Holiday special on What the Butler Saw opening night tix!

Since our preview sold out so fast, we have made another special offer for the bargain-minded. We are making remaining opening night tickets to What the Butler Saw available for just $15 through 11:59p on Dec. 31 if you use promo code MENTAL when you buy online or on the phone (813.229.STAR). This offer is subject to availability and is not valid on prior sales or in conjunction with any other offer.

Happy Holidays!

The most wonderful time of the year

The end of the year has become a busy time for Jobsite, even though we don't typically do a December production. Jobsite Rocks, a typical flurry of end of the year gifts to the company, a re-invigoration/re-commitment of our board, preparing for our January show, settling up the year at hand and of course play selection for the coming season.

Right now your trusty Jobsiteers are reading, indexing and weighing out material to bring to the next full board meeting, where each board member will pitch one show to the rest of the board. Sometimes the presentations are clever and involve props (for instance, Paul Potenza set up a cell phone gag during the middle of his pitch last year for Dead Man's Cell Phone), sometimes the pitches are direct and short when it seems the show is a shoe-in and the person would just be preaching to choir.

After this meeting, everyone goes away for a little while longer, reads some more, digests, then sends to me a "dream season" based on the plays on the table and those pitched by the rest of the board. I then take a few weeks to weigh all that out, tally up the votes and then make a formal recommendation back to the board for the upcoming season, which the board then gets to vote on yea or nay.

A bit convoluted? Perhaps, but that's artistic democracy for you. I like our system, and think that it works well for us.

We often begin securing rights for plays as early sometimes as May. We hate to "squat" on titles that we have no intention of producing (basically shutting out other companies from getting the rights in the area because we're already holding them), but at the same time we'd hate to lose a title because we weren't fast enough getting in an application.

In this way, local professional theaters will end up competing a bit. Thankfully, the make-up of Tampa Bay theaters are pretty diverse. It's rare, though not unheard of, for more than one us locally to really be aggressively pursuing the same title. We have two plays right now that we acquired the rights for some months ago, and while not shoe-ins for the 2010-11 season, they are certainly front-runners that I'd be surprised if not on the final roster when we announce it come March.

We look forward to figuring it all out again this year, creating a great season for you. And we look forward to sharing it with you.

2009 has been a year of ups and downs for Jobsite, though mostly ups. The economy pinched us a bit more than we expected, translating into much lighter sales for certain shows than we hoped for, but 2009 was also bookended by monumental box office smashes in Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Night of the Living Dead. We're equally proud of every little bit of work that took place in between: The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Rabbit Hole, Pericles and And Baby Makes Seven. That's a solid year of artistic successes.

We also saw folks step up when it was needed this year. Inishmore's expenses wouldn't be made up due to more sluggish than anticipated sales and our patrons made up the difference. Gifts that came in during December, such as the gifts from Gobioff Foundation and Johnson & Johnson Foundation and the monies collected during Jobsite Rocks not only leveled out the effects of the economy but have put us in a place to be just a little less worried about 2010. Many of the donors we've retained moving into this new year have increased their gifts to Jobsite, and we love them for it.

And not to be diminished, we got a long-term agreement from the Straz Center this year, protecting our residency there for years to come.

But I am sure that everyone associated with Jobsite likely has their own favorite moments - maybe it's a show, or a part of a show, or an actor or a technical aspect of a show, or chit-chatting before or after, or a party, or even a Facebook thread.

I want to know what your favorite Jobsite moment/memory is from 2009. Leave a comment. Please?

In the meantime, I'm thinking about mine. I'll be sure to add it soon.

Thank you, Tampa Bay. Happy Holidays, and here's to an even bigger and better 2010!

Jobsite welcomes new season sponsor, and other groovy news

We are very honored to welcome our newest season sponsor, the Gobioff Foundation, who recently made the largest financial contribution Jobsite has received in our 11-year history.

The Gobioff Foundation's gift places them alongside in-kind season partners such as Creative Loafing, Bright House Networks and Discount Printing and Graphics.

This staggeringly generous gift will help ensure that Jobsite is not only able to continue our work here in Tampa Bay, but also allow us to continue to raise the bar in what we do - from production values to the payment of our artists to helping us secure rights to top-quality material in advance. It's also hopefully the first of many major foundation gifts to Jobsite as we continue to look for alternate funding sources to supplement ticket sales.

From everyone at Jobsite, we are most humbled by this donation and thank the Gobioff Foundation for this amazing show of support.

We are also happy to report that we had over 100 people in attendance at our Jobsite Rocks fundraiser this past Saturday night at Ybor's New World Brewery, and took in over $2,000 associated with the event. Thanks to Christen Petitt for all of her work on the event as well as New World Brewery for hosting us and King of Spain, The Vodkanauts, Zero Time Ghosts and Bird Street Players for providing the great music. We're also extremely thankful for the various prizes donated to our raffle from the likes of MAC, Cabot Creamery, the Don Cesar, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and many others. In addition to it being our signature fundraiser, we'd like to think of it as one hell of an end-of-the-year party and it seems by all accounts that it was a rousing success.

If you would like to make a gift to Jobsite before the end of 2009, bearing in mind that all gifts made to Jobsite are fully tax-deductible to the extent provided by law, visit our website.

Help us get $25k from Chase Community Giving!

Do you use Facebook? I bet the odds are pretty good you do. If so, would you please follow this link and vote for Jobsite? They are picking the top 100 most-voted charities and awarding them $25,000 each. It's easy!

While you're in your Facebook account, why not become a fan of Jobsite over there? We offer Facebook-only content and specials from time to time, and it's an easy way to stay in the loop for all things Jobsite!

Jobsite Rocks rocked, and you can still help!

Thanks to the 100+ people who came out last night to support us at our annual Jobsite Rocks fundraiser! Thanks also to King of Spain, The Vodkanauts, Zero Time Ghosts and Bird Street Players for providing the great music, and of course to New World Brewery for having us.

In between sets, we raffled off 20 sensational prizes thanks to the generosity of many businesses - from a sack of MAC cosmetics to an autographed Cadillac Williams jersey to a all-inclusive trip for two to Vermont.

There was even a surprise appearance by Joe Popp, the cast of Pericles and other members of the Jobsite Ensemble who performed After All These Years.

It was a good night for all, and we are very happy to have shared it with so many of you!

If you weren't able to make it out, you can still help us before the end of the year. Keep in mind as we near the end of 2009 that all gifts made to Jobsite are fully tax deductible to the extent provided by law.

You may learn more about giving to Jobsite at our website, and even make your contribution online.

If you believe in Jobsite as an invaluable cultural resource, and if you'd like to see us not only be able to continue our work but improve what we do, we hope that you consider making a donation. Every penny counts, there is no such thing as a small gift.

We also want to remind you that if you'd like to get more frequent updates from Jobsite you can always follow @jobsitetheater on Twitter or become a fan of Jobsite Theater on Facebook. We've been known to post Twitter or Facebook-only content and special offers, so check us out!

Jobsite will return on Jan. 7 with the hilarious, subversive British sex farce, What the Butler Saw, by Joe Orton. We hope you get the chance to make it out during our opening weekend for lots of laughs to welcome in 2010!