The transient nature of performance and visual art spaces is an all too true and sad reality. If one survives at all, it might relocate and reinvent itself several times during the course of its tenure. When Bob Devin Jones and David Ellis opened the multipurpose, multi-genre Studio@620, we were taken aback by its rise to prominence and diverse offerings. The wildly multifaceted and always suprising downtown St. Petersburg venue provides everything from staged readings to radio plays to town hall meetings to art shows to open mics to concerts to puppet shows and so on.
Pop in and bid congrats to Devin Jones, Ellis and company at The Studio@620 10th Anniversary Party, where you can enjoy some birthday cake and raise a glass in a Champagne toast to a Tampa Bay treasure. Takes place 6:20 p.m. this Saturday, June 21.
See what local arts luminaries David Manson, Ray Villadonga, Roxanne Fay, Paul Wilborn, Eric Davis and Heather Jones have to say about the little space that could ...
Bob Devin Jones and David Ellis founded a wonderful space for artists in our community.
It's a flexible venue available to all with a friendly staff and supportive vibe. —David Manson, SPC Director of Music and band leader of O Som do Jazz and Helios Jazz Orchestra
What a gift to the Bay Area arts community! A very nice space with a wide open embrace of all artistic endeavors, Theatre, Spoken Word, Music, Dance and Visual. There really isn't another venue of that quality that showcases such cultural diversity ... BIG LOVE and Thanks to the Studio@620! —musician Ray "Rayzilla" Villadonga
I have been given both complete freedom and dedicated support by Bob and the Studio @ 620 family. I have been allowed to run with my ideas and have had the pleasure of working with wonderful dedicated artists (particularly Kenny Jensen, who designed the amazing tree for Home Fires Burning and helped me create a set for Upon This Rock: The Magdalene Speaks; and Coralette Damme, who has helped me create some really cool art work for posters and PR). —actor, writer and director Roxanne Fay (roxannefay.com, circleinthewater.com)
It’s a safe space to push your creative boundaries and try out new material. The audiences are very generous and willing to go with you on the journey. My wife and I honed our American Songbook cabaret act at the Studio. The Studio helped birth the Radio Theater project and gave us the time to build an audience and the freedom to create new work – like our Noel Berlin/Cabaret Detective serial. But the thing that really draws me to the studio are Bob’s homemade cookies and brownies! Creativity requires some sugar. —Paul Wilborn, Executive Director at the Palladium at St. Petersburg College (pictured left with wife Eugenie)
freeFall Theatre and so many other arts organizations in town owe their incubation to The Studio's "The answer is always yes" attitude. —Eric Davis, Artistic Director at freeFall Theatre
The studio was the first place I saw theatre when I moved here 5 years ago. I met Aleshea Harris at the Saturday Morning market, and she was just putting up her show Oddlie there. She introduced me to Bob, and because I was new to St. Pete, he gave me a ticket to her show, (and an intro to all the cool things that go on at the Studio). Best "Yes" I got from 620 — they let me put a flowing river in the building for my play Murder Ballad. And never complained, not even when it leaked. —Heather Jones, writer