Tennessee Women's Theater Project has announced its 2010-2011 season, presenting two plays new to Middle Tennessee audiences, and the return of the company's annual Women's Work showcase of performing and visual arts at Nashville's Z. Alexander Looby Theater. A fourth production, last year's successful Warriors Don't Cry, will be touring Nashville area schools.
With the strains of 'Auld Lang Syne' mere moments away, minds are apt to be caught up in reflection, remembering the year now ending as a new one awaits just over the horizon. Certainly that's what I've been doing lately, looking back over the past year in Nashville theatre as I pencil in dates in my new 2010 (Here's a question to ponder: Is it 'two thousand ten' or 'twenty ten'...think about it and get back to me) calendar for the shows set to open in the months ahead.
In just over an hour, Steele takes her rapt audience on an informative and entertaining, if too heart-breakingly real, tour through the 1957-58 school year at Little Rock's Central High School. As she becomes Melba Pattillo, one of nine African-American students chosen to challenge entrenched racial roles by integrating the public school 'where the wealthiest of Little Rock's citizens sent their children to be educated,' Steele ably educates her audience about our country's darker days. It's a moving experience that elicits both tears and laughter and results in new pictures of bravery and heroism etched upon your heart.
Since that time, Maryanna's artistic focus has changed somewhat, and now she is artistic director for the Nashville-based Tennessee Women's Theatre Project, which is dedicated to 'presenting theatricial productions of the highest quality to Middle Tennessee audiences, to producing plays that express the human condition in the female voice; to providing acting, directing, design and management opportunities for women in professional theater; and to bringing live theater to new, underserved audiences.'
Urban Stages' reach extends beyond the stage, throughout the boroughs, and into the city's Public Libraries, with Urban Stages On Tour series, which brings quality free theatre reflecting the city's multiculturalism to diverse audiences across the Five Boroughs.
Videos
