Dressed to the nines-despite forecasts of thunderstorms and a tornado watch that hung over the region-theater people from throughout Tennessee gathered at Belmont University's Bill and Carole Troutt Theatre on Sunday night for the 2013 First Night Honors. Hosted by Holly Shepherd and Joel Diggs, the gala evening honored eight leading lights of Tennessee theater as they were recognized as members of the First Night Class of 2013 Honorees.
Steven Dietz's Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure has been performed all over the country, but when Nashville Children's Theatre presents it as the opening production of its 81st season, it will be the first time the play has been presented by a theatre for young audiences. And in another noteworthy first, the production marks the first time that Nashville Children's Theatre has mounted a show of some two hours in length.
Eight individuals, whose names attest to the depth and breadth of live theatrical performance in Nashville, have been named as members of the 2012 Class of First Night Honorees and will be feted with a special tribute concert on Sunday, September 2, at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre.
Members of the 2012 First Night Honors' Class of Honorees will be revealed to the public tonight, July 23, during the First Night Preview Party, which will be held at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, 8204 Highway 100 in Nashville.
Members of the 2012 First Night Honors' Class of Honorees will be revealed to the public Monday night, July 23, during the First Night Preview Party, which will be held at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, 8204 Highway 100 in Nashville.
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…
"Our 34th season will be another ambitious one for the Coterie. The Coterie's Lab for New Family Musicals will host an awesome holiday production and work with the composing/writing team behind Shrek the Musical to create the premiere Theatre for Young Audiences version," said Jeff Church, producing artistic director. "There will be several wonderful productions based on books: Christopher Paul Curtis' Bud Not Buddy, Lois Lowry's Number the Stars and a piece based on Scholastic's Dear America Series.
Nashville Children's Theatre will launch its 81st season with Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure-a full-length play by Steven Dietz, one of America's top contemporary playwrights-running September 13-October 7 at the theater.
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.
Debuting Nashville Children's Theatre-where it will continue through March 18-is producing artistic director Scot Copeland's original adaptation of The Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete), described as "an exquisitely theatrical adaptation of the French fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont.
You won't find any dancing candelabra or see any anthropomorphic bombe chests bursting out in song in Nashville Children's Theatre's beautifully crafted adaptation of The Beauty and The Beast-written by producing artistic director Scot Copeland under the title Le Belle et la Bete-but what you will find is a heartfelt iteration of the timeless tale, one filled with romantic wonder and exquisite storytelling, based upon the "fairy tale" by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont.
Debuting February 28 at Nashville Children's Theatre-where it will continue through March 18-is producing artistic director Scot Copeland's original adaptation of The Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete), described as "an exquisitely theatrical adaptation of the French fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont.
Debuting February 28 at Nashville Children's Theatre-where it will continue through March 18-is producing artistic director Scot Copeland's original adaptation of The Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete), described as "an exquisitely theatrical adaptation of the French fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont.
Although the events of the story are nearly 50 years old, they resonate deeply-particularly for us Southerners in whose memories they continue to reverberate-and they offer younger audiences a sepia-toned look back at the not-so-distant past that we still must strive to overcome. In short, The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 is a theatrical event that is not to be missed and which, again, spotlights NCT's extraordinary accomplishments and its gift for compelling storytelling.
The year is 1963, and the Watsons, an African-American family, are taking a road trip from their home in Flint, Michigan, to Birmingham, Alabama. Fourth grader Kenny's older brother Byron has been hanging with a tough crowd and getting into trouble, so his parents decide to take him to live for a time with his grandmother down south. Soon, the whole family is crowded into the Brown Bomber, heading back to Alabama-and straight into one of the most shocking moments in American history
Based on the series of Junie B. Jones books by Barbara Park, Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! brings the saucy first grader back to NCT with all of her holiday excitement. Junie B. and her classmates were last at NCT in 2007, when the theatre performed Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business to celebrate the theater's grand re-opening following its massive renovations.
Now onstage at the nationally renowned and venerated company's Ann Stahlman Hill Theatre through October 16, Holes features an extraordinary cast of some of the region's finest actors bringing the beloved tale to life with such vigorous energy that audiences of any age (not just the ones 'age 8 and up' noted in the program) will become engaged in the story, its twists and turns and revelatory moments sparking their very imaginations (and, I suspect, to the library to once again experience the book).
Nashville Children's Theatre (NCT) presents the stage adaptation of Louis Sachar's Holes, opening on Tuesday, September 20 and running through October 16. Based on the popular novel by Louis Sachar, who also wrote the script, Holes tells the tale of young Stanley Yelnats who is sentenced (despite his innocence) to the wasteland of Camp Green Lake. He and his fellow juvenile detainees are forced to dig holes in the hot desert sun day after day after day by the Warden. What is she looking for? And how is the mystery connected to Stanley's 'no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather' and a long-dead outlaw named Kissing Kate Barlow?
