Nathan W. Brown News

Area high school students join Metropolis School of the Performing Arts (SOPA) to perform the hit musical Grease: School Version August 6-9, 2022, in the Metropolis Theatre.

SOPA Cabaret returns to Metropolis School of the Performing arts with It's Time to Dance: A Celebration! March 13, 2022.

Students and faculty of Metropolis School of the Performing Arts entertain audiences with HAPPY HOLIDAYS: Seasonal Favorites at Metropolis December 12, 2021.

Director Robin M. Hughes is working with an extraordinarily talented cast, including local cast members Michael Ashford of Oak Park, Nathan W. Brown of Wood Dale, Haley Gustafson of Cary, Kaity Paschetto of Evanston, Jimmy Romano of Bloomingdale, and Michelle Tibble of Mount Prospect.

An eclectic group of six mid-pubescents vie for the spelling championship of a lifetime. While candidly disclosing hilarious and touching stories from their home lives, the tweens spell their way through a series of (potentially made-up) words, hoping never to hear the soul-crushing, pout-inducing, life un-affirming “ding” of the bell that signals a spelling mistake.

Students and faculty of Metropolis School of the Performing Arts will entertain audiences with SOPA Cabaret - A Brand New Day: Broadway Musicals of the 21st Century at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre April 5, 2020.

Students and faculty of Metropolis School of the Performing Arts entertain audiences with Here We Come A-Caroling: Holiday Favorites at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre December 15, 2019.

Dickson's Renaissance Players usher in the holiday season with an encore production of the musical extravaganza, A Christmas Carol, The Musical, running November 30 - December 18 in the Anne Deason Performance Hall at The Renaissance Center.

What really happens "happily ever after"? That is among the questions answered in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, to be presented by the Renaissance Players at Dickson's Renaissance Center, tonight, October 19-28 in the Anne Deason Performance Hall. The award-winning and critically acclaimed musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales and follows them further to explore the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests.

What really happens "happily ever after"? That is among the questions answered in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, to be presented by the Renaissance Players at Dickson's Renaissance Center, October 19-28 in the Anne Deason Performance Hall. The award-winning and critically acclaimed musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales and follows them further to explore the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests.

Now onstage at Dickson's Renaissance Center, in a professional production at The Gaslight Dinner Theatre helmed by Pacer Harp, and featuring a cast of winning performers, 9 to 5: The Musical has Dolly's unmistakably sunny outlook-exemplified by her tuneful score for the show-and Patricia Resnick's sharply drawn characters and situations which are sure to please even the film's most ardent admirers.

Dolly Parton's "in the house," in spirit and in song, at Dickson's Renaissance Center with the debut of 9 to 5: The Musical at The Gaslight Dinner Theatre, running through October 13. The show, based on the hit 1980 movie starring Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, features a score by seven-time Grammy Award-winner Parton that includes the blockbuster title song plus 18 original numbers that mix Broadway with pop and Parton's signature witty lyrics.

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.

Summer's here, and it's hotter than blue blazes in Tennessee, as theater companies from one end of the state to the other are hard at work to keep audiences engaged and entertained throughout what promises to be one long hot summer. But think of it this way, with yesterday's Summer Solstice-which means we've survived the year's longest day-everything will get just a little bit shorter, promising a respite from the heat and humidity. This week also marked the celebration of National Martini Day, so may we humbly suggest that you grab a shaker, add some ice, vodka and a whisper of vermouth and shake yourself up an ice-cold drink…

Valenti (playing Rose Alvarez, Albert's girl Friday/girlfriend) and Fair (as his overbearing mother, Mae Peterson) pretty much dominate the action as they deliver perfectly-timed, expertly crafted performances as the two women in feckless Albert's life, ensuring that a good time will be had by all in the fast-moving, quick-paced and altogether entertaining show. Directed and choreographed by Bryan J. Wlas (who celebrated a birthday during the show's first weekend of shows) with musical direction by Nathan W. Brown, Bye Bye Birdie offers a delightfully nostalgic look back at the beginnings of rock-star idolatry and the evolving manners and social mores of the early 1960s.

Bye Bye Birdie-conjuring up memories of Elvis Presley and the fan fervor that greeted a lot of musical acts in the 1950s and '60s-takes center stage at Dickson's Renaissance Center in June as the Renaissance Players present the musical theater classic tonight, June 1 through June 17.

Bye Bye Birdie-conjuring up memories of Elvis Presley and the fan fervor that greeted a lot of musical acts in the 1950s and '60s-takes center stage at Dickson's Renaissance Center in June as the Renaissance Players present the musical theater classic June 1-17.

It makes no difference the region in which you were raised or now live, nor does the church in which you grew up or now worship and, seemingly, it doesn't matter what your ethnic heritage is: There is a commonality, a universality that binds us all together as a society. And while all of that is a given, it's driven home with the gentle humor and the good graces of Church Basement Ladies, the sweetly evocative and sometimes hilarious musical onstage at The Gaslight Dinner Theatre, in a warmly acted production directed by Nathan W. Brown.

Church Basement Ladies will serve up fun, food and a "delicious musical comedy," April 24-May 26, at The Gaslight Theatre in Dickson. Written by husband and wife team Jim Stowell and Jessica Zuehlke, with music and lyrics by Drew Jansen, the musical comedy is based on the humorous novel Growing Up Lutheran by Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann Nelson.

Church Basement Ladies will serve up fun, food and a "delicious musical comedy," April 24-May 26, at The Gaslight Theatre in Dickson. Written by husband and wife team Jim Stowell and Jessica Zuehlke, with music and lyrics by Drew Jansen, the musical comedy is based on the humorous novel Growing Up Lutheran by Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann Nelson.