THE FRIDAY FIVE (on Thursday!): RAGTIME's Erica Patterson

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to BroadwayWorld Nashville's latest installment of The Friday Five (on Thursday!): five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find onstage throughout the Volunteer state. This week the spotlight shines one day early on Erica Patterson, who opens tonight in Circle Players' production of Ragtime the Musical, starring as Sarah Brown.

Erica is a 2010 graduate of Germantown High School (in West Tennessee, just east of Memphis) and appeared in Circle Players' productions of The Color Purple, bare, Dreamgirls and The Addams Family before being cast in Ragtime the Musical.

Ragtime, directed by Tim Larson - who has helmed some of Circle Players' biggest and most successful muscials - runs through January 25 at Tennessee State University's Performing Arts Center. For tickets, go to www.circleplayers.net.

Circle Players presents the Tony-winning musical about three families from very different segments of society in pursuit of the American Dream in the early 1900s. Their lives become intertwined in a story of social justice, prejudice, wealth and poverty, despair, freedom and hope. It was a new century, an idealistic era when time and eternity converge on the bars and lines of ragtime music, and history is a bittersweet melody, born of pain, but full of defiant joy! Ragtime the Musical is presented in collaboration with the TSU Theatre Program and the National Museum of African American Music.

Get to know more about Erica Patterson before seeing her take the stage in Ragtime the Musical...

What was your first "live onstage" taste of theater? My high school put on a production of Curtains the Musical in which I was a part of the ensemble. The rush of being on stage and making the audience laugh and smile was priceless to me!

What is your favorite pre-show ritual? Before every show I give myself at least 30 minutes of alone time to clear my mind and I have to drink tea and honey out of my lucky cheetah print mug.

What's your most memorable "the show must go on" moment? During the opening number of The Addams Family - "When You're an Addams" - I was supposed to run from stage left to stage right to end the number. However, I tripped on my dress and fell on my face. I was mortified, but I just jumped up, landed the ending pose, and continued on with the show!

What's your dream role? I can honestly say that this is my dream role! I remember hearing "Wheels of a Dream" for the first time. I was a freshman in high school , my choir teacher played it for the entire class and I just remember feeling so moved by this song. Shortly after that I researched the show and fell in love with it. I said to myself, "I have to tell this iconic story one day".

Who's your theatrical crush? Norm Lewis! That voice and that smile just makes a girl swoon.

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