Jeffrey Ellis - Page 35

It's been a big week for Lipscomb Academy's Hatty King - last Saturday night, she had the honor of performing on the stage of Andrew Jackson Hall at Tennessee Performing Arts Center and then was presented the Spotlight Award as best actress at the Nashville High School Musical Theatre Awards - and her summer is shaping up to be even more than that…as she heads to New York City to spend a week working the best and brightest of Broadway stars and young aspiring musical theater actors from all over the country as they vie for top honors at The Jimmy Awards.

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! Welcome to Thursday, May 18, 2017…It's #TheatreThursday! which begs the question: How do you propose to live life dramatically? And, while we're on the subject, what shows are on your agenda this weekend? Let us know what you plan to see and what led you to make your choice! We'll pass the word along to the powers-that-be!

What's a stage manager? What do they do? What's their job? Seriously. Perhaps no job in the theater is as hard to define as that of a production stage manager and it's that blend of mystery, fear and total dependence that makes actors, directors, crew members, producers - you name it! - hold a really great stage manager in total awe and to revile someone who is (how do you say it, without offending anyone?) less than stellar in their position?

Smoke On the Mountain, the ever popular bluegrass/gospel musical, kicks off its 24th year at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse, on Friday, June 2, as director Weslie Webster welcomes two new members to the famed Sanders Family Singers.

If the theater community had its own royal family and nobility, then it would make perfect sense that young Sevon Askew, recently awarded a Spotlight Award as best male soloist for his performance in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, would be a crown prince. The son of Susan Arnold Walsworth, who has appeared on numerous stages in the midstate, he's the nephew of David Arnold (perhaps best known for his portrayal of Shrek in the musical about the gentle green ogre - a role Sevon has played, as well) and Cat Arnold (who's currently onstage in ACT 1's Noises Off). Talent, it would seem, runs through certain families.

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! It's May 17, 2017, and summer - or a reasonable facsimile thereof - has arrived in Nashville, with temperatures already climbing toward the 90s! When prompts the musical question: What's on your agenda for the summer of 2017? Anything we should know about and, more importantly, write about?

Recent Belmont University graduate Sam Lowry directs the first show of Woven Theatre's second season - Neil LaBute's Reasons to Be Pretty - opening Thursday night, May 18, at Belmont's Little Theatre, and continuing through May 27.

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! It's Tuesday, May 16, 2017, and while the whole worlds goes to hell in a handbasket, what with the latest news coming out of Washington about highly classified secrets being passed on to the Russians, Nashville theater companies are still striving to prevent people from finding out what shows they plan to do next season…

As the school year winds down, and students are scattered to the winds this summer, Davidson Academy's Alexandra Chopson closes out the year on a definite high: Last Saturday night, she was presented the Spotlight Award for best supporting actress in a musical at the Nashville High School Musical Theatre Awards for her performance as Wednesday Addams in her school's production of The Addams Family.

OZ Arts Nashville, Music City's critically acclaimed and pioneering contemporary arts center, Monday announced its 2017-18 season, programmed by artistic director Lauren Snelling to include works that are described, by turns, as viscerally beautiful, death-defying, innovative and topical. Headlining the range of offerings is the December 1 appearance of the legendary American soprano Renee Fleming who will be starring in the 2018 Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel.

Hatty King of Lipscomb Academy in Nashville and Nathan Keffer of Ravenwood High School in Brentwood took home top honors at the 2017 Spotlight Awards - held Saturday night at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall - winning "Best Actress" and "Best Actor" awards respectively. The two travel to New York next month to compete nationally in the Jimmy Awards on June 26.

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! It's Monday, May 15, 2017, which begs the question: What's on your theatrical agenda this week? There's plenty to see and do, so we simply won't allow any excuses: Get thee to a darkened auditorium, settle into your seats and allow yourself to be transported and, in the process, transformed - all thanks to the magic of live theater!

Make no mistake about it, Michael Frayn's Noises Off, is a rollicking, hilarious roller coaster ride of mirth and merriment – the quintessential British farce, replete with slamming doors, mistaken identities, sexual escapades and all the other necessary ingredients needed to create a memorable night at the theater. In the hands of director Bradley Moore and his uncommonly nimble crew of actors, it's as fun as ever, but we've come to the conclusion that perhaps we have reached critical mass in regard to Noises Off and that local theater companies might hold off on new productions of the show for, say, a decade or so.

Funny and familiar, James Sherman's Beau Jest might well be considered perfect dinner theater fare: spread across two hours, the comedy is easily digested and the players - this time, the estimable ensemble assembled by director Martha Wilkinson for the latest incarnation at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre - charming and likable. The plot remains relevant, even years after it was first produced, and the dialogue flows at an accessible pace, spoken by characters who are altogether believable. And while Beau Jest likely won't push any envelopes or venture outside anyone's pre-conceived creative box, it nonetheless seems current and up-to-date.

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! Live life dramatically: It's Friday, May 12, 2017 - graduation day at Vanderbilt University - which prompts the musical question: 'Does it always have to rain on that day? This day, in particular?' Truly it's a FREAKY FRIDAY tradition, if the grads are donning caps and gowns at Vandy, chances are everyone else will be carrying their umbrellas with them in Music City.

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! It's Thursday, May 11, 2017 (aka #TheatreThursday, y'all!) and we're just dying to ask the musical question: What shows will you be seeing this weekend? We hope you'll live life dramatically and make it to at least one production - but multiples are even better!

Pipeline-Collective presents the final production of its inaugural season - the Nashville premiere of Brilliant Traces, a two-person play by Cindy Lou Johnson, directed by frequent Pipeline collaborator Laramie Hearn and starring Amanda Card and Taylor Novak - at Belmont Little Theatre on the Belmont University campus June 16-18.

The Nashville Symphony is one of 21 orchestras from across the United States to receive a grant from the League of American Orchestras' American Orchestras' Futures Fund. Made possible by the generosity of the Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation, the two-year innovation grant will support the Symphony's diversity initiatives, which have been a core institutional priority in recent years.

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! Welcome to Wednesday, May 10, 2017…which prompts us to ask the musical question: Who remembers the Saturday Night Massacre back in the 1970s, during which Richard Nixon fired the special Watergate prosecutor and all hell seemed to break loose (even more than it had already) in Washington, D.C.?

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! The calendar (not that I have an actual calendar hanging on a wall or anything like that, mind you) tells us that today is May 9, 2017, which prompts us to ask the musical question: Why aren't you all better at marketing your shows?