Drug arrest of actor shutters play
It's ironic that Hurlyburly, the Jobsite Theater production, is about a druggy Hollywood scene.
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
Published August 24, 2007
TAMPA - The arrest of a Tampa actor on drug trafficking charges has closed down a show at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.
Ryan McCarthy, 29, was stopped Aug. 17 for an expired tag when a police officer smelled marijuana and searched his vehicle. The search turned up marijuana, plus 2,247 hydrocodone pills and 35 Xanax pills, the arrest affidavit states.
Then, at the jail, a detention deputy reported finding a small bag of cocaine between McCarthy's fingers.
The actor, who had a leading role in the Jobsite Theater production of Hurlyburly at TBPAC's Shimberg Playhouse, now faces six charges, including trafficking in illegal drugs, possession of cocaine and introduction of contraband into a detention facility.
He was held on $508,500 bond at the Falkenburg Road Jail.
The theater canceled performances this past Saturday and Sunday and Thursday as well as this weekend's remaining shows in the run of the play by David Rabe.
David Jenkins, producing artistic director of Jobsite, posted a statement on the theater's blog jobsitetheater.blogspot.com that Hurlyburly was canceled for "a personal emergency involving a lead actor."
"As a small but growing not-for-profit, Jobsite is not in the position to carry understudies, and there is no possible way the show can conclude its run with the given set of circumstances and the demands of this three-hour show," he wrote.
Thursday, Jenkins said he had no further comment. "That's the only statement we have. It's a private matter," he said.
There is plenty of irony in McCarthy's drug arrest. Rabe's 1984 play, the final play in Jobsite's eighth season, is about a druggy Hollywood scene. McCarthy was playing Eddie, a sleazy dealmaker "who never goes more than a few seconds without smoking pot, drinking booze or snorting coke," wrote critic Marty Clear in his review for the Times.
McCarthy, who has been in many Jobsite productions, has a record of drug arrests going back to 2003, state records show.
Times staff writer Michael A. Mohammed and correspondent Marty Clear contributed to this report. John Fleming can be reached at (727) 893-8716 or fleming@sptimes.com