Jeffrey Ellis - Page 27

Todd Morgan has been named as the new managing director of Studio Tenn, Middle Tennessee's award-winning theater company based in Franklin.

What do you get when you introduce a daydreaming house painter to a dozen delightful penguins? A flipper-flapping musical tale that will make you believe in the power of ingenuity and determination, according to Nashville Children's Theatre's executive artistic director Ernie Nolan, who describes it as a show packed with puppetry, humor, and heart, Mr. Popper's Penguins is bound to put a smile on your face.

With this our latest regular feature we hope to rectify that and shine the spotlight on the individuals who make the shows run with the precision of a Swiss timepiece. Thank You, Places is our opportunity to edify the theater-goer by introducing you to some of the best production stage managers to be found on the planet. Today, we introduce you to PSM Jonah Darnell, who has been stage managing for about a year now with Cori Laemmel's critically acclaimed and parent-approved Theater Bug:

Among cast members of The Miracle Worker was Anna Elizabeth Micksch, who today is featured in our Collegiate Theatrics column. Born and raised in the greater Nashville/Franklin area, Anna became interested in theater at a very young age a love of art she credits to her father, who was designing a set for a play at St. Cecilia Academy.

As you sit on the grounds of the farm that once belonged to the Bell family, the annual dramatization of their haunting story Spirit will take you on an eerily captivating journey that began in 1804. That's when John Bell uprooted his family and moved to a beautiful area on the Red River, now known as Adams, unaware that the grounds were already occupied by the later-coined Bell Witch.

ACT 1 launches its 2017-18 season tonight, with the Brian Hill-directed Love, Loss and What I Wore the critically acclaimed play by Nora and Delia Ephron, based on the 1995 book of the same name by Ilene Beckerman. Love, Loss and What I Wore opens at Darkhorse Theatre for a three-weekend run through October 21.

Lipscomb University Theatre opens its 2017-18 season with the Kari Smith-directed version of William Gibson's The Miracle Worker, the timeless and dramatically driven stage rendition of the life of Helen Keller and her relationship with her devoted teacher, Annie Sullivan. Sarah Johnson, a musical theatre major from Fort Wayne, Indiana, is cast as Helen and this week she sat down to consider our queries, provide us with some insight and to become the latest student featured in Collegiate Theatrics.

Kid Simple, by Jordan Harrison, premiered at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville in 2004 and revolves around the adventures of a young inventor by the name of Moll. She creates a machine for hearing sounds that cannot be heard by the human ear. Then an evil villain steals the machine, along with Moll's heart, and she goes on a quest to find the machine and preserve the everyday noises of our lives.

Tennessee Women's Theater Project launches its eleventh season at Nashville's Z. Alexander Looby Theater with the regional premiere of a play that addresses a timely dilemma: Nikkole Salter's Lines in the Dust, which probes the timely topics of integration, racial privilege and school zoning manipulation. Lines in the Dust runs October 6-22.

Cumberland County Playhouse presents an all-new musical version of Sleepy Hollow by Tony Award nominees Hunter Foster and Paul Gordon, running October 13-November 11 in Crossville.

Nashville-area ballet students ages six to 18 are invited to audition Tuesday, October 17, at 5 p.m. for Moscow Ballet soloist and audition director Maria Morari at Dance South Performing Arts in White House. The Moscow Ballet audition is open to students from dance studios across the region with a minimum one year of ballet training.

Feeling the urge to let your imagination run wild, your spirit to soar or to just leave the world in which you live and go on an adventure? Sounds like a trip to the theater is in order! Luckily, companies all over the Volunteer State have been hard at work, creating new productions to transform and to transport, shows that will entertain you this summer. That's where THE NASHVILLE THEATER CALENDAR comes in handy: Peruse our listings every week to find out what shows you should see!

Rodgers and Hammerstein's iconic 1949 musical about life, romance and hardships during World War II, which broached serious and controversial social issues still being dealt with in the 21st century South Pacific debuts at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson for an October 12-28 run.

Our goal to bring unique, left-of-center plays to the Nashville area that have never been performed here before, said Stephanie Houghton, founder of Gadabout Theater Company. Trevor is a truly unique work with a quirky sensibility that's surprisingly touching in places. We hope Nashville theatergoers will take a chance on experiencing something they're never seen here before.

Springhouse Theatre Company opens its 2017-2018 season with Disney's Beauty and the Beast, directed by Rachael Parker. The show runs September 15,16, 22-23, 29-30, and October 1. All Friday/Saturday shows start at 7:30 p.m. Photographer Kenn Stilger, of Heavenly Perspective Photography, captured much of the excitement of the production with these photos from the final dress rehearsal.

Finally, a musical for everyone who loves musicals! Beginning September 15, Cumberland County Playhouse presents The Drowsy Chaperone, a loving send-up of Jazz age musicals featuring one show-stopping song and dance number after another.

Take, for example, Conner McCabe, a 20-year-old junior at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro: the new academic year has barely been in session for a month and he's already preparing for his role as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Yet somehow, even with the typical schedule of a harried college student, he managed to find time to answer our queries as the latest actor in the spotlight for this edition of Collegiate Theatrics

If the production of Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men closing tonight after a much too brief two-weekend run at Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts proves anything it's just how current and relevant the play remains, almost 30 years after its Broadway premiere. First produced there in 1989, followed up by the wildly successful film version three years later, it's long been a favorite of theater- and film-goers alike, giving them a bird's eye view of the machinations and intrigue that propels the plot of the courtroom drama forward.

Ernie Nolan, Nashville Children's Theatre's new executive artistic director, makes an impressive debut with The Hundred Dresses, the initial show of his first official season as the leader of the country's oldest theater for younger audiences. Nolan's predecessor, the late and great Scot Copeland, led NCT through tremendous growth during his tenure and he is, without question, a hard act to follow.

Who better than Cumberland County Playhouse's artistic director Britt Hancock to take the helm of The Drowsy Chaperone, the latest show slated to open on the mainstage of Crossville's iconic theater? After all, he starred as Broadway producer Feldzieg in the national touring company of the Tony Award-winning show, tap dancing his way across the country and winning hearts and rave reviews all along the way.