Jeffrey Ellis - Page 109

On Golden Pond, Ernest Thompson's acclaimed play about marriage, personal growth and the resolution of family issues, starring Dave Thoreson and Marianne Clark as Norman and Ethel Thayer, takes the stage of the Gaslight Theatre at Dickson's Renaissance Center, running October 7-16.

With the musical hit Beehive: The '60s Musical Sensation bringing down the house through October 15, the Roxy Regional Theatre in Clarksville has launched its 29th season, replete with classics, musicals and regional premieres.

For the past 50 years, To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee's iconic American novel about life in a sleepy Alabama town - has been a favorite of audiences the world over, whether through the book, the Academy Award-winning film version of Christopher Sergel's acclaimed stage production. The Arts Center of Cannon County presents To Kill a Mockingbird in Woodbury October 7-22.

Tony Award Winner for Best Musical in 2010, the national touring company of Memphis makes its way to Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center for a limited November 15-20 run at Andrew Jackson Hall, fresh off its kick-off in the city that gave the show its name. Memphis' national tour was launched at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis.

Poetic and profane, David Mamet's 1975 play American Buffalo is brought to the stage of Nashville's Darkkhorse Theatre in a stunningly raw and beautifully realized production directed by Ryan Williams for ACT 1. As one of the city's most enduring community theatre groups, ACT 1 consistently has proven its worth and claimed its place among the most notable theater companies - whether professional or community-centered - and with American Buffalo the company kicks off its 2011-2012 season with awe-inspiring force, presenting a production that is clearly one of the best to be seen in Nashville during this calendar year.

With spirited campiness in abundance - and the sumptuous physical trappings provided by designers Anthony Popolo and Billy Ditty - The Rocky Horror Show takes over the Boiler Room Theatre for the month of October, giving audiences a rose-tinted view of a fantastical world full of transsexuals, transvestites and other-worldly aliens. In short, it's just another night over at the Frankenstein place.

In so many ways, Trying - Joanna McClellan Glass' richly drawn portrait of the relationship between a patrician American jurist and his Canadian prairie-born secretary - is full of surprising moments, the various and disparate elements of fine drama woven together beautifully to tell a genuinely moving story. Who could have ever guessed that a two-person play, steeped in history though it may be, could prove so compellingly and resolutely fascinating?

Dreamgirls, now onstage at Cumberland County Playhouse, is musical theater at its best, telling a universal story of a group of tremendously talented girls who grow into internationally known musical superstars, brought vividly to life onstage, filled with enough fiery theatrics and backstage drama to completely engage audiences and to deliver an emotional experience that is second to none.

Audiences in Nashville and Middle Tennessee will have a wealth of new offerings awaiting them at the theater this weekend, as companies throughout the region roll out the red carpet for the opening of no fewer than ten new productions. Ranging from the tried and true (Arthur Miller's All My Sons from Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Belmont University Theatre's Dancing at Lughnasa, Lakewood Village Theatre's A Few Good Men and Annie at Towne Centre Theatre) to edgier fare (like The Rocky Horror Show at Boiler Room Theatre and David Mamet's American Buffalo at ACT 1) and newer, less familiar works (Trying from Tennessee Women's Theater Project and the debuting Sideshow Fringe Festival, a new endeavor from Actors Bridge Ensemble that features all manner of new offerings, including a 48-hour playwriting competition from which I'll be tweeting live reviews while the shows happen on Saturday from 6 to 7 p.m.), audiences have a full slate of offerings from which to choose this weekend.

As Nashville Children's Theatre continues to celebrate its 80th birthday, the company continues to break new ground as it partners with The Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) - Nashville Chapter to present a captioned performance of Holes at NCT on Saturday, October 15, at 2 p.m., utilizing recently developed technology to strengthen the play-going experience for audience members who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Lipscomb University Theatre brings Nashville audiences the never-before-seen-locally Leading Ladies, a gender-bending take-off that pays homage to Shakespeare's own gender-bending Twelfth Night, for the opening production of its 2011-12 season. Directed by Robyn Berg and featuring a focused cast of Lipscomb's most capable theatre students, Leading Ladies is onstage at the Shamblin Theatre through October 2, taking audiences on a raucous, riotous and nostalgic trip to a small town in Pennsylvania, circa 1952.

Dance Theatre of Tennessee (DTT) brings to life one of best-loved classical ballets of all time - Swan Lake Act 2. DTT will present this timeless classic as part of its 2011-12 opening season series entitled At 75 - A Tribute to Elaine Thomas, DTT's assistant artistic director on Friday, September 30 and Saturday, October 1 at 8 p.m. at Harpeth Hall Auditorium.

A Few Good Men is the gripping drama of the trial of two Marines stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, accused of killing one of their own during a disciplinary action gone wrong - a 'Code Red.' Lt. Daniel Kaffee, a Navy JAG lawyer who practices in plea bargains but has never seen the inside of a courtroom, defends the two with the help of colleagues Lt. Cmdr. Joanne Galloway and Lt. Sam Weinberg.

Photographer Martin E. O'Connor captures the artistry of Nashville Ballet with his collection of works highlighting the 2011-12 season offerings.

Now onstage at the nationally renowned and venerated company's Ann Stahlman Hill Theatre through October 16, Holes features an extraordinary cast of some of the region's finest actors bringing the beloved tale to life with such vigorous energy that audiences of any age (not just the ones 'age 8 and up' noted in the program) will become engaged in the story, its twists and turns and revelatory moments sparking their very imaginations (and, I suspect, to the library to once again experience the book).

Maryanna Clarke, founder and artistic director of Tennessee Women's Theater Project (TWTP), has announced that renowned playwright and actress Regina Taylor will create the first original script for the company, thanks to a 'creation grant' awarded the company by the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission.

Set for November 6 and 7 at the Darkhorse Theater, 4610 Charlotte Avenue, The Ten Minute Playhouse will again feature brand new ten-minute plays by Middle Tennessee playwrights. In addition, two scripts read at the May event will be produced and staged in New Works Nashville's ongoing commitment to nurturing emerging playwrights in Music City.

The time is November, 1967, and a young woman has just been hired as a secretary for Judge Francis Biddle, Attorney General to Franklin Roosevelt, and famous as the former Chief Judge of the American Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Now 81 and in failing health, Judge Biddle is still a Main Line Philadelphia aristocrat. Sarah Schorr, the latest in a string of secretaries, is a plain-spoken 25 year old from the Canadian prairie town of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Sideshow Fringe is a Nashville-based four-day performing arts extravaganza connecting innovative artists with adventurous audiences and showcasing Nashville's diverse talent. The festival will be housed in the Belmont Black Box Theatre, Bongo Java After Hours Theatre, Belmont University's Troutt Theatre, and on an outdoor stage on Compton Avenue sponsored by the Belmont-Hillsboro Neighborhood Association.

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical tells the story of toddler Trixie who has a beloved stuffed bunny, which she misplaces while on a trip to the laundromat with her slightly disheveled dad. Luckily, she finds the stuffed animal and speaks her first words: 'Knuffle Bunny!' The production is a story about family, best friends, baby steps and memories that last a lifetime.