Critic's Choice: What's Playing in Tennessee? Nashville Theater Calendar for August 3, 2017August 3, 2017Feeling the urge to let your imagination run wild, your spirit to soar or to just leave the world in which you live and go on an adventure? Sounds like a trip to the theater is in order! Luckily, companies all over the Volunteer State have been hard at work, creating new productions to transform and to transport, shows that will entertain you this summer. That's where THE NASHVILLE THEATER CALENDAR comes in handy: Peruse our listings every week to find out what shows you should see!
The FRINGE-y 5: MATTHEW MARCUM's Existential Take on The FringeAugust 3, 2017Today, our FRINGE-y 5 spotlight focuses on internationally recognized performance artist, producer and educator Matthew Marcum, whose work combines text, sound, movement, and optics to create contemporary theatre productions, live art events, conceptual installations and educational workshops. Marcum holds a dual MFA in Theatre Performance Making from The University of Chichester in the U.K. and the California Institute of Integral Studies as well as an MA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College Chicago.
Thank You, Places...Production Stage Manager LIZ FLETCHERAugust 2, 2017What's a stage manager? What do they do? What's their job? Seriously. Perhaps no job in the theater is as hard to define as that of a production stage manager and it's that blend of mystery, fear and total dependence that makes actors, directors, crew members, producers - you name it! - hold a really great stage manager in total awe and to revile someone who is (how do you say it, without offending anyone?) less than stellar in their position?
The FRINGE-y 5: DIEGO GOMEZ On Being Led to The FringeAugust 2, 2017It's the most wonderful time of the year for Nashville's theater community: 2017 Sideshow Fringe Festival opened last Thursday night with #ThrowbackThursdayLive! and a weekend jam-packed with offering for the most adventurous of theater-goers and as the action gears back up for another full calendar of events week, we pick back up with more FRINGE-y 5 interviews.
Today, our spotlight focuses on Diego Gomez, an actor/writer/musician who is an integral part of 2017 Sidewhow Fringe Festival as writer of The Backpack, an original script performed last weekend, and as an actor in this week's Marian, Or (The True Story of Robin Hood).
The FRINGE-y 5: F. LYNNE BACHLEDA's Life in the Fringe LaneJuly 29, 2017It's the most wonderful time of the year for Nashville's theater community: 2017 Sideshow Fringe opened on Thursday night and is now in full-swing, with a myriad of offerings in store for theater-goers this weekend at venues all across town. There's enough art - both entertaining and intriguing - to satisfy the most discerning of audiences, inspiring them in the process. Among the upcoming events is F. Lynne Bachleda's Stories From the Back Seat - a collection of monologues gathered by Bachleda during her tenure as a driver for a ride-sharing platform, an experience that provided her with a wealth of material.
The FRINGE-y 5: ERIC BUTLER'S Excellent Adventures on the FringeJuly 28, 2017It's the most wonderful time of the year for Nashville's theater community: 2017 Sideshow Fringe Festival opened last with #ThrowbackThursdayLive! and continues for two weeks in venues all over town, offering all manner of entertaining and intriguing art to satisfy even the most discerning theater-goer. Among the upcoming events is Eric Butler's The Intoxicated Travels of the Reverend Piano Man, featuring an all-star cast accompanied by live music from WT Davidson and Kevin Madill, on August 4 at 8:30 p.m. at the Darkhorse Theater.
The FRINGE-y 5: BRITT BYRD On Why She Loves Life On The FringeJuly 27, 2017It's the most wonderful time of the year for Nashville's theater community: 2017 Sideshow Fringe Festival opens tonight with #ThrowbackThursdayLive! from 7:30 to 11 p.m. at the Actors' Bridge Studio at Darkhorse Theater. Britt Byrd, winner of Nashville Scene's Best Actress Award, makes her directorial debut with the patriarchy-smashing and gender-bending Marian Or, (The True Tale of Robin Hood), adding to her already illustrious resume of acting accomplishments. She's played everyone from Janet Weiss in The Rocky Horror Show to the bumbling, buxom Brooke in Noises Off and would-be beauty queen Carnelle Scott in The Miss Firecracker Contest.
Critic's Choice: What's Playing in Tennessee? Nashville Theater Calendar for July 27, 2017July 27, 2017Feeling the urge to let your imagination run wild, your spirit to soar or to just leave the world in which you live and go on an adventure? Sounds like a trip to the theater is in order! Luckily, companies all over the Volunteer State have been hard at work, creating new productions to transform and to transport, shows that will entertain you this summer. That's where THE NASHVILLE THEATER CALENDAR comes in handy: Peruse our listings every week to find out what shows you should see!
BWW Review: Woven Theatre's Exquisite and Enlightening SILENT SKYJuly 24, 2017Nashville audiences have become rather familiar with the work of Lauren Gunderson, the most produced living American playwright of the 2016-17 season, primarily due to works presented by Tennessee Women's Theater Project. Now, thanks to an impressive production of her Silent Sky, by Woven Theatre Company - as part of their inaugural Women Pioneer Series - we are introduced to another of her quintessentially intriguing and compelling women: Henrietta Leavitt, an American pioneer...
BWW Review: Destiny Theatre Experience's MOTHERF**KER WITH THE HAT Burns BrightJuly 22, 2017Despite its provocative title and abundant profanity (or maybe even because of it), Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Motherf**ker With the Hat is actually filled with a lot of humanity and heart, enough that you'll find it difficult to shake off the story and its characters long after the final scene has played out. And thanks to director Kurt Jarvis' production for Destiny Theatre Experience's tenth anniversary, the Nashville debut will likely be talked about and recounted for months to come - which seems the perfect testament to the impact of Shawn Whitsell's company on Music City's vibrant arts and theater company.
FRIDAY 5 (+1): THE MOTHERF*CKER WITH THE HAT Opens TonightJuly 21, 2017Shawn Whitsell's Destiny Theatre Experience celebrates its tenth anniversary starting tonight with the opening of Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Motherfucker With the Hat at Nashville's iconic Darkhorse Theater. Directed by Kurt Jarvis and featuring a cast of local stage favorites, along with some intriguing newcomers, including Michael Carlo, Megan Blevins, Matt N. Smith, Amie Lara and Tony Insignares.
Friday 5 (+1) on Thursday: Seidl and Kummer's ACROSS THE LINESJuly 20, 2017Opening tonight in Gallatin is Scott Seidl and Stephen Kummer's Civil War musical Across the Lines, running through Saturday night at CenterStage, 250 Hancock Street. The new musical, based on a true story drawn from the letters of Captain Robert A. Ragan and his memoir Escape From East Tennessee to the Federal Lines, continues its development with the three performances which feature a cast of local artists who bring the various characters in the story to life.
Critic's Choice: What's Playing in Tennessee? Nashville Theater Calendar for July 19, 2017July 19, 2017Feeling the urge to let your imagination run wild, your spirit to soar or to just leave the world in which you live and go on an adventure? Sounds like a trip to the theater is in order! Luckily, companies all over the Volunteer State have been hard at work, creating new productions to transform and to transport, shows that will entertain you this summer.
Photo Coverage: Wild Card Productions' LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILLJuly 18, 2017Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, writer Lanie Robertson's insightful and moving look at jazz legend Billie Holiday and her life and career, continues its run at Brentwood's Towne Centre Theatre. Directed by Dave Ragland and starring Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva in her stunning onstage transformation to become Lady Day, it's one of the highlights of an especially impressive Nashville theater season filled with strong performances and shows both challenging and introspective.
Woven Theatre Premieres SILENT SKY at Belmont's Troutt Theatre 7/21July 18, 2017Woven Theatre Company presents Silent Sky, by Lauren Gunderson, as part of their Women Pioneer Series, opening this Friday, July 21, at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre. The Women Pioneer Series consists of plays about historically significant or under-recognized women, written by women.
High School Drama: Cookeville High Grad EMMA CHOATEJuly 18, 2017t's been an exceptionally busy summer thus far for recent Cookeville High School graduate Emma Choate as she prepares to make the transition to college student at Tennessee Technological University in her hometown. Making the leap from high schooler to college student is a challenge, no matter who you are, but for Emma - who has been an over-achiever in live theater most of her life - it's probably made easier by her decision to remain at the local college, where she plans to major in vocal music education.
BWW Review: Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva's Dazzling and Stunning Billie Holiday Can't Be MissedJuly 17, 2017Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva's miraculous transformation into music legend Billie Holiday may well be the performance of 2017, theater-wise, in a city where we revere and venerate our favorite vocalists. But in Music City, where live theater is often perceived as a mere afterthought by the entertainment establishment, oftentimes performances such as hers may be given short shrift, overlooked by the so-called powers-that-be whose tastes tend toward the middle of the road, pop-infused, sound-like-everyone else, cookie cutter variety of singers.