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.
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.
Shows are opening, shows are closing and Fiddler on the Roof is back onstage for Actors Pointe Theatre Company while Tom Sawyer takes a bow at Springhouse Theatre in Smyrna! Obviously, the 2016 theater season continues to reveal itself at a breakneck pace, giving audiences a veritable buffet of offerings from which to choose.
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.
Lori Fischer's The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers does what so many shows before it have attempted: To create a completely new world out of whole cloth and set it down amid the already existing world (in which we mere mortals ply our collective trade), peopled by characters who are easy to love or at least accessible enough to be engaging and fun to watch. Where Fischer's new musical - now onstage at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse - succeeds so impressively is in its refreshing storytelling structure that invites audiences into the fictionalized version of Ashland City, Tennessee, where people care deeply about their neighbors and are likely to sing songs displaying their affection and which are bound to make you guffaw (probably more than once).
There's a new show premiering at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse: The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers by Lori Fischer, the author of last year's Barbara's Blue Kitchen. Fischer's latest musical follows the adventures of two singing sisters from Ashland City, Tennessee, and the people who love them. Our question: Does Stratton's Diner (arguably the best burger joint ever in the history of the world) still exist in Fischer's depiction of the Cheatham County town? Director Bryce McDonald is being tight-lipped about it.
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.
Should you ask Bryce McDonald to point out the year of his life in which it was changed - irrevocably, but most certainly, for the better - chances are he would have difficulty in pinning down the most significant time in his life. He might select 1984, the year he first attended a show at Cumberland County Playhouse (it was Annie), or 1996 when he first stepped onto the CCP stage as a young man (in Oliver!) or it might be 1999, when he first began to train as a stage manager at the iconic Crossville theater (again, it was Annie) that has become 'home' for countless theater artists over the years.
On Friday, April 1, Cumberland County Playhouse presents the Southern Premiere of a new musical comedy by Lori Fischer (Barbara's Blue Kitchen) and Don Chaffer, The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers! CCP's producing director Bryce McDonald will direct the show, which had its world premiere at the Capital Repertory Theatre in 2013.
Recent Broadway hits Mamma Mia! and The Little Mermaid - along with the 23rd year of the downhome-flavored Smoke on the Mountain - are among the highlights of the 2016 season at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse, which was announced during a Wednesday morning press conference at the Playhouse in the midst of its 50th anniversary season.
Whatever type of entertainment escape audiences are looking for, Cumberland County Playhouse's 2016 Season offers something for everyone. From a magical chocolate factory to an underwater kingdom, to a romantic Greek island - and a dozen other locales - the Playhouse's new season promises to be its most exciting yet. 'We're thrilled to announce next year's lineup,' said Associate Producing Director Bryce McDonald. 'It's filled with some of the biggest titles to have appeared on Broadway in recent years. We've also secured the rights to new titles by the authors of some of the Playhouse's biggest hits, along with bringing back the perennial favorites, Smoke on the Mountain and A Sanders Family Christmas.'
Award-winning indie film CHASING TASTE will screen at the Anthology Film Archives at 32 Second Avenue in Manhattan as part of New Filmmakers New York tonight, September 16th, 2015 at 7:15pm.
Award-winning indie film CHASING TASTE will screen at the Anthology Film Archives at 32 Second Avenue in Manhattan as part of New Filmmakers New York on Wednesday, September 16th, 2015 at 7:15pm.
Florida Studio Theatre announces its annual Richard and Betty Burdick New Play Reading Series, which will present three new staged readings by contemporary American playwrights. The series will take place in the Keating Theatre on Saturday, April 25 at 2:00pm, Saturday, May 2 at 2:00pm, and Saturday, May 9 at 2:00pm, and is part of FST's Sarasota Festival of New Plays. Tickets for the series are 3 staged readings for $25, or individual readings for $10. Additionally, FRIENDS of FST can purchase a subscription for all 3 staged readings for $15. They may be purchased by calling the FST Box Office at (941) 366-9000 or by visiting floridastudiotheatre.org.
Over the coming months, we'll be sharing some of the fondest, funniest and most moving memories shared by many CCP alumni as we commemorate the company's golden anniversary. We kick off the celebration today with remembrances from Daniel W. Black, Jessica Wockenfuss, Lar'Juanette Williams and Brenda Sparks. As they take us down memory lane, you're likely to feel like you're right there in Crossville, being treated to the transformative, transporting work of 2013 First Night Honoree Jim Crabtree and his team - his family, really - still focused on creating art in the middle of Tennessee...
Running with a “Best Comedy” win at the 2014 Manhattan Film Festival and the 2013 Burbank International Film Festival, as well as an “Outstanding Achievement in Editing” (Steven Tyler) Independent Vision Award win at VISIONFEST 14, indie film Chasing Taste is an official selection of the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, deemed “Like a mini Sundance” by The Hollywood Reporter
Cumberland County Playhouse's 2015 Golden Anniversary Season features stories of Tennessee, the South, and families, in new comedies and musicals by nationally recognized Tennessee playwrights and songwriters. The Playhouse continues to feature strong local talent, in both new works and great family favorites like The Wizard of Oz and the professional regional premiere of Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins. Unlike movies and touring shows, attending a performance at the Playhouse keeps millions of entertainment dollars in the Tennessee economy, creating performance and production jobs and career opportunities!
First Night Award winning playwrights Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler's Southern Fried Funeral will be featured among productions celebrating the Golden Anniversary of Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse in 2015.
Broadway veterans Nancy Opel, Chuck Cooper and Rita Gardner also appear in Chasing Taste, along with the Classical Theatre of Harlem's Producing Director Ty Jones.
The Planet Connections Film Festival (www.planetconnections.org/film) is proud to announce the exciting program of short films, selected to screen as part of the 6th Annual Planet Connections Theatre Festivity
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