Lane Wright News

Sarah Ruhl’s critically acclaimed play In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) highlights ACT 1’s 2012-13 season, which is revealed today. Also on the season: a new adaptation of Dark of the Moon, Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound and Ibsen’s classic A Doll’s House. (more...)

Directed by Nate Eppler, Here Lies Jeremy Troy stars Rebekah Durham, Andy Kanies, Jennifer Richmond, Will Sevier and Lane Wright. Eppler, in addition to acting and directing, is a playwright and teaching artist based in Nashville. His plays include Keeping Up With the Joneses, The Shorty Hawkins Play, Modern Love and Long Way Down. Eppler is the recipient of both the Tennessee Arts Commission Professional Development Support Grant and the Individual Artist Fellowship. He is playwright-in-residence for Tennessee Repertory Theatre. (more...)

In recognition of The Barn’s 45 years of bringing the magic of live theater to the stage, we continue our special series of Onstage at The Barn: Memories from The First 45 Years, with actor Lane Wright, one of Nashville’s most easily recognizable actors, who most recently starred in The Rainmaker and right now is onstage at Nashville’s Z. Alexander Looby Theatre in The Disappearance of Janey Jones, presented by Tennessee Women’s Theater Project (which is directed by Maryanna Clarke, herself a Barn alum). (more...)

I’m happy to report that director Clarke and her capable actors have delivered a well-paced, thoughtful iteration of Fawcett’s work, one that is certain to promote conversation and introspection, and which TWTP audiences have taken to their collective heart. In fact, The Disappearance of Janey Jones fits perfectly into TWTP’s mission of giving women their full voice via the theater arts while provoking thought and discussion through the company’s continued examination of the very things in life that affect—and confound—us all. (more...)

In a town where everyone from your next-door neighbor to your favorite barista – from your dental hygienist to your manicurist, your seatmate on the bus, your friendly neighborhood bartender and maybe even the guy who does your taxes – is a songwriter, you'll find that there's never a shortage of opinions on the topic of favorite songs. Ask a cross-section of Nashville theater-types what their favorite love song is from the annals of musical theater and you're going to get a barrage of answers. (more...)

Janey Jones can’t get out of bed. She’s lost her job, her boyfriend has dumped her, and she’s afraid of sliding into the same well of depression that swallowed her grandmother. From the opening moments, it’s clear that The Disappearance of Janey Jones digs into some serious subjects. That’s a big part of the reason she chose the play, says Tennessee Women’s Theater Project founder and artistic director Maryanna Clarke. (more...)

After an intense internal auditing process, the results are in for the 2011 Nashville Awards! This year's awards broke traffic records and we couldn't be more excited to announce the 2011 BroadwayWorld Nashville Award winners! (more...)

It's almost over! There's just FIVE days of voting remaining for the 2011 Nashville Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Nashville Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday December 26, 2011. Voting ends at midnight on 12/31 so time is running out. (more...)

There's just TWO short weeks left to go in voting for the 2011 Nashville Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Nashville Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday December 19, 2011. Voting ends at midnight on 12/31 so time is running out. (more...)

There's just a few weeks left to go in voting for the 2011 Nashville Awards and here is the latest update! Have you voted yet, and helped to spread the word to support your favorites in the hopes that they will be the recipients of a 2011 BroadwayWorld Nashville Award? There is no time to waste, click on the voting link and make your opinion count! Below are the stats so far as of Monday December 12, 2011. (more...)

Annie, the irrepressible orphan of newspaper comics-fame who has been delighting audiences onstage since the 1970s, makes her return to Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre this summer, running July 28-September 3, in a new production of Annie directed by Martha Wilkinson, with music direction by Jaclyn Brown and choreography by Bakari King. (more...)

Annie, that spunky, optimistic and determined orphan who first appeared in the "funny papers" of the nation's newspapers in 1924 - only to become one of the most beloved musical theater heroines ever to express her hope for "Tomorrow" in song on Broadway - returns to that magical levitating stage of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in a colorful and sprightly new revival helmed by the multi-talented Martha Wilkinson. (more...)

Annie, the irrepressible orphan of newspaper comics-fame who has been delighting audiences onstage since the 1970s, makes her return to Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre this summer, running July 28-September 3, in a new production of Annie directed by Martha Wilkinson, with music direction by Jaclyn Brown and choreography by Bakari King. (more...)

First Night Award winner Jenny Noel directs Everybody Loves Opal, the latest comedy onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. A comedy by John Patrick, Everybody Loves Opal runs June 16-July 23, and features a cast of some of Nashville's favorite actors. (more...)

Annie, the irrepressible orphan of newspaper comics-fame who has been delighting audiences onstage since the 1970s, makes her return to Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre this summer, running July 28-September 3, in a new production of Annie directed by Martha Wilkinson, with music direction by Jaclyn Brown and choreography by Bakari King. (more...)

Led by the charming Debbie Kraski, who commands the stage with grace and wit as the show's wacky protagonist, director Jenny Noel's talented cast delivers a pleasant and amusing summer diversion by way of John Patrick's Everybody Loves Opal, now onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. (more...)

First Night Award winner Jenny Noel directs Everybody Loves Opal, the latest comedy onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. A comedy by John Patrick, Everybody Loves Opal runs June 16-July 23, and features a cast of some of Nashville's favorite actors. (more...)

Popular Nashville actor Sam Whited makes his Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre directorial debut with the revival of N. Richard Nash's The Rainmaker, running May 5-June 11. Elizabeth Walsh and Bryce Conner lead the cast of the revival in the pivotal roles of "Lizzie" and "Starbuck," the rainmaker of the play's title. (more...)

First Night Award winner Jenny Noel directs Everybody Loves Opal, the latest comedy onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. A comedy by John Patrick, Everybody Loves Opal runs June 16-July 23, and features a cast of some of Nashville's favorite actors. (more...)

N. Richard Nash's The Rainmaker has been a part of our collective pop culture and theatrical canon for years and is probably best known because of the 1956 film version that starred Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster, which has cast its indelible shadow on every intervening stage production since its initial release. That being said, who could have everexpected the emotional wallop packed by the superb revival now onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, directed by Sam Whited? Quietly and gracefully, the impact of The Rainmaker remains as potent as it has ever been and it is performed by a thoroughly committed cast of Barn veterans and newcomers all focused on the task at hand. (more...)