While you won’t find Criswell with a college degree in theatre or chorus, you can call him if you need to be married or buried.
“Yes, I am an ordained minister,” he says.
Criswell laughs as he says it, almost as if he does not believe it himself. After high school he made some bad decisions involving drug use and ended up at Central Bible College with a chance to turn himself around. After he became a motivational speaker and served as the director of an AIDS awareness organization in Indiana, he started one of the first teen drama groups for high school students called Straightway. Criswell’s degree in music and theology speaks little about the natural talent that cannot be taught in a classroom.
“I had a theater teacher in high school where we had to learn everything from make-up, to painting a set, to building a set, to lights and sound, and we always did those kind of things,” he says. “I always excelled in the make-up department so it’s more of a learned thing that I did myself .… It’s always been second nature to me.”
Florida is where the journey has come to an end, at least momentarily. The stage manager job at TBPAC just presented itself, Criswell says. And with the TBPAC being one of the top five performing arts complexes in the United States and the largest in the Southeast, Criswell feels blessed to have had this job for the past nine years.
Before Criswell accepted the job at the TBPAC, the Center only had two or three shows a year whereas now with Criswell’s position, they have six or seven shows per year, most of them being original cabarets. Everything from the story to the costumes and sets are developed at the Center.
“Usually most of our cabaret shows have a theme as far as a decade or a persona like with the ‘50s and Patsy Cline,” he says. The combination of a welcoming community and large pool of local talent contributes to the success of the Center.
According to Criswell, Florida has the ultimate artist triangle. Tampa, Miami and Orlando all have strong artist communities blossoming and multiplying. The fervor of artist communities consists of starving artists like Criswell who went through hard times himself during his early 20s.
“The Tampa community is very welcoming to the arts and realizes how important the arts are in education,” he says.
With the new Museum of Art, three condo projects under development and one completed, downtown Tampa is on its way to becoming a strong, influential community.
“Your arts community is really what makes your community strong and Florida is very much a leader in the arts.” Criswell loses the light in his eyes when he discusses funding for the arts. When the state cuts funding, it hurts everyone, from the people employed to the community, he says.