Amanda Lamb News

Write this down in your journals, post it on your Facebook, tweet it to your tens of followers, theaterati: Kevin Thornton and Enoch Porch are ridiculously talented! And there's no better way to celebrate the festive Halloween season than with these two-and their gorgeous and versatile cohort/partner-in-theatrical crime Jennifer Richmond-in a performance of Into the Darkness: A Vampire Musical, now onstage at Chaffin's Backstage at the Barn through October 27.

Theater people from throughout Tennessee gathered at Belmont University's Bill and Carole Troutt Theatre on Sunday night for the 2013 First Night Honors to pay tribute to a group of eight remarkable people who have made indelible marks on the theater scene throughout their storied careers. Hosted by Holly Shepherd and Joel Diggs, the gala evening honored the eight leading lights of Tennessee theater as they were recognized as members of the First Night Class of 2013 Honorees.

Dressed to the nines-despite forecasts of thunderstorms and a tornado watch that hung over the region-theater people from throughout Tennessee gathered at Belmont University's Bill and Carole Troutt Theatre on Sunday night for the 2013 First Night Honors. Hosted by Holly Shepherd and Joel Diggs, the gala evening honored eight leading lights of Tennessee theater as they were recognized as members of the First Night Class of 2013 Honorees.

Welcome to the fifth installment of Music City Confidential, my column to collect the flotsam and jetsam, informationally speaking, of theatre in Tennessee. Sorry for the long delay since the last installment, but I've been theatering my butt off all over the Volunteer State in search of intriguing gossip and riveting news stories just for you, my gentle readers.

Nine-time First Night Award-winner Martha Wilkinson directs Derek Whittaker, Debbie Kraski and a cast of Nashville's stage favorites in the Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre production of Fiddler on the Roof, opening Thursday, May 31, and running through July 8 at the theater in West Nashville.

In the coming weeks, we'll give you a sneak peek to what happens backstage as we presents photographs taken during intermission at some of the hottest shows to be mounted during these hot summer months (which always leads to mischief). Today, we continue our series with photos from Daron Bruce (our lensman at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre's Fiddler on the Roof) and Matthew Hayes Hunter (who's clicking away backstage at Arts Center of Cannon County's Arsenic and Old Lace).

There comes a moment late in Act Two when Tevye, the beleaguered dairyman at the center of Fiddler on the Roof, remembers his daughters in childhood and laments the loss of his beloved "Chavaleh" to marriage to a gentile, which completely encapsulates the joy and the sadness that permeates this classic work of the musical theater. Derek Whittaker, playing the role of a lifetime as he leads the cast of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre's new production of the Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick/Joseph Stein musical, is at his best in this scene, artfully blending his finely honed comic sensibilities with a genuine pathos that creates a heart-tugging moment that is genuinely effective.

Nine-time First Night Award-winner Martha Wilkinson directs Derek Whittaker, Debbie Kraski and a cast of Nashville's stage favorites in the Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre production of Fiddler on the Roof, opening tonight, May 31, and running through July 8 at the theater in West Nashville.

Nine-time First Night Award-winner Martha Wilkinson directs Derek Whittaker, Debbie Kraski and a cast of Nashville's stage favorites in the Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre production of Fiddler on the Roof, opening Thursday, May 31, and running through July 8 at the theater in West Nashville.

In recognition of The Barn's 45 years of bringing the magic of live theater to the stage, we continue our special series of Onstage at The Barn: Memories from The First 45 Years, with actress/music director/singer/songwriter/new mom Jaclyn Brown, who is one of the most accomplished multi-hyphenates to be found in Nashville, taking on a wide range of roles and responsibilities at Chaffin's Barn (she served as music director for Too Old For the Chorus (But Not Too Old To Be A Star), the show now onstage in West Nashville. Today, Jaclyn adds the memories of her Barn experiences to the ones that we've been sharing for two weeks to celebrate the 45th anniversary…

In recognition of The Barn's 45 years of bringing the magic of live theater to the stage, we continue our special series of Onstage at The Barn: Memories from The First 45 Years, with actror Daron Bruce, who is one of the most accomplished thespians to be found in Nashville, taking on a wide range of roles that have showcased his talents to perfection, while helping to prepare actors of future generations as head of the theater department at Nashville's historic Hume-Fogg Academic High School, considered one of the top providers of secondary education in the nation. Today, Daron adds his memories of his Barn experiences to the ones that we've been sharing for two weeks to celebrate the 45th anniversary…

In recognition of The Barn's 45 years of bringing the magic of live theater to the stage, we continue our special series of Onstage at The Barn: Memories from The First 45 Years, with actress Amanda Lamb, who made her debut at The Barn in the 2005, and who handled phone duties for the company for a number of years before heading back to graduate school. Luckily, for local audiences, she's still available to work on some shows from time-to-time and luckily, for us, she found time to offer her backstage/onstage/offstage memories of Nashville's legendary dinner theater.

In a town where everyone from your next-door neighbor to your favorite barista - from your dental hygienist to your manicurist, your seatmate on the bus, your friendly neighborhood bartender and maybe even the guy who does your taxes - is a songwriter, you'll find that there's never a shortage of opinions on the topic of favorite songs. Ask a cross-section of Nashville theater-types what their favorite love song is from the annals of musical theater and you're going to get a barrage of answers.

TOTEM traces the fascinating journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly.

Janie and John Chaffin and company have decked the halls and baked the cookies, so Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, the venerable Nashville theatre celebrating its 45th year of bringing the best of Broadway to Music City USA, ushers in yet another holiday season with three shows offered for audiences of all ages.

First presented in 2010 by the Bethlehem Players (of Franklin's Bethlehem United Methodist Church), Southern Fried Funeral, now onstage through November 26 at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre (where Osborne and Eppler staged their First Night Award-winning Rear Widow last year), is aging gracefully, taking on the patina normally reserved for the sterling silver serving pieces in that breakfront in the dining room. Lustrous and heartfelt - yet uproariously funny in a way that only Southerners can be - the story told in Southern Fried Funeral is authentic and genuine, farfetched and unbelievable.

Southern Fried Funeral, the latest collaboration from playwrights Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler, opens at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre on October 22, running through November 26 at the venerable Nashville dinner theater.

Southern Fried Funeral, the latest collaboration from playwrights Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler, opens at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre on October 22, running through November 26 at the venerable Nashville dinner theater.

Hosted by Jennifer Richmond and Trey Palmer, First Night, the Nashville Theater Honors Gala was preceded by the Red Carpet Event just before the tribute concert on a rainy Sunday, September 4, at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre.

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.