Anastasia Teel News

Cortland Repertory Theatre invites audiences to 'Rave On!' with its debut production of the international musical sensation 'BUDDY - The Buddy Holly Story'. Performances of this hit rock and roll musical will run from June 19 - July 6 with evening performances at 7:30. Matinees are available on June 21, 23, 26, 28, 30 and July 2 at 2:00 PM. Tickets may be purchase by calling 800-427-6160 or by visiting the CRT Box Office's new location at 24 Port Watson Street in downtown Cortland. Tickets are also available for sale 24 hours a day through the CRT website at www.cortlandrep.org. Some performances are already sold out, so CRT suggests calling early.

What better way to kick off Sunday-and to celebrate Father's Day!-than with the latest installment of Music City Confidential! Here's where you'll find all the news that's fit to print (or not-depending on your perspective) from Nashville's ever-growing, ever-fascinating live theater industry. Amid the florid prose and flowery praise, you'll find all the stories that don't quite fit anywhere else, some of 'em kind of gossipy, some of 'em stone-cold serious, some of 'em just lists of names you need to know. You'll also find photos from our new "Intermission@" series, details about the latest cast parties and various and sundry minutiae-the veritable flotsam and jetsam-from backstage, onstage, offstage and beyond…

So, this is how it all started: Cori Laemmel, who despite her many flaws (she's too sweet, too talented and too pretty, not to mention that she is, well, just darling) is one of my favorite theatrical types, calls me up and asks me to come see The Most Amazing Anything of Evertime, the new show she wrote and directed for the first, big-scale, open-to-the-public, onstage production of The Theater Bug, her performing arts training program for younger actors.

Cori Laemmel is one of those actresses you're instantly drawn to onstage: When she comes on, there's an indefinable quality about her that rivets your attention to her, regardless of the role she's playing. Offstage? Well, you find yourself in that same, almost indefinable, realm of being unable to stop watching her: She's charming, as sweet and disingenuous as anyone could possibly be, funny and slightly goofy - and absolutely, completely, no-doubt-about it a star-in-the-making. Seriously, she's got mad talent and remarkable skill. The fact that she is pursuing her theatrical dreams in Nashville is just so much luck for those of us fortunate enough to revel in the spectacle that is she.

SchoolHouse Rock Live!, the Emmy Award-winning 1970s Saturday morning cartoon series that taught history, grammar, math, science and politics through clever, tuneful songs, is now instructing a whole new generation to 'Unpack Your Adjectives' and 'Do the Circulations' in the theatre production now onstage at Hendersonville' Steeple Players Theatre through September 27.