On Saturday, November 21, a Steinway Artist will play the concert grand at 8550 Hunters Village Road. Regular seats run $20 to $25 depending on where you sit, and the event page adds that select tickets sell for $10 through the center's Affordable Art commitment.
For anyone in Hunter's Green, Tampa Palms or K-Bar Ranch, that is how the New Tampa Performing Arts Center works this season. The venue is small, a limited number of $10 seats sit inside many of its shows, and outside organizations that perform there sell their own tickets. Knowing which shows carry the $10 seats and where each ticket is sold is most of the planning a November night out requires.
A Room Built at Neighborhood Scale
The building is newer than many of the homes around it. In May 2021, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Hillsborough County commissioners had approved a $7.3 million construction contract for a 20,000-square-foot center on a site west of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, across from the main entrance to Hunter's Green. The center's About page says it opened in 2023.
Today the venue describes its location as behind The Village at Hunter's Lake shopping center. In 2021, the Times described a 350-seat theater. In more recent coverage, FOX 13 put the main theater at 354 seats. That is far smaller than the big downtown halls, and it explains why a block of 40 seats matters so much here. Parking is free in a large lot with six accessible spaces, according to the center's FAQ.
The $10 Seat and Who Sells It
This season the center launched what it calls the Affordable Art Initiative. FOX 13 reported that around 25 to 30 performances will each have 40 tickets at $10, across concerts, theater, tribute acts and the Steinway Signature Series. "We strongly believe in having the arts to be accessible and affordable for all people," General Manager Keith Arsenault told FOX 13, and he recommended buying those tickets online ahead of time.
In a 354-seat room, 40 seats is about one in nine, which is why Arsenault's advice to buy ahead matters for anyone hoping to pay $10.
The second factor is who is selling. The FAQ says events the center produces are sold through its online box office at NewTampaArtsCenter.org/Tickets. Events it does not produce are sold by the organizations that perform there, and you reach them through each event's own ticket link. November has examples of each:
- Elena Ulyanova, Nov. 21: $20 to $25 depending on seat, with select $10 Affordable Art tickets.
- Daniella Mass, Nov. 22: $17.50 to $25 depending on seat, with select $10 Affordable Art tickets.
- Tampa Bay Symphony, Nov. 13: listed at $25.
- Backtrack Blues Band, Nov. 14: the event page sends buyers to Eventbrite and lists no price.
One habit to unlearn if you're used to e-tickets: for tickets bought through the center's box office, the email receipt is not your ticket. Tickets are held at Will Call starting one hour before the performance. Plan to arrive a little early.
Four Series, Four Different Clocks
Each recurring series also keeps its own fairly steady hours, so the series name on a listing is a quick guide to whether a show lands on a Sunday afternoon, a weekend evening or a school morning.
New Tampa Unplugged is acoustic music by Tampa Bay-area musicians at candlelit cabaret tables, which the center compares to a living room. In November it runs on Sunday afternoons from 3 to 5 p.m.
The Steinway Signature Series brings well-known pianists to the center's Steinway concert grand. The November date is a Saturday at 8 p.m.
New Tampa Jazz Nights is presented with the Tampa Jazz Club. Its next date is a Friday at 8 p.m. in December.
Theatre for Young Audiences offers educational productions for young audiences and families. The center says each show aligns with at least one Florida education standard. These shows run on weekday mornings at 10:30, and the center promotes them as field trips, with an inquiry form for schools and groups.
Taken together, the center keeps something on the calendar through most of the week. The Sunday matinee and the weekday morning slots are the easiest to fit around a weekend of soccer games and errands.
November, Show by Show
The season's calendar opened with three dates in a row: The St. Pete Collective's The Music of James Taylor on Oct. 30, bassist Alejandro Arenas's Mixtura on Nov. 1, and the Reflections Chamber Ensemble on Nov. 4. The ensemble has presented 20th- and 21st-century chamber music to Tampa Bay audiences for more than 20 years. From Nov. 12 on, the month looks like this.
| Date | Time | Show | Series or format | Ticket note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu., Nov. 12 | 10:30 a.m. | Creative Arts Theatre Company: The Wind in the Willows | Theatre for Young Audiences, best for grades K-3 | Field-trip format |
| Fri., Nov. 13 | 8 p.m. | Tampa Bay Symphony: Wild Kingdom and Swan Dreams | Orchestra | $25 |
| Sat., Nov. 14 | 8 p.m. | Backtrack Blues Band | Concert | Sold via Eventbrite |
| Wed., Nov. 18 | 10:30 a.m. | Kuumba Dancers and Drummers: A Journey to Africa | Theatre for Young Audiences | Field-trip format |
| Fri., Nov. 20 | 8 p.m. | The Light Bringer | One-woman storytelling show | See event page |
| Sat., Nov. 21 | 8 p.m. | Elena Ulyanova | Steinway Signature Series | $20–$25, select $10 seats |
| Sun., Nov. 22 | 3 p.m. | Daniella Mass | New Tampa Unplugged | $17.50–$25, select $10 seats |
| Sun., Nov. 29 | 3 p.m. | The Muppet Christmas Carol | Free holiday screening | Free with RSVP |
A few details from the listings help with choosing. The symphony's program opens with Leroy Anderson's The Waltzing Cat and Sy Brandon's Animalia, so it works well for kids who already like animal stories. The venue's listing calls Backtrack Blues Band Florida's longest-running blues band, with eight albums of original music and three Tampa Bay Music Awards.
On Ulyanova's own event page, the Beethoven Society of America calls her "a phenomenal, gifted performer," and the run time is listed as about two hours. That is longer than the one-hour slot on the main calendar, so leave room after the show. Daniella Mass, a coloratura soprano and the creator of Liri-Pop, brings multilingual classical repertoire to the cabaret tables of the Unplugged series.
The weekend of Nov. 21 and 22 is the one to plan around. Two nights in a row both carry $10 Affordable Art seats, one in the Steinway series and one in Unplugged.
Into December, the Season Turns
The Thanksgiving weekend screening of The Muppet Christmas Carol on Sunday, Nov. 29, is free with an RSVP. The holiday shows that follow come in quick succession:
- Thursday, Dec. 3, 7 p.m.: ELVIS: A Blue Christmas Show Starring Matt Stone & The TEC Band.
- Friday, Dec. 4, 8 p.m.: New Tampa Jazz Nights with Bryan J. Hughes & The Crew, playing songs from their new Christmas CD.
- Sunday, Dec. 6, 3 p.m.: Florida Jazz Express: Holiday Big Band Extravaganza.
The Dec. 4 show also connects back to the start of the season. The Crew includes two members of La Lucha, the Best of the Bay Jazz Trio: keyboardist Dr. John C. O'Leary III and bassist Alejandro Arenas. If you missed Arenas's Mixtura on Nov. 1, Jazz Nights brings him back to the same stage a month later, across Bruce B. Downs from the Hunter's Green entrance.
We love seeing our neighbors make the most of what New Tampa offers close to home, and a 354-seat theater across from Hunter's Green is a big part of that. If this season has you thinking about which part of New Tampa keeps your weekends closest to venues like this one, Carr Signature Premier Group would be glad to talk it through. Request a Private Consultation & Home Valuation, and we'll share what we know about the communities around Hunters Village Road.
