Nate Eppler News

Playhouse Nashville's popular Ten Minute Playhouse-named one of the Top 11 Theatrical Events of 2011 by The First Night Honors-returns December 9 and 10 with a fresh slate of 12 new plays by Middle Tennessee writers. Local actors interested in participating in the staged readings at Street Theatre Company are invited to attend an open casting call and rehearsal on Saturday, December 8, at noon.

Thanks to the exquisitely crafted and wonderfully creative Outside Paradise, a new play written by Bill Feehely and given an opulent world premiere production from Actors Bridge Ensemble, the story of these two tragic figures is brought to life onstage.

Developed with the aid of a creation grant from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission, Outside Paradise-playwright Bill Feehely's stage treatment of the life and love of literary lions Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald-debuts at Belmont University's Black Box Theatre on November 9, running for two weekends and starring Jennifer Richmond and Clay Steakley as the sta-rcrossed lovers.

Eager to feed Music City's growing appetite for quality original theatrical material, Playhouse Nashville is now accepting submissions for the fourth incarnation of its popular showcase for Middle Tennessee artists, The Ten Minute Playhouse-named one of The First Night Award's Top 11 Theatrical Events of 2011.

Official trailer for Twelve Angry Men, the second show of Studio Tenn's 2012-2013 season. Trailer by ANTHONYMATULA.

Franklin's Historic Williamson County Courthouse will provide the unique and totally apropos setting as Studio Tenn Theatre Company's 2012-13 season continues with Twelve Angry Men, the classic courtroom drama, running October 18-27.

Growing up as a baby boomer in the South, you carry with you at least a modicum of guilt-regardless of whatever your upbringing actually may have been-about racism and the impact of one's skin color on the society in which you are raised. Here in the South, we're well aware of our history founded upon racist attitudes and built upon the backs of slaves, so we struggle with racism continually and it is never far from our minds-to the point, quite honestly, that we may have come much further in our consideration of the racist conundrum than our Yankee (old habits die hard) counterparts. And in these upwardly mobile times, there is a very good chance you might find yourself struggling anew with racial stereotypes and archetypes if you are among the pioneers of neighborhood gentrification.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre will present the Tennessee premiere of Clybourne Park, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play. Clybourne Park runs tonight, September 8 - 22 at TPAC's Johnson Theater.

Chris Bosen and Nate Eppler, the curators of The Ten Minute Playhouse-named one of the Top 11 Theatrical Events of 2011 by The First Night Honors-have been invited by Street Theatre Company to present new programming in-residence during the 2013 season.

Clay Steakley and Jennifer Richmond will take on the roles of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald this fall as Actors Bridge Ensemble presents the world premiere of Bill Feehely's Outside Paradise, November 9-18 at Belmont University's Black Box Theatre. Outside Paradise follows the life and love of literary legends F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald through the jazz age and into infamy. Funded by a Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission Creation Grant, this new work examines the volatile passion, deep commitment and remarkable work of this iconic pair and their closest confidants.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre will present the Tennessee premiere of Clybourne Park, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play. Clybourne Park runs September 8 - 22 at TPAC's Johnson Theater (with preview performances September 6 - 7).

Tennessee Repertory Theatre announced plans for REPaloud, the popular play reading series. The first staged reading of the 2012-13 season will be the classic drama A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. REPaloud will take place tonight, August 16 - 18 at 7:00 pm at Tennessee Rep's Rehearsal Hall (NPT Studio A, 161 Rains Avenue).

Martha Wilkinson, the nine-time First Night Award-winning actress (who's been singled out for honors by both The Tennessean and Nashville Scene, as well) who is one of the few actors in Nashville whose very name can lend starpower to the box office of any show she's in, is back onstage this weekend in Nashville Shakespeare Festival's World War II-era adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing. So, in honor of Martha's role as "the ultimate diva of Nashville theater," we've come up with a poll, asking the $64,000 Question: What Martha Wilkinson role would you love to see her play onstage again?

Tennessee Repertory Theatre announced plans for REPaloud, the popular play reading series. The first staged reading of the 2012-13 season will be the classic drama A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. REPaloud will take place on August 16 - 18 at 7:00 pm at Tennessee Rep's Rehearsal Hall (NPT Studio A, 161 Rains Avenue).

We've been doing our part to prepare ye the way, watching the action onstage, taking some furtive peeks backstage, listening to all the offstage gossip and venturing beyond the confines of the theater to gain the informed knowledge to see more shows in the Volunteer State than you ever thought possible. So, good people of the theaterati, read on and get all the information you need to know in this, our latest installment of Music City Confidential. This is #6…

SAVE THE DATE: The 2012 First Night Honorees, Most Promising Actors and the First Night Star Award winners will be revealed on Monday, July 23, at the First Night Preview Party...details to follow.

Tennessee Repertory Theatre has announced its schedule for the Martha R. Ingram New Works Festival. The festival will be held May 30 - June 9 and will feature staged readings of new plays from four regional playwrights as well as nationally-renowned playwright Steven Dietz. Dietz is this year's recipient of the Ingram New Works Fellowship.

Directed by Nate Eppler, Here Lies Jeremy Troy stars Rebekah Durham, Andy Kanies, Jennifer Richmond, Will Sevier and Lane Wright. Eppler, in addition to acting and directing, is a playwright and teaching artist based in Nashville. His plays include Keeping Up With the Joneses, The Shorty Hawkins Play, Modern Love and Long Way Down. Eppler is the recipient of both the Tennessee Arts Commission Professional Development Support Grant and the Individual Artist Fellowship. He is playwright-in-residence for Tennessee Repertory Theatre.

Granted, most of my research can be credited to two plays by J. Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler (known professionally as the eponymously named Osborne and Eppler, in the spirit of Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Kaufman and Hart and George and Ira…Gershwin…which sorta ruins the sound of my sentence, but what can you do?), an impressive and noteworthy Nashville playwriting team, who seemingly have cornered the theatrical market on such Dixiefied ceremonies and celebrations in their comedies Southern Fried Funeral (which was debuted by Franklin's Bethlehem Players in 2010) and Southern Fried Nuptials (now onstage at Bethlehem Methodist Church in its world premiere production). I'll be sure to include them in the footnotes when my findings are published.

Plays and playwrights selected for this edition of the Ten Minute Playhouse are: Dropped Call by Garret Schneider, Lyla Builds a Spaceship by Darren Van Michael, Double Header by Brooke Bryant & Carolyn German, Unfortunate Introduction by James Skelley, Ecotone by Ritchie Simmons, Atheist's Surprise by Joe Giordano, Types by Sean Hills, Bobby Met His Father by Thomas Heine, ReinCarnival by Rachael Swann, World's Finest Team-Ups! by Bob Giordano, Mr. Baxter Learns a Lesson by Laura Cockarell and Cold Fish by Nate Eppler.