Jeffrey Ellis - Page 40

Daniel DeVault directs the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama - and 2012 Tony Award winner for best play - Clybourne Park, running March 17-April 2, at Nashville's Z. Alexander Looby Theatre in a new production from Circle Players.

Thomas Wagner stars in the iconic role of Nathan Detroit in the show that runs this weekend and he managed to squeeze some time into his hectic schedule to answer our queries and become the newest subject of this week's High School Drama.

Chaffin's Barn is mounting a veritable "Clash of the Playwrights" as the creative team at Nashville's iconic dinner theater casts a net for "innovative, never before produced comedy and mystery scripts."

Veteran Nashville actress Linda Speir will make her Larry Keeton Theatre debut as the matriarch in Del Shores' Daddy's Dyin'…Who's Got the Will, the next production on the stage of the Donelson theater, running April 20-May 6.

Studio Tenn promises to be 'back at it again with an all new line up of original works, literary masterpieces, powerful dramas and Broadway classics' for the 2017-18 season, which is revealed this week.

Hume-Fogg senior Bryce Poole, who plays Benny, is among the ensemble of student actors taking on the challenge of the iconic musical by Jonathan Larson under the direction of First Night Honoree Daron Bruce and his longtime artistic collaborator Lisa Forbis. As curtain time looms in just a few hours, Bryce shared some of his memories of his life in the theater to date and talked about the people and shows that figure prominently in his own life, lived theatrically, in today's edition of High School Drama.

Tickets go on sale Friday for the Nashville debut of Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, the Tony and Grammy Award-winning Broadway hit about the early life and career of the legendary and groundbreaking singer/songwriter Carole King, that makes its Music City debut with a one-week engagement at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall May 23-28.

Startling, stunning and evocative performances by an ensemble of Nashville actors performing at the top of their game in an altogether effective and moving production of a contemporary classic: that's what audiences are likely recalling now - hours, days, weeks - after experiencing the latest artistic achievement from Studio Tenn. Following up the opening of their 2016-17 season -  a critically lauded revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita, which launched the annual Broadway series at Tennessee Performing Arts Center - Studio Tenn presents another Broadway-worthy reiteration in the form of Bernard Pomerance's The Elephant Man.

Distraction Theatre Company's sophomore season boasts comedy, murder and an original science fiction double-feature, according to details announced at Saturday night's reveal party at The Red Arrow Gallery in East Nashville.

The world premiere production of the latest comedy from Lori Fischer - Greener Pastures - opens in Crossville at Cumberland County Playhouse on Friday, March 10, running through April 21.

The world-renowned Fisk Jubilee Singers - who are among the trailblazing artists who have helped Nashville to assume the moniker of "Music City USA" - will perform at the historic Ryman Auditorium on Sunday, March 19, at 7:30 p.m. in a concert celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Ryman, which over the course of its history has become known as "the mother church of country music."

As has been the school's theatrical legacy, Rent will feature a cast of talented and ambitious up-and-coming young actors, including Zach Taylor, the senior who will be closing out his high school theatrical career as Roger in the Jonathan Larson musical that is now celebrating its 25th anniversary with an international tour. The Yale University-bound Taylor found time in his harried schedule - what with classes and rehearsals, that's a miracle in and of itself - to take on our High School Drama questions and to offer some background about his love of the stage and what motivates him as he preps a new character for the audience.

ACT 1 presents Tony Kushner's seminal theatrical achievement Angels in America, Parts 1 and 2, at the Darkhorse Theatre March 11-25. Presented in partnership with Carlton Cornett LCSW and DeWayne Fulton, the production gives Nashville area audiences a rare opportunity to see both parts of Kushner's award-winning work at the same time. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play.

Today, cast members Hunter Martin and Robyn Smith talk about their own journeys to a life in the theater, revealing details about themselves and their process and offering some suggestions for why you need to come see the show, which runs through February 26 in the Shamblin Theatre on the Lipscomb campus.

Lerner and Loewe's classic Broadway musical My Fair Lady - based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion - opens tomorrow night at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson, featuring Erica Patterson (and her understudy Ashley Wolfe, who takes on the iconic role for three performances) as Eliza Doolittle, surrounded by a bevy of Nashville's finest leading men, including Cavender Lane, Elliott Winston Robinson, Chris Cavin, Austin Jeffrey Smith and George Hardimon IV.

The 2017 season continues at Nashville's historic and iconic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre with Ron Osborne's Seeing Stars in Dixie, an affectionate comedy set in a small Southern town in 1956, where the film Raintree County - starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, no less - is being shot!

Carolyn German directs Nashville actress Keri Pagetta in a workshop production of Edward Morris' The Passion of Ethel Rosenberg, to be performed Saturday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m. at the 'Celebrate' venue at Atmalogy Cafe and Event Space, 2320 West End Avenue. Tickets are $10 at the door, but reservations are strongly suggested by calling (615) 874-8715.

Opening tonight at Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts is 9 to 5: The Musical, the Broadway musical by Dolly Parton and Patricia Resnick, based upon the hit movie in which Parton played Doralee, a buxom, down-home kind of gal. Directed by Matthew Hayes Hunter, with choreography by Kate Adams-Kramer and musical direction by Emily Dennis, the show features a stunning trio of leading ladies - played by Katie Hahn, Mary Ellen Smith and Memory Strong-Smith - and an ensemble filled with local favorites, including two Matt Smiths...

In Ara Vito's Southern Gothic-inspired treatment of Sophocles' Antigone, the bond between two sisters is challenged by the tragedies of national and familial conflict. Against the backdrop of a decaying home in middle-of-nowhere country, the air is imbued with history and spirits walk the earth. Tragedy is yesterday and tomorrow and now - uncovered by love, betrayal, death, and hope. Summer Shack directs.

Nashville mayor Megan Barry will join Actors Bridge Ensemble (ABE) for its V-Day Nashville 2017 benefit performance of Eve Ensler's award-winning The Vagina Monologues on Friday, February 17, at City Winery, 609 Lafayette Street.