Jamie Farmer News

This holiday season, Tennessee Repertory Theatre will once again present the holiday cult classic A Christmas Story adapted by Phillip Grecian and based on the motion picture by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark.

Theater-goers in Nashville have a new holiday tradition to embrace this season with Tennessee Repertory Theatre's wonderfully staged and acted revival of last season's critically acclaimed stage adaptation of A Christmas Story. Adapted by Philip Grecian and based on the iconic 1983 movie script by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown and Bob Clark, all the beloved characters and their wacky situations (yep, that famous fishnet-stocking-clad lamp aka 'a major award' is onstage) are brought to life - and, rest assured, you'll have even more fun than you would hunkered down in front of the TV.

This holiday season, Tennessee Repertory Theatre will once again present the holiday cult classic A Christmas Story adapted by Phillip Grecian and based on the motion picture by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark.

This holiday season, Tennessee Repertory Theatre will once again present the holiday cult classic A Christmas Story adapted by Phillip Grecian and based on the motion picture by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark.

Photographer Stacy Battles, one of Nashville's best known celebrity photographers, was on hand to shoot the red carpet arrivals that heralded the return of First Night, after an absence of some 14 years. First Night is presented by Jeffrey Ellis, who covers Nashville theater for BroadwayWorld.com, and who is the founder of the awards celebration that was first held on September 17, 1989.

You know you have a hit musical on your hands when audience members leave the theatre humming the songs they just heard. But you know you have a mega-hit musical onstage when those audience members are of the six-, seven-, or eight-year-old variety and they are singing the show's songs and dancing their way out the door. Well, that's exactly what Nashville Children's Theatre is experiencing with their current production of Miss Nelson Is Missing, the high-spirited adaptation of the 1977 book by Harry Allard, updated to 2010 and featuring terrific performances by six talented actors.

This Friday, March 5, the Roxy Regional Theatre welcomes the opening of William Shakespeare's comedy AS YOU LIKE IT, with our regular pay-what-you-can night. Tickets go on sale at 7:30pm for whatever you wish to pay; curtain is at 8pm.

Join Peter Rabbit, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail when they meet Mr. McGregor, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Mittens, Moppet and Tom Kitten, all in a colorful, wonderful revival of the Beatrix Potter classics in PETER RABBIT & FRIENDS at the Roxy Regional Theatre. Final performance of PETER RABBIT will be held on February 13.

Join Peter Rabbit, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail when they meet Mr. McGregor, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Mittens, Moppet and Tom Kitten, all in a colorful, wonderful revival of the Beatrix Potter classics in PETER RABBIT & FRIENDS at the Roxy Regional Theatre.

Join Peter Rabbit, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail when they meet Mr. McGregor, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Mittens, Moppet and Tom Kitten, all in a colorful, wonderful revival of the Beatrix Potter classics in PETER RABBIT & FRIENDS at the Roxy Regional Theatre.

How important then is this play - now onstage at Nashville Children's Theatre in a stunning production helmed by NCT producing director Scot Copeland - designed for younger audiences? Frankly, its impact is immeasurable, but it most certainly presents the story of young diarist Anne Frank in such a way that younger audiences should never be able to forget the Holocaust, nor should they ever question the reality of those dark days in the human experience.

Join Peter Rabbit, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail when they meet Mr. McGregor, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Mittens, Moppet and Tom Kitten, all in a colorful, wonderful revival of the Beatrix Potter classics in PETER RABBIT & FRIENDS at the Roxy Regional Theatre.

Rehearsals are under way for the Nashville Children's Theatre production of The Diary of Anne Frank, the award-winning drama by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, opening January 19. Tia Shearer stars in the title role, with other characters played by Evelyn Blythe, Rona Carter, Jamie Farmer-Oneida, Henry Haggard, Peter Vann, Samuel Whited, Holly Wooten and Bobby Wyckoff.

Join Peter Rabbit, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail when they meet Mr. McGregor, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Mittens, Moppet and Tom Kitten, all in a colorful, wonderful revival of the Beatrix Potter classics in PETER RABBIT & FRIENDS at the Roxy Regional Theatre.

While the women in Nashville theatre might garner more critical attention, showier roles and sparklier costumes, the men, clearly, are no slouches themselves. Capable and committed, the men who assay roles on Nashville stages are a pretty impressive collection of actors who can take on the most traditional of roles one week, while tackling parts that require them to be more experimental and brave the next. In 2009, Nashville's best actors showed their range while strutting themselves in some of the best productions we've seen in years.

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.

Jean Shepherd's classic memoir of growing up in the 1940s Midwest - A Christmas Story - will usher in the holiday season at Tennessee Repertory Theatre, as the venerable Nashville professional company presents the stage adaptation of the film cult classic for a November 21-December 19 run at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre will celebrate its 25th season of live, critically acclaimed theatre by welcoming a mix of familiar favorites and new faces.