Jeffrey Ellis - Page 112

Nashville's Blackbird Theater in August will mount a rare production of Magic - a play by the great, if largely forgotten, literary figure G.K. Chesterton - with performances at Shamblin Theatre on the David Lipscomb University campus, running August 12-27. Magic is described as 'a funny, fiercely dramatic, unabashedly romantic play that involves an aristocratic family whose conflicting beliefs and doubts about the supernatural are all challenged by the arrival of a mysterious conjurer.'

In last February's Aspects of Love, Dance Theatre of Tennessee's midwinter concert featuring a wide variety of dance styles that perfectly showcased the superb talents of company members, Guadalupe Medina was featured along with Amanda Whites and Lisa Schmidt in Nuts, a contemporary piece set to 'Beatles Go Baroque' by Peter Preiner and His Chamber Orchestra. Staged by DTT artistic director Christopher Mohnani, after the original choreography of R. Culalic, the smart and sprightly work exuded humor that was exemplified by the spirited dancing of the trio who presented the winning work with an easy grace, making it a sure favorite of the audience.

Just over a year since she debuted her critically acclaimed cabaret act at New York's Café Carlyle (and only weeks after her 2011 stint at the same venue), Lea Salonga's new live CD - The Journey So Far - is set for release by LML Music/Allegro Distribution on Tuesday, August 9, giving her fans the world over a chance to hear her crystalline voice on a new recording, which was executive produced by Nashville's own Chris Keaton.

Lea Salonga's new live CD - The Journey So Far - is set for release by LML Music/Allegro Distribution on August 9. Salonga, the Tony Award-winning Filipina singer and actress, is best known for originating the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon (and for which she won the Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk Outer Critics and Theatre World Awards), will highlight the release of the CD with a worldwide tour throughout 2011-12.

In the days that followed the 9/11 attacks, Circle leaders and members of the Assassins production team were forced to consider closing the show (included in Sondheim's musical is the character of Samuel Byck, an unsuccessful presidential assassin who talks vividly about flying an airplane into the White House to kill President Richard Nixon in 1968. As Circle leaders discussed whether to shutter the show for a weekend, or to cancel the remaining three weeks of the show's run, the show's cast members debated whether or not they could justify to themselves, their friends and their families their own decision to continue with the show in the days just after the deadliest attack ever on American soil.

After a successful 2010 national tour of nearly 50 cities across the U.S. and Canada, The Midtown Men bring their highly anticipated concert act to The Dixie Carter Performing Arts Center in Huntingdon on Saturday, August 27 at 7:30 pm.

Make no mistake about it: The leading men (aka Britt Hancock and Daniel W. Black) in Cumberland County Playhouse's production of the Kander and Ebb musical Chicago very nearly steal the show right out from under their leading ladies. In fact, it is safe to say that Hancock and Black deliver two of the best portrayals of their characters (Hancock is Billy Flynn, Black is Amos Hart) in the history of theater - or the world, for that matter.

Do you remember where you were on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 - the day terror was brought home to us and our world was change irrevocably? Throughout our lives we all experience those events that will remain etched forever in our minds, the ones that will always be in our personal memory banks. As final rehearsals get under way in advance of opening night, members of the cast and crew of Rising & Falling reached into their own memory banks to let us know where they were on that fateful morning, which gives perspective to the play they're working on together to bring to life for a Nashville audience.

Five of the six honorees - Brewer, Hoff, Proctor, Sasser and Shute-Pettaway - gathered on the East Bank of the Cumberland River on Wednesday, August 3, to have their official First Night photographs taken by acclaimed Nashville photographer Barry A. Noland. Atha is out of town until month's end, when she returns for all the First Night festivities.

On Friday, August 12, Nicole Begue Hackmann and Nathaniel Hackmann bring their amazing vocal prowess to the stage with Songs of Faith & Freedom, followed a week later by a concert on August 19 by the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. On Sunday, August 21, Artists of the Cumberland (featuring Mike Stone and The Dark Side Band, Melissa Ellis, D.J. Garrison, Regina Stevens, Marley Wyatt, and Steve Boyce) will take the stage.

Buddy R. Jones directs Paul Rudnick's Jeffrey, starring longtime friends and collaborators George W. Manus Jr. and Richard Browder, for Murfreesboro's Out Front on Main, Inc. for a three week run August 11-28, with shows Thursdays-Sundays at 7:30 p.m.

As the cast and crew of Rhubarb Theater Company approach final preparations for the production before unveiling Hart's play to the public for the first time, the playwright found the time to answer our questions and to tell us what Rising & Falling is about, how it reflects who she is as a woman and a writer and to talk about the juxtaposition of a great tragedy against a furor in the arts community.

Rehearsals are going frighteningly well. Even with the cast in their street clothes, rehearsing in a community room at an apartment complex, we've already been able to establish a haunting atmosphere and some strong character dynamics. When you produce a new or unknown work like Magic, there's always that fear that you'll be in the middle of rehearsals before discovering the play's really not that good. But that hasn't been the case at all.

Mark Allyn Nimmo is typical of contemporary young male dancers found on stages the world over today, combining athleticism with grace, as he pursues a burgeoning career. By performing with a company like Nashville Ballet, Nimmo is given the opportunity to take on a number of artistic and physical challenges, all while gaining experience that pays off when he is onstage: It's hard to take your eyes off him when he dances.

Six of the leading lights of the theater world in Tennessee will be recognized as members of the 2011 Class of First Night Honorees August 27-September 4 as First Night, the Nashville Theatre Honors hosts a series of theatrical events to celebrate their achievements and accomplishments.

Annie, that spunky, optimistic and determined orphan who first appeared in the 'funny papers' of the nation's newspapers in 1924 - only to become one of the most beloved musical theater heroines ever to express her hope for 'Tomorrow' in song on Broadway - returns to that magical levitating stage of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in a colorful and sprightly new revival helmed by the multi-talented Martha Wilkinson.

Directed by the company's producing artistic director Vali Forrister, Becky's New Car is a perfect choice for Actors Bridge, providing a showcase for a group of talented actors so charming and so engaging that you might find yourself falling a little bit in love with the whole lot. In fact, I'd probably drink the bathwater of the entire cast, so completely believable are they in this sharply written, inventively staged production. Take my advice: You best go look under the hood of Becky's New Car before its run ends on August 7.

Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, starring Ashley Camps, Tricia Matthews, Nick Koesters and Nathan Whitmer, will be produced later this fall at Virginia's Barter Theatre. The State Theatre of Virginia will produce the classic American play October 7 through November 12 at Barter Stage II. The Glass Menagerie was chosen after Barter Theatre learned the script for Swamp Gas and Shallow Feelings (originally slated to open October 7) would not be completed in time for rehearsals.

Cori Laemmel would be the first to tell you: 2011 has been kind of a crazy year for her. She made her debut with Tennessee Repertory Theatre with her critically-acclaimed turn in Yankee Tavern; with four of her talented friends, she brought MAS Nashville to life, creating and performing in two stellar nights of cabaret - with more in store; and she launched her theater training program for younger actors aka The Theater Bug. Oh, and she was in the audience for her actor husband Tyson Laemmel's many performances, as well.

Have you ever been tempted to flee your own life? That's the question posed by playwright Steven Dietz in his play Becky's New Play, opening at Belmont University's Black Box Theatre on Friday, July 29, in a new production from Actors Bridge Ensemble, directed by the company's own Vali Forrister.