THE FRIDAY FIVE: Get to know LILIES' Bradley Moore

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to BroadwayWorld Nashville's freshest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find onstage throughout the Volunteer state. This week, the spotlights focuses in on one of Nashville theater's most versatile-we daresay "peripatetic" actor/directors: the handsome and charismatic Bradley Moore.

After staking a claim on Nashville property with an amazingly varied slate of projects (Venus in Fur, A Chorus Line and an original musical revue skewering one of Tennessee's most infamous politicians [who shall remain nameless...since we've finally pushed him out of the public eye, there's no need to give him even one more mention], Bradley Moore returns to the stage tonight in the ACT 1 season-opening production of Lilies, Michel Marc Bouchard's play that's been described by The New York Times as "an operatic-vision revenge fantasy; stunning in its structure."

With stage presence to spare, Bradley Moore will add his own theatrical magic to opening night. Now's your opportunity to get to know more about him in our latest installment of The Friday Five...

What was your first "live onstage" taste of theater? I was five years old in a very big production of Charlotte's Web. I had a very small role that was only in Act II and I still remember how terrified I was to take the stage.

What is your favorite pre-show ritual? I have to pee right before I go on. I have this fear that if I don't, the second I hit the stage I will have to go and not be able to focus on anything else. When I direct, I always try to have a little pow-wow with the cast and remind them to "be present, listen and have fun!"

What's your most memorable "the show must go on" moment? When I was younger, I broke my foot right after final dress rehearsal. Not to mention, it was a musical with plenty of dancing. Well, there I was, onstage the next night in a walking cast, doing the show! I don't think my understudy was very happy, but the show must go on!

What's your dream role? I have played a few, but the ones that remain are: Irwin in The History Boys, Terry in Side Show, Che in Evita and Howie in Rabbit Hole.

Who's your theatrical crush? Jeez. So many-Viola Davis, Marcia Gay Harden, Angela Lansbury, Victoria Clark, Patina Miller, Andrea Martin, Alice Ripley. Just throw me on a stage with any of them and I would be ecstatic.

ACT 1, recently named Best Community Theater by the Nashville Scene's Best of Nashville 2014, opens its 2014-2015 Season with the Tennessee premiere of the award-winning drama Lilies, which delves into the relationship between an ex-prisoner named Simon who has spent 40 years in jail for a crime he did not commit, and a Bishop whom he lures to a meeting under false pretenses.

Utlizing a play-within-a-play format, Lilies focuses on a tragic series of events that took place 40 years earlier. Through staged scenes acted out by a group of Simon's former prison-mates (requiring the all-male cast to play both male and female roles), it is revealed that he and the bishop were part of a gay love triangle. The action transitions continuously and fluidly between reality and reenactment and builds relentlessly to a climax that is truly "stunning" indeed.

Matt Smith makes his ACT 1 directing debut with Lilies: We've assembled a terrific group of actors to tell a moving story that has never been told in this part of the country before. I think that's exciting. In terms of set, staging, technical aspects...there will be an atmosphere to this show, a feel that I think will be unlike anything else you'll see in Nashville this season. Add to that a little sex and violence, betrayal and retribution. I don't want audiences to watch this show. I want them to experience it."

Tackling the thought provoking subject matter of Lilies are a bevy of Music City theater veterans including Daniel DeVault, Bradley Moore, Phil Brady, Chuck Long, Doug Allen, John Silvestro, Bryan Lelek, Michael Rex and Ricardo Puerta. The Lilies crew includes director Matt Smith; producer Asa Ambrister; assistant director Memory Strong; set designer Jim Manning and lighting director Dave McGinnis.

ACT 1's production of Lilies will play at The Darkhorse Theatre, located at 4610 Charlotte Avenue November 7-15 at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. There will be a special matinee at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday (with a special bonus show on Wednesday, November 12). For ticket information, visit the award-winning ACT 1 website at act1online.com. All individual tickets are $15. When accompanied by a paying adult, high school students get in free on Thursdays and Sundays.

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