Judy Lisi first ran the Shubert Performing Arts Center in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving to Tampa in the early '90s to lead the Straz Center for the Performing Arts.
She is credited with not only regularly bringing in Broadway shows, but also founding Opera Tampa.
Lisi, 78, retired in 2022 after 30 years as president as CEO.
WUSF interviewed her as part of our Women’s History Month series, highlighting important community members.
The following is an edited transcript of that interview, in which the Lisi describes what it was like to be a woman in her position and her passion for the arts.
Changing people’s lives
The theater. … It's a secular place, but it's like a temple, in a way.
I always envision when people come in through those doors, maybe they just leave all of the problems they might have, they leave them at the door, and they come in and have a fresh look at everything, and they take that wonderful experience with them.
I would always say to my staff, "People buy our tickets. They're not taking anything tangible home with them. All they have is an experience that's going to help them the next day with whatever they have to do in their life, or brighten them, or help them understand things, or maybe learn things about other people they didn't know."
So, I said, "That's why everything we do has to be really good."
Value the art
When you see something great, don't you say, "You have to see this. You have to watch this. You have to go there."
You want to share that with people.
And that's what I've wanted to do my whole life, is just share that, share the wonderful work that artists do. And you know, people who are called to be artists, that's a true calling.
It's hard. Being an artist is so hard, especially in this country because we don't have a support system for artists here. They don't know what their next job is going to be, but look what they give to us.
I always felt very important to help our artists and help pay our artists, too. There were so many organizations (that) would say, "Can you get us an artist for free?" I said, "No." I said, "I can't get you an artist for free. We have to pay our artists."
The boys’ clubs
When I first started at the Shubert in New Haven, I was on the executive committee, what's called the Broadway League, and there were so many times I was the only woman in the group.
But being a woman in my field then was very rare. Actually, I was very fortunate because they kind of welcomed me, but they didn't know quite what to do with the woman in the group, you know, because everything was a boys’ club in those days.
Even when I went to New Haven, there was the men's club – (it) was called the Quinnipiac Club – and when they interviewed me, they had to interview me in a different room because women in those days weren't allowed into the club.
I mean, this is really how it was, and sometimes I think it's important to remind younger women it could go backwards, so we have to be vigilant.
Never stop marching
I remember taking my daughter on a woman's march in 1972 in New York City. She was in a stroller.
We were there with other friends and an older friend of a friend of mine, who was probably in her 70s. I said to her, "Isn't it wonderful that we're living in a time when making all these changes for my daughter and others?"
And she said to me, "Judy, when you're in your 70s, you will still be marching."
She said , "It will never end." And she's right, because I have been to the women's march in 2016. I will be going again.
Any minorities, no matter who you are, you don't own it forever. We always have to work at telling our story and making sure that we open the world and keep it open and inclusive.
But it doesn't happen by itself. There's this thing called entropy, which is a third law of physics. It will close up again unless we keep pushing the boundaries.
