\u201cI love performing,\u201d Kasondra Rose said in a February, 2020 Catalyst interview, \u201cand I\u2019ve come to realize that I don\u2019t much care the capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s become the manifesto for this talented St. Petersburg multi-hyphenate, who\u2019ll debut a new one-woman show, Not-So-Starving Artist, this weekend in the Straz Center\u2019s Shimberg Playhouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a show that doesn\u2019t take itself seriously,\u201d Rose explains. \u201cSo there\u2019s a lot of self-deprecating moments. And behind me, while I\u2019m singing, are a lot of the videos that I\u2019ve created over the last several years.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them I\u2019ve shined up or re-done for the show, but the general idea is still there. And the videos put a fun spin on the song that I\u2019m singing.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a singer, songwriter and guitarist, Rose gigged for years around the bay area \u2013 and beyond \u2013 before shedding the \u201csensitive folkie\u201d costume. She then went diving headfirst into other art forms, including aerial acrobatics, acting and cabaret stagework, in addition to performing as one of the lead singers in the much-admired Florida Bjorkestra.<\/p>\n
She is on the teaching faculty at Aerial Dragons School of Circus Arts.<\/p>\n
These days, Rose says, with the benefit of hindsight she\u2019s fine-tuning. \u201cIf I never touched my guitar again, I would be fine,\u201d she swears.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because the mechanics of playing in public, from chasing gigs to negotiating rude bar managers to singing for indifferent audiences, wore her down. \u201cI\u2019m not done performing. But if performing only means playing an acoustic guitar and sitting in the corner of a restaurant or bar, I\u2019m done. I never have to do that for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a bit in Not-So-Starving Artist in which Rose sings the Cardigans song \u201cLovefool\u201d (\u201cLove me, love me, say that you love me \u2026.\u201d) as images of rejection emails, from jobs she never got, flood past on the video screen.<\/p>\n
There are, she admits, hundreds of them. She keeps everything.<\/p>\n
Still, \u201cIt\u2019s not strictly autobiographical. You\u2019re not going to learn about my whole life in the show, because who wants to know that?\u201d<\/p>\n
If you want to know, Rose is from Muskegon, Michigan, and she went to New York\u2019s Marymount Manhattan College on a dance scholarship. She danced in Europe.<\/p>\n
But the Big Apple \u2013 and college, as it turned out \u2013 weren\u2019t for her. Rose relocated to Clearwater in 2002. For three years, she sang in a Tampa Bay Top 40 band called Shade.<\/p>\n
Along with writing and singing songs, Rose taught herself to record using overdubs and layering. Soon, she made three records of original material, then discovered a desire and talent for aerial acrobatics and began \u201cworking the silks.\u201d She also appeared in several Jobsite Theater plays.<\/p>\n
In 2023 and 2024, she emceed and performed with Emerald Rabbit Cabaret at the Floridian Social. \u201cThat,\u201d Rose recalls, \u201cwas kind of the start of \u2018I would love to have my own show. I like building these individual acts for things.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
What was a perpetually restless singer, dancer, etcetera to do? \u201cI\u2019ve always struggled to find where I\u2019m supposed to be. I felt like I could fit in the cabaret, but I\u2019m not sexy, I don\u2019t have the burlesque vibe \u2026 I\u2019m like the quirky, funny one. So where do you take that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving forward,\u201d for her, means putting this show together from scratch. There\u2019s nothing like a challenge. \u201cThe eventual goal is to do guest entertainment work on cruise ships. You just make your own show, and then you sell it to whoever\u2019s interested in buying it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The videos in Not-So-Starving Artist, as well as the recordings, have been remixed to Rose can do all the lead vocals live. Each song will have its own expositional introduction.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, spacial limitations means Rose can\u2019t do aerial work for the Shimberg show. Dancing, on the other hand, is involved.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s being produced as a \u201cJobside\u201d show by Jobsite Theater. These are small-ish productions done on the same days as a regular-season show.<\/p>\n
In Rose\u2019s case, she\u2019s running parallel Saturday and Sunday with Penelope, starring her friend (and fellow Florida Bjorkester) Colleen Cherry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t mean for the timing to be like this,\u201d points out Rose, \u201cbut she\u2019s been nothing but gracious, and we\u2019ve been co-promoting the shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they have two one-woman shows in the Shimberg, running at the same time. And that\u2019s pretty rad. That\u2019s pretty powerful for the Tampa Bay area.\u201d<\/p>\n