Jeffrey Ellis - Page 159

Nashville Children's Theatre opens its 2009-2010 season in high style with its production of the Ken Ludwig-Don Schlitz musical, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. With the mischievously appealing Patrick Waller in the title role, backed up by an ensemble of some of the most talented actors to be found in Nashville, NCT's staging is far more successful than the Broadway version mounted in 2001, thanks in large part to the skillful editing that was necessary to create a more accessible work for younger audiences.

Auditions for the second production of Steeple Players' 16th season, The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, based on the novel by Earl Hamner Jr. and adapted by Christopher Sergel, will be held Monday, September 21, and Tuesday, September 22, at Steeple Players Theatre, 260 West Main Street in Hendersonville.

Patrick Waller plays the title role in the Nashville Children's Theatre production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, running September 22-October 11. Part of Twain and Twang , Nashville's Citywide Celebration of Mark Twain, a year-long salute to the work of writer Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer is a companion piece to the Tennessee Repertory Theatre production of Big River, slated for a run in spring, 2010.

Beginning Monday, September 21, 'at high noon,' carr said he 'will stay there until we have collected the funds needed for us to close out 2009 and enter 2010 ahead of the game, with our Youth Performing ARTs Academy leading the way. Iwant to expand the Academy into a YEAR-ROUND program, and to do that, I need your help, from wherever you might be in this world.'

Featuring a veritable 'greatest hits' list of Berlin's music-including 'There's No Business Like Show Business,' 'Moonshine Lullaby,' and 'Old-Fashioned Wedding'--Annie Get Your Gun is loosely based on the life story of sharpshooting star Annie Oakley and her husband, crack shot Frank Bulter. Debuting on Broadway in 1946, Annie Get Your Gun enjoyed long-running success in New York City and London and most recently was revived on Broadway with Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat in the lead roles.

Violinist Karen Clarke and pianist Mark Wait will present An Evening of Duo Sonatas for violin and piano by Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms on Monday, September 21, in the Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music.

Auditions for the second production of Steeple Players' 16th season, The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, based on the novel by Earl Hamner Jr. and adapted by Christopher Sergel, will be held Monday, September 21, and Tuesday, September 22, at Steeple Players Theatre, 260 West Main Street in Hendersonville.

Director Macon Kimbrough will hold auditions at Circle Player's rehearsal space in Madison (801 N. Gallatin Pike, between Due West Avenue and Old Hickory Boulevard, behind Madison Square Shopping Center). Auditions are scheduled from 10 a.m. to 12 noon and 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, September 19, and from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 20. Callbacks are slated for Tuesday, September 22, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Tulip Street United Methodist Church, 522 Russell Street, in East Nashville. All times are CDT.

'The Laramie Project is a play with tremendous historical and cultural impact,' said Vali Forrister, producing artistic director of Actors Bridge Ensemble. 'Actors Bridge was pleased to be the first theater company to bring this important work to Nashville back in 2002. And now, to be part of this nationwide unveiling of its epilogue is an honor, but also a reminder to ourselves, our audience and our community that Matthew Shepard's story still reverberates. Unfortunately, many of the issues the murder brought up are unresolved both at a local and national level.'

In just over an hour, Steele takes her rapt audience on an informative and entertaining, if too heart-breakingly real, tour through the 1957-58 school year at Little Rock's Central High School. As she becomes Melba Pattillo, one of nine African-American students chosen to challenge entrenched racial roles by integrating the public school 'where the wealthiest of Little Rock's citizens sent their children to be educated,' Steele ably educates her audience about our country's darker days. It's a moving experience that elicits both tears and laughter and results in new pictures of bravery and heroism etched upon your heart.

Director Macon Kimbrough will hold auditions at Circle Player's rehearsal space in Madison (801 N. Gallatin Pike, between Due West Avenue and Old Hickory Boulevard, behind Madison Square Shopping Center). Auditions are scheduled from 10 a.m. to 12 noon and 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, September 19, and from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 20. Callbacks are slated for Tuesday, September 22, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Tulip Street United Methodist Church, 522 Russell Street, in East Nashville. All times are CDT.

'Combine the awkward trials of adolescence with incredible intelligence and obscure words and you have a recipe for a great night at the theatre,' according to Katherine Kolodzie, director of public relations and development for the Clarskville theatre company. 'Catchy tunes comically lamenting the woes of puberty and special onstage guests will leave audience members in stitches.'

Melissa Gilbert, Steve Blanchard and Kara Lindsey star in Little House on the Prairie, a new musical based on the classic Laura Ingalls Wilder series of beloved American books, which opens at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall October 27, as part of the HCA/TriStar Broadway at TPAC series.

With Tennessee Repertory Theatre celebrating its 25th year as one of the nation's premier regional theatres, it's only appropriate that the season kicks off with a revival of Robert Harling's iconic Southern comedy Steel Magnolias, running October 3-24 at the Andrew Johnson Theatre at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

Violinist Karen Clarke and pianist Mark Wait will present An Evening of Duo Sonatas for violin and piano by Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms on Monday, September 21, in the Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music.

SchoolHouse Rock Live!, the Emmy Award-winning 1970s Saturday morning cartoon series that taught history, grammar, math, science and politics through clever, tuneful songs, is now instructing a whole new generation to 'Unpack Your Adjectives' and 'Do the Circulations' in the theatre production now onstage at Hendersonville' Steeple Players Theatre through September 27.

Towne Centre Theatre of Brentwood continues its 2009 season with its upcoming production of Dearly Beloved, by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten. The comedy is set in a small Texas town and centers around a catastrophe-stricken wedding day.

Auditions for the second production of Steeple Players' 16th season, The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, based on the novel by Earl Hamner Jr. and adapted by Christopher Sergel, will be held Monday, September 21, and Tuesday, September 22, at Steeple Players Theatre, 260 West Main Street in Hendersonville.

Four free performances by Australia's Strange Fruit, the international outdoor festival performers, will launch the 35th anniversary of Great Performances at Vanderbilt this week, with shows at Nashville's Centennial Park and on the Alumni Lawn on the Vanderbilt University campus. Other events in the 2009-2010 season include a radio documentary performance by L.A. Theatre Works and the social revolutionary group, Grupo Cultural AfroReggae with Anderson Sa himself on-site direct from Rio de Janeiro including among residency activities the screening of Favela Rising, recipient of 36 international film festival awards.

Fresh off a sold-out run in Wilmington, North Carolina, over the Labor Day holiday weekend, Street Theatre Company reprises its critically acclaimed production of Parallel Lives for three performances Upstairs at Bongo Java, Thursday through Sunday, September 10-13. Starring Holly Allen and Cathy Sanborn Street, Parallel Lives is based on the comedy act of Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy, and is directed by Lauren Shouse.