David Alford News

Tennessee Rep Offers Holiday Favorite The Santaland Diaries, with Matt Chiorini returning to Nashville to Don the Ears of the Elf.

A true American classic. A Tony Award-winning comedy. A soulful contemporary drama. And one of the most-loved American musicals of all time.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre will partner with Nashville Scene for a special event to kick-off its 2011-12 season of live, professional theatre.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre will partner with Nashville Scene for a special event to kick-off its 2011-12 season of live, professional theatre.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre will partner with the Nashville Scene for a special event to kick-off its 2011-12 season of live, professional theatre. The evening - titled Nashville Scenes - will feature staged readings of scenes from Tennessee Rep's upcoming season and heavy hors d'oeuvres and will be held Friday, August 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theater (505 Deaderick Street).

Tennessee Repertory Theatre has announced its schedule for the Martha R. Ingram New Works Festival.

A true American classic. A Tony Award-winning comedy. A soulful contemporary drama. And one of the most-loved American musicals of all time.

In recognition of the centennial of Williams' birth, I conducted a very unscientific survey among Nashville theater folk to determine which of his plays are the most popular and the best loved. Perhaps surprisingly, the top vote-getters in our informal survey were A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof and Summer and Smoke, shows that have been given memorable (so memorable, in fact, that people continue to talk about them) productions in Music City in the last century. Members of the Nashville theaterati have definite ideas where Williams' plays are concerned.

Cinda McCain may have been born with the express purpose of bringing Tennessee Williams' wounded yet fiery Southern heroines to life. Unique among Nashville actresses, she's played Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and Flora in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton - and now she is playing Maxine Fault in ACT 1's production of The Night of the Iguana at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre has announced John Patrick Shanley as the recipient of its Ingram New Works Fellowship.

Barter Theatre is now accepting enrollments for upcoming, fall workshops and classes that begin the week of September 13 through the end of October. Classes taught by Barter professionals will be offered varying from writing a first play, to beginning acting, to training those seriously dedicated to their craft.

Earlier this season, Amanda Card-McCoy took on one of the three roles in the Tennessee Women's Theater Project's Secrets of a Soccer Mom, earning good reviews while impressing TWTP artistic director Maryanna Clarke, who has raved about her talent and her work ethic. The Nashville native got her professional start at Nashville Children's Theatre and she counts Nashville theatre stalwarts David Alford, Brenda Sparks, Denice Hicks and Matt Carlton as among her role models - the folks who inspired her to pursue her career in the theatre. Last weekend, Amanda took the time to answer our questions and to give readers at Nashville.BroadwayWorld.com a glimpse into her 'Life in the Theatre.'

Tennessee Repertory Theatre has announced its schedule for the Martha R. Ingram New Works Festival. The festival will be held April 28 - May 8 at Nashville Children's Theatre and will feature staged readings of new plays from seven local playwrights as well as Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winner David Auburn.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre has announced its schedule for the Martha R. Ingram New Works Festival. The festival will be held April 28 - May 8 at Nashville Children's Theatre and will feature staged readings of new plays from seven local playwrights as well as Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winner David Auburn.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre has announced its schedule for the Martha R. Ingram New Works Festival. The festival will be held April 28 - May 8 at Nashville Children's Theatre and will feature staged readings of new plays from seven local playwrights as well as Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winner David Auburn.

David Alford, former artistic director of Tennessee Repertory Theatre, will emcee the event that will feature the entire roster of GrandVista's artists, including the 30-piece Orchestra Mastrangelo, Perry Danos, Marty Raybon, Shelean Newman and the GrandVista Kids. The Extravaganza will also feature the legendary Fisk Jubilee Singers in a special guest appearance, and the only Nashville performance this year of David Alford and Paul Carrol Binkley's nostalgic treatment of Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory.

You can tell a great deal about the Nashville theatre community through the productions staged, you can read feature stories and reviews until the cows come home, but to really know what a life in the theatre is all about in Nashville, you have to get to know the people, the personalities who give Music City its dramatic flair. The first person profiled in this series is Brenda Sparks, an accomplished actress, respected director, competent producer and stage manager, wife and mother...Brenda wears a lot of different hats in her day-to-day life and she wears them well.