CRITICS' CHOICE: What's Happening in the Volunteer State?

Looking for something fun to do in Nashville over the next several days? Have no fear, gentle BWW Nashville readers, our team of writers have done the necessary legwork - we're all about saving you time and helping you make informed decisions about how to spend your entertainment dollar, after all - and we are delighted to present you with our newest edition of Critic's Choice, filled chock-a-block with all sorts of fun stuff...enough to keep you off the streets and entertained until next weekend!

We assume you are aware that the Kentucky Derby is this Saturday and that the Iroquois Steeplechase runs the following weekend in Nashville, so we have you covered with suggestions for non-equestrian events. Now, get out there and have some fun, y'all! And while you're at it, you'll be doing some good for the community by supporting the arts - and artists - in the Volunteer State!

The Act Too Players (ATP), Williamson County's premier training program for all youths is mounting a two day event this Friday and Saturday (May 1 and 2) at 6 p.m. in the back of Pinkerton Park near the trail entrance for the Fort Grainger trail. Bring your blankets and lawn chairs to come watch the ACT TOO kids and teens bring the show to life!

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors (mechanicals), who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.

Directed by Denice Hicks, artistic director of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, A Midsummer Night's Dream will be performed by youth members of Act Too Players.

"A magical grove in Pinkerton Park is the perfect place for these young sprites to play A Midsummer Night's Dream! It's going to be a really lovely experience for everybody," says the ever-so-artistic Denice Hicks.

"Nineteen young actors, aged 9-18 perform A Midsummer Night's Dream in Pinkerton Park in Franklin this Friday and Saturday at 6 p.m. Bring a lawn chair and/or blanket and enjoy this one hour show presented by Act Too Players. It's bound to be funny, magical and amazing! I've loved working with these spirited sprites! Come see!"

With over 100 full scaled theatrical productions in the past 13 years, Act Too Players has expanded its offerings to include acting, production, and dance classes. Our program is grounded in the belief that theatre skills are worthwhile, valuable life skills. For children and teens, these classes, camps, and workshops open doors to imagination and self-confidence while holding fast to the discipline and work ethic that is crucial for any craft. Act Too Players strives to provide students the opportunity to learn and grow not only as a performer but also as an individual.

For more information, go to www.ActTooPlayers.com.

BWW Nashville's Cara Richardson says if you're looking for a short trip out of town and a weekend full of theatre, you can head to Crossville to visit the Cumberland County Playhouse. This weekend holds three different shows at CCP, including Singin' in the Rain, Ring of Fire, and 50/50: Celebrating 50 Years of Community Collaboration.

There is an option for almost everyone this weekend. Music lovers will appreciate Ring of Fire, which shares the music and stories of country music legend Johnny Cash. After last season's popular production, CCP presents Ring of Fire again, and brings former Miss America, Kellye Cash, who is also the niece of legendary Johnny. You can see the show Saturday at 2:30.Tickets start at $12 for students and $25 for adults, with special prices for seniors and groups.

Cumberland County Playhouse has a spectacular education program. This weekend the Triple Threat Performance Education Program presents 50/50 Celebrates 50 Years of the Playhouse. According to CCP, "The talented students and teachers from our Triple Threat Performance Education Program joyously celebrate the Playhouse's first 50 years in song and dance... and look ahead to the next 50!" You can take the chance to see the results of this amazing education program on Friday, May 1, at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, May 2, at 10:30 a.m. Tickets begin at $9 for students and are $18 for adults.

For the lover of classic musical theater, Cumberland County Playhouse has Singin' in the Rain on their mainstage. The staged version of the classic movie, Singin' in the Rain is set in the roaring '20s and focuses on the glamour of Hollywood. You can catch this show Saturday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 3, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets start at $12 for students and are $26 for adults.

If you're feeling super ambitious, you will notice that there are actually three shows happening at the Cumberland County Playhouse on Saturday: 50/50 Celebrates 50 Years of the Playhouse shows at 10:30 a.m., Ring of Fire begins at 2:30 p.m. and Singin' in the Rain shows at 7:30 p.m.

"This super dose of theatre and music would be my idea of an ideal day. There's nothing like being in the dark of a theatre, being swept up in the magic of the stage," Cara says.

Tickets can be purchased on the Cumberland County Playhouse website www.ccplayhouse.com or by calling the box office at (931) 484-5000.

Friday through Sunday, May 1-3, Nashville Repertory Theatre's 2014-15 Professional Interns will present Downsizing: A Play In One Act by Nick Mecikalski, at Nashville Rep's Studio A.

Downsizing is "a new play focusing on the relationship between two people after unknown apocalyptic circumstances destroy the life of Walter, the play's protagonist. Evie, a fellow survivor, intrudes upon Walter's world with a persuasive request that calls into question Walter's most cherished assumptions about life, love, and the future."

All performances take place in Studio A located in the Nashville Public Television building at 161 Rains Avenue. Doors open at 7:30 pm each night, with the production beginning at 8:00 pm. Ticket reservations are available here (http://www.jotformpro.com/form/51136068477964) or at the door.

Downsizing is free for subscribers of Nashville Rep, $10 for non-subscribers, $5 for students and actors. All proceeds benefit the Nashville Repertory Theatre Professional Internship Program.

Opening Saturday May 2 at Zanie's Comedy Club, 2025 8th Avenue South, is Old Jews Telling Jokes! Jewish humor is everyone's humor, and the laughs never stop in this something-for-everyone New York hit. Join Morty, Bunny, Nathan and Reuben as they hysterically demonstrate why "kvelling is better than kvetching." Oy! Classic and contemporary jokes mix with songs and monologues that showcase the funny side of birth, sex, old age and more. Old Jews Telling Jokes is described as "a gleeful ode to humor that will have you laughing till you plotz."

The cast includes Francine Berk-Graver (Bunny), Perry Poston (Morty), Adam Horn (Nathan), Tobias J. Turner (Reuben), and Elizabeth Ayres Turner (Debbi). The show is directed and produced by Jay Kholos (Orchard Street Productions), with the multi-faceted L.T. Kirk serving as stage manager.

"You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy the show - Some people may think they won't 'get' the humor if they're not Jewish, but everyone can understand a few dirty jokes," says the lovely Elizabeth Ayres Turner (who plays Debbi, you may recall from the previous paragraph). "The majority of the show is just that, a round of jokes back to back, with some sweeter monologues mixed in to cut the funny. I won't give away any of the jokes we're using in the production, but here are some examples, clean and dirty, of what they might expect:

"I was having a drink at the bar the other night and I said to the bartender, 'Surprise me.' He showed me naked pictures of my wife."

"A guy picks up the phone, calls 911, and says, 'You have to send an ambulance to 327 Maple Drive! We're having a baby!' The operator says, 'Okay, calm down. Is this her first child?' The guy says, 'No, you idiot, this is her husband!'"

"A woman's walking through a cemetery, when off in the distance, she hears someone wailing. As she gets closer, she sees it's an older woman, pounding the earth in front of a headstone crying, 'Why did you have to die?! Why did you have to die?!' The woman goes over to the mourner, hoping to comfort her: 'I'm so sorry, the deceased must have been a dear loved one.' 'A loved one? I never even met her.' 'Then why are you crying? Who is it?' 'It's my husband's first wife!'"

Variety says, "You'll laugh your tuchus off..." while The New York Times says the show is "Executed deftly with affection, celebrating many glorious traditions," and The New Yorker says "the laughs per-minute average is as high as anything you'll find on stage."

SHOW DATES AND TIMES: May 2: 2:00 p.m.; May 3: 2:00 p.m.; May 4: 7:30 p.m.; May 5: 7:30 p.m.; May 6th: 7:30 p.m.; May 9: 2:00 p.m.; and May 10: 2:00 p.m.

Starting next Wednesday night, May 6, the international sensation Motherhood the Musical comes home for a run at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre. The hilarious show first debuted as a workshop at the Darkhorse Theater in November 2008 and was picked up by several producers by the end of that year.

Motherhood the Musical is a four-woman show from author, songwriter and Nashville mom Sue Fabisch, who tapped into the country market with her wildly successful parody The Mom of Constant Sorrow. Sue performed her songs about motherhood as a one--woman show for years in the Nashville area before rewriting it into the four-­woman format that Motherhood the Musical is today.

The musical, which has 18 original songs, all written or co-­written by Fabisch, includes the hilarious Billboard Top 10 comedy hit, "The Kids Are Finally Asleep"; the rousing call-­to-­shoppers "Costco Queen;" and the tender ballad "I'm Danny's Mom."

Motherhood the Musical shares the humorous, loving journey of Amy, a soon?to-­be first-­time mom; Barb, an over-­worked, underpaid, stressed-­out mother of five; Brooke, a lawyer who works too much and barely sees her kids; and Tasha, a single mom struggling to balance work, family and a divorce. The cast is full of local talent, most of them moms as well: Jaclyn Lisenby Brown, Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva, Corrie Miller and Sue Fabisch. The company is directed and choreographed by Kim Nygren, with Production management by Cecelia Lighthall, two more local talents and moms. The award-winning Johnny Rodgers supplies music direction and supervision, arrangements and orchestrations.

Motherhood the Musical is the rare show that audiences not only relate to - they actually can 'see' themselves on stage through the cast's portrayal of common experiences all moms have. From being pregnant to succumbing to driving a minivan, from facing an empty nest to anxiously awaiting one's first grandchild, the musical really covers the entire wonderful, crazy journey of being a mom. Anyone who has ever been a parent - fathers as well as mothers - can relate to this show.

The debut of a new work-in-progress from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies, 2015 New Works Fellow, highlights this year's Ingram New Works Festival at Nashville Repertory Theatre, which also features staged readings of five new plays. The Festival runs May 6-16.

The Ingram New Works Project gives playwrights an opportunity to develop new theatre works while in residency at Nashville Rep. Each year, the Project selects a Fellow and three Lab playwrights who all worktogether with Nashville Rep's Playwright in Residence to develop their new works. For Nashville Rep's 2014-15 season, the Ingram New Works Fellow is Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Marguiles, the Lab playwrights are Tori Keenan-Zelt, Bianca Sams and Gabreille Sinclair, and Nashville Rep's Playwright-in-Residence is Nate Eppler.

Readings of the new works will be held May 6-16 at 7 P.M. each evening. A talkback will immediately follow each reading. The complete Festival schedule is listed below, along with brief descriptions of each show. Each reading is $10 per person, or a Festival Pass to see one reading of each play is available for $35. Reservations can be made online at NashvilleRep.org.

Nashville Rep is a non-profit theatre bringing classic and contemporary theatre to Nashville that inspires empathy and prods intellectual and emotional engagement in audiences. Nashville Rep's upcoming 2015-16 season will include productions of Rapture, Blister, Burn; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead; Good Monsters; Chicago; and A Christmas Story.

The Ingram New Works Festival will be held in Nashville Rep's rehearsal hall: Studio A at Nashville Public Television, located at 161 Rains Avenue in Nashville.

About the plays:

• The Ice Treatment by Nate Eppler. Readings: May 6 and 16. Left behind on the garbage heap of history and misremembered by everyone (herself included), the world's most infamous Olympic figure skater struggles to reinvent herself as a screenwriter. By pitching the blockbuster screenplay of her own amazing and unbelievable life story. It's definitely not the facts, but it's all true.
• Showing by Gabrielle Sinclair. Readings: May 7 and 11. Today is the gender reveal party for Tracy's baby, but when she discovers there may be something wrong with her pregnancy, this cute and fun event with a cake filled with blue or pink frosting becomes for her a ritual with the power to reveal the future, to cleanse her past, to make her a good mother and to keep her child safe.Simply Bess by Bianca Sams. Readings: May 8 and 12. Simply Bess follows a young African American actress trying to make a name for herself. We see her backstage trials and tribulations on the 1950s European tour of Porgy and Bess, sponsored by the American State Department as a way to combat communist propaganda about racial problems in the United States.
• Air Space by Tori Keenan-Zelt. Readings: May 9 and 15. Thirty years ago, Babs and Mack built a house in a small Rust Belt city. One year ago, they lost it to foreclosure. With no place to go, they packed up and moved into the crawl space - secretly. Six months ago, Glory and Kyle bought a foreclosure for $500. As they struggle to flip the falling-down house, two strangers show up to help. A surreal comedy about inventing home, managing family and what we hold onto when nothing that we do is enough.
• A Work-in-Progress by Donald Margulies. Readings: May 13 and 14. We have an exclusive and exciting opportunity to look inside the process of Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Margulies and to be a part of his play that is still under construction. We can't wait to see what unfolds! Margulies is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright and professor of English at Yale University. He served as Playwright-in-Residence at Sundance Playwright Conference for three summers, and has won a Lucille Lortel Award, an American Theatre Critics Award, two Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards, two OBIE Awards, two Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Awards, five Drama Desk Award nominations, two Pulitzer Prize nominations and one Pulitzer Prize.