BWW Previews: Nashville Theater Heats Up With 2015 Openings

With a new year comes a lot of new theater in Nashville and in 2015, area theater companies are heating up winter with some of the most compelling and challenging productions to grace local stages in quite some time. Already, Circle Players and Nashville Shakespeare Festival have upped the ante with their respective productions of Ragtime the Musical and Twelfth Night (NSF traditionally kicks off the dramatics with their winter production at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre), and in the coming weeks theater-goers will be treated to even more, top-notch, high-quality theatrics.

Spaghetti Theatre debuts its first show of the year with Adam Szymkowicz's Nerve, directed by Andy Kanies and starring Kristin McCalley Landis and Mike Rosenbaum. Nerve is described as "an incredibly funny and touching look at love, acceptance and the perils of dating!"

With a stage design by Clayton Landiss, Nerve opens Friday, January 23, at 100 Taylor Street in Nashville's Historic Germantown district. Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. for each performance (January 24, 25, 29, 30, 31 and February 1), with doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 (opening night is a deal at $8), available at the door with cash or credit/debit cards.

There will be a brief talk back with the actors after every performance.

Cori Laemmel's The Theater Bug presents the world premiere of its newest original youth production: InsideOut Atlas. Following in the footsteps of past productions like The Barefoot Children in the City of Ward and last year's Nashville Scene Best of Nashville winner for Best Original Children's Play, Oddly Puddle is from Inner Space, two casts - made up of 62 young actors ages 4-18 - will perform InsideOut Atlas, during which audiences are welcome to "The Meantime":

"You aren't where you were and you're not where you're going. The only way out is to complete the blank map set before you, a map that tells your story in only the way that you could tell it. Join Mary as she tries to answer the most important questions of her life: Where did I come from? And: Where do I belong?

"By her side are a group of 'mapmakers' just like her, children with a past that can't be found in photo albums or told through the stories of their great grandparents. Doors will unlock, adventures will be had and love will be found in this offbeat fairytale."

InsideOut Atlas runs February 5-14, with performances Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are sold online at www.ticketsnashville.com and are $5 for children under 12 and $10 adults, students and seniors. Tickets are available at the door one hour prior to show time for $7 for children and $12 for adults. The Theater Bug is now located at 4809 Gallatin Pike, in the back building of New Life Baptist Church.

The Theater Bug partners with Miriam's Promise to present InsideOut Atlas.

Nashville Repertory Theatre opens 2015 with its newest production: The Whipping Man, a gripping drama about the reunion of a Jewish Confederate soldier and two of his family's former slaves which unearths buried memories and questions of faith. The Whipping Man runs February 5-21, at Andrew Johnson Theater at Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

Winner of the 2011 Outer Critics Circle John Gassner New Play Award, Matthew Lopez's The Whipping Man tells the story of Caleb, a badly wounded Jewish Confederate soldier who stumbles home at war's end to find his family has fled their home in Virginia. Simon and John, two former slaves, have stayed behind and greet Caleb with a cobbled together Passover Seder. As the men unite to share the meal, they struggle to understand their new relationships at this crossroads of personal and national history. The Whipping Man is a poignant exploration of history and faith that The New York Times calls, "a compelling Civil War-era drama, filled with fine characterization and unexpected moments of humor."

The Whipping Man runs during Black History Month with preview performances on February 5-6, 2015, opening night on Saturday, February 7, and running through February 21. Tickets start at $25 for previews and $45 for regular run, and can be purchased online at NashvilleRep.org or by calling the Box Office at 615.782.4040.

Nashville Rep's cast for The Whipping Man includes Heisman Trophy winner and former Tennessee Titan Eddie George (Simon), Matthew Rosenbaum (Caleb) and James Rudolph (John).

The Whipping Man is directed by Nashville Rep's Producing Artistic Director René Copeland. Designers areGary Hoff (Scenic/Properties Designer), Trish Clark (Costume Designer), Michael Barnett (Lighting Designer) and Ricky Lighthall (Sound Designer). Technical Director is Tyler Axt.

Directed by Bradley Moore and Elizabeth Turner, Music City Theatre Company brings Eve Ensler's iconic work The Vagina Monologues, exploring the "various aspects of the feminine experience, touching on matters such as sex, love, rape, menstruation, female genital mutilation, masturbation, birth, org*sms, the various common names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the body."

The Vagina Monologues is the ninth production of Music City Theatre Company. Bradley Moore founded the theatre company in 2008. Its mission is "to provide the Nashville community thought-provoking, socially relevant work with a strong vision."

A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a tool of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality. "From hilarious to touching to heartfelt, The Vagina Monologues will make you run the gambit of emotions and definitely leave a lasting impression," according to Moore.

Among actresses featured in The Vagina Monologues are Susan Adkins, Heather Vaughn Alexander, McKenna Driver, Lisa Fults, Savannah Hall, Jessica Hausberger, Aubrey Iwan, Karen Kirby, Amie Lara, Julia Nettles, Terry Occhiogrosso, Sarah Shepherd, Memory Strong, Mindy Tolbert and Elizabeth Turner.

The Vagina Monologues plays Vibe Entertainment Complex, 1713 Church Street in Nashville, February 12-14. All performances are pay-what-you-can, with a suggested donation of $10. Tickets are available at the door or via www.mctc.ticketleap.com. Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. for each performance, with doors open thirty minutes prior to showtime. Full cash bar and snacks are available at every performance, with all proceeds go to The YWCA of Nashville.

Actors Bridge Ensemble and the Belmont University Department of Theatre and Dance present Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, featuring an adaptation by Michael Meyer with direction by CJ Tucker, February 13-21 at Belmont University's Troutt Theater, 2100 Belmont Boulevard.

Equal parts idealistic heroine and master manipulator...Hedda Gabler finds herself trapped by society in a world that does not fit her. To survive, she sets in motion an array of schemes, sowing seeds of calculated destruction in an attempt to make an impact on her husband, friends and lovers. The result is a journey of impulse and emotion that is both achingly desperate and wildly passionate.

Ibsen's Hedda Gabbler premiered in Munich on January 31, 1891. Regarded as the "female Hamlet," Hedda has been viewed as both a villain and a victim. Henry James called her an "exasperated woman." Sigmund Freud said she was a "true hysteric." More her father's daughter than her husband's wife, Hedda is suffocating in the bourgeois society that limits her movements while exalting her status.

Directed by Actors Bridge and Belmont faculty member, CJ Tucker, Hedda Gabler stars Grace Kelly Mason, Brandon Boyd, Kay Ayers, Craig Fairbanks, Michael Joiner, Ashley Joye and Rose Eichhorn.

Hedda Gabler opens Friday, February 13, running through February 21. General admission tickets are 20 in advance, $25 at the door, and are available through the Belmont Curb Center Box Office at (615) 460-8500 or online at www.actorsbridge.org.