David Compton News

When the final curtain falls on A Christmas Story at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre on December 22, the cast and crew of Nashville Repertory Theatre's production will pack up all the leg lamps and all the tinsel, Gary Hoff's gorgeous set will go into mothballs, the costumes will be stored away with the rest of the company's vast collection and a ten-year-old Nashville holiday tradition will come to an end.

Nashville audiences love their traditions whether they be of a theatrical bent or of a more personal nature so it should be noted that the holiday season in Music City is now upon us with the arrival of one of the most beloved theater traditions: Nashville Repertory Theatre's annual staging of A Christmas Story (the tale of young Ralphie, his long-suffering mother, his old man and his younger brother Randy), which offers up a timeless tale of Christmas in the heartland that is overflowing with nostalgia and a whole lot of heart.

Today, we very proudly shine the spotlight on PSM Daniel Brewer, the dean of production stage managers in this region, and the resident stage manager at Nashville Children's Theatre. In 2011, he was among that year's First Night Honorees in recognition of his truly exceptional career and for the grace and skill with which he does his job. In fact, we wouldn't be at all surprise to find his headshot next to the very definition of "stage manager" in reference books.

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! It's Tuesday, May 30, 2017 - and we hope you've sufficiently recovered from Memorial Day Weekend so that you're able to face the rest of the week with the necessary intent to achieve all that's possible in a world where white pants and white shoes are acceptable (it's summer, after all…well, unofficially, from a social standpoint)! All of this prompts us to ask the musical question: What did you do this holiday weekend? Social media was fairly abuzz with all manner of outings and adventures perpetrated by the theaterati, including both Amy Prough Stumpfl and Nancy Allen attending a performance of Hamilton in Chicago, where Belmont University Musical Theatre alumni Candace Quarrels and Chris Lee are starring!

GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! It's May 17, 2017, and summer - or a reasonable facsimile thereof - has arrived in Nashville, with temperatures already climbing toward the 90s! When prompts the musical question: What's on your agenda for the summer of 2017? Anything we should know about and, more importantly, write about?

Among such people is Jason Glick, a charming and talented man who came to town back in the 1990s, made a name for himself on a variety of local stages - Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, Nashville Shakespeare Festival and Circle Players readily come to mind - and then decided to leave town, enroll in law school and who now, in the circuitous way that creative people wend their way through life, he's happily married, the dad to two boys and pursuing his art in Portland, Oregon.

Today our special series Onstage at The Barn: Memories from The First 45 Years continues with actress Nancy Allen, who first set foot on that magical levitating stage in a production of The Robber Bridegroom, directed by Rene Dunshee Copeland, which remains brilliantly etched in the minds of Nashville theatre-goers who were on-hand for the production.

?David Compton, brilliant and beloved actor, director, designer, teacher and friend, died in the morning hours of May 4, 2016. He died peacefully surrounded by loved ones.

?David Compton, brilliant and beloved actor, director, designer, teacher and friend, died in the morning hours of May 4, 2016. He died peacefully surrounded by loved ones.

David Compton – one of the region's most accomplished and acclaimed and most beloved actors and directors – died early Wednesday morning, May 4, after a four-year battle with heart disease and cancer. He leaves his wife, Amanda Card Compton (whom he married on Tuesday, May 3, just hours before his death); his mother, Jo Compton of Badin, North Carolina; his sister Becky Compton Taylor; his brother Jim Compton; and countless other friends and family who are mourning his passing.

Opening night quickly approaches at Nashville's historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre - which this year celebrates its 50th season - for Neil Simon's Rumors, first produced on the iconic and completely magical floating stage in 1991.

Nate Eppler is, arguably, the best playwright now pursuing his art in Nashville - and with his latest work, Good Monsters, opening tomorrow night at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre, he finds himself squarely back in the spotlight. It is, after all, the world premiere production of his newest, perhaps most controversial and provocative, play.

Turkeys are on-sale at your local supermarket, so there's no better way to know Thanksgiving is just around the corner - yep, less than two weeks away! - which means that local theater companies will be unleashing their holiday season productions with enough productions of A Christmas Story (both the musical and the play), It's A Wonderful Life and Ebenezer Scrooge-led shows that you could shake a stick at!

Halloween's all done in, there are still three weeks ahead before we officially give thanks, and Christmas - and all its accompanying frenzy and frivolity - is about seven weeks away! So what's there to do for all the theatrical types jonesing for a trip to make believe? Plenty! Theater companies all over middle Tennessee are showing off their best and brightest, with a number of eagerly anticipated shows opening this weekend and/or continuing from their earlier opening nights and next Tuesday there's a sparkling new Broadway musical swinging through Music City to entertain you…

Today in a Friday Five (on Thursday!) feature, we shine our spotlight on Catherine Birdsong Broyles and Darci Wantiez, who offer some insight into their theater lives and give us some terrific answers to our five (well, six really) questions. Once you've gotten to know them better, you'll probably want to make sure you have tickets to see the incredible quartet over the next two weekends.

Nashville Repertory Theatre (The Rep) will perform a staged reading of GOOD MONSTERS today, November 3 at 7 pm. This play is presently being workshopped in preparation of a fully staged production by The Rep in February 2016. It contains adult themes and language.

It's Halloween weekend and every dramatic personage and theatrical type we've ever encountered is caught up in the annual rush to find just the right costume for their holiday revelries (we confess we've never had the knack for coming up with Halloween get-ups - not since we went in drag to a party at the First Baptist Church as the age of 12…tongues were wagging, we are certain, but we lived to tell about it, so it couldn't have been that bad). In the meantime, there are all sorts of onstage happenings this weekend to keep you otherwise engaged should the difficulty of selecting your costume prove to be too much.

Today, Eric Butler (who plays Curlie) and Tony Nappo take on our Friday Five questions, to give you some insight into the two actors. Here's your chance to get to know them before seeing the show which runs for three weekends, through November 15.

Nashville Repertory Theatre (The Rep) will perform a staged reading of GOOD MONSTERS on Tuesday, November 3 at 7 pm. This play is presently being workshopped in preparation of a fully staged production by The Rep in February 2016. It contains adult themes and language.

Good Monsters tells the story of Frank, a Gulf War veteran and police officer who moonlights as a security guard to make ends meet. Safira was a shoplifter. It was dark. Frank thought she had a gun. She didn't. Now Frank's the guy who shot an unarmed teenager, with ramifications for his wife, his best friend, Safira's father, and a media spin doctor looking for a story. While he waits for the grand jury, Safira haunts Frank every night and soon she begins to make terrifying demands of him.