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STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE
September 16, 2001 •• 4669 words •• ID: nsh10249800888390
AFTER A DECADE OF STRUGGLE, ACTOR BARRY SCOTT FINALLY IS PRODUCING AUGUST WILSON'S PULITZER-WINNING PLAY 'FENCES.' ALONG THE WAY, NASHVILLE'S LEADING BLACK ACTOR HAS CONFRONTED RACISM, APATHY AND THE MAN IN THE MIRROR. By KEVIN NANCE STAFF WRITER Barry Scott was in despair. It was late March, just days before the opening night of Fences, the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama by America's greatest black playwright,
THREE REASONS THE STREAK COULD COME TO A HALT:
January 29, 2003 •• 1578 words •• ID: nsh2003021314151661
1 For the first time since the Reagan administration, Vandy isn't blessed with a go-to 3-point shooter. You remember the type. They're some of the most memorable names in Vanderbilt basketball history - Barry Goheen, Barry Booker, Scott Draud, Billy McCaffrey and Sam Howard, to name a few. The current crew has some who have shown flashes of developing into dependable 3-point gunners, but none has proven to have the consistency of those who came before them.
One-man show continues to spur thought on King's legacy
February 5, 2006 •• 219 words •• ID: nsh2006030115091616
Barry Scott may have created a one-man play based on the words of Martin Luther King Jr. But there are other words that also intrigue him: the ones that his audience uses to describe what they've thought, felt and believed after seeing it. These are the answers to questions the veteran actor asks after each performance of Ain't Got Long To Stay Here. The play, which Scott has presented across the country, returns to Nashville for the first time this week in almost a
DEPRESSIOON AND RENAISSANCE IN A PLACE CALLED HARLEM
July 20, 2000 •• 781 words •• ID: nsh10249362529139
Barry Scott directs TSU's production of "Blues for an Alabama Sky' By AKWI NJI Staff Writer For many young adults, tales of success and prosperity of the Harlem Renaissance seem buried in history books, and the struggles of poverty during the Great Depression are memories only grandparents talk about. "Back in those days," they begin. But with a six-performance run of Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky, those
Barry Scott stars in 'Lesson Before Dying'
October 2, 2002 •• 621 words •• ID: nsh2002100216312382
By KEVIN NANCE Staff Writer A Lesson Before Dying, Romulus Linney's stage adaptation of the prize-winning novel by Ernest J. Gaines, opens Oct. 10 in a new production by American Negro Playwright Theatre starring Nashville actor Barry Scott. A Lesson Before Dying is the story of Jefferson (Jamahl Marsh), a young black man who has been convicted of murder and sentenced to death for his unwitting role in a liquor store shootout in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s.
ACTOR SCOTT IN A TRICKY COURTSHIP WITH TSU
February 7, 1999 •• 832 words •• ID: nsh10249581314773
By KEVIN NANCE Barry Scott has a dream. Yes, that's a reference to Scott's long association with the role of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Nashville actor's stage play about the slain civil rights leader, Ain't Got Long To Stay Here. But it's also an apt description of Scott's ambitions for his American Negro Playwright Theatre. That organization, of which he is producing artistic director, has mounted shows
Cast an ear toward 'Harlem Voices'
October 12, 2003 •• 304 words •• ID: nsh2003102713474883
The Harlem renaissance, that great flowering of African-American creativity in the 1920s, will be remembered in Harlem Voices, a new theater piece compiled and directed by American Negro Playwright Theatre's artistic director, Barry Scott. Opening Thursday in an ANPT production at Tennessee State University's new Performing Arts Center Theatre, Harlem Voices highlights the literature, music and dance of the period, including the writings and music of Langston Hughes,
NON-TRADITIONAL CASTING MAKES HEADWAY IN NASHVILLE
September 19, 1999 •• 761 words •• ID: nsh10249468969715
By KEVIN NANCE There were times, not so many years ago, when Barry Scott, Nashville's leading black actor, was in a perpetual funk about "multicultural" or "non-traditional" theater casting or, rather, the lack of same in Music City and elsewhere. He hungered to play certain parts that, he felt, he wasn't being considered for because he's black. These included leading roles in various classic plays,
And now for an encore
October 16, 2003 •• 1228 words •• ID: nsh2003102911215512
American Negro Playwright Theatre has found a home at TSU's new $9 million arts center, now what it needs is an audience By A. TACUMA ROEBACK Staff Writer The candor was subdued, as with most play rehearsals. Still, the six performers who sang and swiveled their hips during a segment of the American Negro Playwright Theatre's Harlem Voices made each gesture grand. A recent weeknight rehearsal only hinted at the rococo splendor of the actual show. Their
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Some actors unsure of Oscar milestone
March 26, 2002 •• 690 words •• ID: nsh2002040110492030
By KEVIN NANCE Staff Writer To Nashville actor Barry Scott, Denzel Washington and Halle Berry did far more than win Academy Awards as best actor and best actress Sunday night. They struck a historic blow for black actors across the nation. "Being an actor of color, I was blown away," said an emotional Scott, best known locally for his performances with Tennessee Repertory Theatre and his own company, American Negro Playwright Theatre. "Sidney
AMERICAN NEGRO PLAYWRIGHT THEATRE IS BACK WITH 'FENCES'
October 29, 2000 •• 848 words •• ID: nsh10249390699744
By KEVIN NANCE After falling dormant for nearly three years, American Negro Playwright Theatre is making a comeback. The company will produce August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences on April 5-14 at Tennessee State University's Poag Auditorium. It will be ANPT's first production since Ain't Got Long To Stay Here, artistic director Barry Scott's one-man show about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in early 1998.
'Piano Lesson' strikes a chord with Tennessee Rep
April 17, 2005 •• 1122 words •• ID: nsh2005042009450169
Pulitzer Prize-winning play is a gamble, but it fulfills group's mission to educate as well as entertain By TIM GHIANNI Senior Writer It could be the biggest gamble in the history of the Tennessee Repertory Theatre. Or perhaps, it could be regarded as a giant step toward the mission of bringing thought-provoking drama to Nashville ... regardless of race, color or creed, as the old saying goes. Rep artistic director David Alford and actor Barry Scott see it both ways
You rang, Mr. President ...
October 17, 2004 •• 400 words •• ID: nsh2004102611551301
American Negro Playwright Theatre presents story of Alonzo Fields, chief butler to four presidents Think of a black man as a butler and stereotypes too easily spring to mind: subservience, comic relief, even Uncle Tom. But in telling the story of Alonzo Fields, the first African American to be appointed chief butler at the White House, Barry Scott wanted to present something else: a dignified, polished, intelligent man - one not unlike the men he grew up with. "These men did
TODAY-SUNDAY
October 22, 2004 •• 311 words •• ID: nsh2004110315323776
Looking back in one-man show As a man nearing 50, actor Barry Scott has been in a reflective mood of late. And it's one that makes the character of Alonzo Fields, the first African-American to be appointed chief butler in the White House, an easy fit. Scott portrays Fields in American Negro Playwright Theatre's presentation of Looking Over the President's Shoulder through Nov. 5 at Tennessee State University's Performing Arts Center
'FENCES' A LONG TIME COMING, BUT DEFINITELY WORTH THE WAIT
September 25, 2001 •• 646 words •• ID: nsh10249734088086
By KEVIN NANCE Staff Writer It's been a long time coming. But Fences, American Negro Playwright Theatre's powerhouse production of August Wilson's Pu-litzer Prize-winning drama, is worth the wait. Directed in big, bold strokes by John Henry Redwood and featuring a titanic performance by Barry Scott, this Fences -- which Scott, Nashville's leading black actor, has been trying to get produced here for a decade -- hits you like a cyclone, spins
By KEVIN NANCE
March 21, 1999 •• 582 words •• ID: nsh1024954721875
STAFF WRITER Live theater is returning this week to Hillsboro Village's Belcourt Theatre former residence of the Grand Ole Opry and Nashville Children's Theatre for the first time in 30 years. The play is Nashville writer Jim Reyland's comedy-drama Stuff, starring Barry Scott, Matt Carlton and Ed Haggard and co-directed in a fully staged workshop version by Scott and Kimberley LaMarque. The production comes at a critical time in the
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BELCOURT PLAY HAS THE RIGHT 'STUFF'
March 25, 1999 •• 579 words •• ID: nsh10249625794835
By KEVIN NANCE Staff Writer There's some spring cleaning going on at the Belcourt Theatre. Stuff, Nashville playwright Jim Reyland's promising new play which opened in a fully staged workshop version by b. scott Productions last night, is a cathartic purging, a clearing out of emotional clutter between two old Army buddies with a shared history of trouble. Even though it's still a work-in-progress, this production of Stuff, directed by Barry Scott with
LOCAL PLAYWRIGHT'S 'STUFF' A PROMISING WORK IN PROGRESS
March 26, 1999 •• 603 words •• ID: nsh10249246872608
By KEVIN NANCE Staff Writer This review is reprinted from late editions of yesterday's Tennessean. There's some spring cleaning going on at the Belcourt Theatre. Stuff, Nashville playwright Jim Reyland's promising new play that opened in a fully staged workshop version by b. scott Productions Wednesday night, is a cathartic purging, a clearing out of emotional clutter between two old Army buddies with a shared history of trouble. Even though
Dead man learning
October 6, 2002 •• 449 words •• ID: nsh2002100812133288
By KEVIN NANCE, STAFF WRITER A Lesson Before Dying, Romulus Linney's stage adaptation of the prize-winning novel by Ernest J. Gaines, opens Thursday in a new production by American Negro Playwright Theatre starring Nashville actor Barry Scott. A Lesson Before Dying is the story of Jefferson (Jamahl Marsh), a young black man who has been convicted of murder and sentenced to death for his unwitting role in a liquor-store shootout in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s.
THIS WEEK
October 17, 2003 •• 4186 words •• ID: nsh2003103011475721
IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD 'Harlem Voices': The American Negro Playwright Theatre will present the play Harlem Voices through Oct. 31 at Tennessee State University Performing Arts Center Theatre, 3500 John Merritt Blvd. The play was compiled and is directed by Barry Scott. Dates, times and cost of play varies. 824-0101 Dancin' in the Village: This event, featuring live music and food, will be tomorrow from 5 p.m to 9 p.m at Old Hickory Village Shopping Center
'Harlem Voices' to recall music, dance and literature of the 1920s renaissance
October 9, 2003 •• 539 words •• ID: nsh2003102316154394
By KEVIN NANCE Staff Writer The Harlem Renaissance, that great flowering of African-American creativity in the 1920s, will be remembered in Harlem Voices, a new theater piece compiled and directed by American Negro Playwright Theatre's artistic director, Barry Scott. Opening Oct. 16 in an ANPT production at Tennessee State University's new Performing Arts Center Theatre, Harlem Voices highlights the literature, music and dance of the period, including the
American Negro Theatre tempers drama with laughter in 'Hell'
August 1, 2006 •• 460 words •• ID: nsh2006080117110092
By FIONA SOLTES For The Tennessean The American Negro Playwright Theatre has long been about developing more responsible and informed citizens in the community. But the group's next work -- and very possibly, its soon-to-be-announced next season -- shows a hint of lightening up. "Particularly for the African-American audience, there's a deep appreciation for the modern portrayal of African-American life on the stage," said Barry Scott,
'Piano Lesson' plays hopes against history
April 17, 2005 •• 384 words •• ID: nsh2005042009470170
Rep brings work of African-American playwright August Wilson to stage The faces carved there are far more than just decoration. And the battle that ensues around them reaches beyond simple "property." The 137-year-old upright, central force of The Piano Lesson, is both family heirloom and family legacy, a link to the past that each has to find a way to reconcile. There, in its frame, are the pictures of ancestors, the ghosts of slavery and the reminders of cultural
'Harlem Voices' lacks focus and force
October 21, 2003 •• 583 words •• ID: nsh2003110410440323
By KEVIN NANCE Staff Writer You want so much for the American Negro Playwright Theatre, Nashville's leading professional group devoted to producing plays by and about African-Americans, to succeed. That longed-for result seems more likely than ever now. After years of a nomadic existence, ANPT has found a new home at Tennessee State University's Performing Arts Center Theatre. Certainly Harlem Voices, artistic director Barry Scott's collage of
NASHVILLE'S MERYL STREEP
June 18, 2000 •• 2198 words •• ID: nsh10249430087811
VERSATILE SINGER-ACTRESS NAN GURLEY CAN DO IT ALL By KEVIN NANCE STAFF WRITER When theater people sit around talking about who the top Nashville stage actors are, the short list usually consists of David Alford, Mark Cabus, Denice Hicks and Barry Scott. But as brilliant as those actors often are, people increasingly speak with special respect in tones of something like awe about Nan Gurley. From her Tennessee Repertory Theatre debut in 1987's Camelot to a devastating
WANDERING TSU THEATRE FINDS REFUGE AT TPAC
February 7, 1999 •• 1829 words •• ID: nsh10249584458915
By KEVIN NANCE STAFF WRITER These are nomadic times for the Tennessee State University theater program. For the past two years during which the program's historic venue, TSU's Humanities Building auditorium, has been under renovation the program has been essentially homeless. During that span the program has performed plays in a variety of on- and off-campus settings, with varying degrees of comfort. And the program's facilities crunch is not yet
New 'Lesson' falls short but still a worthwhile evening
October 12, 2002 •• 685 words •• ID: nsh2002101409074400
By KEVIN NANCE Staff Writer In A Lesson Before Dying, the American Negro Playwright Theatre's solid but developing new production of Romulus Linney's stage adaptation of the novel by Ernest J. Gaines, a young black man learns that it isn't just life that's full of obligations death is, too. After being called "a hog" by his own public defender in his murder trial in mid 20th-century Louisiana, Jefferson (Jamahl
'Before dying'
October 8, 2002 •• 909 words •• ID: nsh2002100910363514
offers lessons on dignity, honor, duty By KEVIN NANCE Staff Writer Treat people like animals, it's said, and they'll act like animals. That's just what happens at the beginning of A Lesson Before Dying, the American Negro Playwright Theatre's professional production of Romulus Linney's play based on the prize-winning novel by Ernest J. Gaines, author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. A Lesson Before
Make way for 'Seven Guitars'
December 7, 2003 •• 257 words •• ID: nsh2003122913241835
Playwright August Wilson's great cycle of plays dramatizing the story of African-Americans in the 20th century - the cycle includes the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences and The Piano Lesson - reached one of its heights in Seven Guitars. Set in Pittsburgh in 1948, the play follows Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton, whose first blues recording is starting to make a stir - but whose immediate needs lead to tragic circumstances. Nashvillians can see Seven Guitars
JURY ROOM A DEN OF LIONS
October 17, 1999 •• 1425 words •• ID: nsh10249632598596
TESTOSTERONE FLOWS IN THE REP'S SNARLING, VISCERAL "TWELVE ANGRY MEN' By KEVIN NANCE STAFF WRITER We remember Henry Fonda, cool and clear-eyed, pointing out flaws in the prosecution's case in the original 1957 film version of Twelve Angry Men. We remember his nemesis, the great Lee J. Cobb, full of spleen and volcanic ash. We remember the wrangling over evidence, the guesswork about el trains and unreliable witnesses, the switchblade knife
Shades of Black brings African-American productions to Darkhorse Theater
July 31, 2006 •• 617 words •• ID: nsh2006091316012000
By FIONA SOLTES For The Tennessean There it was on the Darkhorse Theater schedule, but at first it went unnoticed: three pieces by area African-American theater companies, all in the month of August. But once it was apparent, the wheels began turning. Why not make it a theater showcase, allowing the companies to collaborate and present a united offering for Nashville audiences? "It's actually something we've talked about doing before, but it just
Rep's Alford could use a little
December 14, 2003 •• 891 words •• ID: nsh2004010215572908
divine intervention for theater BY KEVIN NANCE For many in the Nashville theater community, last week's elevation of David Alford to the position of interim artistic director at Tennessee Repertory Theatre was a cause for celebration. Almost everyone agrees that Alford, a local minister's son, is a terrific actor, perhaps our best I rank him in a select group that includes Mark Cabus, Rona Carter, Matt Chiorini, Nan Gurley, Henry Haggard, Denice Hicks and Barry
FOR LOCAL THEATER, IT WAS ... A YEAR TO REMEMBER
December 30, 2001 •• 3280 words •• ID: nsh10249733654367
By KEVIN NANCE STAFF WRITER When a movie has been bad or good, there's little point in getting steamed or swept up in gratitude there's no one to yell at or thank. But it's hard not to take live theater personally because, for good or ill, it creates an intimate and immediate bond between the audience and the people onstage. If a play is awful, someone's right there to take the rap. And if it leaves you feeling grateful -- if it moves you,
'Let Freedom Ring'
January 18, 2002 •• 255 words •• ID: nsh10403923797180
Celebrate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at 8 p.m. tomorrow in TPAC's Jackson Hall. Let Freedom Ring is the name of the annual concert and program dedicated to remembering the great civil rights leader. In keeping with the spirit of the times, this year's program, combining Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Celebration Chorus and Celebration Youth Chorus, will include Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful and Battle Hymn of the Republic. It
'TWELVE ANGRY MEN' IGNITES ON STAGE
October 25, 1999 •• 686 words •• ID: nsh10249560779688
REP PRODUCTION OUTSHINES SILVER SCREEN By KEVIN NANCE STAFF WRITER Forget the movie. Forget made-for-television. Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men, now receiving a beefy, Broadway-quality powerhouse of a production at Tennessee Repertory Theatre, was made for the stage. What was small and distant in the screen versions seems huge and immediate in the Rep's spellbinding stage take. The violent passions swirling among the members of a murder-case jury spill over
NANKI-POO'S HANKY-PANKY
January 21, 2001 •• 1875 words •• ID: nsh10249696021856
NASHVILLE OPERA PLAYS "THE MIKADO' STRAIGHT By ALAN BOSTICK STAFF WRITER When discussing his approach to the new Nashville Opera production opening Friday, director John Hoomes approvingly cites Leslie Nielsen's Airplane! and Naked Gun. Alarmed? Don't be. When it comes to mounting Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, Hoomes believes those ultra-silly '80s flicks are the perfect interpretive model.
SUGAR AND SPICE
May 9, 1999 •• 1320 words •• ID: nsh10249471926563
DELANY SISTERS TAKE DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO LIFE IN TENNESSEE REP'S "HAVING OUR SAY' By KEVIN NANCE STAFF WRITER For more than a century, Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany and her sister, Sarah "Sadie" Delany, faced the same challenges of being black in America: Jim Crow laws, threatened lynchings, racial discrimination in education and employment. But in Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100
AFTER A YEAR OF TURMOIL, THE REP STRIKES BACK
December 26, 1999 •• 2086 words •• ID: nsh10249476923292
TENNESSEE REPERTORY THEATRE DOMINATES 1999 TENNESSEAN THEATER AWARDS By KEVIN NANCE STAFF WRITER This time last year, the rumor around town was that Tennessee Repertory Theatre, the state's largest theatre company, was about to fold. The rumor was baseless. Nonetheless, the Rep was in serious trouble. Rocked by a year of personnel upheavals, financial crises and a troubling series of production cancelations and substitutions that played havoc with subscription sales, the
TODAY-SUNDAY
April 22, 2005 •• 193 words •• ID: nsh2005042215260930
Keys to history at TPAC Two siblings, two ideas of "legacy." One wants to hold it close, and the other, to pass it on. And never is their battle more tangible than when it comes to a piano, that 137-year-old upright that's the focus of The Piano Lesson. The play by August Wilson runs tomorrow through May 7 at TPAC's Polk Theater. Set in 1930s Pittsburgh, it tells the story of a family that comes together to decide not only what to do
TODAY-SUNDAY
November 19, 2004 •• 285 words •• ID: nsh2004121710130010
Driving home the drama with 'Jitney' It is different what drives us, what places each of us where we are and where we're going. And for the men of Jitney, what's down the road is a diminishing sense of possibility. It's 1977, and the five men, as written by August Wilson, drive "jitneys" for a Pittsburgh cab station. Urban growth is on the horizon, however, and the group is about to come face to face
'Seven Guitars' players create own unique sounds
December 16, 2003 •• 552 words •• ID: nsh2004010314433216
By EVANS DONNELL For The Tennessean Good drama is a storyteller born in the reflective vision of a playwright, nurtured by the sure hands of a director and brought to maturity through the commitment of cast and crew. That process has worked well in a resonant revival of August Wilson's Seven Guitars mounted by Hailey-Lemuel Productions at Tennessee State University's vibrant new Performing Arts Center Theatre. The play, first produced in 1995 at
PLAYWRIGHT REDWOOD IN TOWN FOR 'OLD SETTLER,' 'FENCES' AT TSU
February 7, 2001 •• 606 words •• ID: nsh10249452866493
By KEVIN NANCE Staff Writer Playwright John Henry Redwood will be in Nashville this week for a pair of reasons. Saturday, Redwood will be in the audience at Tennessee State University's student production of his bittersweet comedy The Old Settler, which won the top award of the American Theatre Critics Association in 1997, and has since become one of the nation's most-produced plays. Redwood also will have production meetings for the Pulitzer Prize-winning August
And the Tennie goes to ...
January 4, 2004 •• 2568 words •• ID: nsh2004021108461510
'The Story Builders' is best overall production; actors shine through a difficult 2003 By KEVIN NANCE Staff Writer In an unusually turbulent year of shrinking audiences, downsizing budgets and shifting leadership, Nashville-area stage actors, directors and designers soldiered on in 2003. Sure, they seemed to be saying, times are tough - but the show must go on. And it did, in a series of strong productions and performances worthy of the sixth annual
TODAY-SUNDAY
July 30, 2004 •• 309 words •• ID: nsh2004073016387585
No weeping widows here Don't know what to expect with the TSU Summer Stock Theatre's performance of The Dance on Widows' Row? For starters, expect to be rolling in the aisles. That's the word from Kimberley LaMarque, the show's assistant director. And aside from that, expect "polished performances" from professional actors, students and community members alike. The piece, written by Samm-Art Williams,
TODAY-SUNDAY
July 30, 2004 •• 314 words •• ID: nsh2004073016377583
No weeping widows here Don't know what to expect with the TSU Summer Stock Theatre's performance of The Dance on Widows' Row? For starters, expect to be rolling in the aisles. That's the word from Kimberley LaMarque, the show's assistant director. And aside from that, expect "polished performances" from professional actors, students and community members alike. The piece, written by Samm-Art Williams,
Playwright Redwood's death a blow to the theater
July 13, 2003 •• 887 words •• ID: nsh2003071811419605
BY KEVIN NANCE In the summer of 2000, as a fellow of the National Critics Institute at Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut, I got to know a fine man named John Henry Redwood. He was tall and broad, as befitted his name - an African-American man as strong as the John Henry of lore, as massive as the giant trees of the Western redwood forests - and profoundly dignified, with the unassuming rectitude of a preacher. A devout Christian, he didn't like cursing,
'Ain't Misbehavin' provides swinging good time
May 8, 2004 •• 601 words •• ID: nsh2004052613465523
By EVANS DONNELL For The Tennessean David Grapes' tenure as Tennessee Repertory Theatre's artistic director ends on a high note with a spirited revival of Ain't Misbehavin'. This musical revue of jazz great Thomas "Fats" Waller benefits from top-notch vocalists and talented musicians. Grapes has brought these and other elements together for an upbeat finish to The Rep's 2003-04 season and the five years
THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD
January 23, 2000 •• 1990 words •• ID: nsh10249421272778
THE PLAYS OF AUGUST WILSON FREE "THE STORY OF BLACK FOLKS IN AMERICA' By KEVIN NANCE STAFF WRITER There was a story, an enormous story, left untold in the American theater in the early 1980s. Lorraine Hansberry had begun to tell it, in 1959's A Raisin in the Sun, before dying young of cancer. There were others Amiri Baraka, Ntosake Shange who told pieces of the story, but these were fragments, incomplete and unconnected. And then, in 1984, Ma
AUGUST WILSON IS 'THE' BLACK PLAYWRIGHT FOR NOW
January 23, 2000 •• 830 words •• ID: nsh10249419963108
By KEVIN NANCE Ask most theatergoers to name a living black playwright and, if they can come up with a name at all, the answer will probably be August Wilson. There's no mystery about that, given the fact that Wilson is the most honored African-American playwright in history. He's won two Pulitzer Prizes, for Fences and The Piano Lesson, and a raft of Tonys and other awards. Just as important, several of Wilson's plays have achieved commercial success on
Expecting great things from Matt Chiorini
January 4, 2004 •• 763 words •• ID: nsh2004021108511516
BY KEVIN NANCE Just when you think Nashville theater is falling down around your ears, developments come along to give you hope. The most recent of these is last week's appointment of Matt Chiorini as artistic director of People's Branch Theatre. Chiorini replaces People's Branch founder Brian Niece, who stepped down to pursue a career in the ministry. (Niece will remain as a consultant and actor, director and writer for the three shows left in the
TENNESSEE REP ADDS SECOND-STAGE SERIES FOR 2000-01
November 28, 1999 •• 945 words •• ID: nsh1024963244784
By KEVIN NANCE STAFF WRITER The Tennessee Repertory Theatre plans to announce an expanded 2000-2001 season, supplementing its five-show mainstage schedule with a three-production second-stage series in the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's intimate, 288-seat Johnson Theater. The mainstage season, at TPAC's 1,075-seat Polk Theater, includes: Wit, the Tennessee premiere of Margaret Edson's 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a literature |
