Jeffrey Ellis - Page 140

It's cloudy and grey in Nashville today, which is perhaps fitting as people from all over gather to mourn the passing of Bernie Arnold, the matriarch of the first family of Nashville theater. But being mournful is the last thing you can come up with when remembering Bernie and her late, devoted husband, Henry Arnold (known as 'Buddy' to his legions of fans, students and admirers). Rather, any memory of the revered pair of theatrical talents is limned with joy, amazement and unbridled admiration.

Everything about Emily Eytchison, a Brentwood native now in her senior year at Nashville's Lipscomb University, says she's an actress. Outgoing and beautiful, quirky and even somewhat introverted (which might seem surprising coming from someone who is so obviously at home in front of an audience), she seems destined to a life theatrical, one filled with wonder, imagination and new discoveries around every piece of scenery…

Now making his home in Florida - while continuing to pursue his almost 50-years-long (he's currently on year number 49) career on stages all over the country, Michael Edwards tells us this week all about his time spent in Nashville and where those years have led him…

Today, we introduce you to Arden Taylor Guice, a 17-year-old high school, whose unique theatrical life sets her apart from others in her age group: She's been a student at Franklin High School, but in her senior year she was lucky enough to gain an internship with the musical theatre program at Belmont University and is now finishing school online. She's also a veteran of Sondra Morton's Act Too Players troupe in Franklin!

A school receives a mysterious script about a girl who died long ago. The director disappears. A new director arrives just in time and knows all about the story of the play. In fact, she seems to know it too well. And how did she get the dead girl's ring? Are the students of Herbert Hoover High too wrapped up in miscues, awful accents, and stolen boyfriends to notice? Revenge is coming. Who will pay the price when the real world and the play collide?

Amanda Grace Creech is one of a kind: Beautiful, talented, outspoken, irreverent - and yet another example of the wealth of talent to be found on college campuses all over the USA and someone of whom Nashville theater can rightfully boast. A native of Stone Mountain, Georgia, she's a student at Nashville's Trevecca Nazarene University and a 2014 First Night Most Promising Actor.

Initial artwork for Circle Players' upcoming production of William Inge's Picnic, with art by Arthur Henry Kirkby IV and graphic design by David Arnold, has been released just as rehearsals get under way for the show's March 26-April 4 run at Nashville's Hillsboro High School.

Today's spotlight falls upon Hume Fogg Academic Magnet High School's Caitlin Oden, who could have been the inspiration for every fictional princess ever: She's blonde, pretty, poised and self-possessed. Even her name - Caitlin Mirabel Oden - has the ring of royalty to it (say it slowly: Princess Caitlin Mirabel...sounds ideal, right?), although Caitlin's down-to-earth and focused on her longterm goals in the theater.

Frigid temperatures that have accompanied this week's ice and snow throughout the South continues to wreak havoc on performance schedules at Middle Tennessee theaters, with some companies already cancelling performances Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and even one Thursday night performance already shuttered.

The Tennessee Performing Arts Center announces the cancellation of this evening's, Wednesday February 18, performance of the national tour of JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, previously scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Andrew Jackson Hall. TPAC had previously cancelled the Tuesday evening performance.

Today, our spotlight falls on Johnson West, one of the most likable actors to ever walk onto a Nashville stage. Johnson is the type of actor you cannot help but fall a little in love with every time he enters stage left, the kind of guy you can just imagine being the best friend you've always dreamed of when he exits stage right, or the fellow you will tell all your closely held secrets to over a cold beer after the curtain has been rung down.

Make no mistake about it: Rachel Woods is a remarkable young woman. One of the finest young actresses to come out of Nashville theater - she's performed on such diverse stages as Nashville Shakespeare Festival and Franklin's Pull-Tight Players - she's currently spending a semester abroad at Harlaxton, the University of Evansville's British campus, having new adventures every day and adding to her magical bag of theatrical tricks that will serve her well as her career progresses.

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.

Elmer Rice's play The Adding Machine premiered on Broadway in 1923, yet it speaks to the issues of the day: mechanization, corporation, immigration, sexism and bigotry--all at the expense of the individual human being. Fast foward: 2015. Nearly 100 years later, we're still there. So says Catherine Coke, director of The Adding Machine at University School of Nashville.

Now one of the most performed shows in America, Seussical is a fantastical, magical, musical extravaganza! Tony winners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Lucky Stiff, My Favorite Year, Once On this Island and Ragtime) have lovingly brought to life all of our favorite Dr. Seuss characters, including Horton the Elephant, The Cat in the Hat, Gertrude McFuzz, Lazy Mayzie and a little boy with a big imagination--Jojo. The colorful characters transport us from the Jungle of Nool to the Circus Mcgurkus to the invisible world of the Whos.

Opening Friday night in Smyrna, Sabrina Fair is the perfect show to warm those cold winter nights. Featuring a wonderful cast, beautiful period costumes of the 1950s, delightful wit, and a love story that is part Cinderella, part Oscar Wilde, and part Love Actually this is a show you don't want to miss.

Today, we celebrate the birthday of Emily Whitlow, a 17-year-old (or is she 18 today?) student at Ravenwood High School in neighboring Williamson County. A native of New York, Emily moved to Tennessee with her family at the age of 15 and since then she has appeared in several school productions, including her turn as Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly! during her sophomore year. In addition she's appeared in Circle Players' bare and Shrek the Musical and Promises, Promises at Boiler Room Theatre.

The Kennedy Center and Nashville Children's Theatre present the world premiere musical production of Jack's Tale: A Mythic Mountain Musical Adventure February 14 and 15 in the Family Theater. Co-commissioned by the Kennedy Center and Nashville Children's Theatre, the production features a book by Scot Copeland, music by Paul Carrol Binkley, lyrics by Paul Carrol Binkley and Scot Copeland, and direction by Scot Copeland. Jack's Tale opens at Nashville Children's Theatre on Thursday, February 19, running through March 8.

Today, our focus is on one of our favorites: Stephanie Jones-Benton, one of Nashville's favorite musical theater stars, a Nashville native and a graduate of Belmont University's musical theater program. The past couple of years have been jam-packed with fun, excitement and work for Stephanie, with a lot of miles on her own personal odometer as she's traversed the world's seas and flown its skies, performing for audiences in virtually every corner of the globe.

Gina D'Arco and Taylor Novak will lead the cast of William Inge's Picnic, in a revival of the classic play helmed by Jeffrey Ellis, for Nashville's Circle Players, which this season celebrates its 65th year of bringing live theater to audiences throughout Middle Tennessee. Picnic will run March 27 through April 4, and will be performed at the theater at Hillsboro High School.