Jeffrey Ellis - Page 63

Theater in Tennessee has never been busier nor has it been more diverse than what you'll find onstage this weekend throughout the Volunteer State. From frothy and fun summer musicals that are sure to make you think - like All Shook Up at Chaffin's Barn and A Chorus Line at Cumberland County Playhouse - to new plays from Shawn Whitsell (his latest, Songs For Our Sons, premieres at Darkhorse Theatre on Friday night) and emerging playwright Che Pieper (his new script based on the book The Man With the Light in His Window debuts at The Theater Bug this weekend)…the magic of live theater is all around you…even in this heat and humidity! So pull your seersucker suits and sundresses out of the closet, get all gussied up and make your way to the relative cool of a darkened theater for some midsummer magic!

Directors and producers in the Nashville region are seeking actors for upcoming productions of The Mousetrap, Manuscript, Cheaper by The Dozen and First Baptist of Ivy Gap - and producers are seeking cast members for a touring production of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. There's even a haunted house in Auburtown seeking performers for a paying gig. We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. So now you have no excuse!

Here's some unsolicited career advice for those of you who might be considering relocating to Tuna, the third smallest town in Texas:  Tunanians - or Tunaites or however they refer to themselves - are sorely in need of a good beauty operator to help them keep their unruly wigs in shipshape, Bristol fashion. What with all the civic events, out-of-town trips and local affairs, every woman in Tuna should want their coiffures to be dazzling creations of the beauticians' trade.

The First Night Honors' Class of 2015 will be revealed next Monday night, July 27, as Nashville Theater's Big Reveal: The First Night Preview Party gets under way at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre at 6 p.m., featuring entertainment by the casts of some of the summer's biggest musicals throughout Tennessee.

Rehearsals  are drawing to a close as the bright lights of opening night begin to heat up at Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, where the cast and crew of the company's big summer musical, All Shook Up, get ready for their big debut on Thursday. With a cast of Nashville theater veterans – joined by some of the region's brightest up-and-comers – it promises to be a grand theatrical affair. We've been sharing some of the backstage gossip for the past couple of weeks and as our preview coverage concludes, we share a special “by the numbers” look at the show, courtesy of Christen Heilman Runyon…

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

To give credit where credit is indeed due: Wes Driver and Greg Greene, with the creation of Blackbird Theatre, have given Nashville audiences some of the finest theater of the past five years, consistently providing thoughtful and provocative drama and music to a public clamoring for more intellectual pursuits amid the confines of a darkened theater. From their first production - Twilight of the Gods, an original comedy/drama/fantasy that has proven a favorite of theater companies all over the country - to their most recent project, they have continued to push the creative envelope and to challenge viewers to think. On top of those lofty aspirations, Messrs. Driver and Green are good men, gentlemen to a fault, warm and friendly, clever and quick.

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to BroadwayWorld Nashville's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find onstage throughout the Volunteer state. Today, we introduce you to Corey Shadd and Crystal Kurek, who star as Tony and Maria in West Side Story, opening tonight at Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts.

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to BroadwayWorld Nashville's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find onstage throughout the Volunteer state. Today, we introduce you to Kathleen Jaffe, who stars in Play On! opening tonight at Lakewood Theatre in Old Hickory.

And Sondra Morton, Jayme Smith and co. (that would be Act Too) stages their company's latest work at the historic Franklin Theatre - The Sound of Music - starring Kimberly Rye as Maria, Cameron Bortz as Rolf and the inimitable Matt Baugher as Georg Von Trapp. Check it out!

Led by program director Jessika Malone and technical director Mitch Massaro - and named by CNN as one of 'most intriguing festivals' in the 'Best of the U.S.' - Nashville's Sideshow @ Actors Bridge unveils its fifth annual slate of performances for today, July 16, through July 19.

After four critically acclaimed seasons, Nashville's Blackbird Theater will produce what company founders call their 'magnum opus,' the new musical Myth, set for a world premiere run tonight, July 16, through July 26.

Directors and producers in the Nashville region are seeking actors for upcoming productions of Harvey and Deathtrap - and producers are seeking cast members for a touring production of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. So now you have no excuse!

In between, there's a plethora of performances and events lined up, including a Sideshow-produced rendition of Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers' Matt & Ben, starring Jenna Pryor and Britt Byrd, directed by Patrick Kramer: a what-might-have-happened comedy that considers how the pair of Boston-bred bros created an Academy Award winning screenplay.

After four critically acclaimed seasons, Nashville's Blackbird Theater (winner of the 2013 First Night Award for outstanding theater company) opens what company founders Greg Greene and Wes Driver call their “magnum opus,” the new musical Myth, opening this Friday night, July 17, running through July 26 at the Hillsboro High School Theatre in Green Hills.

Directed by Kurt Grabenstein, Play On! is described as the hilarious story of a theater group trying desperately to put on a play despite the maddening interference of a haughty author who keeps revising the script. Act I is a rehearsal of the dreadful show, Act II is the near disastrous dress rehearsal, and the final act is the actual performance in which anything that can go wrong does. When the author decides to give a speech on the state of the modern theatre during the curtain calls, the audience is treated to a madcap climax to a thoroughly hilarious romp

Truth be told, one of my favorite movies is Bring It On, the story of competitive cheerleading starring Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford and Gabrielle Union - and if I had a dollar for every time I've uttered the phrase 'Brrr…it's cold in here, there must be some Toros in the atmosphere' to my dog following a particularly frigid winter stroll at nighttime...well, I'd be rich. That should give you some indication of how much I love the movie, which has gone on to inspire several sequels and one Broadway musical.

Members of The First Night Honors' Class of 2015 will be announced during Nashville Theater's Big Reveal: The 2015 First Night Preview Party on Monday, July 27, at 6 p.m. at Music City's iconic venue Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre.

Rehearsals got under way last week for Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre's big musical for the summer of 2015: All Shook Up. With a cast of Nashville theater veterans - joined by some of the region's brightest up-and-comers - you can rest assured that the rehearsal process will be just as much fun as the show itself. Throughout the next couple of weeks we'll be sharing 'diaries' from members of the cast and crew in anticipation of opening night on July 23.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.