Arts

Film Review: Vital ‘Living,’ and its ‘Ikiru’ Inspiration, on Beautiful Display at Belcourt, Nashville’s Top Cinema House

January 27, 2023 by Evans Donnell Leave a Comment

**Bill Nighy as Williams in “Living” (Photo by Ross Ferguson courtesy of Number 9 films / Sony Pictures Classics)**

Belcourt Theatre gives us many delights, and this weekend is no exception, as 2022’s “Living” and the 1952 film that inspired it, Akira Kurosawa’s “Ikiru,” screen at Nashville’s preeminent home for world cinema of every era.

You don’t have to be an expert on, or even have seen the latter (which partly found its roots in the 1886 Leo Tolstoy novella “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”) to enjoy the former, but what a wonderful opportunity to marvel at quality film-making. They’re even shot in the same aspect ratio, and both are set in early 1950s. They also center on the person of a civil servant, but “Living” (directed with passionate care by Oliver Hermanus with Oscar-nominated script by Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro, author of the novels “The Remains of The Day” and “Never Let Me Go”) does not merely flatter with imitation – it stands on its own as a beautiful, sensitive work.

In the gray of a Britain still recovering from WWII we meet Williams (Bill Nighy), a veteran civil servant, whose stooped frame and hoarsened voice have been weighed with cares professional and personal for far too long. He will go on as he long has until a medical diagnosis takes him in search of life’s vibrancy before his all-too-short time is done.

Nighy’s distinguished stage, TV and film career long ago marked him out as one of the English-speaking world’s finest character actors. He received a Best Actor Oscar nod this week (his first Academy Award nomination). It’s richly deserved for the performance he turns in, taking us on a journey through look, gesture and intonation that slowly reveals Williams in the most poignant ways possible.

**Aimee Lou Wood as Margaret Harris in “Living” (Photo by Ross Ferguson courtesy of Number 9 films / Sony Pictures Classics)**

The supporting cast, led by Alex Sharp playing a new employee in Williams’ department named Peter, and Aimee Lou Wood as Margaret, briming with vitality and serving as Williams’ beacon to a better path, are superb. The same can be said for period-perfect efforts of Production Designer Helen Scott and Costumer Designer Sandy Powell as well as the colors and framing captured by Cinematographer Jamie D. Ramsay,

But the beating heart of “Living” remains Nighy’s bravura performance. The bittersweet joy of Williams’ late-life blooming is captured completely and we are left with much to savor.

**Bill Nighy as Williams in “Living” (Photo by Jamie D. Ramsay courtesy of Number 9 films / Sony Pictures Classics)**

“Living” opens today at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville; it also opens today at the AMC Thoroughbred 20 in Franklin. “Ikiru” plays Saturday night at the Belcourt as well. The film is rated PG-13 for some suggestive material and smoking by the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA) of the Motion Picture Association (MPA).

An Appreciation: Tennessee Playwrights Studio Reveals Humanity Beyond Headlines In ‘That Woman’ Presentations

July 19, 2022 by Evans Donnell

Sixty years ago politicians’ private lives were basically off-limits as far as most of the press was concerned. The 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was a handsome, charismatic figure with a beautiful and cultured wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, and two adorable children named Caroline and John. Their family image, molded and preserved by Mrs. Kennedy and others, and that of his short-lived administration, would soon be simply referenced using the name of JFK’s favorite musical — “Camelot” — in the aftermath of his Nov. 22, 1963, assassination.

Sixty years ago Betty Friedan was putting the finishing touches to a manuscript that became the best-selling 1963 book “The Feminine Mystique,” arguably launching what later became known as the “second wave” of American feminism. One of the quotes from that book is as follows: “The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own.”

Such creative work was on powerful, persuasive display in June during performances of “That Woman: The Monologue Show” and “That Woman: The Dance Show” at Darkhorse Theater and (for the monologue show only) The East Room courtesy of Tennessee Playwrights Studio and co-producer Angela Gimlin. Several of Nashville’s finest creatives conceptualized, wrote, produced, directed, designed, stage managed, crafted and performed pieces that reach beyond decades of headlines, books and broadcast documentaries regarding President Kennedy’s extramarital affairs for the humanity, and individuality, of the women either revealed or alleged to have been involved with him as well as his wife of 10 years.

I didn’t have the privilege of seeing the shows in person, but TPS made video recordings of the monologue show in both venues and the dance show at Darkhorse. That allowed me to watch, and enjoy, some wonderful performances, where the words became a “Spoon River Anthology” of selected women in JFK’s life, and the dances became vibrant expressions of 20th Century events and lives that have fascinated many over the past six decades.

That Woman: The Monologue Show

*Darkhorse Theater Cast (Photo by Rick Malkin)*

*The East Room Cast (Photo by Rick Malkin)*

In the monologue show (skillfully overseen by director Stephanie Houghton, founder of Nashville’s Gadabout Theater Company) the artisans working with director and cast included Rachel Agee (Script Editor), Renee Brank (Stage Manager), Bethany Dinkel (Costumer), Kristen DuBois (Lighting Designer), Alexis LaVon (Sound Designer), and Lauren Wilson (Graphic Designer).

All this show’s performances represented the characters in their complex and complicated humanity: There were no impersonations, just evocations. Most of those performing had written their words from researching the people their characters were based on, but even those who hadn’t written the words played their parts with great commitment to emotional truth.

Conveying each character as they sat or stood onstage obviously isn’t possible here, but some lines from the monologues may give readers a taste of what was so realistically conveyed to the audience. Those lines are accompanied by the names of those who wrote and brought the characters to life:

Inga Arvad: “Listening is truly a dying art. The need to be heard often outweighs the desire to understand. I know this to be true. I lived my life listening more than I talked.” {written by April Hardcastle-Miles; performed during the run by her and Silva Riganelli}

Ellen Rometsch: “Take it to the grave. That’s what I’ll do. There is no reason for you to ring my phone or knock on my door. I’ll never talk. What’s past is past and it will stay that way.” {written by Mary McCallum; performed during the run by her and Audrey Venable}

Blaze Starr: “Loving powerful men might have been part of my life, but it wasn’t my life. It wasn’t who I am. I was art. I was fantasy. I was furs and satin and sequins. I was boobs and booze and flashes of red hair.” {written and performed by Angela Gimlin}

Mimi Alford: “I said this in my memoir, and I will say it to you: ‘I am Mimi Alford, and I do not regret what I did. I was young and swept away and I can’t change that fact….This book represents a private story, but one that happens to have a public face. And I do not want the public face of this story — the one where I will be remembered solely as a presidential plaything – to define me.'” {written and performed by Molly Breen}

Priscilla “Fiddle” Wear: “I’m no fool. I knew I was never going to be his wife or advisor but that’s not how power works, is it? Those aren’t the only ways to influence history.” {written by Nettie Kraft; performed during the run by Ibby Cizmar and Karla Dansereau}

Jill “Faddle” Cowan: “We were close. I cared for him deeply. I accepted him as a human. How do you help a president through depression? You listen. You encourage. And eventually…he helps himself.” {written by Alicia Haymer and performed by Sofia Hernández Morales}

Marilyn Monroe: “I’ve always been comfortable in my own skin, regardless of what anybody says. They say plenty, naturally. They think it too. You’re thinking it right now.” {written and performed by Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva}

Mary Pinchot Meyer: “I just wanted to help. I wanted to be in the room. I longed to be in the know. I dreaded being another boring, stupid housewife. I am smart and thoughtful and kind.” {written and performed by Dianne DeWald}

Judith Exner: “You don’t have to like me, you don’t have to approve of me. But when you make your judgment, you have to know the truth about me.” {written and performed by Elizabeth Turner}

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: “I am a passionate woman, my dear. I’m more passionate than anyone will ever know. In fact, I am sometimes overcome by my ability to feel despite my best efforts not to. Perhaps that’s why I appreciate art so much. And history. It’s safe to feel passionate about these things.” {written by Ang-Madeline Johnson; performed during the run by her and Madison Gunn}.

As the cast took their bows following the 90-minute show Helen Reddy’s clarion call “I Am Woman” accompanied the cheers and applause. How appropriate: “That Woman: The Monologue Show” had indeed roared.

That Woman: The Dance Show

In the dance show, choreographers included Molly Breen, Caitlin Del Casino, Brandon Johnson, Thea Jones, Cornell Kennedy, Jodie Mowrey (who also served as Director of Choreography), Schuyler Phoenix, Rachel Simons, Brittany Stewart, and Emma Williams. Breen directed the show, working alongside such creatives as Caitlin Del Casino (Costumer), Kristen DuBois (Lighting Designer), Alexis LaVon (Sound/Projection Designer), Shannon J. Spencer (Stage Manager), and Lauren Wilson (Graphic Designer).

It featured a wide array of classic and modern movements with an equally broad range of musical accompaniment highlighted by contributions from such Nashville talents as Noah Rice, Mickey Rose, Jen Bostick, Melanie Bresnan, Heidi Burson, David Curtis and Jonell Mosser.

The dancers were a very diverse group of performers that included Breen as Marlene Dietrich, Caitlin Del Casino as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Thea Jones as Ellen Rometsch, Jodie Mowrey as Mary Pinchot Meyer, Schuyler Phoenix as Blaze Starr, Rachel Simons as Inga Arvad, Nikki Staggs as Tempest Storm, Brittany Stewart at Judith Exner, Autumn Wegner as Marilyn Monroe, Emma Williams as Inga Arvad, Brandon Johnson, Preston Weaver and Shawn Whitsell as JFK/ensemble with Jim Manning as Joseph Kennedy/J. Edgar Hoover.

So many different experience levels for the performers, so many different dance and music styles, different moods shifting not just from section to section but often beat to beat — among several highlights there was the tragic grace of Emma Williams’ “Marilyn,” the satirical silliness of the “Hoover Interlude” sequences from Jodie Mowrey and Jim Manning, the sweeping tumult of Williams’ “November 22, 1963,” complete with projections of Walter Cronkite’s dramatic assassination coverage, and last, but certainly not least, the power of Breen’s affirmative coda, “You Know Who You Are.”

Filmmakers like to speak of their work as collaborative, but of course they’re not the only ones whose outputs are the labor of many hands. What astonishes (but given the talent level doesn’t surprise) is “That Woman: The Dance Show” was seamlessly woven together in terms of the choreography and performances. There was no “dip” in either quality or energy throughout the 100-minute, two-act piece. It was moving, entertaining, thrilling, stunning and beautiful to watch.

A Thankful Wish

If you didn’t see these shows in their inaugural productions here’s hoping these two creative, thought-provoking, emotionally complex, entertaining shows will return to the stage soon. How lucky we are to have so many gifted artists and artisans in our community giving us works such as these.

And Some Extras…

Some photos from the monologue show:

A taste of the movement in “That Woman — The Dance Show” is available through the video below that was shot to preview the piece online:

Some pictures from the dance show:

*Logo courtesy Tennessee Playwrights Studio*

Film Review: Warm and Funny ‘Phantom of the Open’ Is a Dreamer’s Delight

June 28, 2022 by Evans Donnell

***Photo from “The Phantom of the Open” by Nick Wall (Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)***

“No, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” — Lord Darlington in Act III of Oscar Wilde’s 1892 play “Lady Windermere’s Fan (A Play About A Good Woman)”

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” — Portia in Act 5 of William Shakespeare’s 1596-97 (circa) play “The Merchant of Venice”

No deep dive into the quotes above – just know the cinematic story of British folk hero Maurice Flitcroft in Sony Pictures Classic’s “The Phantom of the Open” borrows directly and indirectly from those words.

Flitcroft (played with his usual still-waters-run-deep brilliance by Oscar-winner Mark Rylance) is a crane operator in England’s industrial north (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, to be exact) who earnestly believes in not only looking at but shooting for the stars. That’s the message he’s preached for years to twin sons Gene and James (the exuberant Christian and Jonah Lees), who regularly distinguish themselves on the dance floor, and to stepson Michael (a well-measured performance by Jake Davies), now a college grad and part of management at Maurice’s employer.

And good deeds? When Maurice (sounds like “Morris”) met Jean (another in a long line of strong showings by Oscar-nominee Sally Hawkins), she was a single mother. It wasn’t long after WWII, when such a situation was usually scandalous in the misnomer that was “polite society.” Maurice didn’t judge — he accepted Jean and Michael with open arms.

What turned Flitcroft from a good-hearted anonymous guy to national folk hero? In 1976 the 46-year-old decided to enter The Open Championship. So what, you say? What if I was to tell you he did so without ever playing a single round of golf before he entered qualifying, and set a record by scoring 121 for 18 holes? Okay, given the fact he’d never played that’s easy to believe. What’s not so easy, and what added greatly to his life (and the movie) is what followed that unforgettable moment in golf history.

Yes, there were those in the golf establishment that weren’t pleased at all, as typified by pompous Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews official Keith Mackenzie (played to fuming comic perfection by Rhys Ifans). But Brits love their eccentric sportsmen (like Eddie the Eagle, to name just one). And so, it turns out, did some folks in the United States. But for that and more, you’ll need to watch the film.

The movie is a good deed in itself during our current era of upheaval. No, it’s not some heavyweight “Why didn’t they wait until awards season to release this?” movie, though I wish the British and American film academies cared more about such feel-good films than they do.

“The Phantom of the Open” has good acting, a well-paced, warm and funny script by actor/writer Simon Farnaby (who has a golfing cameo in the feature) based on the 2010 book he wrote with sports journalist Scott Murray on Flitcroft, and vivid directing flourishes from Welsh actor-turned-director Craig Roberts. Kudos also go to Kit Fraser’s often-inventive cinematography, Jonathan Amos’ crisp editing and period-perfect contributions from production designer Sarah Finlay, Isobel Waller-Bridge’s music (with musical supervision by Phil Canning), Sian Jenkins’ costumes and Tara McDonald’s hair and makeup.

Its release in our area is quite limited; hopefully one can see it at a theater, but if not, watch/stream/rent it when it appears in home-friendly formats. One doesn’t have to care about golf (or any sports) to root for Flitcroft and feel quite happy after this 106-minute love letter to dreamers is over.

“The Phantom of the Open” continues this week in Franklin at AMC Thoroughbred 20 and in Murfreesboro at AMC Murfreesboro 16. It’s rated PG-13 for “some strong language and smoking” by the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA) of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). Click here for more info and tickets to showings at those theaters and others elsewhere.

Film Review: Mirren, Broadbent and Company Ennoble ‘The Duke’

May 5, 2022 by Evans Donnell

***Photo by Mike Eley, BSC. Courtesy of Pathe UK. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics***

For decades the Brits have seemingly cornered the market on films about eccentrics. real and imagined; they typically produce entertaining cinema around such unconventional folks with equal parts humor and poignancy. With Kempton Bunton, the Don Quixote of 1961 Newcastle, “The Duke” adds another entertaining movie to that character-fueled canon.

Bunton (Jim Broadbent) is the voice crying in the wilderness of post-World War II Britain for better treatment of pensioners and war veterans. His perpetual campaign for the downtrodden and forgotten is, at the time the film is set, centered on the mandatory television license fee required of anyone owning a TV set in the United Kingdom (a practice that still funds the BBC).

His activism has resulted more than once in incarceration, and between his protests and prolific (but commercially unsuccessful) playwrighting his long suffering wife Dorothy (Helen Mirren) has basically reached breaking point. Her husband promises to change his ways, but that promise seems broken quite soon when Kempton finds himself at the center of a headline-screaming story about the theft of Francisco Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery (so far the only time that august place has had a painting stolen since it opened in 1824).

Richard Bean and Clive Coleman’s sweet-natured and nimble script largely encompasses the true story that followed, including Bunton’s trial and its aftermath. That doesn’t mean it’s historically accurate in all respects, of course: the real story, should you choose to look for it, is readily available in various online articles. But in just 96 minutes we get a vivid portrait of the social divisions and personal conflicts – such as a family tragedy that drives much of Kempton’s thoughts and feelings – that led to a case which ultimately changed British law.

Roger Michel’s direction makes the most of location and the script’s fast pacing, but it’s the performances of the cast that make this more than a celluloid anecdote. Broadbent, Mirren, Fionn Whitehead as Kempton and Dorothy’s son Jackie, Anna Maxwell Martin as Dorothy’s employer and Matthew Goode as Kempton’s defense barrister are all very believable and likeable. They ennoble “The Duke” with their work, and make the film more pleasing than it might otherwise have been.

“The Duke” opens Friday (May 6) in Nashville at Regal Green Hills Stadium 16 and in Franklin at AMC Thoroughbred 20. It’s rated R for language and brief sexuality by the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA) of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). Click here for more info and tickets to showings at those theaters and others elsewhere.

Nashville Playwright Cynthia C. Harris’ ‘The Calling Is In The Body’ Among 2022 Actors Bridge Ensemble Selections

November 19, 2021 by Staff Reports

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Actors Bridge Ensemble (ABE) has today announced its 2022 Season which will include THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES by Eve Ensler, TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS by Nia Vardalos based on the bestselling book by Cheryl Strayed, ACT LIKE A GRRRL 2022 and the world premiere of THE CALLING IS IN THE BODY by Nashville’s Cynthia C. Harris, plus their monthly storytelling series, FIRST TIME STORIES.

The professional troupe’s COVID Safety Protocols have allowed ABE to return to in-person programming while caring first and foremost for the well-being of actors, designers and audiences, according to a press release. Consultation with medical advisors has given the company confidence that it can proceed with producing plays again in 2022.

“Our last in-person production was THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES at City Winery in February 2020. It feels fitting that our return is with this Actors Bridge classic, which Nashville keeps saying they still love to hear,” says Vali Forrister, ABE Producing Artistic Director. “We first produced THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES in 2000. While it’s not as controversial as it used to be, it continues to inspire and change people’s lives when they experience it.”

The proceeds from THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES will help support Act Like a GRRRL and offer teenage girls in financial need the tools to find their voices, speak their truths and develop the confidence to stand up for themselves and their beliefs.

TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS was slated to be part of ABE’s 2020 season that was canceled due to COVID-19. Variety calls it a “theatrical hug for turbulent times” – exactly what Nashville needs right now.

Forrister will return to the stage for the first time in seven years (since ABE’s production of THE NETHER) to play the role of “Sugar.” Founding board member and program committee chair Pierre Johnson explains, “Vali spends so much time teaching, producing and administrating for Actors Bridge that she rarely gets time to be onstage. We think it is important for our students to see her in action.

“I remember the first time I saw her perform. It was in TALLEY’S FOLLY (by Lanford Wilson, which ABE presented in its 1996-97 season). I had been studying Meisner for a while, but it was in seeing Vali act that I finally understood what the technique was really all about. Some moments are burned in your memory. That’s one for me.”

ACT LIKE A GRRRL will perform at the end of June as the GRRRLS do every summer. ABE will wrap up its 2022 Season with the World Premiere of Cynthia Harris’ new play THE CALLING IS IN THE BODY which was initially sparked by a conversation between Cynthia and Vali exactly seven years ago.

“With this season, we are continuing to dig deep into the power of stories to make us feel less alone and help us feel more deeply known,” says Vali. “Our mission is to tell the stories Nashville needs to hear.

“Right now, those are stories of hope and belonging.”

Actors Bridge is both a professional theater company and Nashville’s longest-running acting school. It trains actors in the Meisner Technique and supplements that training with other courses. Beginning in March 2022, ABE will partner with the René Millan Acting Studio to provide classes in the Suzuki Method and Acting for the Camera.

Actors Bridge Ensemble 2022 Season

First Time Stories
Third Friday of the month, 6-8 p.m.

Dec 17
Jan 21
Feb 18
Mar 18
Apr 15
May 20

Venue: Actors Bridge Studio (4610 Charlotte Ave) Tickets: $5
Ticket Link: https://bit.ly/FTS-12-19-21

First kiss, first heartbreak, first bike ride, first time you broke the rules. The firsts in our
lives form compelling and touching moments of real-life theater. And, we all have an endless
supply. Now in its 10th year, FIRST TIME STORIES is a great way to meet new people, connect across shared experiences and radical differences. You may come in knowing no one, but you will leave with a room full of friends. That’s the power of stories.

THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES
by Eve Ensler
A benefit for Act Like a GRRRL

Director: Vali Forrister

Date: Wednesday, Feb 9 at 7 p.m.
Venue: City Winery Nashville (609 Lafayette St) Tickets: $25-40

Ticket link: https://bit.ly/TheVaginaMonologues2-9-22

Twenty years ago Actors Bridge Ensemble was the first to bring THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES to town in what has become known as a “very high-profile annual communal event in Nashville ” (Nashville Scene). The play introduces a wildly divergent gathering of female-identifying voices including a six-year-old girl, a 70-something New Yorker, a vagina workshop participant, a woman who witnesses the birth of her granddaughter, a Bosnian survivor of rape, and a feminist, happy to have found a man who “liked to look at it.” All proceeds benefit Act Like a GRRRL, a writing and performance program that inspires teenage girls to find their voice and speak their truths on stage and in life.

Presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS
Based on the Book by Cheryl Strayed Adapted for the Stage by Nia Vardalos
Co-Conceived by Marshall Heyman, Thomas Kail, and Nia Vardalos

Director: Leah Lowe

Dates: April 1-3 and 6-10, 2022 Venue: Actors Bridge Studio Tickets: $25-30
Ticket Link: https://bit.ly/ABE-TBT

Based on the best-selling book by Cheryl Strayed (author of WILD), TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS follows the relationships between an anonymous advice columnist named Sugar and the many real-life readers who pour out their hearts to her. Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) adapts Strayed’s book into an enrapturing and uplifting play rich with humor, insight, and compassion. TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS is about reaching when you’re stuck, recovering when you’re broken, and finding the courage to ask the questions that are hardest to answer. Contains adult content.

Presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.

Act Like a GRRRL 2022 By the GRRRLS

Director: Vali Forrister

Dates: June 24-25 Tickets: $10-15

Celebrating our 18th year, Act Like a GRRRL is a devised theater piece created by a group of teenage girls who come together to tell the stories of their lives. Join us for wit, wisdom and inspiration from the cusp of adulthood.

About Act Like a GRRRL:
Created and developed by Vali Forrister in 2004, Act Like a GRRRL (ALAG) is an autobiographical
writing and performance program that empowers teenage girls to write about their lives, and
transform their thoughts into monologues, dances, and songs for public performance. As GRRRLS find their voice and speak their truths on stage, they develop the self-confidence and leadership skills to live more empowered lives. Participants report a significant increase in self-respect, academic excellence, improved relationships with family / friends, intolerance for bullying and hope for the future. Now accepting applications for ALAG 2022. Click here to learn more.

THE CALLING IS IN THE BODY
by Cynthia C. Harris

Director: Cynthia C. Harris

Dates: July 2022 (exact dates and venue to be announced in the spring) Tickets: $25-30

THE CALLING IS IN THE BODY is an exploration of memory, purpose, community and environment. Local playwright Cynthia Harris (HOW TO CATCH A FLYING WOMAN) again combines her passion for art and public health, as she explores a foundational relationship with early local HIV educator and radical trouble maker, the late and beloved Deidre Williams. THE CALLING IS IN THE BODY is part of Ms. Harris’ forthcoming THE MAGNOLIA TRILOGY. Ms. Harris is a member of our Directors Inclusion Initiative.

Theater Preview: Pipeline-Collective Joins With NECAT For Live Theatrical Event That Offers 12 Hours ‘Outside Of Here’

September 22, 2021 by Evans Donnell

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Imagine a live theatrical broadcast/online experience that offers 32 of Nashville’s finest actors with a “Groundhog Day“-like twist on the COVID age. Pipeline-Collective Producing Artistic Directors David Ian Lee and Karen Sternberg have imagined such an event and it becomes reality on Saturday, Oct. 2 from 10 AM Central to 10 PM Central on NECAT (Comcast channel 9, ATT U-verse channel 100), Nashville’s Education, Community and Arts Television Network, as well as live streams.

“What we are attempting to achieve through this world-premiere work by Claudia Barnett is unlike anything else that’s being produced at a national level,” Lee recently emailed Stage Critic as he, Sternberg, Lee’s co-director Melinda Sewak, and rest of their “Outside Of Here” creative team prepared for the unique and ambitious offering. “It will be a straight 12-hour performance, with Karen on set throughout. In that time, she’ll perform the same two-person scene with dozens of scene partners.

“Claudia has written a piece designed to be replayed as a time loop, so each viewer’s experience will be different. An earlier viewing will be different from a viewing late in the day, and someone who sticks around for multiple iterations of the scene will appreciate the subtleties and the overall arc of the piece,” Lee explained. “This has been a logistical puzzle to assemble at every level – we’ve been developing the play since the spring, we’re working in a new medium (television and livestream), we’re bringing together 32 performers, we’re assembling an agile technical team, and we’re doing it all while implementing stringent Covid safety protocols. Because of the livestream, the piece can be viewed from anywhere with wifi!”

In addition to the Nashville broadcast viewers can access the livestream from anywhere through Pipeline-Collective’s Facebook page or NECAT’s livestream. The performance is free to watch though donations will be shared among the artists working on the piece. Click here to support the “Outside Of Here” artists.

Joining Sternberg in the cast are Rebekah Alexander, Matthew Benenson Cruz, Rona Carter, Joel Diggs, Rosemary Fossee, Galen Fott, Diego Gomez, Denice Hicks, Josh Inocalla, Jonah Jackson, Josh Kiev, Ang Madaline-Johnson, Leslie Marberry, Mary McCallum, Kate McGunagle, Nat McIntyre, René Millán, Sabrina Moore, Beth Anne Musiker, Gerold Oliver, Eric Pasto-Crosby, Eve Petty, Taryn Pray, Natalie Rankin, Elliott Robinson, J.R. Robles (also the show’s technical director), Jordan Scott, Tamiko Robinson Steele, Shawn Whitsell, Garris Wimmer, and Sarah Zanotti. NECAT’s technical team consists of Samantha Burns, Alex Keenum, and Will Ybarra; Phillip Franck is production design consultant; Eric Franzen is costume designer; Eli Van Sickel is sound designer; production support is provided by Alex Drinnen and David Johnson; Sejal Mehta, M.D. is COVID Protocols Consultant and Lee is the production’s certified COVID compliance officer.

Those working on it said inspiration for “Outside Of Here” came not only from life in the COVID era but from such pre-pandemic works as the 1993 Bill Murray hit film mentioned earlier; Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame,” with its characters apparently trapped at world’s end (and which includes the line “Outside of here it’s death” from which the play’s title is drawn); and the masterful absurdist repetitions of Eugène Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano.”

The project also gave Pipeline-Collective a chance to build on relationships and virtual storytelling techniques developed in The Salon, its new works program. “We moved The Salon online from the beginning (of the pandemic) and focused on local and national community-building with playwrights, directors, and actors,” Sternberg said in a press release. “It’s this community of more than 300 people that inspires us, that pushes us creatively, and that provides us more support than we can ever return. Being able to realize this massive yet safe project with dozens of local performers and technicians after so much time physically apart is deeply gratifying. And working with Claudia Barnett, who’s one of the most poetic playwrights we know, has been the perfect fit for this project.”

Part of that emphasis on safety means no live audience at the NECAT studios. It also means the show’s fully vaccinated actors won’t share the same physical space until performance day. “That’s part of the magic, the unpredictable element. That’s where planning and inspiration collide and create something compelling,” Sternberg noted.

Pipeline-Collective has kept up with the latest safety guidelines issued by the CDC, Metro Nashville, and the performing artists’ unions such as SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity Association. In addition to everyone working on “Outside of Here” being fully vaccinated, every person in the building will be masked for the duration of the performance unless they’re on camera.

“Outside Of Here” is produced in collaboration with Cameron McCasland, who serves as the Director of Content and Member Relations for NECAT. “We’re so thrilled to partner with Cameron on this project,” said Sternberg. “He has an unwavering enthusiasm for unorthodox work, and we’re eager to branch out beyond conventional theatrical spaces. The PEG Studio at NECAT is literally the only place where we could make what we’re trying to make. We consider ourselves so fortunate to have found such a great creative partner.”

“Innovation is key to the work we do,” Lee concluded. “We believe in theatrical magic on a shoestring budget, and ‘Outside Of Here’ is stretching us in many ways. We’re a theatre company. We’ve never produced something that’s one-part theatre, one-part endurance art, one-part multicamera live television event. This is going to be wild.”

https://www.pipeline-collective.com/support-the-artists

August Wilson’s ‘Jitney’ With Kamal Angelo Bolden & Brian Anthony Wilson Kicks Off 2021 Summer Shakespeare Festival

August 9, 2021 by Evans Donnell

**The Nashville cast of August Wilson’s “Jitney” (Photo by Michael Gomez www.gomezphotography.com)**

Nashville, Tenn. – August Wilson’s “Jitney” opens Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s 2021 Summer Shakespeare Thursday with two well-known TV and film actors leading an accomplished cast, an award-winning and highly regarded director and a five-time Grammy winner providing original music.

Local Black-owned theater company Kennie Playhouse Theatre is collaborating with Nashville Shakes to produce the show, which runs Aug. 12-22 at oneC1TY in Nashville, and Sept. 16-17 at Williamson County Performing Arts Center at Academy Park in Franklin, Tenn.

The cast of “Jitney” – as the production’s press release notes, “an unflinching look into the stories and struggles of Black life in 1970’s Pittsburgh through the lens of a group of tight-knit, independent cab, or jitney, drivers” – includes Emmy-nominated Kamal Angelo Bolden of TV’s “The Resident”, “Chicago Fire”, and “Rosewood” playing Booster and Brian Anthony Wilson, a prolific TV and film actor widely known for his role on TV’s “The Wire”, playing the jitney station owner, Becker. The play will also feature Kyra Davis as Rena and Nashville-based professional actors Gerold Oliver, Clark Harris, Pierre Johnson, Elliot Winston Robinson, and Jarvis Bynum. Kenny Dozier, Artistic Director of Kennie Playhouse Theatre plays the role of Turnbo. Rashad Rayford and Ethan Jones will join the cast as Booster and Shealy respectively in Franklin. Fisk University instructor Persephone Felder Fentress completes the team as the stage manager.

Directing “Jitney” is the award-winning, veteran director Chuck Smith. He is a 30-year Resident Director at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, a Resident Director at the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe in Sarasota, Fl., and a founding member of the Chicago Theatre Company. Smith has numerous directing credits across the nation and has won several awards over the decades including a Chicago Emmy and the African American Arts Alliance’s Lifetime Legacy Award.

Five-time Grammy Award-winning bassist Victor Wooten recently joined the creative team. Wooten, also a songwriter and record producer who was ranked among the Top 10 Bassists of All Time by Rolling Stone Magazine, will compose original music for the show.

The creative team of “Jitney” also includes local set designer Shane Lowry, who is building the versatile set for both shows at the Summer Shakespeare Festival (their production of William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” runs Aug. 26-Sept. 12 at oneC1ty and Sept. 18-19 at the Williamson County Performing Arts Center), costumes are designed by Hazel Robinson, lights by Janet Berka, props by Pixie Convertino, and fights choreographed by David Wilkerson.

“Jitney” and “Twelfth Night” mark the summer festival’s return after a one-year hiatus because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The festival has protocols in place to protect cast, crew and patrons during performances. NSF last presented a lovely production of “The Tempest” in 2019. Nashville Shakespeare also produced two wonderful educational films for students earlier this year adapted from “Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

Summer Shakespeare Festival is free, but donations of $10 or more are strongly encouraged for the continued operation of the esteemed nonprofit professional company that began in 1988 with a TheateRevolution production of “As You Like It” in Centennial Park. Patrons can bring their own blanket or chairs, purchase reserved “Noble” seating for $40 or buy $100 VIP Royal Packages, which include reserved parking, comfortable reserved seating, and dinner catered by Bacon & Caviar Gourmet Catering.

Go to ticketsnashville.com to purchase those seats/packages. “Jitney” is rated MA for mature audiences. The Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s programs are funded in part by the Tennessee Arts Commission, Metro Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Pictorial: ‘Finding You’ Film’s Red Carpet Franklin Screening

May 14, 2021 by Rick Malkin

The Historic Franklin Theatre was the site of a red carpet screening Wednesday for a film that opened Friday featuring an actor that grew up in Franklin and two Nashville-based producers.

“Finding You” is an inspirational romantic dramedy full of heart and humor about finding the strength to be true to oneself. After an ill-fated audition at a prestigious New York music conservatory, violinist Finley Sinclair (Rose Reid, who spent her formative years in Williamson County) travels to an Irish coastal village to begin her semester studying abroad. At the B&B run by her host family, she encounters gregarious and persistent heartthrob movie star Beckett Rush (Jedidiah Goodacre), who is there to film another installment of his medieval fantasy-adventure franchise. As romance sparks between the unlikely pair, Beckett ignites a journey of discovery for Finley that transforms her heart, her music, and her outlook on life. In turn, Finley emboldens Beckett to reach beyond his teen-idol image and pursue his true passion. But when forces surrounding Beckett’s stardom threaten to crush their dreams, Finley must decide what she is willing to risk for love. In addition to Reid and Goodacre the cast includes Katherine McNamara, Patrick Bergin (“Sleeping With The Enemy”), Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Judith Hoag (“Nashville” TV series), Tom Everett Scott and the legendary Vanessa Redgrave.

Nashville-based producers of the film are Producer Ken Carpenter and Executive Producer Julian Reid, and some of the feature’s second unit photography was shot in the Music City. The Reids, Carpenter, Producer Stephen Preston, Executive Producer Mike Roman, Director/Writer Brian Baugh and author Jenny B. Jones, whose novel “There You’ll Find Me” inspired the film, were in attendance Wednesday. They were joined at the screening by such guests as actor and Middle Tennessee resident Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing on “Dallas”), musician Michael W. Smith, filmmakers Andy Erwin and Jon Erwin, Tennessee Film Commissioner Bob Raines and Roadside Attractions Co-President Howard Cohen. The Southern Irish Dance troupe performed before the screening started.

Theaters where the film is now screening in the Middle Tennessee include Regal Opry Mills 20, Regal Green Hills 16, AMC Thoroughbred 20, Clarksville Stadium 16, Governor’s Square 10 Clarksville, Highland 12 Cookeville, NCG Gallatin Cinemas 10, Streets of Indian Lake Stadium 16 and Murfreesboro 16. For more on the motion picture visit findingyouthemovie.com.

And now for some screening shots from StageCritic.com’s Rick Malkin:

Nashville Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ Broadcasts Begin This Week

December 16, 2020 by Staff Reports

For the first time in company history, Nashville Ballet will present a televised premiere of “Nashville’s Nutcracker” on NewsChannel 5. This historic performance will feature new and exciting elements for viewers as they experience this holiday classic like never before.

In order to present “Nashville’s Nutcracker” safely this year, Nashville Ballet filmed a full-length, made for television production of the beloved holiday classic. This free event, sponsored by the Tennessee Titans, will allow members of our community to continue their holiday traditions. Whether they are annual attendees of “Nashville’s Nutcracker” or seeing it for the very first time, we hope that viewers will find comfort in experiencing this magical holiday event within the safety of their own homes.

The program premieres this Friday (Dec. 18) at 7 p.m. CST. It also airs Dec. 25 at 3 p.m CST on NewsChannel 5 and Thursday, Dec. 24, 2020 at 7 p.m. CST on NewsChannel 5+. In addition to NewsChannel 5 WTVF and NewsChannel 5+ via broadcast/cable TV, the show will also be available through the NewsChannel 5 app, and through the station’s availability on Roku, AppleTV and Amazon Fire devices as well as most smart TVs or Android OS TV. For more information on “Nashville’s Nutcracker” and how to watch, click here.

The full-length performance will feature Nashville Ballet company members, NB2 members and trainees, School of Nashville Ballet students, and a special introduction and narration by former Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George.

The greatest gift to give or get, “Nashville’s Nutcracker” is Music City’s favorite holiday tradition! For a limited time only, you can purchase tickets for next year’s in-theater performances and guarantee your seats to see this magical production live at TPAC in December 2021. Reserve your tickets today by clicking here to get the best seats at the best price. Use promo code HAPPYHOLIDAYS at checkout before our pre-sale ends on Jan. 3. Presale is eligible for December 2021 performances only. And for gifts that share the joy of Christmas and beyond click here to visit the Nashville Ballet Shop online!

Theater Review: The Loving Grace of Good Art in Nashville Rep’s Relevant ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’

February 16, 2020 by Evans Donnell

**Karen Sternberg as Blanche (photo for Nashville Repertory Theatre by Michael Scott Evans)**

“The world is violent and mercurial – it will have its way with you. We are saved only by love – love for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share: being a parent; being a writer; being a painter; being a friend. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.” Tennessee Williams to James Grissom (author of “Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog”), New Orleans, 1982

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9, New International Version

**Eric D. Pasto-Crosby as Stanley and Karen Sternberg as Blanche (photo for Nashville Repertory Theatre by Michael Scott Evans)**

There may be nothing new under the sun, but the loving grace of good art creates the welcome illusion of originality. It’s welcome because that illusion encourages us to see and hear in ways we often don’t when confronted with something that feels familiar. (That familiarity simply breeds contempt, according to Geoffrey Chaucer and so many others down the centuries…)

Such loving grace is powerfully present as one watches Nashville Repertory Theatre’s current production of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.” That means it’s easy to forget you read the 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning play in school, that you’ve seen stage presentations in the past or watched the altered shape it took as a 1951 film, as you watch the vibrant work now on searing display in Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Johnson Theater.

**Karen Sternberg as Blanche, Eric D. Pasto-Crosby as Stanley and Tamiko Robinson Steele as Stella (photo for Nashville Repertory Theatre by Michael Scott Evans)**

Director Nat McIntyre clearly understands the challenge of bringing such a venerated 20th Century American drama to a 21st Century stage. “The trap that must be avoided is to present a masterpiece from the past as a piece of art hanging in a museum,” he writes in his play program note. “That lets us off the hook. And Tennessee Williams was certainly not interested in letting anyone off the hook.”

First, McIntyre has assembled a team of artisans to make the play’s world come alive in setting, costumes, lighting and more. Gary C. Hoff (in his 20th season at the Rep) gives us a richly detailed set for the humble Elysian Fields apartment where Stanley and Stella Kowalski live, love, laugh and fight; Matt Logan’s costumes are the perfect fit of fabrics, colors and contours from seven decades ago; Phillip Franck’s lighting design (particularly during the play’s climatic scene) morosely illuminates the action without intruding on it; and Kyle Odum fits the syncopated sounds of “Streetcar” seamlessly into the piece. In mentioning those offering their talents to this show I’d be remiss to leave out Nettie Kraft, who oversees the fine dialect work for this production – good dialect work illuminates and engages, while bad distracts and destroys believability, so it’s vitally importance to the performance – and the very believable fight choreography of Carrie Brewer.

**James Crawford as Mitch and Karen Sternberg as Blanche (photo for Nashville Repertory Theatre by Michael Scott Evans)**

Second, he’s cast well in all roles. James Crawford makes a heartbreakingly sensitive Mitch; Matthew Benenson Cruz’s energy as Pablo is perfect; James Randolph and Merrie Shearer give us complete characterizations as Steve and Eunice, the upstairs neighbors and landlords of the Kowalskis. Connor Weaver and Melinda Sewak ably appear in more than one guise during the proceedings, but most notably as the doctor and nurse in the final scene; and as the Young Collector, Brooks Bennett is the personification of pure youth.

The primary challenge to playing Stella Kowalski is that her husband Stanley and sister Blanche DuBois can easily suck all the air out of the room; to believe she can more than handle breathing that same air, to show the steel behind Stella’s smile, is no easy task. That’s why Tamiko Robinson Steele (no pun intended from that previous sentence) is just what Stella needs – a superb actor that shows every shade of Stella’s humanity and makes us understand why her character not only survives but thrives in a human hothouse.

**Eric D. Pasto-Crosby as Stanley (photo for Nashville Repertory Theatre by Michael Scott Evans)**

Eric D. Pasto-Crosby brilliantly conveys the brutishness (down to his walk and stances) and tenderness in Stanley. We don’t condone much of what he says and does – including the abhorrent violence he inflicts on Stella and Blanche – but we understand his tremendously flawed humanity through the lens of Pasto-Crosby’s performance. His pain and rage is palpable, but so is his love and need for Stella.

The highest compliment this one-time actor can give players is that I don’t see them in the role. That is most certainly true of the utterly incredible Pipeline-Collective Co-Producing Artistic Director Karen Sternberg in her Nashville Rep main stage debut as Blanche; she dives so deeply into the troubled, crumbling psyche of her character that I forgot while watching that I’d ever seen her in anything else or even met her anywhere else. There’s so much to praise about her performance, but I think all well-deserved plaudits for her portrayal stem from the way she believably, patiently, excruciatingly builds Blanche’s fantasy-to-lunacy descent. Even those with just a passing “Streetcar” familiarity know what’s coming – “Whoever you are – I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” – and yet, when it comes out of Sternberg’s mouth in a tone of self-aware, fatalistic resignation, the effect is a stunning thunderclap to our collective spirit.

**Brooks Bennett as the Young Collector and Karen Sternberg as Blanche (photo for Nashville Repertory Theatre by Michael Scott Evans)**

In an essay published in The New York Times four days before “Streetcar” had its 1947 Broadway premiere (headlined “Tennessee Williams on a Streetcar Named Success”), Williams asked, “Then what is good? The obsessive interest in human affairs, plus a certain amount of compassion and moral conviction, that first made the experience of living something that must be translated into pigment or music or bodily movement or poetry or prose or anything that’s dynamic and expressive – that’s what’s good for you if you’re at all serious in your aims.” McIntyre and his Nashville Rep colleagues have made a very dynamic and expressive “Streetcar” that pays proper tribute to the masterful talent that wrote it while gracing us with their good and oh-so-humanely-relevant work.

**Tamiko Robinson Steele as Stella and Eric D. Pasto-Crosby as Stanley (photo for Nashville Repertory Theatre by Michael Scott Evans)**

In addition to those mentioned in the review the following are significant contributors to this production: assistant director Claire Hopkins; stage manager Teresa Driver; assistant stage manager Kristen Goodwin; production director Christopher L. Jones; props master Amanda Creech; scene shop foreman R. Preston Perrin; master carpenter Tucker Steinlage; costume manager Lori Gann-Smith; wardrobe supervisor Lakeland Gordon; costume technician Lauren Elizabeth Terry; rentals manager Emily Irene Peck; artistic associate Erica Jo Lloyd; Maggie Jackson and Karch Abramson, run crew.

Nashville Repertory Theatre’s production of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” continues through Sunday. February 23 in Johnson Theater at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Click here for more information and to buy tickets.

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