Jeffrey Ellis News

More than 150 people gathered at Nashville's venerable Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre Monday night for the announcement of honorees and award winners for the 2015 First Night Honors. Preview Party celebrants were treated to a bountiful buffet of entertainment as cast members from several musicals currently on the boards or upcoming on Middle Tennessee stages performed numbers from their shows

More than 150 people gathered at Nashville's venerable Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre Monday night for the announcement of honorees and award winners for the 2015 First Night Honors. Preview Party celebrants were treated to a bountiful buffet of entertainment as cast members from several musicals currently on the boards or upcoming on Middle Tennessee stages performed numbers from their shows.

Nine individuals who have taken leading roles in making live theater in Tennessee better and more magical have been named as members of the Class of 2015 Honorees for The First Night Honors, the annual celebration of all things theatrical held in Nashville every September.

Nine individuals who have taken leading roles in making live theater in Tennessee better and more magical have been named as members of the Class of 2015 Honorees for The First Night Honors, the annual celebration of all things theatrical held in Nashville every September.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Theater in Tennessee has never been busier nor has it been more diverse than what you'll find onstage this weekend throughout the Volunteer State. From frothy and fun summer musicals that are sure to make you think - like All Shook Up at Chaffin's Barn and A Chorus Line at Cumberland County Playhouse - to new plays from Shawn Whitsell (his latest, Songs For Our Sons, premieres at Darkhorse Theatre on Friday night) and emerging playwright Che Pieper (his new script based on the book The Man With the Light in His Window debuts at The Theater Bug this weekend)…the magic of live theater is all around you…even in this heat and humidity! So pull your seersucker suits and sundresses out of the closet, get all gussied up and make your way to the relative cool of a darkened theater for some midsummer magic!

Directors and producers in the Nashville region are seeking actors for upcoming productions of The Mousetrap, Manuscript, Cheaper by The Dozen and First Baptist of Ivy Gap - and producers are seeking cast members for a touring production of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. There's even a haunted house in Auburtown seeking performers for a paying gig. We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. So now you have no excuse!

The First Night Honors' Class of 2015 will be revealed next Monday night, July 27, as Nashville Theater's Big Reveal: The First Night Preview Party gets under way at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre at 6 p.m., featuring entertainment by the casts of some of the summer's biggest musicals throughout Tennessee.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Directors and producers in the Nashville region are seeking actors for upcoming productions of Harvey and Deathtrap - and producers are seeking cast members for a touring production of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. So now you have no excuse!

Members of The First Night Honors' Class of 2015 will be announced during Nashville Theater's Big Reveal: The 2015 First Night Preview Party on Monday, July 27, at 6 p.m. at Music City's iconic venue Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Directors and producers in the Nashville region are seeking actors for upcoming productions of Harvey and Deathtrap - and Nashville is seeking a few good babies to be featured in the ABC series' fourth season. We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. So now you have no excuse!

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Directors and producers in the Nashville region are seeking actors for upcoming productions of The Bible in 30 Minutes...or less!, The Music Man and Harvey - and more! We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. So now you have no excuse!

VWA Theatricals has found its Cathy and Jamie for the upcoming production of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years: Delaney Amatrudo and Luke Denison. Amatrudo and Denison will lead the cast for the musical, which runs August 13-22 at Nashville's iconic Darkhorse Theater. Amatrudo currently studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and Denison is a recent graduate of Indiana University.

Directors and producers in the Nashville region are seeking actors for upcoming productions of Heathers the Musical, Smoke/Spirit and The Music Man - and more! We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. So now you have no excuse!

It's already heating up in Nashville and it's not even summer yet! But Nashville area theater companies are hard at work to ensure that audiences have a lot to choose from in the way of live theater presented in cool, darkened theaters. Here are our suggestions for the most eagerly anticipated shows of the sultry summer season…

Directors and producers in the Nashville region are seeking actors for upcoming productions of August: Osage County, Nunsense, The Last Five Years, Heathers the Musical, Smoke/Spirit and The Music Man. We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. So now you have no excuse!

Directors and producers in the Nashville region are seeking actors for upcoming productions of American Idiot, August: Osage County, The Last Five Years, Heathers the Musical and The Music Man. We've gathered the details together here to make your planning easier. This is planned as a regular feature and we invite you to send your audition announcements to Jeffrey Ellis, senior contributing editor, at jeffreyellis37215@att.net for inclusion in this column.