Jeffrey Ellis - Page 144

Rhubarb Theater Company presents 41, Trish Crist's comedy/drama opens at the Darkhorse Theater, Friday, July 23, continuing through August 7. According to the playwright, who does double duty as director, 41 is inspired by this summer's 41st anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots.

Martha Wilkinson directs a cast of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre favorites in the upcoming Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, the latest installment of the Sanders Family trilogy, conceived by Alan Bailey and written by Connie Ray. With Tim Fudge (who directed the last installment - Sanders Family Christmas - during the holiday season) as music director, the show runs July 22-August 28.

This confluence of events and elements has resulted in the perfect summer diversion at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, Nashville's venerable theatrical venue, with their production of Ray Cooney's Funny Money. Directed with a certain twisted grace by the multi-faceted Nate Eppler and performed by a top-notch band of actors, Funny Money is - put simply - delightfully daft and expertly played.

Most recently the audience development intern at Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Arkansas-born Barry Honold's next theatrical adventure is as production dramaturg for Nashville Shakespeare Festival's upcoming production of Love's Labour's Lost, the company's 2010 Shakespeare-in-the-Park presentation. Directed by company artistic director Denice Hicks, the production stars Tom Angland, Jeff Boyet, Shannon Hoppe, Nettie Kraft, R. Alex Murray, Eric Pasto-Crosby, Ricardo Puerta, Joseph Robinson and Brenda Sparks.

George C. Wolfe's acclaimed The Colored Museum is now onstage at Nashville's Amun Ra Theatre, continuing the company's 2010 season hot off the heels of the production of Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog. Opening Thursday, June 17, The Colored Museum runs through July 4. Shows are Thursday through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15.

As Nashville's summer theater season continues to heat up, anticipation continues to grow for September's First Night Nashville Theatre Honors, the revival of the Music City theater gala that will benefit Reading is Fundamental (RIF) and sponsored by Macy's and BroadwayWorld.com. Set for Sunday, September 19, at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre, First Night 2010 will honor eight individuals for their sustained and continued commitment to theater in Nashville.

Ciaran McCarthy gives such a stunningly raw and beautifully nuanced performance as film director Guido Contini in Boiler Room Theatre's production of Nine that it would be easy to lavish praise on him and leave it at that. But he is surrounded by a cast of women (and one very talented young man) who are wonderfully cast and who deliver performances that match McCarthy's in intensity and artistry. In other words: Don't even think of missing this show!

Pawnshop, a new play by Atlanta playwright Tiffany Parks, will be given a staged reading in Nashville Monday night, June 21, by The African American Playwrights Exchange. The reading will be held upstairs at Bongo Java, 2007 Belmont Boulevard. Pawnshop focuses on relations between members of Atlanta's African-American and Jewish communities in the 1950s and is the winner of the AAPEX Best New Play 2010 award.

An all-star cast takes to the stage in the latest work from the playwriting team of J. Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler: Cinderella 8.0: Truly, Truly, Truly Outrageous, opening June 22 at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. The musical comedy is presented on the mainstage at Chaffin's Barn Tuesday through Saturday mornings, with the house opening at 10 a.m., with the show at 11 a.m. through August 7.

During his 20-plus years as a part of the theater community in Nashville, Matt Carlton has become known as one of its hardest working - and most loved - members, winning countless fans with his superb stage work while gaining a reputation among actors, directors and producers as a hard-working, creative and multi-faceted personality. And he's shown that talent in a wide variety of roles while working for practically every company in town, including Tennessee Rep, Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, People's Branch Theatre, Nashville Shakespeare Festival and Actors Bridge Ensemble.

George C. Wolfe's acclaimed The Colored Museum is now onstage at Nashville's Amun Ra Theatre, continuing the company's 2010 season hot off the heels of the production of Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog. Opening Thursday, June 17, The Colored Museum runs through July 4. Shows are Thursday through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15.

Franklin-born and -raised Hannah McGinley, now a senior at New York University pursuing a degree in musical theatre, is spending the summer at home, portraying 'Louise,' the young woman who would become Gypsy Rose Lee in the Towne Centre Theatre production of Gypsy. Karen Himelrick directs Gypsy, the beloved musical by Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents, as it dances its way onto the Towne Centre stage for a July 10-July 3 run at the Brentwood theatre.

Audiences will be humming along to some of the pop hits of the 1950s when the Roxy Regional Theatre opens the musical Forever Plaid on Friday, June 11 at 8 p.m.

The cast for Funny Money includes: Mike Baum (last seen in Rumors), Chris Bosen (last seen in Frankly My Dear), Adam Burnett, David Compton (last seen in Christmas Belles and Alone Together), Jenny Noel (last seen in There Goes the Bride), Dietz Osborne (last seen in Frankly My Dear), Johnny Peppers (last seen in Seeing Stars in Dixie) and Jennifer Richmond (last seen in Frankly My Dear).

A revival of a much-earlier production during ACT 1's first 20 seasons, which was also directed by Seay, the cast featured some returning favorites including Riley Bryant, Caroline Davis, Douglas Goodman and Jordan Keller. The presence of these Nashville stage veterans made the production all the more appealing and, when supplemented by a talented group of newcomers, ensured that audiences would walk away humming a sprightly tune while contemplating the horrors of World War I. Who knew mustard gas could be so darn much fun?

In Chaffin's comedy, an inept private detective (whose car breaks down on a lonely stretch of country road late at night in a rain storm) seeks shelter in a secluded country mansion, only to be greeted at the door by a beautiful yet strange young woman - and a corpse lying on the foyer floor. It's the butler and hes been stabbed to death!

Provocative and compelling, John Patrick Shanley's script for Doubt remains stagebound - albeit a Pulitzer Prize-winning, stagebound masterpiece - until a confident director and cast take on the challenge of mounting a production, in which to breathe life into the characters created so vividly by the playwright on the written page. For the next two weekends, Nashville audiences are given the opportunity to see Doubt in a remarkably acted and superbly staged production at David Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre.

Franklin-born and -raised Hannah McGinley, now a senior at New York University pursuing a degree in musical theatre, is spending the summer at home, portraying 'Louise,' the young woman who would become Gypsy Rose Lee in the Towne Centre Theatre production of Gypsy. Karen Himelrick directs Gypsy, the beloved musical by Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents, as it dances its way onto the Towne Centre stage for a July 10-July 3 run at the Brentwood theatre.

Audiences will be humming along to some of the pop hits of the 1950s when the Roxy Regional Theatre opens the musical Forever Plaid on Friday, June 11 at 8 p.m.

The cast for Funny Money includes: Mike Baum (last seen in Rumors), Chris Bosen (last seen in Frankly My Dear), Adam Burnett, David Compton (last seen in Christmas Belles and Alone Together), Jenny Noel (last seen in There Goes the Bride), Dietz Osborne (last seen in Frankly My Dear), Johnny Peppers (last seen in Seeing Stars in Dixie) and Jennifer Richmond (last seen in Frankly My Dear).