Jeffrey Ellis - Page 79

Irina Sundukova's White Orchard Theater will finally make its Nashville debut this week with its upcoming production of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, which examines the dynamics of modern Western Civilization and which is, the director explains, "is Pinter's landmark cultural masterpiece."

Rhubarb Theater Company presents Birds in Church, a series of 14 vignettes written by New Yorker/former Catholic priest Joe Pintauro, selected from the playwright's larger 27-vignette collection Metropolitan Operas.

...The best production I've seen in these here parts is the one that's currently onstage at The Roxy Regional Theatre, starring Matt Varelia as Frank N. Furter, Ryan Bowie as Riff-Raff, and Rob Rodems and Kaitlin Doughty as Brad Majors (asshole!) and Janet Weiss (slut!) that's just about as good as it gets.

Under the clear and focused direction of Tim Larson and Clay Hillwig, who heretofore separately have provided Nashville audiences with a number of impressive theatrical adventures, this evocation of The Color Purple is made all the more appealing by its trio of leading ladies.

Kelsey Porter, who plays the role of Nettie in Circle Players' production of The Color Purple, is the latest recipient of The First Night Robe. Jeffrey Ellis, founder and executive producer of The First Night Honors, presented the robe to Porter on Thursday, October 25, prior to the opening night performance of The Color Purple, a joint production of Circle Players and Tennessee State University, at TSU's Performing Arts Center.

Lipscomb University Theatre presents the trailer for its upcoming production of Pajama Game. Beki Baker directs and 2011 First Night Award-winning Justin Boccitto will choreograph as Lipscomb University's Department of Theatre brings the Richard Adler-Jerry Ross Tony Award-winning musical The Pajama Game to the stage of Collins Alumni Auditorium November 1-4.

For only the second time in Circle Players' 63 year history, the venerable community theater company will join with Nashville's Tennessee State University to collaborate on the production of one of contemporary theater's most beloved works: The Color Purple. The musicalized version of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple features an all-star cast of local performers from both the Nashville theater community and TSU's student body.

If I were to die very soon, there's no doubt that I would go to heaven, because Rachel York and the all-singing/all-dancing company of Anything Goes took me and a couple of thousand other people up to the heavenly gates with their spectacular opening night performance of "Blow, Gabriel, Blow."

Beki Baker directs and 2011 First Night Award-winning Justin Boccitto will choreograph as Lipscomb University's Department of Theatre brings the Richard Adler-Jerry Ross Tony Award-winning musical The Pajama Game to the stage of Collins Alumni Auditorium November 1-4.

Benton, who has been called "Broadway's best tap dancer," agreed to take on our legen-wait for it!-dary! Friday Five questions and we had every intention of holding the interview for a Friday morning post, but gosh darn it, we're just so excited about Anything Goes' First Night in Nashville that there's no way we could hold back this opportunity for you to get to know Tennessee's very own song-and-dance man.

Official trailer for Twelve Angry Men, the second show of Studio Tenn's 2012-2013 season. Trailer by ANTHONYMATULA.

The Rocky Horror Show is BACK on the Boiler Room Theatre stage! After last year's rave production of this cult classic, the time warp is back for you and your friends to enjoy! Six Performances Only! October 26-November 3!

Lisa Marie Wright's impeccable timing and on-target comic performance-not to mention her cantilevered breastworks-are reason enough to book your favorite table at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre for Spreading It Around, a formulaic comedy about seniors spending their kids' inheritances that actually packs in a lot of laughs while pulling a minimum of punches in its two hours onstage.

Despite the taut direction of Ryan Williams, particularly sinister underscoring by Rollie Mains and a compelling, bravura performance by Luke Hatmaker as the ringleader of a group of prison escapees, Street Theatre Company's The Desperate Hours is a rare misfire from the company and the creative team charged with bringing it to the stage.

For only the second time in Circle Players' 63 year history, the venerable community theater company will join with Nashville's Tennessee State University to collaborate on the production of one of contemporary theater's most beloved works: The Color Purple. The musicalized version of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple features an all-star cast of local performers from both the Nashville theater community and TSU's student body.

Today, the spotlight falls upon the cast and crew of Lakewood Theatre's The Miracle Worker-director Heather Alexander, producer John Carpenter and actresses Amanda Smith (who plays Annie Sullivan) and Zoe Garner (Helen Keller)-which opens this weekend at the theater's venue in Old Hickory, and continues through November 4.

What really happens "happily ever after"? That is among the questions answered in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, to be presented by the Renaissance Players at Dickson's Renaissance Center, tonight, October 19-28 in the Anne Deason Performance Hall. The award-winning and critically acclaimed musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales and follows them further to explore the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests.

Much like Dixie Wilson-the character she played in Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice's Turn of the Century at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in 2008-actress Rachel York, the clarion-voiced leading lady whose timeless appeal has made her one of Broadway's most beloved stars, might be a time traveler. For certain, the woman who now plays Reno Sweeney in the national tour of Roundabout Theatre's acclaimed revival of Anything Goes, readily admits she could very possibly have been born in the wrong era, any and all science fiction possibilities notwithstanding.

Director David McGinnis and his cast of nine actors bring Michael Cristofer's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Shadow Box to life in a solid and straightforward production that kicks off ACT 1's 2012-13 season at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater.

Theresa Rebeck-the Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright whose latest comedy, Dead Accounts (starring Norbert Leo Butz and Katie Holmes) opens on Broadway November 29-has been named as the newest Ingram New Works Fellow at Tennessee Repertory Theatre.