Tennessee Shakespeare Company Launches 15th Season with THE TROUBLE BEGINS AT EIGHT: MARK TWAIN

Tennessee Shakespeare Company launches its 15th performance season in celebratory style with Pete Pranica returning to the stage to delight audiences in the premiere of The Trouble Begins at Eight: Mark Twain. The production is generously sponsored by The Sims Family Charitable Trust.

Mr. Pranica, the popular play-by-play television broadcaster for the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies, takes the Tabor Stage as the famed 19th Century humorist on Sunday, September 18. Doors open at 2:30 PM. The trouble begins at 3:00 PM.

In addition to donning Mark Twain's iconic character and attire, Mr. Pranica is curating the script. The performance will run as long as the audience will permit, but without intermission and not longer than one hour. "Nature will surely call by then," remarks Mr. Pranica/Twain.

Mr. Pranica first played Twain with TSC eight years ago in one of the theatre company's first Southern Literary Salons - a sold-out summer performance in the private home of Milton T. Schaeffer.

"I'm drawn to Mark Twain for his complexity," says Mr. Pranica. "He could do broad farce, satire, and social commentary all equally well. His life story is one of both triumph and tragedy, and he came to the end of his life bloodied, but unbowed."

Directed by TSC Founder and Producing Artistic Director, Dan McCleary, The Trouble Begins at Eight introduces Mark Twain as he appeared on stages at American town halls and universities during his many speaking engagements and tours at the turn of the 20th century -- five to ten years prior to his bankruptcy and death at age 75.

The one-man performance features Twain's unique on-stage mixture of stand-up performance, lecture, and reading. He often carried a sheaf of possible topics and essays to present, making his final choices only once on stage in front of the audience.

TSC's production will feature selections from Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and from Roughing It, plus other written works and speeches to be selected by Twain in accordance with his mood that afternoon. In fact, the audience should expect that any number of things may be done in accordance with Mr. Twain's mood that afternoon.

Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, is among America's most inventive and important authors. He is best-known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both of which prominently feature Twain's much-beloved and cursed-at Mississippi River. Huckleberry Finn is considered one of the great American novels. Twain's writing has been widely lauded, including praise from Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. His works have been both revered and suppressed, with his humor, satire, and social commentary often spurring controversy, and in some instances, banishment - which Tennessee Shakespeare Company opposes.

Peter A. (Pete) Pranica has been the television voice and face of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies since 2004, and a broadcaster since his high school days. Since graduation from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in American Studies, his sportscasting career has encompassed both regional and national work with the NBA, NFL, WNBA, college sports, and the Olympics. He was voted by his peers as the Tennessee Sportscaster of the Year in 2017. He is a member of the TSC Board of Directors.

Box Office

Purchase tickets online here or by calling (901) 759-0604. Open Monday-Friday from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, and one hour prior to curtain. TSC is located at 7950 Trinity Road, Memphis, TN 38018-6297.

All TSC personnel are fully-vaccinated, and ventilation systems in TSC's facility have been newly upgraded. Hand-sanitizer and free, disposable masks will be made available to all patrons.

Tickets for The Trouble Begins at Eight: Mark Twain in Seating Section One are $27 (Students $20/Seniors $24). Seating Sections Two and Three are $20 (Students $15/Seniors $20).

No refunds/exchanges. House opens 30 minutes prior to curtain. Credit Card charges require a $1 per-ticket fee. Casts and schedules subject to change with notice. Free parking and covered drop-off at front door.

Season 15 Sponsors and Partners

TSC's generous sponsors of its 15th season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include FedEx, International Paper, Arts Midwest, ArtsMemphis, Tennessee Arts Commission, Independent Bank, Evans|Petree, P.C., First Horizon Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, AutoZone, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Campbell Clinic, the family of Pat and Ernest Kelly, The Sims Family Charitable Trust, Nancy R. Copp, the Jack Jones Children's Literacy Fund, the family of Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, and the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence.

TSC's season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee; and is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SLFRP5534, awarded to the State of Tennessee by the U.S. Department of Treasury. TSC's projects and productions are supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

TSC's programming and outreach partners include University of Memphis' Department of Theatre & Dance, Shelby County Schools, Memphis Juvenile Justice System, the Memphis V.A. Hospital, Cities of Bartlett/Collierville/Lakeland/Memphis, Shelby County Election Commission, the Benjamin Hooks Public Library Friends, and WKNO Radio (91.1 FM Memphis).

About Tennessee Shakespeare Company

Tennessee Shakespeare Company is a professional, not-for-profit theatre and education organization in Memphis dedicated to live, diverse performances of William Shakespeare's plays, as well as works of social significance by classical, Southern, and modern writers/composers; and to providing innovative educational and training programming in-person and online.

Founded in 2008 by Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary, Tennessee Shakespeare Company is Memphis' first and only professional, classical theatre. In 2017, TSC purchased its first performing arts facility, which is being renovated into the state's only permanent home for professional, year-round Shakespeare performance, education, and training. The company is engaged in its Brave New World capital campaign with a goal of $9.2 million, of which nearly one-third has been raised.

TSC has engaged its community with 60 site-specific plays and events for over 53,000 patrons. Its ground-breaking Education Program has reached 120 schools across nine states, totaling over 285,000 student interactions. The Program has achieved a high regional and national profile, partners annually with most local school systems, and this year is a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts/Arts Midwest's Shakespeare in American Communities grants: one for The Macbeth Initiative in underserved local schools, and the other for expanded residencies with local incarcerated youth. TSC is one of just a handful of U.S. theatres to be awarded this grant for the fourth consecutive year.