American Stage takes theater off the rails with ‘weird’ experience at art gallery

For the past three seasons at American Stage, plays have been popping up in some pretty unusual spaces, thanks to innovative off-site programming.

American Stage, The Florida Orchestra and projectALCHEMY are teaming up to present The Good Peaches, a girl vs. nature fairytale for all ages. The show features 8 dancers and an 82-piece orchestra conducted by Chelsea Gallo. Chelsea stopped by the Daytime studio to share a preview of what audiences can expect.

The title character of Hedwig and the Angry Inch goes on one helluva journey. Any company that chooses to stage this cult-favorite 1998 rock musical better have an actor who can go from inexperienced young Hansel to ravaged rock diva Hedwig and embody a range of other characters besides. He also has to be able to sing, move and dazzle in every style from pop to punk...

Beloved St. Petersburg tradition American Stage in the Park returns to Demens Landing Park on the downtown waterfront April 3. The annual outdoor event is the theater company’s largest production, on a stage they construct in an open field.

The curtain comes up on American Stage’s production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast tonight at Demens Landing, and Producing Artistic Director Helen R. Murray is thrilled.

There is nothing quite like the American Stage in the Park experience.  For nearly forty years, their park productions have become legendary.  Families sit on blankets, picnicking, singing along to the songs.

Art matters. 

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One of my favorite things to do is watch an audience. While you watch the work we have created, I watch you —Because you are the final, critical part of this artform. Theatre is perhaps the most collaborative of any art that humans make, often reaching beyond the stage and asking for your active participation in real time to complete what we have made. And how you, as an audience, traverse the ups and downs of a piece of theatre is of infinite importance to me. Did you know studies have shown that when an audience takes in a piece of theatre their heartbeats synchronize? I marvel at this, how we at American Stage can provide a journey that allows for such a magical act of community.

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Help us continue the journey with a gift to American Stage.

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My journey with American Stage started a year ago, but for our community, the journey  began in 1977. A passionate collective of artists and artisans shared a vision of bringing powerful stories to life for Tampa Bay.  

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In addition to our six vibrant mainstage productions, we now offer free community engagement programming, youth and adult theatre education classes, a children’s musical performed throughout Pinellas County public schools and the largest annual outdoor theatre event in the region. We are the longest running, most critically acclaimed professional theatre in Tampa Bay.

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Yet beyond our accolades, what makes American Stage special is our mission to touch the hearts and minds of all who engage with us. We have fostered a home for curiosity, exploration and connection. We have created a learning environment for generations of theatre enthusiasts.  

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I recently talked to an audience member who, at the end of our current show, sat with her partner in the audience letting tears fall, not wanting to move. She said they were tears of joy and hope, because she felt so seen and understood by the journey on which we took her. She said that her experience during the show made her feel a part of something bigger than herself. She said she felt energized to pay forward this message of hope.

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This is why we share stories. This is why art matters. And this is why your support is critical.

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The journey at American Stage continues and we will stand resolute in sharing powerful stories.  We will do it with music and dance, with witty repartee, electrifying dialogue, moments that make you hold your breath, and silliness that makes you giggle; we will pull those stories out of the swirling ether and bring them to you with heart.  We will tell you stories of hope.

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That is what you  preserve when you support American Stage, and now more than ever is such an important time to give. 

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Please consider making a gift today – continue the journey with us.

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Your partner in art,

Helen

Live from the Park! St. Pete Theatre Company, American Stage is making Ragtime the musical fresh in the fresh air!

American Stage is presenting “Dutchman” for its last production of the season. And because it is being directed by Erica Sutherlin, the production makes history for American Stage as its first mainstage production directed by a Black woman.

The stage floor’s sunk into the ground, covered in shadowy hues of blues and grays. It looks as though it were the depths of the sea floor. All around the stage, large jagged wooden planks jut up from the ground as if they were pieces of a ship that broke apart and sank.

It’s a Tuesday night at The Factory St. Pete and Erica Sutherlin, who is making “herstory” as the first Black woman director at American Stage, has brought together a panel to discuss Amiri Baraka, the man behind the upcoming play “Dutchman.”

“It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to,” intones Leslie Gore just before perky Jamaican chanteuse, Millie Small, reminds us that “My Boy Lollipop” is “as sweet as candy.” We’re firmly in 1964 where LBJ is about to sign the sweeping Civil Rights Act.

Potent. Stinging. Infuriating. Grab-your-collar-and-shake-you-awake. Rattling. Terrifying. Pummeling. Scalding, like hot coffee splashed in the face. These are some of my first reactions after watching the remarkably staged and still timely DUTCHMAN at American Stage.

Shows under the stars are returning as St. Pete’s American Stage has announced upcoming performances of Footloose at Demens Landing. The show is the highlight of the annual American Stage in the Park series, back for the first time since 2019, and performances run from April 6 – May 8.

Get ready to kick off your shoes because "Footloose The Musical" is coming to American Stage in the Park following a two-year delay due to COVID-19.

The production, based on the 1984 film, will run from April 6 through May 8 at Demens Landing Park in St. Petersburg.

After being postponed for two years, American Stage in the Park returns to Demens Landing Park in St. Petersburg with Footloose — The Musical on April 6. It runs through May 8.

American Stage in the Park, an annual rite of spring in Tampa Bay, is bringing a musical version of "Footloose" to St. Petersburg's beautiful Demens Landing.

The family-friendly outdoor spin on the Kevin Bacon movie classic will run April 6 to May 8.

It’s been three years since American Stage’s last big “park show.” In April 2019, Mamma Mia! thrilled bay area audiences on the company’s temporary stage in Demens Landing Park. The 2020 musical, the followup, was close to the starting gate when the coronavirus pandemic lowered the curtain on theatrical productions everywhere.

It’s 1986 in the West African country of Ghana, and the girls at the Aburi boarding school are abuzz about the upcoming Miss Ghana pageant.

There’s a scene in American Stage’s production of “School Girls: Or, The African Mean Girls Play” in which every cast member participates, one way or another, in the performance of a Whitney Houston classic. The scene is too crucial to spoil here, but what I will say is that it’s an encapsulation of all the strange and potentially incongruous elements of the 2018 script by Jocelyn Bioh.

At American Stage now through February 27 is SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY by Jocelyn Bioh. SCHOOL GIRLS is loosely based on a true story that tells the tale of an all-girls school in Ghana and a prestigious Miss Global Universe pageant.

Picture it. 1986. An all girls school in Ghana and there’s a new girl in town, an American, who challenges the reigning queen bee. There’s a prestigious pageant on the line, which could provide the opportunity to move up in the world to the lucky winner.

In 2021, it’s still groundbreaking when a Black person takes over as artistic director of a major American theater. But in Florida, it’s even bigger news because it’s the first time in the entire state.

Thirteen weeks into his tenure as American Stage’s producing artistic director, Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj reports that things are moving along according to plan.

The American Stage Theatre Company has named Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj as its new producing artistic director, making him the first person of color to ever lead a regional theatre company in Florida.

Neil Simon’s classic The Odd Couple is practically the blueprint for mismatched personality comedies. For its first production of the season and return to in-theater performance, American Stage is presenting the classic with a fresh eye.

Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj has been appointed Producing Artistic Director and Resident Playwright at American Stage. His vision is to provide a space for people of all walks of life to be awakened and enlightened, challenged and inspired, and tell stories rooted deeply in the experience of America.

Artistic Producer Rajendra Ramoon previews American Stage’s updated version of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple”