Powerstories Theatre founder, visionary Fran Powers steps back

March is Women’s History Month, a time to highlight the contributions women have made to history and contemporary society.

In the Bay Area, Fran Powers, founder of Tampa’s Powerstories Theatre, certainly qualifies as a woman who’s earned such recognition. In 2000, Powers founded Powerstories as a platform for sharing impactful stories from women’s history and personal stories from women today. She later expanded Powerstories’ impact by adding a program for middle school girls. 

For Powerstories, the last 25-plus years have brought triumphs – like attending a White House ceremony to receive a national honor for the theater’s youth program. And they’ve brought trials – like when the theater lost its longtime home in 2023.

Now, Powerstories is going through something it’s never experienced before – a change in leadership. At the end of March, Powers steps back as executive director of the theater group she founded. As the day grows closer, she reflects on her journey. 

The beginning

Powerstories’s story begins when Powers was 40 and working in a leadership position at a Tampa nonprofit facility for pregnant women in crisis. She felt she needed a break. 

“My stepchildren were doing well, and I felt it was time to tackle my dreams,” she says. ”Two dreams kept bubbling up, and they ultimately coalesced together. I was starting to get the theater bug, and I was remembering a childhood fantasy.” 

Growing up in a Navy family of twelve, Powers would ride her bicycle around her San Diego neighborhood and dream of riding across the country. 

So, she did, starting in Seattle and riding all the way to Washington, D.C. Along the way, her purpose came into view. Returning home to Tampa, Powers started journaling her goals. 

“I knew what I wanted, I knew why I wanted it, I just didn’t know how. I sent out a press release saying, ‘I’m looking for women who want to tell their stories.’ So many women showed up. It was a very good year.”

Before establishing the theater as a nonprofit organization, Powers says she funded the first three years of operation out of her own pocket. To raise the money, she launched a consulting business that helped nonprofits fundraise and taught leadership skills.

Powers describes Powerstories’s debut performance in November 2000 as “divine.” Eight women with little to no acting experience but interesting stories got a standing ovation from the crowd of 300 that came to hear them, she says.

“The voice in my head said, ‘Listen, your life is speaking to you,’” Powers adds. “I was persistent, I was passionate.” 

With that passion and persistence, Powers expanded Powerstories’ programming to offer five-week workshops that prepared women to tell their stories. 

“I told them that delivering their message was giving a gift to the audience,” she says. 

Financial support helped sustain Powerstories. Powers says funding from the Triad Foundation, the Conn Memorial Foundation, and the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County helped Powerstories get established as a nonprofit. Nonprofit status then allowed Powerstories to form a board of directors, recruit volunteers, and grow as an organization, she says. Powers also reached out to contacts from her years in the nonprofit field to raise donations to fund the organization.

Grant funding continued to grow as Powerstories expanded its mission to include a program for middle school girls, who learned effective storytelling skills and developed leadership skills. The program, now known as Girlstories Leadership Theatre,  made an impact.  

“Women would come up to me and say, ‘Thank you for what you have done for my daughter,’” Powers says.

National recognition

A standout moment in Powerstories’s quarter-century-plus history came in 2010, when the theater group traveled to the White House to receive a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from then-first lady Michelle Obama. 

“We participated in amazing workshops held for the winners,” Powers recalls. “The validation was wonderful. It was a real turning point.” 

Powerstories has also persevered in tough times. In June 2023, the theater group lost its home of 12 years on Kennedy Boulevard to make way for a planned residential high-rise. Since then, the group has performed at various locations around the Tampa area, with one production at The Studio@620 in St. Petersburg. Their 2026 schedule includes performances in Tampa at the Hillsborough College Theatre and Stageworks Theatre and in St. Pete at The Studio @620.

Powers and her husband also experienced a personal loss in September 2024, when damage from Hurricane Helene left their home uninhabitable.

 “We’re still living in a rental,” she says. “I’m seventy-three, and sometimes I’m tired.” 

Powers says her goal has always been for Powerstories to be self-sustaining with the right person in place to continue the legacy. She feels she has found “the perfect person” in Powerstories Artistic Director Clareann Despain.

“I’m very excited for Clareann, and I’m very excited for me,” Powers says. “I can now pick and choose my projects. My husband and I are going to have adventures, and we’re going to find ways to give back to the community.” 

She has a parting piece of advice. 

“If something keeps knocking on your heart, go do it,” Powers says. “There are lots of ways to realize your dreams. I listened to my heart. I just did it. And we changed women’s lives.”

For more information, go to Powerstories Theatre