Jeffrey Ellis - Page 139

Thanks to Kathleen Clark's genuinely funny Secrets of a Soccer Mom, now onstage in an entertaining production from Maryanna Clarke and Tennessee Women's Theater Project, you get a glimpse at the 'real' reality of the lives of soccer moms, as opposed to the reality you may have been led to expect. Be forewarned: It's like looking behind the curtain to see what makes the Wizard the wizard and chances are you will never again look at the soccer mom in the next lane in the same way.

If J. Dietz Osborne has seemed a bit distracted lately, it's easy to understand why. Within the past couple of months, he has directed Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, now onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, been putting the finishing touches on Southern Fried Funeral (which will have its world premiere production by Franklin's Bethlehem Players starting Friday, March 12) with his writing partner Nate Eppler, and he's been cast as movie director Victor Fleming in Frankly, My Dear (opening March 18 at Chaffin's Barn).

Amanda Lamb gives such a stunningly real performance as the heroine in Neil Labute's Fat Pig - now onstage at Nashville's Darkhorse Theatre in a well-paced and sensitively directed production from Paul J. Cook for GroundWorks Theatre - that it's hard not to confuse the actress and her character or to know where one ends and the other begins.

Featuring the powerhouse vocals of an immensely talented cast, set against the visual artistry of Mark Thompson's production design, it becomes clearer with each performance that Phyllida Lloyd's direction remains relevant and fresh and that Anthony Van Laast's choreography is as clever and imaginative as the first time you saw it onstage. Clearly, this cast is completely committed to their performances - but more importantly, they are committed to ensuring their audiences have a wonderful time. After all these years, you know they could be just phoning it in, but instead they are performing their hearts out, delivering a theatrical experience that audiences can only cheer, their ovations growing ever louder and longer.

It's a completely winning production from top to bottom: Osborne's direction is sure-handed and confident, his players' readings of their roles pitch-perfect and the technical elements and design aesthetic for the piece are delightfully on-target. It's essential, of course, in a comedy of British origins for the pacing to be quick, effortless and skilled or else the whole blessed thing becomes a bloody mess. Osborne obviously approaches the play with affection and skill, assembling a strong cast of players to bring Coward's near-iconic characters to life.

The Troutt Theatre at Belmont University will play host to the First Night Nashville Theatre Honors this fall, following the announcement of honorees in August during a party now being planned. Jeffrey Ellis, who covers Nashville theatre for BroadwayWorld.com and was founder and executive producer of The First Night Awards, will return in his original role and will oversee the event. Jane Kelley Watt, longtime musical director of the awards ceremony, will also return in that capacity. John Northrup is stage manager for the event.

In celebration of Black History Month, SistaStyle Productions presents the world premiere of Mary McCallum's Fly, Girl!, a fictionalized look at the life of aviatrix Bessie Coleman. The play, directed by noted Nashville actor/director/educator Barry Scott, opened at Darkhorse Theatre on Friday, February 19, and will close on February 27. Coleman (1892-1926) was the first African-American to become a licensed airplane pilot and was the first American of any race or gender to hold an international pilot's license. McCallum's play follows Bessie from her girlhood in Texas, where she picked cotton and dreamed of flying, then on to Chicago and ultimately to France, becoming known in the process as 'Queen Bess' the aviatrix.

Swing!, the Broadway musical that celebrates the music and dance phenomenon will play its final show at The Senior Center for the Arts' Nashville Dinner Theatre on February 28.

Now working on the role of 'Martha' in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, one of those roles every actress longs for, her resume also includes First Night Award-winning turns as Sally Bowles in Cabaret and as Madame de Tourvel in Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Her list of directing credits is even more eclectic: Lady Frederick, Lady Windermere's Fan, O Jerusalem, Quilters, The Tempest, A Winter's Tale and Crimes of the Heart - and that's just a sampling of her multi-faceted list of assignments.

Director Don Griffiths' staging of Miller's now-classic tragedy, with its echoes of the Greek classics, is heart-wrenching, certain to stir up all the emotions one can muster. Beautifully designed and executed, with superb performances from a cast that includes professional actors from Actors Bridge, along with the affecting portrayals of some exceptionally talented Belmont students, the production is completely satisfying on all levels, without even one iota of staginess to mar the proceedings.

Actress-playwright-producer Mary McCallum gives an extraordinarily strong and vibrant performance as aviatrix Bessie Coleman in her self-written new historical drama, Fly, Girl!, now in its premiere production at Darkhorse Theatre, courtesy of SistaStyle Productions. With an outstanding supporting ensemble, all of whom are completely committed to both their roles and this important production, it is a sharply written and movingly acted new work - definitely one that deserves a broader audience beyond the confines of the Nashville stage.

Nashville playwrights Elizabeth Hayes and Anne-Geri Fann have written Cake or Death, 'a modern-day farce that is a witty, rollicking, Hitchcockian, roller-coaster of a ride and fun to the last crumb,' and slated for its world premiere production at Encore Theatre Company in Mount Juliet March 4-14.

Amanda Lamb, most recently seen in Sanders Family Christmas at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, stars as Helen, with Michael Coursey (Fiddler on the Roof and La Traviata in New Orleans) as Tom. Wilhelm Peters (Boiler Room Theatre's Picasso at the Lapin Agile) and Lauren Atkins (Circle Players' Titanic, Nashville Dinner Theatre's Swing) round out the cast. Paul J. Cook (Street Theatre Company's Tuesdays With Morrie) directs.

'Proof is the kind of play directors live to work on: a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner.,' says Tennessee Rep Producing Artistic Director René D. Copeland. 'When a play wins both awards you can figure that not only is it of excellent quality as a script, but it has also been successful at winning over audiences. I love a smart, moving play that is also highly entertaining. The structure of it is clever, and it is one of those plays with many layers. The characters are fascinating; the dialogue is brilliant; the story is rich. This is a play that I have wanted to direct, and I am just delighted that the circumstances of the 25th anniversary have given me the opportunity to bring it back.'

So what's the problem with Moon Over Buffalo? Oh yeah, despite all the good stuff, Ken Ludwig's script is also leaden, filled with cliches and one-dimensional characters, with enough convoluted situations to render the play stupefying. With the Towne Centre Theatre production, this is clearly a case of eight fine actors and one competent director in search of a much-better script. No matter how hard they work and how thoughtfully they approach the material, if that material is inferior there's not a lot they can do to save it from mediocrity.

A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Kramer earlier this season directed Circle Players' revival of Noises Off. And as accomplished as he is as a director, he might best be known as an actor, tackling some of the most sought-after roles for some of the area's finest theatre companies. For Boiler Room Theatre, he's played Finch in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Sparky in Forever Plaid, Harry Witherspoon in Lucky Stiff and Eddie McCuen in The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940.

Secrets of a Soccer Mom is set at a soccer field on a crisp autumn day, where three women talk on the sidelines while waiting their turn to play in the annual youth soccer league mothers vs. sons game. There's a little gossip, a little strategy - should they play all out or let their sons win? - and a lot of laughs, courtesy of Kathleen Clark's dialogue.

Diamond's play tells a story of a group of black girls known to Claudia MacTreer (played by ART regular Alicia Haymer in a starring role) in the fall of 1941, 'the year the marigolds didn't bloom.' Claudia comes to believe the marigolds didn't bloom because of the life and tragic events of her best friend, Pecola Breedlove (portrayed by Demetria Granberry, in her professional acting debut). Pecola, who is subjected to mocking because of both her dark skin and a suspected incestuous relationship with her father, spends her time longing for blue eyes, which to a dark-skinned black girl coming of age in a turbulent racial era, represent beauty and self-worth.

As good as Swing! is - and it is very good despite some dangerously frightening near-misses and a rather frenetic pace - one thing bothers me: Why did Adams-Johnson, borrowing a journalistic reference, bury her lead in the middle of the second act? Every journalism student learns in News Writing 101 that you never want to bury your lead; you want the most pertinent bit of information in your first paragraph. In the case of Swing!, you're offered tantalizing glimpses of the story's lead as soon as the curtain opens, but the show doesn't deliver the goods until well into the show's second hour.

With each passing year and with each new offering, Vasterling and the other powers-that-be at Nashville Ballet gain new admirers for their troupe, whose skills are confidently and expertly highlighted by the choices made in regard to the company's repertoire. Clearly, Nashville Ballet has gained stature with its beautiful and much-lauded treatment of the classics, but it may well be contemporary offerings, such as those included in American Originals, that more assuredly showcase the company's extraordinary depth. Quite honestly, the panache with which each performance is delivered is awe-inspiring - and certain to lift the collective spirit and ward off even the most frigid temperatures.