Hannah Church News

Voting is now underway for the Tennessee Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below!

What with contemporary musical theater's artistic bent toward the nostalgic in recent years, it should come as no surprise that Happy Days, the ABC sitcom that painted an affectionate portrait of life in Milwaukee in the late 1950s/early 1960s, was adapted by the show's creator Garry Marshall and composer Paul Williams into a musical comedy.

Goodbye gray skies, hello blue! Happy days are here again with Arthur 'The Fonz' Fonzarelli, Richie, Potsie, Ralph Malph and all of the gang in the Roxy Regional Theatre's production of HAPPY DAYS, opening Thursday July 12, at 7pm.

There are so many starmaking turns-and some wonderfully engaging and endearing antics-onstage at Clarksville's Roxy Regional Theater in the company's revival of The Wedding Singer, that you cannot help but become a fan of the show, even if you've never seen the movie that inspired the onstage musical comedy.

Summer's here, and it's hotter than blue blazes in Tennessee, as theater companies from one end of the state to the other are hard at work to keep audiences engaged and entertained throughout what promises to be one long hot summer. But think of it this way, with yesterday's Summer Solstice-which means we've survived the year's longest day-everything will get just a little bit shorter, promising a respite from the heat and humidity. This week also marked the celebration of National Martini Day, so may we humbly suggest that you grab a shaker, add some ice, vodka and a whisper of vermouth and shake yourself up an ice-cold drink…

For two weekends only, beginning June 29 at 8pm, the music of Grammy and Academy Award-winning composer Stephen Schwartz will be celebrated, cabaret-style, in DEFYING GRAVITY at the Roxy Regional Theatre.

As a companion piece to the Roxy's current musical Captain Louie, which was also composed by Schwartz, Defying Gravity features songs from Wicked, Godspell, Pippin, Rags and more, performed by Josh Bernaski, Jama Bowen, Ryan Bowie, Hannah Church, Kaitlin Doughty, Regan Featherstone, Humberto Figueroa, Erin Keas, Travis Kendrick, Ashley Laverty, Sean Ormond and Rob Rodems, with Tom Thayer on piano.

CAPTAIN LOUIE plays the Roxy Regional Theatre, beginning Friday, June 22, at 6pm.

This family-friendly musical is based on the beloved children's story The Trip by Ezra Jack Keats, who wrote and illustrated more than two dozen children's books during his lifetime, including the Caldecott Medal award-winning The Snowy Day. The child of struggling immigrant parents in the 1920s, Keats was known for populating his books with characters of different ethnicities, introducing multiculturalism into mainstream American children's literature.

Starting tonight, May 25, let the Roxy Regional Theatre's THE WEDDING SINGER 'take you back to a time when hair was big, greed was good, collars were up, and a wedding singer might just be the coolest guy in the room.'

Among them (according to The National Center for Education Statistics, some 1,781,000 students at the bachelor's degree level will graduate as part of the Class of 2012), of course, are a fresh crop of would-be actors, directors, stage managers, playwrights, designers, critics and others who hope to parlay that degree in theater into some semblance of a career that will pay them a living wage and foster their future growth and continued devotion to their chosen field.

Starting May 25, let the Roxy Regional Theatre's THE WEDDING SINGER 'take you back to a time when hair was big, greed was good, collars were up, and a wedding singer might just be the coolest guy in the room.'

Set in a socially and sexually repressive village in 19th century Germany, this coming of age story follows teenagers Melchior (Matt DuMont), Wendla (Hannah Church), and Moritz (Gregory Pember*) on their journeys of self-discovery. Also featured are Melanie Beck, Josh Bernaski, Ryan Bowie, Regan Featherstone, Humberto Figueroa, Leslie Greene, Erin Keas, Ashley Laverty, John McDonald, Hollie Morse, Sean Ormond, Rob Rodems, Cassie Thompson and Kendall Anne Thompson.

Spring Awakening,the Tony Award-winning musical by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater based upon the play by Frank Wedekind, opens at Clarksville's Roxy Regional Theatre for an April 13-May 15 run, starring Matt DuMont as Melchior and Hannah Church as Wendla.

It's rather ironic that this week-a week in which members of the Tennessee State Senate considered a bill that would outlaw such "gateway sexual activities" as hand-holding and kissing among the state's schoolchildren-that Clarksville's Roxy Regional Theatre would unveil its rock-solid production of Spring Awakening, the Duncan Sheik/Steven Sater musical about sexual repression and the perils of denying the possibilities of carnal knowledge and an accompanying sense of self-awareness among teenagers in Germany in the late 19th century.

Class is in session this spring at the Roxy Regional Theatre! For three Saturday afternoons beginning April 14, the Roxy instructs a whole new generation to 'Unpack Your Adjectives,' 'Do the Circulation' and meet up at 'Conjunction Junction' with the pop-culture phenomenon SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK LIVE!

The Roxy Regional Theatre opens SPRING AWAKENING on Friday, April 13, at 8pm.