Gary Hoff News

Tennessee Repertory Theatre will present Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with music and lyrics by Nashville legend Roger Miller. Like Tennessee Rep, Big River-winner of seven Tony Awards--celebrates its 25th anniversary this season. Big River runs March 20 - April 10 at TPAC's Johnson Theater.

Rene Dunshee Copeland is, perhaps, the best stage director in Nashville (competing with her husband, Scot Copeland, the heart and soul of Nashville Children's Theatre, for claim to the imagined title), having brought some of the most memorable works to local stages during her career . And with Tennessee Repertory Theatre (where she is producing artistic director) celebrating its 25th Anniversary Season this year, she has gone for broke, helming all four shows included in the silver season.

If, indeed, 'it takes a village,' and if, as the poets say, 'no man is an island,' then perhaps no art form is more collaborative than live theatre. With a village of artists backstage and offstage assuring that each production is mounted, then coming to life during each performance, the collaborative effort is renewed. And what audiences see onstage is the collaboration of artists, the people who comprise the acting ensemble, the folks who bring the stagebound script to life, sending it soaring into our imaginations.

Tennessee Rep's A Christmas Story may be as good as it gets this holiday season. Wrapped up in a spectacularly designed package by Gary Hoff and featuring the cleverly imaginative direction of Rene Dunshee Copeland, it's the one Christmas gift you owe yourself this year. And it's a surefire way to lift your spirits and make you forget all the bad news that inundates your everyday life.

Patrick Waller plays the title role in the Nashville Children's Theatre production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, running September 22-October 11. Part of Twain and Twang , Nashville's Citywide Celebration of Mark Twain, a year-long salute to the work of writer Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer is a companion piece to the Tennessee Repertory Theatre production of Big River, slated for a run in spring, 2010.

Directed by Tennessee Rep's singularly accomplished producing artistic director Rene Dunshee Copeland, this fine production is so much more than a mere revival of the company's 1989 production, although it once again stars Mary Jane Harvill in the role of M'Lynn. This staging is perhaps most newsworthy because it pairs Harvill onstage for the first time with her daughter, Marin Miller, who plays the doomed Shelby in Steel Magnolias. As the launch of this silver anniversary season, perhaps no one could come up with a more apropos project: Harvill was one of the founding actors of the company in the mid-1980s, while Miller has left her own sizable imprint on the company in more recent years. Copeland is to be commended for her decision to cast the mother-and-daughter team and for her lovingly felt and richly etched production.

Nashville Children's Theatre opens its 2009-2010 season in high style with its production of the Ken Ludwig-Don Schlitz musical, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. With the mischievously appealing Patrick Waller in the title role, backed up by an ensemble of some of the most talented actors to be found in Nashville, NCT's staging is far more successful than the Broadway version mounted in 2001, thanks in large part to the skillful editing that was necessary to create a more accessible work for younger audiences.

Patrick Waller plays the title role in the Nashville Children's Theatre production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, running September 22-October 11. Part of Twain and Twang , Nashville's Citywide Celebration of Mark Twain, a year-long salute to the work of writer Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer is a companion piece to the Tennessee Repertory Theatre production of Big River, slated for a run in spring, 2010.

Patrick Waller plays the title role in the Nashville Children's Theatre production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, running September 22-October 11. Part of Twain and Twang , Nashville's Citywide Celebration of Mark Twain, a year-long salute to the work of writer Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer is a companion piece to the Tennessee Repertory Theatre production of Big River, slated for a run in spring, 2010.