t wait to see Pericles at Jobsite Theater.  Joe wrote the music and lyrics for Pericles and also plays guitar and functions as the narrator.

See what Popp had to say about how he turned Shakespeare’s least-produced work into a modern, pop-punk-riddled tale of incest, intrigue and murder in the streets of New Jersey, where Pericles becomes Perry the mobster.

Read the rest of this entry »

In celebration of their 10th anniversary season and the beginning of a new decade of quality theater, Jobsite Theater presents a mobster musical based on Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Although the adaptation stays true to the play’s original plot and structure, the geniuses at Jobsite constructed their version for a modern audience: theocratic royalty is replaced with the underworld mafia; exotic locations like Tarsus and Mytilene are replaced with more familiar locales like New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts; and the Grecian Pericles becomes New Jersey Perry. Another modern twist: Perry’s treacherous adventures are accompanied by composer Joe Popp’s power-punk music. But never fear! After dodging mob hits and losing his wife and daughter, Perry learns the value of love, loyalty and honor — how sweet. This play has it all, folks: raucous tunes, love, laughs, mobsters, incest, intrigue and more. (Pictured, left to right: Amy Gray, Chris Perez, Ami Sallee Corley, Spencer Meyers, Katie Castonguay, Stephen Ray and Jason Vaughan Evans in Jobsite’s Pericles. Photo by Brian Smallheer) Aug. 6-23, 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 4 p.m. Sun., Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Shimberg Playhouse, $24.50 general admission; $10 Students, seniors and military, 30 minutes prior to curtain; a $10 preview is on Wed., Aug 5, 8 p.m., www.jobsitetheater.org. —Lily Reisman