TAMPA, Fla. — Stageworks Theatre is scaling to new heights in 2026, literally, with their upcoming show, Touching the Void.
Actors Logan Mays and Luis Rivera have always enjoyed climbing as a hobby but never realized they could use those skills theatrically until they read the script.
“When I heard there was an audition for a climbing show I was like, ‘I have to do it,’” said Rivera.
“Once you get going the body and your mind kind of go together and an action sort of connects to a line, and it kind of goes from there,” said Mays.
The play is based on a true story dating back to 1985 about two rock climbers lost in the Andes Mountains fighting to survive.
“It's action packed, it is heartfelt, it is physically and visually something that we have never seen in Tampa Bay before and that we won’t see for quite some time,” said Karla Hartley, producing artistic director.
Hartley says it’s the theater company’s most ambitious show in their 43-year history.
“We’ve never done anything like this before — it is a completely climbable safe mountain for actors to do their jungle gym stuff on. In fact, it is the most expensive set we’ve had here in the theater,” said Hartley.
Karla says the mountain is more than just a set, it’s a character, towering close to 20 feet above the stage, where the actors will climb, hang, dangle and even fall.
Stageworks even received advice and equipment from Vertical Ventures climbing gym to make sure the performance looks as real as possible.
“I’ve never seen anything like it on stage where we can just climb all over and play around and add lines to it and then emotions and then relationships, so it’s pretty rad, man,” said Rivera.
Stageworks says there are only a few theater companies in the country to attempt this show. They are proud to rise to the challenge.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a show that’s so technical, in terms of where are we going to hang, how are we going to get to this place, how are we going to get from here to there in three lines on the mountain,” said Rivera.
“I think it’s going to look really really cool, we got a lot of fun stuff planned out,” said Mays. “And it’s like a really good workout too, so it’s like a gym membership attached to it.”
Touching the Void runs from Jan. 16 to Feb. 1.
For more information on tickets and show times, go to stageworkstheatre.org.
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