Jobsite Theater
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Jobsite Theater is Downtown Tampa's regional theater company, and is the resident theater company of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Founded in 1998 by David M. Jenkins, Michael Caban, Alan Fessenden, John Lott and Jason Vaughan Evans using the intimate 54-seat Silver Meteor Gallery as their first home, Jobsite moved into the 130-seat Off Center Theater (now the Shimberg Playhouse) as resident theater company in 2003. Jobsite produces a broad range of theater, catering primarily to an under-served audience of 20 and 30-somethings but attracting audiences of all ages. Jobsite has modeled their company, their work and approach primarily off the work of two other companies - the San Francisco Mime Troupe and Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre. A typical season can have the newest plays from New York and the West End, original works created locally, classics, late-night crowd-pleasing comedies and obscure plays from the dramatic canon.
Among the company's many honors are numerous Best of the Bay Awards from the alternative weekly newspaper Creative Loafing, including Best Theater Company ('04, '06 and '07) and Best Play ('03, '06). Creative Loafing has also bestowed an award onto Jobsite's audiences in the form of a Most Impassioned Theater Fans award ('05), and two of the company's nine board members have been named as part of the 30 Under 30 by the Business Journal of Tampa Bay (Shawn Paonessa in '04 and David M. Jenkins in '03). In 2007 the company was named as a finalist for an Urban Excellence Award from the Downtown Tampa Partnership.
Mission Statement: Jobsite Theater is dedicated to the creation of socially and politically relevant theater and the pursuit of performing it to the broadest possible audience. Jobsite has established and will continue to evolve a collective of like-minded artists, creating a supportive environment where artists of all disciplines may experiment, hone, and apply their skills in a professional laboratory environment.
Through all forms of theater - be it experimental, new plays, contemporary works or the classics - Jobsite hopes to inspire their community to become not just consumers, but true citizens.
