Jeffrey Ellis - Page 128

You have to wonder why it took someone so long to bring Del Shores' The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife to the Nashville stage. After all, the play opened to widespread acclaim in Los Angeles in 2003 and was made into a movie in 2011 (Blues for Willadean).

Today, we focus our spotlight on Andrew Strong and Cat Arnold, stars of KB Productions' staging of Del Shores' The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Park Housewife, opening tonight at Nashville's iconic Darkhorse Theater for a six performance run over the next two weekends. Directed by the First Night Star Award winning director/actor/producer Clay Hillwig, the latest from Shores promises to pack an emotional wallop, judging from everything we've heard during the run-up to opening night.

Can you believe that it's already time to celebrate Independence Day - aka The Fourth of July - with the biggest-in-the-country fireworks display right here in Music City USA? We know how to celebrate America's Independence right here in Nashville and we expect even more tourists (playwright/actor/director/producer/bon vivant Del Shores is in town, for example, to get a taste of a down-home good time) than normal to fill our city's streets over the four-day holiday weekend.

Today, our spotlight focuses on Lauren Marshall, the beautiful and talented, clever and imaginative company member from Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse who, like most of her compatriots this summer, is playing a number of different roles in repertory. At one show, she's matriarch Vera Sanders in the 22nd annual run of Smoke on the Mountain, a few hours later she's Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins - and in between those performances, chances are she's rehearsing for another show! And with CCP celebrating its 50th birthday this year, Lauren and her friends are even busier, as they welcome bigger crowds than normal to the playhouse.

Led by program director Jessika Malone and technical director Mitch Massaro - and named by CNN as one of 'most intriguing festivals' in the 'Best of the U.S.' - Nashville's Sideshow @ Actors Bridge unveils its fifth annual slate of performances for July 16-19.

Today, we train our spotlight on Asa Ambrister and Patrick Goedicke, the two versatile actors who bring the whole town of Tuna, Texas, to life in Red, White And Tuna, the latest incarnation of the Tuna cycle at Miss Jeanne's Dinner Theatre. The show opened Friday night and continues through July 12…so here's your opportunity to get to know Asa and Patrick and then make reservations to see their wacky characters before the show's run ends.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to BroadwayWorld Nashville's latest installment of The Friday Five (on Thursday): five questions (well, actually, six) designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find onstage throughout the Volunteer state. Today, we introduce you to Josh Bernaski, currently onstage in The 39 Steps at Clarksville's Roxy Regional Theatre. The consummate journeyman actor, Josh's career has taken him all around the world (well, almost!) but for a while at least, his Tennessee fans can revel in his immense talents while enjoying one of the theater's most entertaining works (which seems tailor-made for his abilities)…

Following last year's successful run, Cumberland County Playhouse and the Scopes Trial Festival of Dayton, Tennessee, will once again co-produce Front Page News: Dayton and the World-Famous Scopes Trial, July 17-26, presented in the famous courtroom where Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan battled in 1925.

Directors and producers in the Nashville region are seeking actors for upcoming productions of The Bible in 30 Minutes...or less!, The Music Man and Harvey - and more! We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. So now you have no excuse!

The company is back onstage for its summer offering of Shrek the Musical, the Jeanine Tesori-David Lindsay Abaire stage musical based upon the delightful animated film that first introduced us to the green ogre Shrek, his lady love Fiona, the unctuous Lord Farquaad and a feisty, straight-talking donkey named, curiously enough, Donkey.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

VWA Theatricals has found its Cathy and Jamie for the upcoming production of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years: Delaney Amatrudo and Luke Denison. Amatrudo and Denison will lead the cast for the musical, which runs August 13-22 at Nashville's iconic Darkhorse Theater. Amatrudo currently studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and Denison is a recent graduate of Indiana University.

Twelve brand new plays by Middle Tennessee playwrights will be presented as staged readings as the newly minted Ten Minute Playground goes live in Nashville Sunday and Monday for a one-of-a-kind two-night event at Darkhorse Theater. The plays are paired with some of Nashville's finest actors and directors, all volunteering their time to present these exciting new scripts. With only an hour of rehearsal, these plays take on a life of their own in front of a live audience.

Looking for a way to beat the heat this weekend? What's better than sinking into a seat in a darkened auditorium and letting the talented actors onstage whisk you way to a whole different world from the world iin which you toil Monday through Friday? Theater companies throughout the midstate are ready to dazzle you with their latest productions and here are some of this weekend's best bets...

Inspired by BroadwayWorld.com's Friday Six, welcome to BroadwayWorld Nashville's latest installment of The Friday Five: five questions designed to help you learn more about the talented people you'll find onstage throughout the Volunteer state. Today, we introduce you to four actors who will have entertain you beginning tonight in Shrek the Musical, directed by First Night Star Award winner Kate Adams for Dickson's The Renaissance Players.

Directors and producers in the Nashville region are seeking actors for upcoming productions of Heathers the Musical, Smoke/Spirit and The Music Man - and more! We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. So now you have no excuse!

In 1983 an abandoned movie house was saved from the wrecking ball, and on November 3, what has become the cornerstone of arts and entertainment in Clarksville-Montgomery County opened to a grand ovation.  Now in 2015, the Roxy Regional Theatre is poised to celebrate 33 years of providing an educational and artistic outlet for the Southeast, beginning with the first production of their 33rd year: Lionel Bart's Oliver!

Looking for an early summer diversion? We're happy to suggest some theatrical offerings to occupy your time, to keep you out of the heat and humidity - which seems to have really descended upon us this past week - and place you smack in the middle of a darkened auditorium that's certain to cool you down while entertaining you in high style…

There are certain things audiences have come to expect in a new production from Studio Tenn, the Franklin-based, Nashville-nurtured professional theater company headed up by Matt Logan and Jake Speck: You know it will be beautifully designed, sumptuously mounted and impeccably cast.