TPS Talks are a new initiative of TPS, DTE and SistaStyle Productions that provide real-world stories and insights from working theatre professionals to college/university classrooms, corporate events, group organizations, and more.
Tennessee Playwrights Studio and Angela Gimlin (Founder and COO of Nashville's own Inebriated Shakespeare Company) present a virtual workshop reading of the to-be-produced-after-the-pandemic play, THAT WOMAN, comprised of a series of monologues from the perspectives of women who were involved (or rumored-to-be involved) with President John F. Kennedy.
The pandemic has not stopped Tennessee Playwrights Studio's 2020 Fellows from creating six interesting and thought-provoking new works, which have been developed throughout the year at monthly TPS workshops and will be performed by favorite local Nashville actors on January 27-29 and February 3-5, 2021.
Although an over-arching consideration of evil is perhaps difficult to comprehend even three-quarters of a century after the end of World War II and beyond the scope of a stage-bound drama, playwright Kenley Smith nonetheless focuses his attention on the intertwined stories of two such villains as those captured in those wartime photos to great effect and maximum impact in Maidens, an original work given its world premiere production by Tennessee Playwrights Studio at Nashville's Darkhorse Theatre. Onstage through July 13, Maidens is as disturbing and provocative as its subject matter would indicate, brought to life with bravery and commitment by a seven-person cast under the direction of the playwright himself.
ACT 1 brings its 2018-19 'f**k the Classics' Season to a close with director/designer Jim Manning's unique reinterpretation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with Violent Delights, a dance-based retelling set to a score of music from emerging Nashville artists. Violent Delights runs May 24-June 8 at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater.
It's another busy weekend in Nashville - but when is Music City not packed with events, festivals, affairs? - and we're back with our Critic's Choice recommendations to have you cut through the theatrical flotsam and jetsam and find a cultural opening that's a good fit for your harried lifestyle. Nashville Opera opens its staging of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock at Noah Liff Opera Center, Way Off Broadway Productions unveils its version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Music Valley Event Center, Street Theatre Company invites you to the see their staging of Lynn Nottage's Sweat at their new venue on Elm Hill Pike and Nashville Rep continues its celebration of 10 years of The Ingram New Works Festival at Nashville Children's Theatre.
As the magical floating stage descends from the upper recesses of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, anticipation grows and attention is directed to the half dozen actors seated upon the stage, their chairs as unique as the performers themselves. Gathered together by director Joy Tilley Perryman, the dozen actors who will be seen and heard in the company's performance of Listen to Your Mother, a collection of monologues on the subject of parenthood and the myriad relationships to be found among parents and children, were each cast for his or her particular strengths, whether it's their ability to tell a story or to engage an audience.
Members from the Chaffin's Barn's cast of Listen To Your Mother will tell us about their own moms and their lessons learned. Today's subject is Molly Breen, who with Listen To Your Mother makes her debut at the theater, located at 8204 Highway 100 in Nashville. For ticket information or reservations, call (615) 646-9977 or go to www.chaffinsbarntheatre.com.
Tennessee Playwrights Studio, a Nashville-based new-play development lab in partnership with Actors Bridge Ensemble, has announced its fellows and associates for 2019. Five TPS fellows, chosen from a competitive application process, will work under the direction of Kenley Smith to develop new full-length scripts that will be presented in public readings at the Darkhorse Theatre Chapel later this year. Two associates will contribute to monthly workshop sessions in the first year and will become TPS Fellows in 2020. TPS will continue to cast actors from the Nashville community for workshops and readings.
Looking ahead, you'll find a number of new productions on tap, including a whole slew of holiday favorites, for your entertainment pleasure, thanks to the efforts of theater companies all over Middle Tennessee. Here's our calendar for November 12, 2018, to help you plot your course through next February...
Looking ahead, you'll find a number of new productions on tap for your entertainment pleasure, thanks to the efforts of theater companies all over Middle Tennessee. Here's our calendar for November 5, 2018, to help you plot your course through the end of the year...
Sharply written dialogue and an engaging story as relevant as any you are likely to see onstage nowadays are the hallmarks of Molly Smith Metzler's Cry It Out, now onstage through August 18 at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater in a superbly acted production from SistaStyle Productions and Three in a Tree Productions.
The Sacred Fools Theater Company is excited to present the World Premiere of the monster drama Akuma-shin by Kenley Smith, directed by Scott Leggett. The final Mainstage show of the company's 21st season opens Friday, March 30 and runs through Saturday, April 28 with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 7pm. The show will be performed in the Main Stage Theater of the Broadwater Theater Complex.
Who'd have thought that a play written in 2000 and based upon a work by Aeschylus from 463 BC (give or take a year or two) would prove to be so timely in the 21st Century? Yet that is exactly what Big Love, a play by Charles Mee, directed by Amanda Card and produced by Tamara Todres, Kristin McCalley and Clayton Landiss, has proven in six performances at a former Methodist Church in Inglewood, delivering a production that challenges preconceived notions about a myriad of issues, ranging from sexism, racism and any number of other "isms" that punctuate our current conversation.
Four TPS fellows - chosen from a competitive application process - will work under the direction of Kenley Smith, director of the TPS program, to develop new full-length scripts to be presented in a public reading at the Darkhorse Theatre this fall. Two Associates will serve as alternates for the program and will contribute to monthly workshop sessions in the first year and will fill two TPS fellow positions in 2019. TPS will work with actors from the Nashville community for workshops and readings.
GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! It's Tuesday, June 6, 2017 - and we know what you're thinking: Where the hell was my favorite early morning theater news and gossip yesterday? Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, we were unable to raise ourselves up from the bed and make our way to our desk in order to start writing. After a particularly challenging weekend, we were a bit under the weather and, truth be told, exhausted. We offer our abject apologies and request your indulgences, although we were just as disappointed as we hope you were because we were unable to live life dramatically with any sense of style on Monday.
ACT 1 kicks off its 2016-17 season with a special limited engagement of Lucas Hnath's The Christians, directed by Chris Bosen, which opens tonight and continues through Sejptember 24 at Tulip Street United Methodist Church (522 Russell Street in Nashville). Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. for each performance.
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.
What happens when a group of teenagers idolize a celebrity - a figure from popular culture whose charisma ensures he will live on forever despite his death at a young age - reunite some 20 years later to further venerate their crush and to recall his impact on their young lives? That's the question considered in Ed Graczyk's Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, the tragicomedy now onstage as the final production of ACT 1's 2015-16 season at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater.
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