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What’s January Offering and 9 Events We Might See You At

What’s January Offering and 9 Events We Might See You At
Actors Casey Wortmann, left, and David Breitbarth appear in a promotional photo for Job, Urbanite Theatre’s January production, one of Tampa Bay Arts Passport’s top arts picks this month across theatre, dance, and music. Photo by Sorcha Augustine

by Avery Anderson

January doesn’t ease in this year. Across Tampa Bay and Sarasota, artists and institutions are opening the year with intention — regional premieres, city-wide experiments, and work that knows exactly why it exists here and now. If you only see a few things this month, start with these.

Top 3 Performance Art

Touching the Void

Where: Stageworks Theatre (regional premiere)A survival story that doubles as a theatrical high-wire act. This production asks a deceptively simple question: how do you stage isolation, injury, and moral reckoning without spectacle doing the work for you? Stageworks is exactly the right venue for that kind of risk.

Why the shoutout: Big story. High risk. No shortcuts.

MIXed: Across St. Pete — Project Alchemy

Where: Citywide St. Petersburg | Jan. 4–9, with Jan. 10 closing event at The Studio@620Dance that shows up where people already are. Project Alchemy’s company artists create site-responsive, free, and intentionally ephemeral works across seven neighborhoods, inviting residents to encounter dance unexpectedly. The closing performance doesn’t repeat the week — it reimagines it.

Why the shoutout: Dance that belongs to its city, not just its stage.

The Sarasota Trifecta

Where: Sarasota

  • Urbanite Theatre – JobA perfect Urbanite play: contemporary, tense, and quietly unnerving. It interrogates modern work culture and power dynamics with zero soft edges.
  • Asolo Repertory Theatre – Primary TrustOpening the repertory season with restraint instead of spectacle. This intimate, patient story rewards attention — and lingers.
  • Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe – Paradise BlueJazz, history, and survival collide in a piece that aligns squarely with WBTT’s commitment to living legacy and culturally rooted storytelling.

Why the shoutout: Three companies, three voices — all programming with purpose.

Top 3 Visual Arts

Two Guatemalan artists reject the idea that tradition belongs in the past. This exhibition insists on Indigenous and immigrant work as living, contemporary, and unresolved — exactly as it should be.

Why the shoutout: Curation that trusts the audience to sit with complexity.

Tampa Museum of Art — Focal Point: The David Hall Photography Collection

An intimate, well-edited look at 20th-century photography that foregrounds visual literacy, women photographers, and the power of the lens to shape memory.

Why the shoutout: A show that teaches you how to look without talking down to you.

Sarasota Art Museum — Janet Echelman: Radical Softness

Monumental fiber works transform architecture into collaborator. This is immersive, calming, and quietly political — softness as strength.

Why the shoutout: Public-scale art that still feels personal.

Top 3 Music Events

The Billy Joel Songbook — The Florida Orchestra

Familiar songs, symphonic muscle. This is pop nostalgia treated with care and craft — an open door without lowering the bar.

Why the shoutout: Accessibility without dilution.

Giulio Cesare — St. Pete Opera

Political intrigue, seduction, and power plays that feel startlingly current. Baroque opera, but make it gripping.

Why the shoutout: Opera that understands drama is the entry point.

The Wombats — Jannus Live

Open air, packed crowd, pure release. Jannus at its best — communal, loud, and joy-forward.

Why the shoutout: Because joy is also culture.

St. Pete Theatre

  • Off‑Central Players (2260 1st Ave S, St. Petersburg, FL 33712) — Website
    • Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph — Jan. 8–18
  • freeFall Theatre (6099 Central Ave, St. Petersburg, FL 33710) — Website
    • Himself and Nora — Jan. 30 – March 8
    • The Titan & The Muse — Jan. 16
  • American Stage – (163 3rd St N, St. Petersburg, FL 33701) — Website
    • The Scarlet Letter — Jan 21 - Feb 15
  • Studio@620 — (620 1st Ave S, St. Petersburg, FL, 33701) — Website
    • Poetry Open Mic with Keep St. Pete Lit — Jan 7
    • Journey in Journalism — Jan 9-25
    • Blah Blah Blah — Jan 14
    • Drilled! The Final Term? — Jan 21-25
    • The Radio Theatre Project — Jan 26
  • projectALCHEMY — (Various venues) — Website
    • MIXed: Across St. Pete – Jan. 4 - 10
  • Story Keepers — (Various venues) — website
    • The Pink Unicorn – Jan. 15 - Feb. 1

Tampa Theatre

  • Stageworks — (1120 E Kennedy Blvd suite #151, Tampa, FL 33602) — Website
    • Touching the Void - Jan 16 - Feb 1
    • Act 2 Series – R.I.S.E – Jan 4
    • Act 2 Series – Karaoke – Jan 29
  • Straz Center — (1010 N Macinnes Pl, Tampa, FL 33602) — Website
    • Renée Fleming Music & Mind Panel Discussion – Jan. 14
    • Blue Man Group - Jan. 16 - 18
    • Opera Tampa: The Shining - Jan. 30 - Feb. 1
  • Jobsite Theatre — (1010 N Macinnes Pl, Tampa, FL 33602) — Website
    • The Comedy of Errors – Jan. 14 - Feb. 8
  • mad Theatre of Tampa — (1010 N Macinnes Pl, Tampa, FL 33602) — Website
    • Guys & Dolls – Jan. 15 - Feb. 1
  • Lab Theatre Project — (812 E Henderson Ave, Tampa, FL 33602) — Website
    • The Trail, To Oregon – Jan. 30 - Feb. 15
  • Tampa Rep — (1411 E. 11th Ave., Tampa, FL 33605) — Website
    • God of Carnage – Jan. 30 - Feb. 15

Sarasota  Theatre

  • Asolo Rep — (5555 N Tamiami Trl, Florida 34243) — Website
    • Primary Trust – Jan. 7 - Feb. 11
    • The Mirror Crack’d - Jan. 21 - March 14
  • Florida Studio Theatre — (1241 N Palm Ave, Sarasota, FL 34236) — Website
    • Lucky Stiff — through Jan. 11
    • A Tailor Near Me — through Feb. 15
    • The Blue-Sky Boys — Jan. 21 - Mar. 8
  • Westcoast Black Theatre — (1012 N. Orange Ave. Sarasota, FL 34236) — Website
    • Paradise Blue — Jan. 8–Feb. 8
  • Urbanite — (1487 2nd St, Sarasota, FL 34236) — Website
    • Job — Jan. 9–Feb. 15
  • Sarasota Players — (3501 S Tamiami Trl Suite 1130, Sarasota, FL 34239) — Website
    • Annie — Jan. 7–18

Tampa Theatre Specials Events

Tampa Theatre — (711 N Franklin St, Tampa, FL 33602) — Website

  • Tig Notaro: Out of Nowhere — Jan 16
  • Bored Teachers “Is It Friday Yet?!” Comedy Tour — Jan 17
  • Film Tampa Bay Presents TRIUMPH — Jan 19
  • Jared Freid: The Table For One Tour — Jan 22
  • Henry Cho: The Empty Nest Tour — Jan 23

Indie Screenings & Festivals

  • Beach Theatre — (315 Corey Ave, St Pete Beach, FL 33706) — Website 
    • Spheres Bubble Show — Jan. 11
    • Popcorn & Punchlines — Jan. 12
    • D.A.T. Tribute Band: A Motown tribute — Jan. 19
    • The Undercovers — Jan. 25
    • Megan 2.0 — Sept. 24–27

Other Theatre

  • Carrollwood Players — (315 Corey Ave, St Pete Beach, FL 33706) — Website
    • The Carol Burnett Show — Jan. 9–18
    • Arnie and the Itch — Jan. 23–Feb. 7
  • Early Bird Dinner Theatre — (13355 49th St N, Clearwater, FL 33762) — Website
    • Where Are You — Jan. 10–Feb.15
  • TheatreFor — (1863 N Highland Ave, Clearwater, FL 33755) — Website
    • Straight From The Fringes — Jan. 8–11
    • Unrehearsed Shakespeare: Truth Will Out — Jan. 23- Feb. 8
  • Francis Wilson Playhouse — (302 Seminole St, Clearwater, FL 33755) — Website
    • Brighton Beach Memories — Jan 15–25
  • Suncoast Broadway Dinner Theatre — (16128 US-19, Hudson, FL 34667) — Website
    • Come From Away — Jan. 16–Feb. 22

Music & Orchestra

  • Florida Orchestra:
    • Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 — Jan. 9-11
    • H2Orchestra — Jan. 14-15
    • The Billy Joel Songbook — Jan. 16
    • Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe — Jan. 23
    • El Amor Brujo - Jan. 30-31
  • St. Pete Opera — (2145 1st Ave S St. Petersburg, Florida 33712) — Website
    • Giulio Cesare – Jan. 30 - Feb. 3

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