30
THINGS
You May
NOT Know
About
the
STRAZ
CENTER
1. Th ere’s sand in the interior bricks’ holes in Morsani
Hall to improve acoustics.
2. Th e two most frequent objects in the Straz Lost and
Found are shoes (usually the left ) and black sweaters.
3. Th e Straz currently has almost 1,000 volunteers. In
our 30 years, we’ve had a total of 12,000 volunteers.
4. Many employees are active members of the Tampa
area’s dance, music and theater scenes.
5. Janice Udogu in the Development department has
worked here the longest – almost 31 years.
6. Straz Center president and CEO Judy Lisi was
studying to be a nun until a decision to direct
South Pacifi c for high schoolers changed the
course of her life.
7. Th e demand for arts education classes was so great
before the construction of the Patel Conservatory
that some music lessons were held in the copy room.
8. Th e Shimberg Playhouse used to be a storage space.
Show with Jon Stewart
in residence in Ferguson Hall
two during the 2012
Republican National
Convention Tampa.
10. There are 505 lights on the
grand walkway.
11. In 2009, we installed one of
the first green roofs in the
Tampa Bay area atop the
Ticket Sales Office.
12. For the five big Straz mission
banners on the side of the
building, it takes six people
and five hours to remove the
old banners and install the
new ones.
13. Last year, we had
approximately 150 parents
volunteer at the Patel
Conservatory, totaling about
2,400 hours of volunteering.
14. Before they became world
famous on Stephen Colbert’s
late-night talk show, Jon
Baptiste and Stay Human
played at Th e Straz in 2014.
15. So far, the Patel
Conservatory’s top-selling
show of all time is 2017’s
Beauty & the Beast with
2,286 tickets.
14
9. The Daily Show
was in residence
for two weeks d
Republican Nat
Convention in T
9