Margaret French

Celebrated more and more with every passing year, the medium of photography continues to amaze, provoke, reveal, and compel. This spring the arrival of a major photography fair in New York City offers an opportunity to see the very best photographs from around the world.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 842 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. The 2019 class is 50% women, 29% people of color, and represents 59 countries. Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2019.

Craig Lucas' evocative libretto and Adam Guettel's lushly romantic (and Tony Award-winning) score, notwithstanding - and putting aside the momentous occasion of Street Theatre Company inaugurating a new theater venue - perhaps the most notable attribute of the Ernie Nolan-directed version of The Light in the Piazza debuting tonight is its stellar cast of artists who bring the show to life with such apparent ardor. Continuing through April 20, STC's The Light in the Piazza is beautifully sung and impressively acted by Nolan's impeccably cast ensemble in a production fairly redolent of mid-century Florence and it serves as the perfect introduction to STC's new home.

Today, we invite you to get to know Briar Moroschak and Lindsay Hess, who play the daughter and mother at the heart of the story, who graciously answered our questions for the latest in our continuing series of Friday 5 (+1) in order to gain some insight into the two women and to suggest why you might want to make reservations now to see the acclaimed musical at Street Theatre Company.

Before Broadway comes calling for Hatty Ryan King, the young Nashville actress with an enviable resume (the Lipscomb University sophomore is a Spotlight Award winner, was a finalist for The Jimmy Award, has worked with theater companies both community-oriented and professional and has proven herself a capable leading player along the way), you might want to get your tickets to see her onstage in Studio Tenn's ambitious, if woefully uneven, holiday season offering of Beauty and The Beast. In a role that could have been written for her, King shines as Belle, the ambitious and eager to learn and to embrace change young woman who is the heroine of the musical which features a score by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice and a book by Linda Woolverton.

Chesterwood will present a staged reading of "The Lincoln Family Album", written and moderated by noted Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer, on Wednesday, Aug. 8 at 5 p.m. in Daniel Chester French's Studio. The presentation is the third program Holzer has written and narrated for Chesterwood and follows the success of previous sold-out performances of Holzer's "Lincoln Speaks."

Art and history, as vividly recalled in both the public oratory and private thoughts of Abraham Lincoln, will come alive at Chesterwood today, Aug. 9 at 5 p.m., with the return of 'Lincoln Speaks,' a program of dramatic readings held in Daniel Chester French's Stockbridge studio alongside the sculptor's six-foot-high plaster model of the seated figure of "Abraham Lincoln" for the Lincoln Memorial, arguably the most famous and compelling Lincoln image in the world. The "Lincoln Speaks" program debuted to a sold-out house at Chesterwood last summer.

Art and history, as vividly recalled in both the public oratory and private thoughts of Abraham Lincoln, will come alive at Chesterwood on Wednesday, Aug. 9 at 5 p.m., with the return of 'Lincoln Speaks,' a program of dramatic readings held in Daniel Chester French's Stockbridge studio alongside the sculptor's six-foot-high plaster model of the seated figure of "Abraham Lincoln" for the Lincoln Memorial, arguably the most famous and compelling Lincoln image in the world. The "Lincoln Speaks" program debuted to a sold-out house at Chesterwood last summer.

With almost 400 people in the audience, the leading lights of Tennessee theater were heralded with the presentation of the 2015 First Night Honors Gala, Sunday night at the iconic and historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in Nashville. Hosted by Geoff Davin, Stephanie Jones-Benton and Erica Patterson, the event featured musical numbers by more than 100 performers in tribute to the Class of 2015 Honorees.

It's 1967 and a young Marine, returning from a life-changing experience in Vietnam, is on a bus bound for San Francisco, the site of his last hurrah in 1963: a momentous night before he shipped out for Okinawa in the company of friends and cohorts with whom he'd created a bond he thought would last forever. That initial scene in Dogfight – the hit off-Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and a book by Peter Duchan, based upon a little-known movie of the same name that starred River Phoenix and Lili Taylor – serves as a gateway to the story of Eddie Birdlace and his fellow Marines and a winsome, idealistic young woman who left her imprint on his heart despite his best efforts to forget her.

Acclaimed actors Chris Noth and Fritz Weaver join the cast of Lincoln's Favorite Shakespeare with John Douglas Thompson and Kathleen Chalfant. Tonight, August 14 at 4pm at the Fitzpatrick Main Stage, this noted quartet of actors are donating their performances to the event and will present scenes and soliloquies known and loved by Abraham Lincoln from the canon of Shakespeare with a reception immediately following at Chesterwood.

Acclaimed actors Chris Noth and Fritz Weaver join the cast of Lincoln's Favorite Shakespeare with John Douglas Thompson and Kathleen Chalfant. On August 14 at 4pm at the Fitzpatrick Main Stage, this noted quartet of actors are donating their performances to the event and will present scenes and soliloquies known and loved by Abraham Lincoln from the canon of Shakespeare with a reception immediately following at Chesterwood.

Miles Aubrey (Jersey Boys, Ring of Fire), Jessica Grove (A Little Night Music, Thoroughly Modern Millie) and Lora Lee Gayer (Follies) will perform The Music of Kevin Fogarty and Chris Rayis in a one-night-only concert.