Creative Loafing and the Tampa Museum of Art Present GASP! Today

The Tampa Museum of Art and Creative Loafing have announced Gasp!, a collaboration that brings a new festival to Tampa's March-long celebration of the arts. Gasp! will be a smorgasbord of theater, dance, video, poetry, improv and more by emerging and accomplished artists, performing in and around the Museum today, March 28 from 6 to 10 p.m. The Museum's current exhibition, Graphicstudio: Uncommon Practice at USF will be open exclusively for Gasp! attendees the night of the festival.

Matthew McGee, Roxanne Fay, Jon Shea, Moving Current, Peter Meinke, Erica Dawson, Jono Vaughan and Santiago Echeverry are among the artists on the lineup of a new multi-disciplinary performing arts fest presented by Creative Loafing and the Tampa Museum of Art.

General admission is $10 in advance if purchased by midnight March 27, and $15 on the day of at the door. Specialty drinks and snacks will be available for purchase at Sono Café. VIP admission is $50 in advance/$60 day of at the door, and includes complimentary drinks, light bites, and exclusive programming in the VIP room. Visit gasptampa.com for information and tickets. Gasp! takes its inspiration from fringe festivals, the edgy, innovative, multi-disciplinary performance fests popular from Edinburgh to Orlando.

"Creative Loafing is passionately devoted to the performing arts, in both its coverage and in CL-sponsored events like Sensory Overload," said CL Editor-in-Chief David Warner. "In conversations with Todd Smith, executive director of the Tampa Museum of Art, we realized a mutual interest in creating a Fringe-inspired festival based in and around the Museum." The name Gasp! is borrowed from the title of a Museum publication. "It seemed to make sense for the festival, too," said Warner. "The Museum is located on GASParilla Plaza, the festival is kind of the last GASP in a month of Gasparilla festivals, and we're hoping that lots of what you'll see will make you, well, GASP."

"Since reopening in our new building four years ago, the Museum has sought to engage with our many audiences, and we felt it was time to step out and take our programming and our commitment to art of our time to the streets. Well, not literally to the streets but to our terrace," Todd D. Smith, the Tampa Museum of Art's Executive Director recently said. "The Gasp! festival is a perfect showcase for the many voices found in the region. We wanted the event to capture the excitement of local artists in a new way. Our partnership with Creative Loafing was a natural one as the paper provides weekly insights into all that is happening in the center and on the fringes of the local arts scene."

The entertainment lineup includes:

Theater

• Matthew McGee & Scott Daniel in excerpts from their hilarious mother-daughter cabaret, The Scott & Patti Show

• Two one-woman plays by Heather Jones: Roxanne Faye as Salvador Dali's enigmatic spouse in My Unspeakable Confessions: Gala Dali Declines to Explain Herself and Joanna Sycz in the award-winning The Hoarder's Child

Dance

• Moving Current Dance: A site-specific work from Tampa's acclaimed dance collective.

• A stunning collaboration between video artist Santiago Echeverry, choreographer Susannah LeMarquand and dancers from UT.

Improv

• The unpredictable antics of Post Dinner Conversation.

Prints and Poets Collaboration

• Poetry Press and Roll: Poets (and CL columnists) Peter Meinke and Erica Dawson have collaborated with Graphicstudio's Tim Baker and Sarah Howard to produce an exclusive edition of miniature books. Readings by Meinke & Dawson; printing demo by Baker; books on display for perusal and sale.

Art

• Graphicstudio: Uncommon Practice at USF: Free admission for Gasp! attendees to the Museum's current exhibition featuring forty-five years of more than 110 original works by an international array of 45 of the 108 artists who have worked in residence at Graphicstudio, an atelier (workshop). located on the campus of the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida.

• Free easel time: Grownups get to try their hand at making art just the way the kids do in the Museum's open workshops.

Music

• Acho Brother: Inventive, tuneful and often surprising music by a popular guitar/drum duo with roots in Florida and Puerto Rico.

• The Quixtan Brothers: Award-winning multi-talented young jazz combo from Guatemala.

• Jon Shea: Boundary-busting acoustic and electric bass from an admired local musician.

Peep Show

• Live-streaming in a private booth of Coco and Homo's Sexx Dreams, the theater-and-burlesque event taking place simultaneously with Gasp! in St. Petersburg.

Pop-up Performances

• Expect surprise performances throughout the evening from select performers.