Jeffrey Ellis - Page 119

With Griffin coming to Music City USA this week, you can be certain that Lisa Marie Wright will be asked to sign more autographs than normal, dodging the glare of television cameras and trying to elude the paparazzi. Luckily, she agreed to an interview with us from an undisclosed location where she whiles away her time eating bon-bons and reading movie magazines...either that, or she was at work, we forget...

Annie, the irrepressible orphan of newspaper comics-fame who has been delighting audiences onstage since the 1970s, makes her return to Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre this summer, running July 28-September 3, in a new production of Annie directed by Martha Wilkinson, with music direction by Jaclyn Brown and choreography by Bakari King.

Rhubarb Theater Company will present the premiere of Nashville playwright Valerie Hart's Rising and Falling, August 12-20, at Darkhorse Theater.

Cumberland County Playhouse dance directors Eldar Valiev and Lilia Valieva will be feted with a 'farewell reception' to wish them well as they leave Clarksville to take over as artistic directors of the Festival Ballet of North Central Texas. The couple will also lead the 22-year-old professional company's training program. The reception will be held on Sunday, July 17, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the CCP Gazebo.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music could very well be the most-often viewed of the legendary duo's iconic works for the musical theatre, what with the seemingly endless parade of televised airings of the acclaimed 1965 film version, the frequent professional revivals of the stage show and, of course, the fondness for the piece exemplified by the multiple stagings in little theaters all over the world. The musical's lush score, its likable heroine, its vaguely historic (if largely inaccurate) retelling of a true story and all those fresh-faced youngsters singing 'Do-Re-Mi' have made The Sound of Music a favorite of musical theater fans since its 1959 debut on Broadway.

To celebrate dance as an art form and fitness activity, Nashville Ballet will participate in National Dance Day on Saturday, July 30, by offering free sample classes and choreography provided by the hit realty show So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD).

The eleventh annual Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights (AFPP) will be held July 26 - August 6, at Barter Stage II during the Virginia Highlands Festival. 'Founded in 2001, the AFPP gives voice to the stories of our region, and the community is invited to take part in the development of brand new plays,' says Nicholas Piper, director of the AFPP.

Cumberland County Playhouse dance directors Eldar Valiev and Lilia Valieva will be feted with a 'farewell reception' to wish them well as they leave Clarksville to take over as artistic directors of the Festival Ballet of North Central Texas. The couple will also lead the 22-year-old professional company's training program. The reception will be held on Sunday, July 17, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the CCP Gazebo.

David Lindsay-Abaire's 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Rabbit Hole, opens at Murfreesboro's Out Front on Main on Thursday, July 14, for a limited two-week run.

Producing theater for younger audiences since 1931, Nashville Children's Theatre is the oldest children's theater in the United States, so you'd think the company had already done everything - at least once. But this summer, thanks to a new initiative of NCT's education department, students in grades 6 through 12 will perform a fully-staged production of Once Upon A Mattress July 29 and 30 as the culmination of the Emerging Actors summer drama camp.

Summer in Tennessee sizzles as Cumberland County Playhouse turns up the heat with its production of Kander and Ebb's Chicago, opening July 21 in an all-new staging that brings the 1920s roaring back. Chicago features music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb (the team behind Cabaret, Steel Pier and The Scottsboro Boys). In this video, get to know the Men of Chicago!

With its four-week theater camp wrapping up last week, The Keaton Theatre is now focused on opening night for the Nashville premiere of Camp Rock, The Musical. Although with the onslaught of tech week, campers and counselors may find themselves yearning for yet another week of camp.

Nashville Ballet celebrates CHRISTMAS IN JULY with a special discount for tickets to its upcoming NUTCRACKER!

When Mandy Barnett takes to the stage of Nashville's revered Ryman Auditorium for a performance of Ted Swindley's 'musical play,' Always...Patsy Cline, she doesn't so much create a characterization of the legendary country superstar. Rather, she channels her. When Barnett sets foot on that stage, she is Patsy Cline so completely mesmerizing and on-point is her portrayal. Clearly, if anyone was ever born to play Patsy, it's Mandy Barnett, who seemingly has been destined to play Patsy Cline since birth.

Sideshow Fringe is a Nashville-based four-day performing arts extravaganza connecting adventurous artists with adventurous audiences and showcasing Nashville's diverse talent. This kick-off to Artober will be housed in the Belmont Black Box Theatre, Bongo Java After Hours and a neighborhood street venue. All Sideshow Fringe shows are 90 minutes or less, according to Jessika Malone.

Local teenagers involved with Act Too Players, a youth theatre program, have organized and put together a showcase of Disney songs with 100 percent of the proceeds going to support the Leukemia Foundation.

Danny Proctor, Helen Shute-Pettaway, Layne Sasser, Pam Atha, Dan Brewer and Gary Hoff were introduced Monday night as the six members of the 2011 Class of First Night Honorees during the First Night Preview Party, hosted by founder and executive producer Jeffrey Ellis at The Listening Room Cafe in downtown Nashville.

The Wrestling Season, by Laurie Brooks, is a powerful, 90-minute examination of peer pressure's potentially devastating effects. With recent media attention squarely focused on our nation's teens and the harassment, bullying and intimidation they face daily, both in and out of school, Manchester's Millennium Theatre believed, with lives at stake, time was of the essence in producing the area premiere of this exciting and interactive theatre piece.

Jersey Boys veterans Jared Bradshaw and John Hickman will join Nashville's own Carrie Tillis and Laura Matula to head the cast of Studio Tenn's production of Guys & Dolls, running August 18-28 at the Franklin Theatare, kicking off the company's second season - their first in their new venue.

First Night's Class of 2011 Honorees will be revealed tonight (Monday, July 11) as First Night, The Nashville Theatre Honors kicks off the 2011 First Night Season with The Preview Party, to be held at The Listening Room Café in Cummins Station at 6 p.m.