Stageworks Theatre is a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, based in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

currently being led by Producing Artistic Director Karla Hartley. Stageworks Theatre took possession of its own performance space in 2011 located in the Channelside District of Tampa.HYPOXIA ZONE. By kimberley A. Hanna. Dir. Anna Brennen. Stageworks Theatre, Inc., Tampa, FL 8–25 July 2004.

History

Anna Brennen founded Stageworks Theatre in 1983 in Tampa, FL. It has thrived in Tampa, becoming an integral part of the Arts culture of the Bay Area; it is the oldest theatre company in Tampa. In 2011 Stageworks purchased a performance space and now run full operations and performances in their permanent location.

Awards

Anna Brennen (Founder, Stageworks Theatre Company, Inc.) received her formal theatre training at

Carnegie Mellon Carnegie may refer to: People * Carnegie (surname), including a list of people with the name * Clan Carnegie, a lowland Scottish clan Institutions Named for Andrew Carnegie *Carnegie Building (Troy, New York), on the campus of Rensselaer Polyt ...

and the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

. She studied in advanced private classes in New York City with Sandy Meisner (

Neighborhood Playhouse A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

), Mira Rostova (

Moscow Art Theatre The Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; russian: Московский Художественный академический театр (МХАТ), ''Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr'' (МHАТ)) was a theatre company in Moscow. It was f ...

), Wynn Handmann (American Place), and Lloyd Richards (

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

Drama School). In 2006, Anna was given the Artist of the Year Award by the Mayor of the city of Tampa,

Pam Iorio Pamela Dorothy Iorio (born April 27, 1959) is an American politician and author, who served as mayor of Tampa, Florida from 2003 to 2011. Early life, education, and family Iorio moved with her family to Temple Terrace as an infant and attended Hi ...

. Anna's professional acting credits include

understudy In theater, an understudy, referred to in opera as cover or covering, is a performer who learns the lines and blocking or choreography of a regular actor, actress, or other performer in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to ap ...

ing Colleen Dewhurst in

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

, as well as the three leads in

Much Ado About Nothing ''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...

for the

New York Shakespeare Festival Shakespeare in the Park (or Free Shakespeare in the Park) is a theatrical program that stages productions of Shakespearean plays at the Delacorte Theater, an open-air theater in New York City's Central Park. The theater and the productions are ...

. She has also appeared with the Theatre for New York City,

Playwrights Horizons Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. Under the ...

and the

Chelsea Theatre Chelsea Theatre is a studio theatre located on the Kings Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. ...

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. As a playwright, Anna's first play, Sleepless Dancer (Victims 3), had an Equity showcase production at N.E.T.W.O.R.K. in New York City in 1980. She was a recipient of a Florida Arts Council Playwriting Fellowship in 1981. In 1989, she received an Emerging Artists grant from the Hillsborough County Arts Council for her new play, Echo Nevada, in 1991 the Hillsborough Arts Council honored her with the individual Artist Award. " In Tampa, she has produced and/or directed over 90 mainstage shows.

Directing credits

Awards

References

External links

Stageworks Theatre Website
{{authority control Theatre companies in Florida Theatres in Tampa, Florida