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Powerstories Theatre founder Fran Powers passes the torch to new Executive Director Clareann Despain (Powerstories)<\/p>\nPowerstories Theatre founder Fran Powers passes the torch to new Executive Director Clareann Despain (Powerstories)<\/p>\n
March is Women\u2019s History Month, a time to highlight the contributions women have made to history and contemporary society.<\/p>\n
In the Bay Area, Fran Powers, founder of Tampa\u2019s Powerstories Theatre, certainly qualifies as a woman who\u2019s earned such recognition. In 2000, Powers founded Powerstories as a platform for sharing impactful stories from women\u2019s history and personal stories from women today. She later expanded Powerstories\u2019 impact by adding a program for middle school girls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Powerstories, the last 25-plus years have brought triumphs \u2013 like attending a White House ceremony to receive a national honor for the theater\u2019s youth program. And they\u2019ve brought trials \u2013 like when the theater lost its longtime home in 2023.<\/p>\n
Now, Powerstories is going through something it\u2019s never experienced before \u2013 a change in leadership. At the end of March, Powers steps back as executive director of the theater group she founded. As the day grows closer, she reflects on her journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The beginning<\/p>\n
Powerstories\u2019s story begins when Powers was 40 and working in a leadership position at a Tampa nonprofit facility for pregnant women in crisis. She felt she needed a break.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy stepchildren were doing well, and I felt it was time to tackle my dreams,\u201d she says. \u201dTwo dreams kept bubbling up, and they ultimately coalesced together. I was starting to get the theater bug, and I was remembering a childhood fantasy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Growing up in a Navy family of twelve, Powers would ride her bicycle around her San Diego neighborhood and dream of riding across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, she did, starting in Seattle and riding all the way to Washington, D.C. Along the way, her purpose came into view. Returning home to Tampa, Powers started journaling her goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew what I wanted, I knew why I wanted it, I just didn\u2019t know how. I sent out a press release saying, \u2018I\u2019m looking for women who want to tell their stories.\u2019 So many women showed up. It was a very good year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before establishing the theater as a nonprofit organization, Powers says she funded the first three years of operation out of her own pocket. To raise the money, she launched a consulting business that helped nonprofits fundraise and taught leadership skills.<\/p>\n
Powers describes Powerstories\u2019s debut performance in November 2000 as \u201cdivine.\u201d Eight women with little to no acting experience but interesting stories got a standing ovation from the crowd of 300 that came to hear them, she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe voice in my head said, \u2018Listen, your life is speaking to you,\u2019\u201d Powers adds. \u201cI was persistent, I was passionate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With that passion and persistence, Powers expanded Powerstories\u2019 programming to offer five-week workshops that prepared women to tell their stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them that delivering their message was giving a gift to the audience,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Financial support helped sustain Powerstories. Powers says funding from the Triad Foundation, the Conn Memorial Foundation, and the Children\u2019s Board of Hillsborough County helped Powerstories get established as a nonprofit. Nonprofit status then allowed Powerstories to form a board of directors, recruit volunteers, and grow as an organization, she says. Powers also reached out to contacts from her years in the nonprofit field to raise donations to fund the organization.<\/p>\n
Grant funding continued to grow as Powerstories expanded its mission to include a program for middle school girls, who learned effective storytelling skills and developed leadership skills. The program, now known as Girlstories Leadership Theatre,\u00a0 made an impact.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen would come up to me and say, \u2018Thank you for what you have done for my daughter,\u2019\u201d Powers says.<\/p>\n
National recognition<\/p>\n
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Fran Powers and then-first lady Michelle Obama (Powerstories)<\/p>\n
A standout moment in Powerstories\u2019s quarter-century-plus history came in 2010, when the theater group traveled to the White House to receive a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from then-first lady Michelle Obama.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe participated in amazing workshops held for the winners,\u201d Powers recalls. \u201cThe validation was wonderful. It was a real turning point.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Powerstories has also persevered in tough times. In June 2023, the theater group lost its home of 12 years on Kennedy Boulevard to make way for a planned residential high-rise. Since then, the group has performed at various locations around the Tampa area, with one production at The Studio@620 in St. Petersburg. Their 2026 schedule includes performances in Tampa at the Hillsborough College Theatre and Stageworks Theatre and in\u00a0St. Pete at The Studio @620.<\/p>\n
Powers and her husband also experienced a personal loss in September 2024, when damage from Hurricane Helene left their home uninhabitable.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re still living in a rental,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m seventy-three, and sometimes I\u2019m tired.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Powers says her goal has always been for Powerstories to be self-sustaining with the right person in place to continue the legacy. She feels she has found \u201cthe perfect person\u201d in Powerstories Artistic Director Clareann Despain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very excited for Clareann, and I\u2019m very excited for me,\u201d Powers says. \u201cI can now pick and choose my projects. My husband and I are going to have adventures, and we\u2019re going to find ways to give back to the community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She has a parting piece of advice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf something keeps knocking on your heart, go do it,\u201d Powers says. \u201cThere are lots of ways to realize your dreams. I listened to my heart. I just did it. And we changed women\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n