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A message from Producing Artistic Director Emilia Sargent

Emilia Sargent, Producing Artistic Director

Dear Friends of the Tampa Repertory Theatre,

At the beginning of this year, I joined our Founding Artistic Director, C. David Frankel, in the leadership of The Tampa Repertory Theatre. As Co-Artistic Directors, we planned for next season with great excitement and hope for the future. Everything was set into place, and we were anticipating moving forward together as partners to grow TampaRep into a thriving community cultural partner. As many of you know, we lost David suddenly on March 6, 2020. Immediately after this shocking heartbreak, the pandemic made it apparent that we must stay apart to keep our audiences and performers safe. Necessarily, we postponed our production of KING LEAR to next season. 

For most of us, these are difficult times to make any specific plans. But we here at TampaRep are sustaining our hope. We are preparing for the best possible outcome for when we can finally come back together in a shared space. With great flexibility in mind, we will be sharing the plays chosen with David for our tenth season, or as we’ve coined it: Season eXpectations. This season will celebrate the end of our first full decade of productions that are innovative, provocative, and classic.

But until we can gather safely to continue that tradition, here are some of the things we are doing during the pause:

  • Honoring Our Past. Building Our Future. Please look for our Season eXpectations video series on our website and on social media. Join us as we revisit some of our rich past with many of the artists and audience members who have been with us throughout our first decade. Come back together with us virtually as we look forward to our inspiring and hopeful future as host, Nick Hoop, talks with directors and artists from our upcoming productions.  
  • Devising new virtual and socially safe programming to be announced soon.

TampaRep needs your support more than ever. The pandemic has placed live theatre of all sizes in an unprecedented financial situation. Please consider making a gift to TampaRep to ensure that we will be here for Season X. Any amount will help us to bridge this pause and to continue creating innovative, provocative, and classic theatre experiences with you. I’d like to ask you to kindly consider donating your purchase of Season IX tickets to TampaRep and purchasing a Season X FlexPass now. We can only do this together with you, our TampaRep family.

Emilia Sargent, Producing Artistic Director