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Nan Gurley

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Nan Gurley BIO

Nan has appeared in numerous theatrical productions throughout her career.

Some of her roles have included: Mama Rose in GYPSY, the Witch in INTO THE WOODS, Amanda Wingfield in THE GLASS MENAGERIE, Carlotta in PHANTOM, Morgan Le Fey in CAMELOT, Arlene in BABY, Mother Superior in NUNSENSE and THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Queen Elizabeth in RICHARD III, Mistress Quickly in THE MERRY WIVES OF OF WINDSOR, Hermia in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Dolly Levi in HELLO DOLLY!, Aunt Sally in BIG RIVER, Nellie Forbush in SOUTH PACIFIC and Fanny Brice in FUNNY GIRL.

In 2019, she portrayed the leading role of Corrie ten Boom in the world premiere of the original stage adaptation of THE HIDING PLACE in Houston, Texas, by A.S. “Pete” Peterson, and in a repeat engagement of the same production in Nashville, Tennessee, in July 2022.

She played Millie Bailey in A WONDERFUL LIFE, the musical by Sheldon Harnick and Joe Raposo, and sang on the Warner Brothers original cast album. She also has performed as a soloist with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and Tennessee Opera Theater.

Nan wrote and hosted FRONT ROW CENTER, an educational television series on the performing arts which aired on PBS stations nationwide. It was voted the Southern Education Communication Association’s “Best Series of the Year,”

Nan co-wrote and appeared in SHAKESPEARE’S CASE, a play that premiered in May 2009 at the Nashville Shakespeare Festival.

In 1995, her original one-woman show, THE DAIRY OF OPAL WHITELEY, was performed at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C., with Nan in the solo role. She later performed OPAL at colleges and universities throughout the southeast.

She is a two-time DOVE AWARD winning songwriter for THE RACE IS ON and FRIENDS FOREVER, musicals she co-wrote with Jim Weber and Billy Sprague.

She is also the author of three children’s books: LITTLE ROSE OF SHARON (Chariot Victor),TWICE YOURS (Zondervan) and WHAT COLOR IS LOVE (Zondervan).

Nan Gurley News


Due to High Demand, Select North America Cinemas Extend Screening of THE HIDING PLACE


The Hiding Place, the powerful film adaptation of Corrie Ten Boom's heroic story during World War II, will be extended in select North America cinemas due to overwhelming demand. Don't miss the chance to experience this inspiring true story of courage and sacrifice. Find showtimes and locations here.

Studio Tenn and CPA Arts' THE SOUND OF MUSIC Provides Pleasant Summertime Entertainment


One of musical theater’s most beloved offerings, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music is again brought to life by Studio Tenn in a lovely – and certainly crowd-pleasing – production through July 16 at Christ Presbyterian Academy’s Soli Deo Center, which marks the welcome return to the Nashville stage of director/choreographer Emily Tello Speck, who helms this production with her confident style and considered artistic vision.

12 Days Left To Vote For The 2022 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards; Audience of One Leads Favorite Local Theatre!


The latest standings as of Monday, December 19th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

Latest Stats Released For The 2022 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards; at Cookeville HE Leads Best Ensemble Performance!


The latest standings as of Monday, December 12th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

Latest Standings Released For The 2022 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards; Audience of One Leads Favorite Local Theatre!


The latest standings as of Monday, December 5th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Nashville Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

Review: Matt Logan Directs 'Stunning, Powerful, Deeply Moving' THE HIDING PLACE in Nashville Premiere


Stunning. Powerful. Deeply moving. The words come rather easily in an attempt to adequately describe the awe-inspiring performances to be found in director Matt Logan’s beautifully crafted production of A.S. Peterson’s The Hiding Place. Now onstage in its Nashville premiere at the Soli Deo Center (which, to be frank, is equally notable and worthy of excessive praise) at Christ Presbyterian Academy through July 23, the play – which had its premiere in September 2019 at A.D. Players in Houston, Texas – proves to be both accessible, engaging and, we daresay, hopeful even as it tells a story from one of the darkest eras in human history.

BWW Review: THE HIDING PLACE World Premiere is Poignant & Powerful at A.D. Players


Is it possible to be released from the bondage of suffering, while still in the midst of it? How often does sufferinga?'past or presenta?'grasp hold of our entire being, making it near impossible to believe in the goodness around us? The World Premiere Adaption of THE HIDING PLACE asks us these questions, while simultaneously being an answer to them. Additionally, A.D. Players holds strong ties to the telling of this story. Founder Jeannette Clift George starred as Corrie ten Boom in the critically acclaimed film adaptation after working alongside Corrie to bring her to life on the screen. This heart-wrenching and enlightening play sets the tone for A.D. Players' 53rd Seasona?'A Season of Hope.

BWW Review: Imaginations Soar in Pipeline-Collective's Staging of Keith Bunin's THE WORLD OVER


Once upon a time, there was a country that only existed for one brief day and there was a man named Adam, who was determined to return to his long-lost homeland who held the key to its ephemeral history. Adam's tale a?" filled with adventure and intrigue, with larger than life-sized characters and one epic quest after another a?" provides the basis for Keith Bunin's imaginative fantasy that deftly blends comedy and drama in The World Over, now onstage through July 27 in a fanciful production (the company's ninth) from Pipeline-Collective.

Joey Barreiro Returns to Nashville as Star of the National Tour of A BRONX TALE


It's a homecoming of sorts for Joey Barreiro this week as he and his castmates from the national tour of A Bronx Tale - the Broadway musical that's based on a one-man show created by actor/writer Chazz Palminteri - encamp at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center for a week-long stand.

BWW Review: Studio Tenn's Holiday Season Offering of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST


Before Broadway comes calling for Hatty Ryan King, the young Nashville actress with an enviable resume (the Lipscomb University sophomore is a Spotlight Award winner, was a finalist for The Jimmy Award, has worked with theater companies both community-oriented and professional and has proven herself a capable leading player along the way), you might want to get your tickets to see her onstage in Studio Tenn's ambitious, if woefully uneven, holiday season offering of Beauty and The Beast. In a role that could have been written for her, King shines as Belle, the ambitious and eager to learn and to embrace change young woman who is the heroine of the musical which features a score by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice and a book by Linda Woolverton.

SAVE THE DATE: Nashville Theater Calendar for December 10, 2018


Looking ahead, you'll find a number of new productions on tap for your entertainment pleasure, including a number of holiday season offerings to put you in the Christmas spirit, thanks to the efforts of theater companies all over Middle Tennessee. Here's our calendar for December 3, 2018, to help you plot your course through the first few weeks of 2019...

SAVE THE DATE: Nashville Theater Calendar for November 26, 2018


Here's hoping you had a splendid Thanksgiving holiday weekend and that you're settling in for another action-packed season of events and shows to make Christmas 2018 sparkle even more! 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 26, 2018, to help you plot your course through the end of the year...

SAVE THE DATE: Nashville Theater Calendar for October 1, 2018


Looking into the future, 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 October 1, 2018, to help you plot your course through the end of the year...

SAVE THE DATE: Nashville Theater Calendar for September 23


Looking into the future, 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 to help you plot your course...

BWW Review: Life Springs Eternal in Nashville Children's Theatre's TUCK EVERLASTING


Ernie Nolan and his stellar crew of theatrical collaborators at Nashville Children's Theatre once again prove their mettle with a production worthy of adulation and acclaim, thanks to their world premiere of the TYA (theater for young audiences) version of the recent Broadway musical Tuck Everlasting. Based on Natalie Babbitt's 1975 novel - long considered one of the finest works ever written expressly for young readers - Tuck Everlasting is a thing of beauty, whether onstage or on the page, and audiences unfamiliar with either the book or the play are in for an emotional, thought-provoking journey that reverberates long after the final bows ring down the show's curtain.

BWW Review: Leaving STEEL MAGNOLIAS' Chinquapin on a Very High Note at The Keeton


My heart is full for many reasons, not the least of which is that I can say, henceforth, that the last production of Steel Magnolias that I reviewed - this one at The Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson through Saturday, September 1 - was almost as good as that very first production I saw in Chicago in the summer of 1988. In fact, direct Donna Driver and her cast deliver a reading of Steel Magnolias that is as close to what Robert Harling wrote more than 30 years ago as any I've ever seen.

BWW Review: Lowell's Exquisite Performance Reverberates Long After Curtain For Studio Tenn's DOUBT


Marguerite Lowell's exquisitely crafted performance as Sister Aloysius will continue to reverberate long after the curtain has come down on Studio Tenn's remarkably prescient and timely production of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, which runs at Jamison Theatre in the Factory at Franklin through Sunday.

STAGE TUBE: Eden Espinosa and Anthony Crivello Talk EVITA in New Series 'Broadway Breakfast'


Studio Tenn and Tennessee Performing Arts Center present Evita, now running through September 18, starring Broadway diva Eden Espinosa in the title role, Anthony Crivello as Juan Peron and Ben Crawford as Che. In a new series called 'Broadway Breakfast,' Tony Award-winner Anthony Crivello and Broadway powerhouse Eden Espinosa talk about Studio Tenn's 'Evita' and the surprise role they both played.  Check it out below!

STAGE TUBE: Watch Highlights of Studio Tenn's EVITA Starring Eden Espinosa!


Studio Tenn and Tennessee Performing Arts Center present Evita, now running through September 18, starring Broadway diva Eden Espinosa in the title role, Anthony Crivello as Juan Peron and Ben Crawford as Che. BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at highlights of the show below!

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek at Eden Espinosa in Studio Tenn's EVITA


Studio Tenn and Tennessee Performing Arts Center will present Evita, opening tonight, September 9 through September 18, starring Broadway diva Eden Espinosa in the title role, Anthony Crivello as Juan Peron and Ben Crawford as Che. Check out a sneak peek at Eden Espinosa below!

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