Tennessee Shakespeare Company, the Mid-South’s professional, classical theatre and education organization, and the Germantown Municipal School District today announced a unique, multi-year education partnership that will bring immersive, cutting-edge Shakespeare curriculum to life for every student in grades five, seven, and nine.
Starting with this school year, all GMSD fifth and seventh grade students will participate in an introductory, immersive playshop to prepare and excite them for experiencing a full, live performance of TSC’s self-created production of Shakes, Rattle, and Roll. The show pays tribute to our hometown heritage, creatively linking the signature music of Memphis to the works of Shakespeare that could have inspired them.
All ninth grade students will be treated to TSC’s nationally-acclaimed Romeo and Juliet Project, a four-part interactive residency that concludes with an intimate and riveting live performance of Romeo and Juliet.
Tennessee Shakespeare Company, Germantown Municipal School District Announce Partnership
One organization in Memphis is now offering grants up to $2,500 to individuals and grassroots groups who are involved in community improvement work.
The Empowerment Fund, sponsored by Community Leverage Investments for Transformation (LIFT), is meant to help build a network of local leaders who can advocate for neighborhood revitalizations that improves quality of life for some of the city’s under-resourced communities, according to LIFT officials.
Community LIFT’s grants director, Nefertiti Orrin says the grants are designed for people who are currently leading initiatives or programs aimed to improve the community, but may be lacking the resources to continue carrying out their efforts. She says the grants will “heighten potential for real community change,” by providing financial assistance to those already with a “vested interest in achieving positive outcomes.”
“The Empowerment Fund is for them…to say that we see you, we believe in you and we want to support you,” she said.
Applicants, including residents, property or business owners, as well as representatives from neighborhood associations or local grassroots groups can apply through Thursday, August 24.
Those who wish to apply must first attend one of two informational sessions: Tuesday, August 8 or Thursday, August 10 beginning at 4:00 p.m. at locations not yet determined.
And the Ostrander nominees in the college and university division are…
Set Design
Keenan Minogue – Anon(ymous), University of Memphis
Brian Ruggaber – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Jesse White – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Props
Kim Britt – Anon(ymous), University of Memphis
Danica Horton – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Danica Horton – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Lighting Design
Anthony Pellecchia – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Anthony Pellecchia – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Elizabeth Tate – Anon(ymous), University of Memphis
Hair/Wig/Make-Up Design
Austin Blake Conlee – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Sophia Deck – Mark Ravenhill’s Candide, McCoy Theatre at Rhodes College
Sheila Guerrero – The Unencumbered, McCoy Theatre at Rhodes College
Costume Design
Austin Blake Conlee – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Zoe Gresham, David Jilg, Carolyn Parks, Kilby Elisabeth Yarborough – Mark Ravenhill’s Candide, McCoy Theatre at Rhodes College
Heather Michelle Oles – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Music Direction
Jacob Allen – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Jacob Allen – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
David Muskins – The Amen Corner, Southwest Tennessee Community College
Sound Design
Jackson Conner – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Elizabeth Hersh – The Unencumbered, McCoy Theatre at Rhodes College
Jo Sanburg – Anon(ymous), University of Memphis
Choreography
Jyo Carolino – Anon(ymous), University of Memphis
Emma Crystal – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Jill Guyton Nee – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Supporting Actress in a Drama
Marian Anderson – A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But A Sandwich, Southwest Tennessee Community College
Miranda Colegrove – Mark Ravenhill’s Candide, McCoy Theatre at Rhodes College
Miranda Tonkin – Anon(ymous), University of Memphis
Supporting Actor in a Drama
James Baker – Mark Ravenhill’s Candide, McCoy Theatre at Rhodes College
Logan Bernard – Anon(ymous), University of Memphis
Blake Currie – Anon(ymous), University of Memphis
Leading Actress in a Drama
Clare Edgar – The Unencumbered, McCoy Theatre at Rhodes College
Jillian Franks – The Unencumbered, McCoy Theatre at Rhodes College
Vermico Smith – The Amen Corner, Southwest Tennessee Community College
Leading Actor in a Drama
Jorge Guaman – Anon(ymous), University of Memphis
Curtis C. Jackson – When It Rains, Southwest Tennessee Community College
Brandon Lewis – A Hero Ain’t Nothing But a Sandwich, Southwest Tennessee Community College
Supporting Actress in a Musical
Ashlin Neal, India Ratliff and Shelbi Sellers – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Erica Peninger – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Brittni Taylor Rhodes – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Jordan Hartwell – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Supporting Actor in a Musical
Cody Rutledge – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Cody Rutledge – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Kyle Yampiro – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Leading Actress in A Musical
Grace Gibbons – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Brittni Taylor Rhodes – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Leading Actor in a Musical
Jacob Clanton – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Landon Ricker – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Large Ensemble Anon(ymous), University of Memphis Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Cameo/Featured Role
Logan Bernard – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Naivell Steib – Anon(ymous), University of Memphis
Best Original Script A Hero Ain’t Nothin But a Sandwich, Southwest Tennessee Community College When It Rains, Southwest Tennessee Community College The Unencumbured, McCoy Theatre at Rhodes College
Excellence in Direction
Jacob Allen – Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis
Stephen Hancock – Spring Awakening, University of Memphis
Jazmin Miller – Anon(ymous), University of Memphis
Mary Ann Washington – The Amen Corner, Southwest Tennessee Community College
Best Production Anon(ymous), University of Memphis Little Shop of Horrors, University of Memphis Spring Awakening, University of Memphis The Amen Corner, Southwest Tennessee Community College
To see nominees for the community category, click here.
The 2017 Ostrander Awards are slated for Sunday, August 27 at the Orpheum Theatre. Cocktails at 6 p.m. awards and show at 7 p.m. Tickets are available online. Just follow this link.
Hosted by Sister.
Ostrander Award Nominations, 2017 — College and University Division
Attention Theater People of Memphis! Awards season is officially upon us. That special time when… You know what, let’s forget all the flowery talk about how we’re all winners and just cut to the chase. The nominees are…
Set Design
Katie Bell-Kenny – Million Dollar Quartet, Playhouse on the Square
Ryan Howell – Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Playhouse on the Square
Jack Yates – Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Memphis
Jack Yates – The City of Conversation, Theatre Memphis
Jack Yates – Rasheeda Speaking, The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis
Props
Gabrielle D’arcangelo – Hand to God, The Circuit Playhouse
Betty Dilley – The Game’s Afoot, Germantown Community Theatre
Betty Dilley – The Odd Couple, Germantown Community Theatre
Jack Yates – Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Memphis
Jack Yates – Rasheeda Speaking, The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis
Lighting Design
Jeremy Allen Fisher – Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Memphis
Jeremy Allen Fisher – Side Show, Theatre Memphis
Jeremy Allen Fisher – South Pacific, Theatre Memphis
Zo Haynes – The Bridges of Madison County, The Circuit Playhouse
John Horan – Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Playhouse on the Square
Hair/Wig/Make-Up Design
Buddy Hart, Rence Phillips, Ellen Inghram – Side Show, Theatre Memphis
Buddy Hart, Eric Quick, and Ellen Inghram – Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Memphis
Kathleen R. Kovarik – Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Playhouse on the Square
Barbara Sanders – Sense & Sensibility, The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis
Lindsay Schmeling – Sisters of Swing, The Circuit Playhouse
Costume Design
Amie Eoff – Side Show, Theatre Memphis
Amie Eoff, Anne Suchyta, Dawn Bennett and Rafael Castanera – Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Memphis
Kathleen R. Kovarik – Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Playhouse on the Square
Lindsay Schmeling – Sisters of Swing, The Circuit Playhouse
André Bruce Ward – Sense & Sensibility, The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis
Music Direction
Gary Beard – Liberace!, The Next Stage at Theater Memphis
Thomas Bergstig – Million Dollar Quartet, Playhouse on the Square
Thomas Bergstig – Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Playhouse on the Square
Thomas Bergstig and Nathan McHenry – Sisters of Swing, The Circuit Playhouse
Jeff Brewer – Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Memphis
Sound Design
Christopher Cotten – Haint, Germantown Community Theatre
Joshua Crawford – Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Memphis
Carter McHann – Million Dollar Quartet, Playhouse on the Square
Carter McHann – Victory Blues, POTS@TheWorks
Jo Sanburg – The 39 Steps, Theatre Memphis
Choreography/Fight Choreography
Travis Bradley – Rock of Ages, Playhouse on the Square
Travis Bradley and Jordan Nichols – Mamma Mia!, Playhouse on the Square
Travis Bradley, Jordan Nichols and Courtney Oliver – Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Memphis
Daniel Stuart Nelson and Courtney Oliver – Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Playhouse on the Square
Courtney Oliver and Kim Sanders – Sisters of Swing, The Circuit Playhouse
Supporting Actress in a Drama
Mary Buchignani – Sense & Sensibility, The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis
Jessica “Jai” Johnson – Disgraced, The Circuit Playhouse
Jo Lynne Palmer – Haint, Germantown Community Theatre
Kristen Vandervort – The Glass Menagerie, Germantown Community Theatre
Leah Beth Wingfield – Hand to God, The Circuit Playhouse
Supporting Actor in a Drama
Gabe Beutel-Gunn – The 39 Steps, Theatre Memphis
Gabe Beutel-Gunn – Disgraced, The Circuit Playhouse
Emmanuel McKinney – Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting, Hattiloo Theatre
Johnathan Williams – Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting, Hattiloo Theatre
Jacob Wingfield – Hand to God, The Circuit Playhouse
Leading Actress in a Drama
Anne Marie Caskey – Rasheeda Speaking, The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis
Michele Somers Cullen – Haint, Germantown Community Theatre
Emily Draffen – Sense & Sensibility, The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis
Jessica “Jai” Johnson – Rasheeda Speaking, The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis
Karen Mason Riss – The City of Conversation, Theatre Memphis
Leading Actor in a Drama
Jared Graham – Hamlet, New Moon Theatre Company
Ryan Kathman – One Ham Manlet, The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis
Jordan Nichols – Hand to God, The Circuit Playhouse
Gregory Szatkowski – Disgraced, The Circuit Playhouse
Jacob Wingfield – Victory Blues, POTS@TheWorks
Supporting Actress in a Musical
Anne E. Freres – Rock of Ages, Playhouse on the Square
Kathryn Kilger – Million Dollar Quartet, Playhouse on the Square
Jude Knight – Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Memphis
Claire D. Kolheim – Mamma Mia!, Playhouse on the Square
Kim Sanders – Mamma Mia!, Playhouse on the Square
Supporting Actor in a Musical
Jason Eschhofen – Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Memphis
Stephen Garrett – Rock of Ages, Playhouse on the Square
Philip Andrew Himebook – Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Memphis
Nathan McHenry – Million Dollar Quartet, Playhouse on the Square
Daniel Stuart Nelson – Rock of Ages, Playhouse on the Square
Leading Actress in A Musical
Dani Chaum and Gia Welch – Side Show, Theatre Memphis
Anne E. Freres – Mamma Mia!, Playhouse on the Square
Kathryn Kilger – Sisters of Swing, The Circuit Playhouse
Carla McDonald – The Bridges of Madison County, The Circuit Playhouse
Amy P. Nabors– South Pacific, Theatre Memphis
Leading Actor in a Musical Gary Beard – Liberace!, The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis Kent M. Fleshman – South Pacific, Theatre Memphis David Foster – Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Playhouse on the Square Daniel Gonzalez – Sisters of Swing, The Circuit Playhouse Bruce Huffman – Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Playhouse on the Square
Large Ensemble Million Dollar Quartet – Playhouse on the Square Priscilla Queen of the Desert – Playhouse on the Square Rock of Ages – Playhouse on the Square Sense & Sensibility – The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis Side Show – Theatre Memphis
Small Ensemble The 39 Steps – Theatre Memphis Disgraced – The Circuit Playhouse Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting – Hattiloo Theatre Rasheeda Speaking – The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis Sisters of Swing – The Circuit Playhouse
Cameo/Featured Role
Barry Fuller – Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Memphis
Ron Gordon – Hamlet, New Moon Theatre Company
Mario Hoyle – Hamlet, New Moon Theatre Company
Curtis C. Jackson – Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Playhouse on the Square
Kim Sanders – Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Playhouse on the Square
Excellence in Direction of a Drama
Irene Crist – Disgraced, The Circuit Playhouse
Irene Crist – Hand to God, The Circuit Playhouse
Dennis Whitehead Darling – Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting, Hattiloo Theatre
Tony Isbell – The 39 Steps, Theatre Memphis
John Rone – Sense & Sensibility, The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis
Excellence in Direction of a Musical
Michael Detroit – Million Dollar Quartet, Playhouse on the Square
Michael Detroit – Sisters of Swing, The Circuit Playhouse
Dave Landis– The Bridges of Madison County, The Circuit Playhouse
Dave Landis – Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Playhouse on the Square
Scott Ferguson– Rock of Ages, Playhouse on the Square
Best Dramatic Production The 39 Steps – Theatre Memphis The City of Conversation – Theatre Memphis Disgraced – The Circuit Playhouse Hand to God – The Circuit Playhouse Rasheed Speaking – The Next Stage at Theatre Memphis
Best Musical Production Million Dollar Quartet – Playhouse on the Square Priscilla Queen of the Desert – Playhouse on the Square Rock of Ages – Playhouse on the Square Sisters of Swing – The Circuit Playhouse South Pacific – Theatre Memphis
To see nominees in the College and University division, click here.
The 2017 Ostrander Awards are slated for Sunday, August 27 at the Orpheum Theatre. Cocktails at 6 p.m. awards and show at 7 p.m. Tickets are available online. Just follow this link.
Hosted by Sister.
Ostrander Award Nominees, 2017 — Community Division.
If Memphis is a theater town as Irene Crist asserts, she did her part to make it so. As an actor, she’s set a high bar. As a teacher for Playhouse on the Square’s conservatory, she shared her gift across generations. She retired from the stage in June after one last performance at Circuit Playhouse in Ripcord, Pulitzer-prize winning playwright David Lindsey-Abaire’s farce about odd-couple roommates in an all-out brawl to determine who reigns supreme in the nursing home.
Crist has been one of Memphis’ most reliable and recognizable actors since she first went to work for Jackie Nichols and Playhouse on the Square in a 1978 production of Much Ado About Nothing. She’s known Overton Square in its glory days, remembers when it hit the skids, and watched it bounce back and the number of theaters grow from one to four. She dropped into the scene on a high note and it looks like the classically trained actress who built a reputation for versatility, playing characters that ranged from Shakespeare’s ingenues to the pharmaceutical-impaired matriarch of August: Osage County, is bowing out on one too.
Crist’s also known for her work as a director. This past season she helmed Ostrander nominated productions of Disgraced and Hand to God. She plans to continue that part of her career. Teaching too.
Much Ado
Before moving South Crist worked as a full-time actress with a small startup theater company in Rockville, Maryland. Street 70, the company where she cut her teeth, started out as a project of the Montgomery County Dept. of Recreation. It grew into the Round House Theatre, an award-winning Beltway company with an Equity venue in Bethesda and an education center in Silver Springs. Helping to launch this company was Crist’s first real job. It was also the continuation of a lifelong student/mentor relationship with Round House founder June Allen, a British actress who’d trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts under the guidance of British stage icons like Sir Michael Redgrave and Sir John Gielgud.
After working with Playhouse on the Square for a number of years Crist took a break from the stage to raise her kids. Her post-2001 comeback was accompanied by a shift in artistic focus. In addition to acting for Playhouse, she started directing shows for smaller theaters and suburban companies like Desoto Family Theatre. It was all pretty small stuff until 2010, when Theatre Memphis revived a production of Much Ado that Crist had set at the end of the Vietnam war and originally staged for Bartlett Community Theatre. The revival brought Crist’s Shakespearean romp more attention than it originally received and high praise for an offbeat cast and original, authentically psychedelic musical arrangements created by her son, Bennett Foster.
So Much Ado — Crist’s first show as an actor in Memphis — also heralded her arrival as a director of note. In 2013, her epic simultaneous staging of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America Parts 1 and 2 swept Memphis’ Ostrander Awards, bringing home 15 play prizes including Best Dramatic Production and a Best Director nod for Crist. In the following season she used her newfound talent for directing two plays at a time to stage richly imagined productions of Chekhov’s The Seagull, and Christopher Durang’s Chekhov-inspired comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Like Angels, it was an enormous undertaking and a similarly enormous success with Memphis theater judges, earning Crist and Playhouse a second round of Best Director and Best Production Ostranders for the Durang.
The story continues this month when Crist is honored with the Yugart Eurian award for lifetime achievement in Memphis theater at The Ostranders.
Jerre Dye, David Foster and an Angel. Angels in America.
The Eugart Yerian Award for Lifetime Achievement will be presented at the 2017 Ostrander Awards, Sunday, August 27 at the Orpheum Theatre. Cocktails at 6 p.m. awards and show at 7 p.m. Tickets are available online. Just follow this link.
Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents knocked on a door in Southaven. They had a warrant for a Hispanic man who had a criminal record, and they found him. He was living in a house with six other men, all of whom worked at an area restaurant. The other men had no criminal records, and ICE had no warrants for their arrest — in fact, had no idea who they were. But they were brown, so they got taken into custody.
Within 24 hours, all seven men were shipped to a federal prison in rural Louisiana. They didn’t get a bail hearing or access to a lawyer before being hauled off. They sit in cells in the middle of nowhere, hoping somehow their case will be taken up by an attorney, somewhere, before they are summarily deported. There have been thousands of cases like this since Attorney General Jeff Sessions unleashed ICE and gave them carte blanche to disrupt our Hispanic communities.
Yeah, I get that there are some of you reading this who’ll say, “What part of ‘illegal’ don’t you understand?” To which I say, “What part of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ do you not understand?” This is not how the American justice system is supposed to work, even for non-citizens.
But these raids — these stakeouts at schools and churches and restaurants, these overnight deportations — are doing what they’re designed to do. And that is to demonize and terrify men, women, and children of Hispanic descent.
So, the restaurant where the men worked had to close. The owner is still seeking replacement workers but has had little luck. This, in microcosm, demonstrates a larger problem, one that may at first seem unrelated.
In a new report on the impact of opioids in small town and rural areas, some employers stated that their biggest problem was finding “clean and sober” workers. One in 10 Mississippians is on opioids. Similar numbers abound in other mostly rural states.
Nine rural hospitals have closed in Tennessee in the past couple of years, a number that leads the nation. A study by the Rural Health Reform Policy Research Center says 17 rural Tennessee counties rank in the bottom 10 percent of counties in the country in unemployment, poverty, and per capita income.
In Tennessee, the legislature declined to take advantage of the billions of dollars in Medicaid and Medicare funding that were offered gratis via Obamacare, thereby putting the health of hundreds of thousands of the state’s residents — and many of its hospitals — in serious jeopardy, in the name of partisan politics. Meanwhile, in Washington, the Republicans have utterly failed to come up with a plan to fix health care.
So, in sum: We have a huge opioid crisis that is crippling our potential work force, yet we’re not funding hospitals in the areas where they are most needed, ensuring more poverty, more addiction, and more unemployment. On the other hand, we’re rounding up and sending off thousands of willing workers with no due process, most of whom have lived here for years — building our homes, doing our yardwork and housework, working in our restaurants. It’s tough to be an employer if most of your potential blue-collar workers are addicted or are being summarily deported. It’s dumb and dumber.
Our priorities and our politics are terribly out of whack right now. Letting partisan politics drive actions on issues such as health care and immigration seldom benefits the general public’s welfare. Or much of anything, for that matter.
Next Friday, Kim Vodicka will be stopping by Found Studio on Broad for a poetry reading. It will not be family-friendly.
How do you describe what you do? Erotic poet seems too polite.
Polite?(!) Haha. I’ve actually often considered the term “erotic poet” to be an insult, historically. I much prefer “Spokesbitch of a Degeneration,” if they’ll let you print that. “Erotic” is also pretty limiting. My work is just as concerned, if not more so, with love as it is with sex. I consider everything I’ve ever written to be a love poem, really, even the pieces that cut off your balls and feed them to you! “Poet,” too, seems limiting, since what I’m doing is very much a hybrid project, a symbiosis of words and music.
It’s interesting to me that people often focus on the erotic elements of my work to the exclusion of all else. It’s interesting to me that, in 2017, people still have the ability to be shocked by sexuality. That’s why the Psychic Privates album cover is covered in genitalia. … I look forward to a day when sexuality is normalized in that respect, when people can see something like that and find it not shocking, but human. I look forward to a day when human sexuality shamelessly blends in with everything else.
Psychic Privates
The event is described as being “performed over psychedelic sonic architecture; a sui Southern freak show poetry reading.” What is psychedelic sonic architecture? And what does sui Southern mean?
Psychedelic sonic architecture is what happens when you gloriously stop making sense and surrender yourself to the moodiness of sound (shoutouts here to my musical collaborators on this project — Josh Stevens, Jack Alberson, and Randy Faucheux), when you build entire sonic structures out of emotional whims, when you ride the wave of that trip. Sui Southern refers to being born and raised in the Deep South and feeling like you’ll never get out and feeling so frustrated that you regularly want to die because of it. So, yeah … you’re seeing all of those elements in the work, and in the live performance … the sea changes, the frustration between fleeting moments of acceptance, the freak-outs, the soft whispers, the utter psychosis … the performance really functions as its own creative omniverse.
Danielle Sierra is a California girl with a fine arts degree. She moved to Memphis after a visit here, inspired by all the green. Sierra was raised Catholic, but then became Baptist. She liked the faith’s focus on Jesus Christ. Last year, with other faithful artists, she put together the show “An (Art)form of Worship.” This Friday, from 4 to 9 p.m., there will be an opening for its sequel “An (Art)form of Worship 2: Di(e)chotomy” at the Crosstown Arts 430 gallery.
Along with mixed-media works by Sierra, there will be sculpture by Heidi Walter and oil-and-acrylic paintings by Andrea King. Sierra says that the dichotomy of the show’s title that the artists are addressing involves salvation through Jesus Christ and “the spiritual battle within us all.”
Danielle Sierra’s The Unseen World: Journey
Sierra says she prays before she begins painting, and then she paints what she sees, with her work exploring the often fraught path to eternity. Walter’s sculptures are figures that are neither male or female, allowing the viewer to find themselves in the work. King’s work deals in duality — those who are passionate about God and those who are the opposite.
One aspect of “(Art)form” that Sierra stresses is that it’s about conversation. To that end, there will be an artist’s talk on Saturday, August 5th, from 1 to 4 p.m. And the closing on Sunday, August 6th, from 1 to 3 p.m., will feature a community discussion, with local churches invited.
Sierra says the thing about art is its ability to bridge gaps — from the super faithful to the heathen and all walks in between. “Every piece of art has something to say,” she says.
This weekend, Crosstown Arts will echo with the work of several Tennessee demolition experts in search of new space. Concertgoers, be advised: wear protective headgear; there will be genre-busting. You may be impacted by the shards of shattered boundaries and preconceptions. But tearing down generic walls is the whole point of the Continuum Music Festival.
“It’s kind of different from what you think of as classical chamber music,” muses festival organizer Jenny Davis. Several ensembles will be performing, at times collaborating with local songwriters or hip hop artists, and all with a regional provenance. “They’re actually all based in Tennessee,” says Davis, director of Memphis’ own Blueshift Ensemble, who will close the festival. “Which is kind of surprising, because you think of all this stuff happening in New York, and L.A., and Chicago. But actually it’s doing really great here as well.” Many heard Blueshift’s recent collaborations with the New York-based ICEBERG composers collective, with several shows in and around the Crosstown Concourse in June. This week’s festival brings the collaboration closer to home.
Nief-Norf
“Nief-Norf are more of an experimental ensemble, based in Knoxville,” she notes. “The director, Andrew Bliss, is the percussion director of the University of Tennessee. They do a big festival every summer for two weeks, where they host a bunch of student composers and performers, with a ton of premieres and performances. This weekend at Continuum, they’ll just have cello and electric guitar. So a small little subset of the ensemble. They’re doing a Steve Reich piece, Electric Counterpoint, for electric guitar and recorded tape.”
Readers familiar with Reich’s Different Trains may recognize the title as the Pat Metheny-performed piece that finishes that album. “And there are two other pieces on the program for cello and electric guitar. Those are both world premieres, actually. One is by [California Institute of the Arts’] Nicholas Deyoe. And the other, “Sequenza for cello,” is by Luciano Berio. His sequenzas – I think there are 14 or 15 of them – explore the extreme ranges of what the instruments can do. So whenever I see those on a program, I definitely get excited.”
chatterbird
Nief-Norf’s opening set will be followed by a “secret show” by one of the more exciting new music ventures in the city. Hint: their shows last year, recorded for an LP released this January, had the whole city raving. The following night keeps things local with the Luna Nova ensemble, major supporters of new composers via their long-running Belvedere Chamber Music Festival. “They do lots of commissioning of new pieces, and they have their festival every June where they have a student composition competition, and they premiere several pieces there,” says Davis. They’ll be followed by a new kind of Nashville sound, chatterbird. “So chatterbird have been around since 2014. They are directed by a flutist, Celine Thackston, who I go way back with from Middle Tennessee State University. Their mission is to explore alternative instrumentation and stylistic diversity. I think they’re really all about inventive experiences, using flute, soprano, bassoon, piano, and percussion. AMRO is donating a really beautiful Steinway piano for the event.”
Rob Jungklas
The festival culminates with two shows on Saturday that take the genre-busting to new heights, including collaborations with local recording artists. Rob Jungklas, whose Blackbirds album arrived earlier this year, will be reinterpreting his new songs in duets with Blueshift cellist Jonathan Kirkscey. Then Blueshift will take center stage. “We’re premiering a piece by our artist in residence, Jonathan Russ, and that’s for 13 musicians – string quartet, plus winds, plus rock band, essentially,” says Davis.
The grand finale will be Blueshift’s performance with local hip hop auteur and visual artist Lawrence Matthews, a.k.a. Don Lifted. “I graduated with a painting degree [from the University of Memphis]. But I also did photography, sculpture, painting, drawing, ceramics,” says Matthews, whose musical shows often include a visual element. “I don’t do shows unless I can do a self-curated event in an alternative space. And I try to completely transform the space. So you might come into a space and see three projections, all in sync with the music. I’m just trying to curate a whole experience.” Expect the same multimedia aesthetic to permeate Saturday’s show, where Blueshift will add new musical elements to Don Lifted tracks. “I’m excited to hear what it sounds like and excited to play with it – to the point where I kinda want Jenny and Jonathan to put strings on the album that I’m working on. I’m definitely excited about how this could work.”
Blueshift Ensemble
For her part, Davis is also excited by the possibilities. “I always thought new music was like, very experimental, no melody, maybe kind of hard to listen to sometimes. But that’s just not the case, and I think there’s really something for everybody in the world of new music now.”
The Continuum Music Festival will take place at the story booth and Crosstown Art Gallery spaces, starting at 7:00 pm, Thursday, August 3rd – Saturday, August 5th.
Right at the corner of Belvedere and Madison sits one of Midtown’s oldest bars, Old Zinnie’s. It opened its doors in 1973 and, thankfully, probably hasn’t changed much since.
We’ve all been to OZ at 1688 Madison, whether we needed a good happy hour while we waited on our laundry at the laundromat across the street or because our car got towed from that same parking lot and we couldn’t leave. Maybe we went because it was cheap or because there’s never live music and all you want to do is hang out and chat. Maybe you, like me, ended up there because the crowd was too much at the Lamplighter, and it was quicker to run over to OZ and grab a beer. Maybe we were both there at some point for the PBR on draft and 50-cent wing night on Mondays. I have gone for all these reasons and more to that dependable little corner bar with the big windows and the chalkboard that still advertises Washington Apple shots.
But I haven’t gone to Old Zinnie’s in a while. I haven’t gone to that dependable little corner bar with the big windows in two years because I was not yet brave enough to return. You, like me, probably have a place where you find your peace. Maybe you find your solace in a church, or maybe you feel most serene in a vegetable garden. But maybe you, like me, find your peace in the comfort of a sturdy old bar, a dependable jukebox, and a smattering of post-workday curmudgeons. Your peace, like mine, isn’t necessarily at the bottom of a bottle, where it’s easy to forget, but found in what a bar can represent: a place to remember. So, one week after saying goodbye to a friend and two years after saying goodbye to another, I went to Old Zinnie’s to say hello to ghosts.
The great thing about great bars is that they never change. OZ still sports the stained-glass window of an ice cream sundae and the assortment of “There, I fixed it” oddities like the shot glass holding up the TV. Although Old Zinnie’s serves food, there’s always the trusty popcorn machine at the end of the bar for those looking for a snack. Ginger was working the evening that I went. You know Ginger, too, because she’s been there a while. She’s happy to pour you a drink and to discuss the menu. The bar itself is open from 2 p.m. to 3 a.m., but food is only served from 6 to 11 p.m. The regulars claim that the OZ burger is among the city’s most underrated. I also took note of the bologna sandwich, appropriately christened “The Zinnieloney.”
The great thing about Old Zinnie’s, beyond its resistance to change over the years, is that it felt exactly the same as the last time that I was there, when I went with someone who is no longer here. Myriad people have passed through my life; some are now dead, and others are just gone. But at OZ, in that old smoky bar, I am able to remember them best. This awful summer heat seems to breed tragedy, like it’s so hot that it drives people, in some overheated frenzy, to do the unthinkable. It’s puzzling that heat can make a world feel so cold. But Zinnie’s, with its Tullamore Dew restroom signs (Dewds and Dewdettes), preserves our memories for us. Zinnie’s, with its famous Zebra Stripe shots (main ingredient: strawberry vodka), like all the dark, smoky bars, has served as a place to find peace.
It was to Old Zinnie’s that I went, as I have gone to many wonderful places like it, to offer up a prayer and a wish. May we all find what we seek, whether it is a joint that still serves crinkle fries and hands out bottled beers in koozies or a bar that stands for more than that. Maybe it’s our hope that these spaces, where we find our tranquility, will get us through the summer without having to say any more goodbyes. Maybe you, like me, are tired of drinking with ghosts.
