Jeffrey Ellis - Page 61

Jury deliberations get under way tonight in Woodbury as the Arts Center of Cannon County opens its production of the stage classic 12 Angry Men, directed by Terry Deason (who counts among her castmembers her husband, 2015 First Night Honoree Darryl Deason) and running at the theater through October 17. Former TV and radio personality Aaron Solomon stars alongside a cast filled with familiar faces from the Middle Tennessee theater community, including our two other Friday Five personalities Gerold Oliver and Byron Whiting.

Today, we focus our Friday Five spotlight on the intriguing Deathtrap trio of Christi Dortch, Dante Greco and Judy Jackson, as interesting a bunch of actors as you'll find in Nashville. Get to know them better, then book your seats to see Deathtrap…

Tennessee Women's Theater Project launches its 2015-16 season with the fast-paced, irreverent comedy The Taming by Lauren Gunderson. The production opens tonight at Nashville's Looby Theater, running weekends through October 18. Which means it's a matter of perfect timing for actress Colette Divine and director Maryanna Clarke to take on our Friday Five questions and to give us some insight into their theatrical lives.

With almost 400 people in the audience, the leading lights of Tennessee theater were heralded with the presentation of the 2015 First Night Honors Gala, Sunday night at the iconic and historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in Nashville. Hosted by Geoff Davin, Stephanie Jones-Benton and Erica Patterson, the event featured musical numbers by more than 100 performers in tribute to the Class of 2015 Honorees.

Take Neal Buckley, for example: A senior musical theater major at Belmont, he's onstage through this weekend in Studio Tenn's Gypsy (at Jamison Hall at The Factory at Franklin), playing Yonkers (one of Dainty June's peripatetic Farmboys) and later this semester he stars as Phil Davis in Belmont University Musical Theatre's production of White Christmas. Already on the Madison, Mississippi native's burgeoning resume, you'll find such disparate roles as Montparnasse in Les Miserables, Benjamin in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Dean Hyde in All Shook Up.

Nan Gurley's stunning performance of Mama Rose is reason enough to see Studio Tenn's 2015-16 season opening production of Gypsy - the legendary backstage musical about the rise to stardom of Gypsy Rose Lee - but there is so much more to be found in director Matt Logan's sumptuously appointed show than her career-crowning portrayal of the near-mythical character.

When word spread quickly among Nashville's theater community that Nan Gurley had been cast as Mama Rose in Studio Tenn's 2015-16 season opening production of Gypsy, the response was universal: artistic director Matt Logan once again had proven his brilliance. Simply put, Nan Gurley - a member of Nashville theater's first family - was the perfect choice to play the overpowering and flawed mother of stripper/entertainer/author/raconteur Gypsy Rose Lee.

You don't have to be an aficionado of Dirty Dancing, the 1987 film starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey as a mismatched romantic duo brought together by some sexy dance moves at a Catskills resort, to find yourself loving every moment of Dirty Dancing, The Classic Story On Stage, now ensconced at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday.

With almost 400 people in the audience, the leading lights of Tennessee theater were heralded with the presentation of the 2015 First Night Honors Gala, Sunday night at the iconic and historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in Nashville. Hosted by Geoff Davin, Stephanie Jones-Benton and Erica Patterson, the event featured musical numbers by more than 100 performers in tribute to the Class of 2015 Honorees.

With almost 400 people in the audience, the leading lights of Tennessee theater were heralded with the presentation of the 2015 First Night Honors Gala, Sunday night at the iconic and historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in Nashville. Hosted by Geoff Davin, Stephanie Jones-Benton and Erica Patterson, the event featured musical numbers by more than 100 performers in tribute to the Class of 2015 Honorees.

With almost 400 people in the audience, the leading lights of Tennessee theater were heralded with the presentation of the 2015 First Night Honors Gala, Sunday night at the iconic and historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in Nashville. Hosted by Geoff Davin, Stephanie Jones-Benton and Erica Patterson, the event featured musical numbers by more than 100 performers in tribute to the Class of 2015 Honorees.

With almost 400 people in the audience, the leading lights of Tennessee theater were heralded with the presentation of the 2015 First Night Honors Gala, Sunday night at the iconic and historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in Nashville. Hosted by Geoff Davin, Stephanie Jones-Benton and Erica Patterson, the event featured musical numbers by more than 100 performers in tribute to the Class of 2015 Honorees.

Young Emory is an effeminate 11-year-old boy who lives on a farm with his chain smoking Nanna and his only friend, a depressed chicken about to be processed in Milk Milk Lemonade, a new show described as 'a bitterly funny exploration of gender, sexuality, life, death and the human body,' opening tonight, September 19, at the PIT Loft Theatre, 154 West 29th Street.

An exciting and incisive script, enacted by an ensemble of Nashville's finest actors under the direction of a confident, focused woman who knows how to make compelling theater come to life with style and aplomb…that's what we've come to expect from Nashville Repertory Theatre over the past thirty-some years. And make no mistake about it: the company's 2015-16 season opener delivers all of that and more with Gina Gionfriddo's Rapture, Blister, Burn, now onstage at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre through September 19.

Geoff Davin, Stephanie Jones-Benton and Erica Patterson will serve as co-hosts as the leading lights of Tennessee theater are heralded with the presentation of the 2015 First Night Honors Gala, to be held Sunday, September 20, at Nashville's iconic and historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. The event will feature musical numbers by more than 150 performers in tribute to the Class of 2015 Honorees.

Arsenic and Old Lace, Joseph Kesselring's iconic stage comedy cum murder mystery that plays on the pop culture aspects of life in 1940s Brooklyn, has been around so long - and produced so often - that you might, at first blush, consider it just another title from theater's storied past, one that seems dated and rather unpretentiously charming, yet uncompelling.

Chambers Stevens is a bona fide Hollywood multi-hyphenate - actor-comedian-acting coach-author - who somehow has encapsulated all of that and more in his new one-man show It's Who You Know, premiering at St. Louis' Gaslight Theatre, 358 N. Boyle, September  10-12. Tickets are $30 and are available online at www.ItsWhoYouKnowOnTour.com.

Young Emory is an effeminate 11-year-old boy who lives on a farm with his chain smoking Nanna and his only friend, a depressed chicken about to be processed in Milk Milk Lemonade, a new show described as "a bitterly funny exploration of gender, sexuality, life, death and the human body," opening Saturday, September 19, at the PIT Loft Theatre, 154 West 29th Street.

To know Rachel Beth Jackson is to love her: With a heart as big as all outdoors, she's kind, thoughtful and considerate - attributes that will continue to serve her well as she pursues her lifelong dream of becoming a professional actress. A 2013 First Night Most Promising Actor, she first came to our attention in performances in her hometown of Dickson with The Renaissance Players, the community theatre group that has helped young actors pursue their creative dreams for year

Today's spotlight falls on Payton McCarthy, a student at Murfreesboro's Siegel High School, whose astonishing performance in his school's production of Pippin last spring won awards – and acclaim – from audiences and critics alike. Get to know him now and be on the lookout for him on local stages before he becomes a great big star.