Jeffrey Ellis - Page 156

un Ra Theatre will hold auditions for its 2010 season, which will include the company's fifth annual production of Langston Hughes' Black Nativity and all of the plays to be presented in the soon-to-be-announced 2010 season, featuring two world premiere dramas and several local premieres. Auditions will be held on Sunday, November 15, from 3 to 6 p.m. at the ART Playhouse, 2508 Clifton Avenue, Nashville. To reserve an audition slot, actors are asked to contact ART at (615) 329-iACT (4228) between the hours of 1 and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Written by artistic director Trish Crist, The Nashville Monologues 'explores the dark side of diversity through Halloween season performances of frightening, dramatic, revealing and (yes) comic monologues inspired by public submission' of those personal accounts.

Opening weekend of the Roxy Regional Theatre's production will feature two very special evenings: opening night is 'Pay What You Can' night, where each audience member decides their own ticket price. Saturday's performance features a themed dinner at Lovin' Spoonful Café at 6:30 p.m., and then a performance at the Roxy. The Louisiana-inspired menu features andouille sausage gumbo, mixed green salad with orange-honey dressing, Creole corn bread and pineapple-apple bread pudding with bourbon sauce.

If there are a million stories in the Naked City, then surely there have to be at least half a million in the Music City - and a couple dozen of those stories are recounted in The Nashville Monologues, the new play onstage through next weekend at Darkhorse Theatre.

Jean Shepherd's classic memoir of growing up in the 1940s Midwest - A Christmas Story - will usher in the holiday season at Tennessee Repertory Theatre, as the venerable Nashville professional company presents the stage adaptation of the film cult classic for a November 21-December 19 run at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre.

Opening weekend of the Roxy Regional Theatre's production will feature two very special evenings: opening night is 'Pay What You Can' night, where each audience member decides their own ticket price. Saturday's performance features a themed dinner at Lovin' Spoonful Café at 6:30 p.m., and then a performance at the Roxy. The Louisiana-inspired menu features andouille sausage gumbo, mixed green salad with orange-honey dressing, Creole corn bread and pineapple-apple bread pudding with bourbon sauce.

AUDREY II, the people-eating plant who stars in Little Shop Of Horrors, the frightfully freaky rock musical, has invaded Donelson's Senior Center for the Arts (SCA), for a run through November 15 at Nashville Dinner Theatre. Directed by veteran Nashville director Tim Larson, Little Shop introduces audiences to Seymour, an ill-fated florist shop worker who pines for fortune, fame and his flame, comely co-worker, Audrey. He later discovers an alien plant with a hankering for human blood and a dastardly desire to overtake the world. A perilous pact is made between the two, and mayhem ensues.

Roles are available for actors, dancers and singers of all ages (children, teens, and adults). Auditionees should prepare 16 bars of an up-tempo song. Pre-recorded accompaniment is preferred, but an accompanist will also be provided, and auditionees should be dressed in clothing appropriate for movement and be prepared to learn a short dance combination. Resumes and headshots will be accepted, but they are not required.

Actor Jay Doolittle and three accomplices will bring to life favorites such as 'The Cask of Amantillado,' 'The Masque of the Red Death,' 'The Tell-Tale Heart' and 'The Raven,' allowing audiences to 'descend iinto the macabre madness of murderers, merry-makers and haunted souls described in grosteque detail by a mater of language.'

Roles are available for actors, dancers and singers of all ages (children, teens, and adults). Auditionees should prepare 16 bars of an up-tempo song. Pre-recorded accompaniment is preferred, but an accompanist will also be provided, and auditionees should be dressed in clothing appropriate for movement and be prepared to learn a short dance combination. Resumes and headshots will be accepted, but they are not required.

Written by artistic director Trish Crist, The Nashville Monologues 'explores the dark side of diversity through Halloween season performances of frightening, dramatic, revealing and (yes) comic monologues inspired by public submission' of those personal accounts.

Even the presence of Melissa Gilbert - who so memorably played 'Half-Pint' in the Little House TV series of the 1970s and '80s and now is cast as Caroline Ingalls - can't save this musical from mediocrity. Try as they might, Gilbert and her castmates unfortunately just can't get past Sheinkin's overly earnest and plodding book, Portman's completely unmemorable score or Di Novelli's clumsily crafted lyrics. Sheinkin's book does offer some glimmer of hope: There are some lovely moments to be found in the script, but they are too few and far between. Portman's score fares worse, since there is not one melody that can be recalled and all the musical numbers sound alike. Di Novelli's lyrics are even worse. When 'I'm sick with wind sickness' is the only lyric you can remember, you know the show's in trouble. And, clearly, the material is not served well by director Francesca Zambello's seemingly uninspired staging (save for some creatively conceived horse-racing sequences).

'Alexander knows it is going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day when he wakes up with gum in his hair, and he is right! Things only get worse as the day goes on: his best friend bails on him, there's no dessert in his lunch bag, there's lima beans for dinner and kissing on TV! The only reasonable response is to move to Australia. Judith Viorst adapted her own award-winning children's book into a marvelous musical that is wacky, wild, and wonderfully wise!'

Burr's even-handed direction and his unerring eye and ear for what is truly funny ensure that King's circa 1940s script is winningly interpreted and offers further proof that good farce, no matter its age, remains highly entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny. With Burr's expertly cast ensemble enacting the ridiculously absurd situations, you have a winning combination that will delight audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Since its preeminence among the city's artistic entities became de facto, Nashville Ballet has consistently launched the real artistic season in Music City each year -- and with the return of Giselle to the company's program after a seven-year hiatus, the 2009-2010 season is off to a rousing start. One of the most beloved works from the classical repertoire, Giselle is a challenging undertaking for any company, but thanks to the vision of artistic director Paul Vasterling, Nashville Ballet's production is a visual feast, featuring stunning costumes, evocative lighting and gorgeous scenery.

With Tennessee Repertory Theatre celebrating its 25th year as one of the nation's premier regional theatres, it's only appropriate that the season kicks off with a revival of Robert Harling's iconic Southern comedy Steel Magnolias, running October 3-24 at the Andrew Johnson Theatre at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

Kidman, who is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations, hoped to use her celebrity to help focus Washington lawmakers' attention on the issue of violence against women. The subcommittee was holding hearings Wednesday on the 'International Violence Against Women Act' which is expected to be voted on by members of Congress within the next several weeks.

Memphis and Nashville will be on the travel itinterary of National Endowment for the Arts chair Rocco Landesman in November as part of his 'Art Works' Tour announced Wednesday. Landesman announced the launch of his nationwide tour as he delivered the keynote address to close the 2009 national Grantmakers in the Arts Conference: Navigating the Arts of Change in Brooklyn, New York.

Giselle, one of the world's most beloved ballets for the past 150 years, will open the 2009-2010 season for the critically acclaimed Nashville Ballet, October 23-25, at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's James K. Polk Theatre.

'This is a show about agoraphobia, adultery, '80s nostalgia, strippers, roadkill and hysterical pregnancy...it's everything a musical should be,' according to Cathy Sanborn Street, executive artistic director for the company. Directed by Larry Tobias, performances will be held at 'Armadillo Acres,' located at 1031 Elm Hill Pike, just off the Fessler's Lane exit of I-24. Curtain is at 8 p.m. for Friday and Saturday shows; at 5 p.m. for Sunday performances.