Tampa’s Jobsite Theater announced its 2021 mainstage season, and the lineup looks every bit as edgy and timely as audiences have come to expect from the resident theater company of the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts.Jobsite made a slow return to live theater in October, with performances happening on the outdoor Riverwalk Stage and inside the Jaeb Theater, which has been reconfigured for social distancing.They open their final production of the year tonight. Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 is a one-woman show written by Anna Deavere Smith in response to the Rodney King riots. Engaging in what’s referred to as “documentary dramas,” Deavere Smith interviewed hundreds of witnesses to the riots that erupted after police officers who were captured on camera beating Rodney King were acquitted. Twilight features actual testimonials from dozens of people, including victims, families, witnesses and law enforcement, all of whom will be played by Jobsite ensemble member Andresia Moseley.“It’s a show we believe in super strongly,” said David Jenkins, Jobsite Theater artistic director. "It’s so well-rounded in points of view and perspectives.”Jenkins said Twilight doesn’t focus on the days of the riots, but rather the aftermath, asking how a community rebuilds and heals."It’s about finding common ground and understanding,“ he said. “We can’t heal until we go through that process.”On their website, Jobsite notes that the drama “doesn’t take sides or offer solutions to the complicated, fraught issues but instead presents the consequences from that moment, leaving it in the hands of the audience to consider.”Jenkins said he is so impressed with Moseley as “a human and a performer.” He said the weight of 2020, paired with the emotional toll of embodying so many personalities, made her job all the more challenging.The drama lives in the genre of theater becoming a “living newspaper." When it premiered shortly after the uprisings, the Los Angeles Times called it “the most comprehensive literary response” that channeled “the cacophony of voices at the city’s heart.”Jenkins made a one-minute video to explain the Rodney King case that plays before the show.There will be four performances of Twilight , happening Nov. 17-18 and Dec. 1-2.The outdoor and one-person shows laid the groundwork for the 2021 season. Jenkins said they created systems that have been proven effective. So far, he said, there haven’t been any cases of COVID-19 traced to the performances.Since they plan their seasons two years in advance, Jenkins said it was easy to re-arrange the performances. The shows begin with smaller casts that eventually get larger later in the season.Jobsite works with an ensemble of local actors, making it safer for them and easier to vet their behavior to ensure they’re not bringing COVID-19 onto the set.The 2021 season begins in January. The first two-thirds of the season will happen in the Jaeb Theater, rather than the Shimberg Playhouse where their productions normally happen. It will have been 10 months since the company has presented a mainstage production.Guests are required to fill out a health screening and have their temperatures checked prior to entering the theater, where they are required to keep their masks on.Streaming options are not yet available, with the exception of the Jobsite Digital Shorts.Here is the lineup: Doubt: A Parable (Jan. 13- 31) : The Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning drama follows a priest accused of inappropriate conduct with a student in a parochial school. Hand to God (Feb. 21-March 14): When mild Jason’s puppet from the Christian Puppet Ministry takes on a shocking personality and possesses his arm, Jason’s relationships with the town pastor, his mother and his small Texas town are thrown into a tizzy, in this comedy. Henry V (April 7-25): Shakespeare’s history play follows playboy prince Hal, who must prove himself when he becomes King Henry V of England and enters into battle with France. Shockheaded Peter (June 9-27): Based on Heinrich Hoffman’s Struwwelpeter, t he show consists of cautionary tales about disobedient children.In the fall, Jobsite moves back into the Shimberg Playhouse for the final two performances of the season. Dr. Ride’s American Beach House (Sept. 8-Oct. 3): On the eve of Dr. Sally Ride’s space flight, a group of women gather. Revelations emerge about their desires in the face of American norms in sex and power, in this “intimate snapshot of queer anti-heroines.” Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Oct. 21-Nov. 21): Just in time for Halloween, an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella set in Victorian-era London.For more information, visit jobsitetheater.org .
![Maggie Duffy - Bright Spot and Arts Reporter](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 50 50"/%3E "Maggie Duffy - Bright Spot and Arts Reporter")