Photo Flash: TIME STANDS STILL at Jobsite Theater

Jobsite closes their 2015-16 season with a timely drama from a modern master of the American theater: Donald Margulies' Time Stands Still plays July 8-31, 2016, in the Shimberg Playhouse at the Straz Center where Jobsite is resident theater company.

From Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Margulies (Dinner with Friends, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, Sight Unseen, The Model Apartment) comes a moving and often hilarious story of morality, relationships, mid- life crises, and the bonds of friendship. Widely hailed as one of the best Broadway plays of the past ten years, Time Stands Still tells the story of James and Sarah, a journalist and a photographer, who have been together for nine years and share a passion for documenting the realities of war. After barely surviving a bomb blast in Iraq that has left her scarred, Sarah, a photojournalist, finds herself caught in a tug-of-war between her exhilarating career and the contentment of domestic life. Returning home into the care of her long-time boyfriend James (whose scars are psychological), Sarah is caught off guard by his desire for the simple family life pursued by Richard, their editor, and his much younger girlfriend Mandy. Time Stands Still is a blazingly important new work about responsibility -- to ourselves, to our loved ones, to our community, and to our world.

Jobsite's production features Joanna Sycz (Sarah), David M. Jenkins (James), Brian Shea (Richard), and Maggie Mularz (Mandy). The play is directed by Summer Bohnenkamp (co-director of last year's acclaimed Annapurna) with designs by Brian Smallheer (set and lights) and Nicholas Albanese (sound).

Donald Margulies (playwright) has won a Lucille Lortel Award, two American Theatre Critics New Play Citations, two Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards, two OBIE Awards, one Tony Award nomination (for Time Stands Still), one L.A. Ovation Award, two Dramatists' Guild Hull-Warriner Awards, five Drama Desk Award nominations, five Burns Mantle Best Play citations, two Pulitzer Prize nominations, and one Pulitzer Prize (Dinner with Friends). His work has been produced in New York by Manhattan Theatre Club, Primary Stages, Roundabout Theatre Company, the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre, Jewish Repertory Theatre and Theatre for the New City; at theaters across America including South Coast Repertory, the Geffen Playhouse, Actors Theater of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Long Wharf Theatre; and in theaters around the world. Mr. Margulies has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 2005 he was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters with an Award in Literature, and he was the recipient of the 2000 Sidney Kingsley Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatre by a playwright and the 2014 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater American Playwright in Mid-Career Award. Mr. Margulies is an alumnus of New Dramatists and serves on the council of The Dramatists Guild of America. He is an adjunct professor of English and Theatre Studies at Yale University.

Graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University, Capitol Theatre School of Acting in 1999, Joanna Sycz (Sarah) has since performed in films, on TV and on stage in Norway, Florida and in England. Among others she appeared as Helen in the award-winning production of The Cripple of Inishmaan at Stageworks Theatre in Tampa, Lea in The Immigrant American Stage in St. Petersburg, Spyder in the world premiere of Totally Wired at Contact Theatre in Manchester, UK, The Child in the award winning one-woman play The Hoarder's Child, as well as Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway in the recent Stageworks production of A Few Good Men and as Secretary in Tampa Rep's production of Imagining Madoff.

David M. Jenkins (James) is the Producing Artistic Director and a co-founder of Jobsite. He was honored to be directed by Israel Horovitz in the rehearsed staged reading of Horovitz's play Sins of the Mother (Frankie/Philly Verga), and was also recently in The Hound of the Baskervilles (Dr. Watson) and The Lonesome West (Coleman). The latter earned him a Theatre Tampa Bay nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor, recognition as a Top 9 performance of 2013 by Creative Loafing's Mark Leib, and the Best Actor Award in CL's Best of the Bay Reader's Poll. He was the 2014 recipient of the Best Director Award from CL's Reader's Poll and Best Director of a Musical in the BroadwayWorld Tampa Regional Awards. Creative Loafing has twice honored him as both Best Artistic Director and Best Actor.

Maggie Mularz (Mandy) is so thrilled to be taking on a new role as a member of the Jobsite ensemble. Usually found on the stage, you may have seen her recently in the Tampa Shakespeare Festival as Hero and Lady Anne. Recent Jobsite productions include Twelfth Night (Viola), Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (Renee and PJ), and Return to the Forbidden Planet (Nav. Officer). Other favorite roles of hers include The Baker's Wife (Into the Woods), Horatio (Hamlet), Marta (Company), and Matt/Ensemble (Threepenny Opera).

Brian Shea (Richard) was last seen in Jobsite Theater's Vanya And Sonya And Masha And Spike. Other Jobsite productions include The Lonesome West, The 39 Steps, Mindgame, and Dracula. An award- winning stage actor, Brain has performed with most of the professional theaters throughout the Tampa Bay area. Some of his other credits include; Deathtrap (Hat Trick Theater), Waiting For Godot (Stageworks), The Santaland Diaries, God Of Carnage, Art, Around The World In 80 Days, August: Osage County (American Stage), Harvey, The Buffalo Kings (Freefall Theater) Twelfth Night (Eckerd Theater). Brian is the co-producer and lead actor of the award winning independent feature film Waiting On Mary, which received the Gasparilla International Film Festival, Audience Selection Best Florida Film Production 2016 Award.

Jobsite is putting together a series of talkbacks and public forums after select Sunday matinees. There is a confirmed talk after the July 17 performance with the creative team and representatives from CAIR Florida to discuss the play and themes of how the west views the east through both art and the media. There will also be another talkback after the performance on July 24 with the creative team and members of the local journalism community including our own board member and long-time Tampa news anchor Brendan McLaughlin. Jobsite is still looking for additional panelists for both dates, please check JobsiteTheater.org for the most current information.

Time Stands Still opens on Fri., July 8, and runs through July 31, 2016. All tickets are priced at $28. If seats are available, rush tickets for students, persons 65+, military/veterans and their dependents, and Theatre Tampa Bay members are $14 as of 30 minutes to curtain with cash and ID at the Straz Box Office window. Special preview performances will be held on July 6-7 at 8p with all tickets priced at $14. There is also an opening night party after the July 8 opening performance at Fodder & Shine in Seminole Heights. Write to info@jobsitetheater.org to enquire about attending.

Photo Credit: Pritchard Photography

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