New Cast Highlights Nashville Rep's 2015 A CHRISTMAS STORY

Reprising a Music City holiday tradition - while providing plenty of laughs for Black Friday - Nashville Repertory Theatre brightens the season with its A Christmas Story, opening November 27, at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Johnson Theater at Tennessee Performing Arts Center and running through December 20.

A new cast of Nashville theater favorites headline the seventh year of A Christmas Story from Nashville Rep. " Since it's the seventh year, and since there are seven people in the cast, this season is an ideal time to introduce an all new cast," according to a press release from Nashville Rep.

"Audience members who have seen past productions will enjoy the same hilarious show but with a new charm coming from a different group of talented, local actors."

Derek Whittaker leads the cast as Ralphie Parker, and is spirited when it comes to playing the iconic character onstage: "When you awake one morning and find the role of Ralphie under your tree," says Whittaker, "what's the first thing you do? YOU PANIC! Then, you accept the offer to play this iconic character, so lovingly portrayed on film - and at the Rep - for so many seasons. Then when rehearsals begin, you stop panicking and start enjoying. Not only do I get to help tell this wonderfully heartfelt story, but my blatant refusal to grow up will finally work to my advantage!"

Spending the holidays with family includes enjoying home cooked meals and singing carols. But in Ralphie Parker's family, your mouth gets washed with soap, the neighbor's dogs devour your oven-fresh turkey, and those carols are replaced with choruses of "You'll shoot your eye out." Nashville Rep's heartwarming production of this all-American holiday classic is the perfect addition to every family's holiday traditions. Because nothing says Christmas like a leg lamp, pink bunny pajamas, and sticking your tongue to a frozen flag pole!

Nashville Rep's cast for A Christmas Story includes Megan Murphy Chambers (Mother), Antonio P. Nappo (Scut), Curtis Reed (Randy),Mikey Rosenbaum (Flick), Patrick Waller (Schwatrz), Derek Whittaker (Ralphie), and Bobby Wyckoff (Old Man).

A preview performance of A Christmas Story is set for Friday - Black Friday - November 27, and opening night is Saturday, November 28, and the show runs through December 20. Tickets start at $25 for previews and start at $45 for regular run, and can be purchased online at nashvillerep.org or by calling the Box Office at (615) 782-4040.

Hat, Mitten, Scarf Drive Nashville Rep has organized a winter clothes drive to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities of Nashville. Audience members are asked to bring new outdoor gear (hats, mittens, scarfs) when they attend A Christmas Story. Items will be collected in the Johnson Theater lobby.

A Christmas Story is adapted by Phillip Grecian, based on the motion picture A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark and is directed by René D. Copeland, Nashville Rep's producing artistic director. Designers are Gary Hoff (scenic designer), Trish Clark (costume designer), and Michael Barnett (lighting designer). Technical Director is Tyler Axt.

Nashville Rep is a non-profit theatre that brings classic and contemporary theatre to Nashville that inspires empathy and prods intellectual and emotional engagement in audiences. The 2015-16 season includes Rapture, Blister Burn, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, A Christmas Story, Good Monsters, and Chicago. The season concludes with the Ingram New Works Festival in May, a showcase of new works created in Nashville for the American Theatre.

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