Mitch Massaro News

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.

And Sondra Morton, Jayme Smith and co. (that would be Act Too) stages their company's latest work at the historic Franklin Theatre - The Sound of Music - starring Kimberly Rye as Maria, Cameron Bortz as Rolf and the inimitable Matt Baugher as Georg Von Trapp. Check it out!

Led by program director Jessika Malone and technical director Mitch Massaro - and named by CNN as one of 'most intriguing festivals' in the 'Best of the U.S.' - Nashville's Sideshow @ Actors Bridge unveils its fifth annual slate of performances for today, July 16, through July 19.

In between, there's a plethora of performances and events lined up, including a Sideshow-produced rendition of Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers' Matt & Ben, starring Jenna Pryor and Britt Byrd, directed by Patrick Kramer: a what-might-have-happened comedy that considers how the pair of Boston-bred bros created an Academy Award winning screenplay.

Nashville's acclaimed Sideshow Fringe Festival gets under way next Thursday, so what better way to get ready for this year's event than by looking back at 2014's Saturday morning and evening events, captured in a series of photographs by Wesley Duffee-Braun. If 2014 looked this good...can you imagine what 2015 is gonna look like?

Nashville's acclaimed Sideshow Fringe Festival gets under way next Thursday, so what better way to get ready for this year's event than by looking back at 2014's Friday night events, captured in a series of photographs by Wesley Duffee-Braun. If 2014 looked this good...can you imagine what 2015 is gonna look like?

Nashville's acclaimed Sideshow Fringe Festival gets under way next Thursday, so what better way to get ready for this year's event than by looking back at 2014's opening night events, captured in a series of photographs by Wesley Duffee-Braun. If 2014 looked this good...what does 2015 have in store?

Led by program director Jessika Malone and technical director Mitch Massaro - and named by CNN as one of 'most intriguing festivals' in the 'Best of the U.S.' - Nashville's Sideshow @ Actors Bridge unveils its fifth annual slate of performances for July 16-19.

This innovative adaptation of one of the best-loved books for early readers bursts to life on NCT's stage in an explosion of movement, a kaleidoscope of color and a circus-wagon load of clowning. Audiences are invited to join Red Dog, Blue Dog, Yellow Dog and Green Dog as they bark, scoot, scratch, drive, and howl at the moon. Go, Dog. Go! is described as an exhilarating celebration of childhood for children of all ages.

Boldly moving into their second season of challenging audiences with compelling, new and exciting theater, Sideshow @ Actors Bridge will bring sexy back as they present the regional premiere of 13P member Sheila Callaghan's Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake).

Playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb knows how to deliver such a dramatic jolt and he does so in his play boom, the season-ending production from Sideshow, the "project" of Actors Bridge Ensemble that has brought something new and exciting to Nashville theater-pushing the envelope through a series of innovative theatrical initiatives that are far removed from the staid old comedies and dramas we tend to see so often on local stages.

What better way to kick off Sunday-and to celebrate Father's Day!-than with the latest installment of Music City Confidential! Here's where you'll find all the news that's fit to print (or not-depending on your perspective) from Nashville's ever-growing, ever-fascinating live theater industry. Amid the florid prose and flowery praise, you'll find all the stories that don't quite fit anywhere else, some of 'em kind of gossipy, some of 'em stone-cold serious, some of 'em just lists of names you need to know. You'll also find photos from our new "Intermission@" series, details about the latest cast parties and various and sundry minutiae-the veritable flotsam and jetsam-from backstage, onstage, offstage and beyond…

The Sideshow Ensemble at Actors Bridge provides a year-long training immersion opportunity for disciplined, dedicated artists seeking to take their development to the next level. Nashville artists will be selected by a panel of Actors Bridge ensemble members and current Sideshow artists for their cross-disciplinary skills, potential for growth, commitment to ensemble principles, and dedication to the longevity of Actors Bridge.

Completely charming and thoroughly engaging, Click Clack Moo-Cows That Type is given a colorful and upbeat production at Nashville Children's Theatre, under the direction of Scot Copeland who leads his terrific five-person ensemble through the musical that draws on 1960s-style pop and 1940s-flavored swing music to tell its fanciful story.

Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type opens April 3 at Nashville Children's Theatre, running through May 13, featuring an all-star cast of Rona Carter, Vanessa Callahan, Amanda Card-McCoy and Samuel Whited, under the direction of Scot Copeland.

Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type opens April 3 at Nashville Children's Theatre, running through May 13, featuring an all-star cast of Rona Carter, Vanessa Callahan, Amanda Card-McCoy and Samuel Whited, under the direction of Scot Copeland.

Vali Forrister retuns to the stage for the first time since her 2006 triumph in How I Learned to Drive to lead the cast of Actors Bridge Ensemble and the Belmont University Department of Theatre and Dance's production of Frederico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba. Jessika Malone, artistic associate at ABE, directs the cast of Emily Mann's adaptation of Lorca's work which has been described as 'a cross between Downton Abbey and The Bachelor with an added splash of Mommie Dearest.'

Tyrannical and imperious, Bernarda Alba rules her five daughters with an iron-fisted vehemence in Actors Bridge Ensemble and Belmont University Theatre's presentation of Federico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, which marks the return to the stage of Vali Forrister, Actors Bridge producing artistic director, after a far too long six-year absence.

Vali Forrister retuns to the stage for the first time since her 2006 triumph in How I Learned to Drive to lead the cast of Actors Bridge Ensemble and the Belmont University Department of Theatre and Dance's production of Frederico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba. Jessika Malone, artistic associate at ABE, directs the cast of Emily Mann's adaptation of Lorca's work which has been described as 'a cross between Downton Abbey and The Bachelor with an added splash of Mommie Dearest.'