Author: Jon W. Sparks

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

Q&A with Cecelia Wingate

Cecelia Wingate

Cecelia Wingate is in the director’s chair again, this time helming the Theatre Memphis production of Mamma Mia! It’s been quite the eventful year for the actor/director/force of nature. In March, she directed 1776 at TM, and then one day in May got what people with a dramatic flair might proclaim as a call of destiny. Wingate had all of 10 days to get to New York to rehearse for a production of Byhalia, Mississippi that would be staged for a month at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The play, written by Memphian Evan Linder, was performed in Memphis in early 2016 and had an award-winning staging in Chicago with Wingate soon after. Broadway producer Jeffrey Finn heard about it and had Wingate come to New York in late 2016 for a table read. That was the last she’d heard about it until she was summoned in May.

After the Byhalia run ended last month, she hustled back to Memphis where rehearsals of Mamma Mia! had already started without her.

Memphis Flyer: How did you work that situation out?

Cecelia Wingate: I approached it the smartest way I knew how, which was to find a damn good choreographer. I had Jeff Brewer as my music director and he always hits a home run, so I knew I was in great hands there. But then there’s the choreography. Let’s face it, people want to come in here and see people do things to that music — they’re not coming for the story. I had to have a dynamite choreographer, so that’s why we went with Whitney Branan, who is so good at what she does. She keeps everything exciting, and what I love about Whitney as a choreographer is she really knows how to tell a story. The two things I left her with when I went to D.C., knowing that they were going to have eight music rehearsals without me and three or four choreography rehearsals, was to (a) tell the story and (b) take the focus where it needs to go. I feel there’s always so much happening in big productions that you have to take the audience’s eye where it’s supposed to go. Those are two things I’d left her with, and she listened to me, so I didn’t have to come in and really change anything.

MF: When Mamma Mia! opened on Broadway, the notices said things like, “You can only wince,” “hokey, implausible and silly,” and “thoroughly preposterous.” And these were from the critics that loved it. So what’s the deal with this musical?

CW: It is not one of my favorite musicals. I’m generally not a fan of jukebox musicals although Jersey Boys I think is the most successful — they found a way to really tell a story. Most jukebox musicals have such a flimsy story, but not Mamma Mia! The difference is that it’s that music, it’s ABBA. I told my cast there is no way that this show should have ever been a hit, much less a smash hit that continues to be here all these years later. But people love it. It just blows my mind. Another reason that I really like it at this particular time is because it’s just fun and a celebration, and God knows we need a dose of that right now. There’s just so much noise out there. It’s great to just get away and not think about the news and just have some fun.

MF: Since March, you’ve directed 1776, you starred in Byhalia, Mississippi, you’re back to direct Mamma Mia! — so what’s next?

CW: I’m going to sit on my ass for as long as I can. I have not stopped, not even slowed down really since before Shrek, and that was two years. So I’m not gonna take anything that I don’t really want to do. I mean, if something else happens with Byhalia, I would do that. I mean, if it does move to New York, but you know, if it does that, it’s probably going to be Kathy Bates or somebody, and that’ll be fine with me.

MF: You retired from FedEx, so you had the time to go to New York for rehearsals and then Washington, D.C., for performances, but it was short notice. Your friends came to the rescue?

CW: I have the best friends in the world, I’m telling you, it is unbelievable. I had three different people at my house and there was always somebody there with my cat. I had a tree struck by lightning that came down. They all came with their chainsaws and cut it and stacked it and moved it, so I didn’t have to deal with that. And my assistant director for this show, Olivia Lee Gacka, was like my house business manager. She had it all down. The most wonderful thing about that experience was getting to step a toe on the Kennedy Center stage, but what was really, really special about that time is the support that I felt from Memphis, Tennessee.

MF: You had a lot of hometown folks see you in D.C.?

CW: I never felt so supported in my life and, and so many people came up there, I can’t even count. I’d been in New York for three weeks rehearsing and that was all fun and busy. And I got to D.C., but once we got officially open and I had free time, I was like, oh, I’m going get homesick and lonesome. But I never did because there was always somebody there.

MF: So you catapulted from one reality to another.

CW: D.C. feels different now, but it’s still such a beautiful city. I was so lucky to be there for five weeks and three days, but I was ready to come home. And then I landed here at 5:16 p.m. on a Monday and got in the car and came straight to Theatre Memphis for this and haven’t stopped since. It’s an exciting, dedicated cast, I’ll say that. It’s been drama-free, which is fantastic. I just hope it’s fun. I hope people have fun and they come with a few cocktails in them and just know that all we’re doing it for is a celebration and the music. And the party.

Mamma Mia! at Theatre Memphis on the Lohrey Stage, 630 Perkins Ext., through September 8th. Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets: $35, $15 students, $30 seniors 62 and above and military personnel. Call 901-682-8323. Theatre Memphis.

Categories
Music Music Blog

U of M’s Fall Schedule is a Classical Cornucopia

University of Memphis’ Sound Fuzion performs October 24th and November 1st.

The Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music’s fall schedule of performances at the University of Memphis is a mix of concerts, recitals, and events with an emphasis on classical music (very loosely defined), but also with plenty of jazz and occasional dollops of pop, rock, and avant garde.

Becky Starobin

The 90th birthday of composer George Crumb will be celebrated at the U of M’s Harris Concert Hall on October 22nd.

Highlights include a George Crumb 90th Birthday Celebration with pianist Kevin Richmond performing in honor of the composer (October 22nd); the three-day Octubafest (October 16th-18th); the local Luna Nova Ensemble performing 20th-century works (September 16th); the East Coast Chamber Orchestra presented by Concerts International (October 23rd); and appearances throughout the semester by the U of M Wind Ensemble, the U of M Symphonic Band, Southern Comfort Jazz Orchestra, Memphis Reed Quintet, 901 Jazz Band, Sound Fuzion, University Singers, and others.

Many performances are free, even to non-students.

Go here for the complete schedule.

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

Tennessee Shakespeare Embarks on 2019-2020 Season

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s Dan McCleary.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s 2019-20 season will have a variety of plays, readings, music, and Elizabethan food.

Scheduled are several regional premieres along with a new tiered ticket pricing and reserved seating.

The 12th season, titled Discover to Yourself (a line from Julius Caesar) has a production of Julius Caesar as its centerpiece, directed by TSC’s producing artistic director Dan McCleary. It will be performed at TSC’s new Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor Stage at 7950 Trinity Road.

The lineup includes four full-stage productions, two new musical readings, TSC’s annual Southern Literary Salon, free and touring Shakespeare productions, an Elizabethan Feast, a family show for all ages and a VIP Broadway Composer evening. Several productions will be Mid-South stage premieres.

  • The season starts September 10th with the fairy tale of Pericles in the third annual Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series. The 80-minute touring production of Shakespeare’s late romance will perform indoors and outdoors in the area. Performances will be in 10 different venues over of 11 days. Performances are free.
  • Julius Caesar (Sept. 25-Oct. 6)
  • Broadway Stories and Songs: An Intimate Evening with Big Fish Composer Andrew Lippa (Oct. 26).
  • Showplace Memphis: Musical Works in Progress (Nov. 2).
  • Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, directed by Stephanie Shine (Dec. 4-22).
  • The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Dwayne Hartford, based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo (Jan. 28–Feb. 16, 2020).
  • Southern Literary Salon: The Unlikely Sisterhood of Zora Neale Hurston and Margaret Mitchell (Feb. 23).
  • Showplace Memphis: Musical Works in Progress, (March 28).
  • The Elizabethan Feast benefiting TSC’s Education and Outreach Program (April 25).

For more information on the programming and ticketing, go to the TSC website here.

Categories
Art Art Feature

Southern Women’s Art on View at the Dixon

Don’t make the mistake of categorizing 19th- and 20th-century Southern women artists as mainly genteel painters of magnolias. Not that there’s anything wrong with such endeavors, but to imagine the ladies doing no more than amusing themselves for an afternoon with easel and palette is to misjudge their impact.

The proof hangs at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, where “Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection” and works by Kate Freeman Clark are on display. This series — which includes works by Memphis artist Elizabeth Alley — examines women artists from the 1890s to the present.

Africa, 1935.Loïs Mailou Jones

Julie Pierotti, curator at the Dixon, points out that, “It’s not necessarily Southern women artists painting the South. They lived and traveled just like everybody else, and they painted what they experienced. Sometimes Southern women artists left the South permanently and went to New York and California and Colorado — different places — and planted themselves there. But of course we still consider them Southern or having a Southern sensibility.”

The Johnson Collection of 42 women artists covers work from the late 1890s to the early 1960s. As the text for the exhibition notes, “Women’s social, cultural, and political roles were being redefined and reinterpreted.” Clark, from Holly Springs, Mississippi, has art in the Johnson Collection, but the Dixon wanted to showcase her particular story in a companion exhibition of nearly 40 works.

“We’re showing people in the larger survey of Southern women artists and then this super-specialized exhibition of someone so close to us,” Pierotti says. “Clark is a good example of an artist from the South, from this old Holly Springs family.” She wanted to go to New York to study art, enrolled in the Art Students League in 1895, and soon found a mentor in William Merritt Chase, the acclaimed artist and teacher. She was closely shadowed by her mother and grandmother as escorts. “Many of the figure paintings in this show are of them or people who were close to her,” Pierotti says. “Her mother and grandmother were supportive of her painting but not of her exhibiting or selling her work. Selling wasn’t a respectable thing to do.” On the rare occasions she showed, she signed the paintings as Freeman Clark to obscure her gender.

So she wasn’t acknowledged in her time, although Chase thought a lot of her work. Clark was influenced by the Impressionists, and worked with “a good grasp and clear understanding of how to communicate light and shadow,” Pierotti says.

There are paintings of gardens, which are thoroughly planned out, and the work is linear and brushwork tight. But then she’d do unfettered landscapes with a looser brush and sometimes on burlap. “As a Southerner, she understood that kind of rustic nature of rural landscapes,” says Pierotti.

Chase died in 1916, and Clark’s grandmother died in 1919 and her mother in 1922. She then went back to Holly Springs, leaving her passion behind forever. Her works were kept in a warehouse in New York until her death in 1957 at age 81. But she willed hundreds of her pieces to Holly Springs, along with her house and money, to build what is now the Kate Freeman Clark Museum.

“The museum is her champion,” Pierotti says, “and it has done a good job maintaining the work. They’re promoting it, and the Johnson Collection has also backed her work. We’re trying to put some scholarship behind her work with a serious discussion of her technique. As often happens, especially with female artists, we’re in this period of discovery of many of these women whose stories really haven’t been told.”

“Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection” and works by Kate Freeman Clark are on display through October 13th at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens.

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

Ostrander Nominations Announced for 2019

CREDIT: Carla McDonald

Carla McDonald

Tuck Everlasting at Playhouse on the Square

The 36th annual Ostrander Awards comes together on August 25th at the Orpheum, honoring the best of most of Memphis theater for the 2018-2019 season. The judges have conferred and come up with the nominees listed here.

The one winner we know for certain this year is veteran actor Christina Wellford Scott, who will receive the Eugart Yerian Award for Lifetime Achievement. That honor is given to those who have distinguished themselves for years of contributions to the local performance community.

More information on the Ostranders is here. Tickets are available in advance for $15 plus fees, and at the door for $20. A ticket includes the post-event reception at the Halloran Centre. They’re available here.

In the collegiate division, dramas and musicals are in one category for the majority of awards. In the community and professional division, awards are split by drama or musical.

If you’re counting, Theatre Memphis (Lohrey Stage) has 43 nominations, TM’s Next Stage 30, Playhouse on the Square 37, Circuit Playhouse 22, New Moon Theatre 13, Hattiloo Theatre 8, Harrell Theatre 4, and POTS@TheWorks 3.

Thanks as always to Memphis magazine, ArtsMemphis, and the Orpheum Theatre Group for making it possible.

Community & Professional Division

Best Set Design of a Drama
• Andrew Mannion, Sweat, Circuit Playhouse
• Brian Ruggaber & Melanie Mulder, The Parchman Hour: Songs and Stories of the ‘61 Freedom Riders, Hattiloo Theatre
• Bryce Cutler, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Playhouse on the Square
• Jack Yates, Heisenberg, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Jack Yates, The Clean House, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis

Best Set Design of a Musical
• Jack Yates, 1776, Theatre Memphis
• Jack Yates, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Jack Yates, Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• Jack Yates, Newsies, Theatre Memphis
• Tim McMath, Tuck Everlasting, Playhouse on the Square

Best Costume Design for a Drama 
• Amie Eoff, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Theatre Memphis
• Ashley Kopera, Twelfth Night, New Moon
• Heather Steward, Little Women, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Lindsay Schmeling, The Legend of Georgia McBride, Circuit Playhouse
• Waverly Strickland, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Playhouse on the Square

Best Costume Design for a Musical
• Amie Eoff, 1776, Theatre Memphis
• Amie Eoff, Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• Amie Eoff, Newsies, Theatre Memphis
• Kathleen R. Kovarik, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Playhouse on the Square
• Kathleen R. Kovarik, Tuck Everlasting, Playhouse on the Square

Best Hair/Wig/Makeup for a Drama
• Lindsay Schmeling, The Legend of Georgia McBride, Circuit Playhouse
• Barbara Sanders, Little Women, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Heather Steward and Lindsay Taylor, Dracula, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Buddy Hart & Rence Phillips, Steel Magnolias, Harrell Theatre
• Alexandria Perel-Sams, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Theatre Memphis

Best Hair/Wig/Makeup for a Musical
• A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Playhouse on the Square
• Barbara Sanders, 1776, Theatre Memphis
• Buddy Hart & Rence Phillips, Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• Kathleen R. Kovarik, Cabaret, Playhouse on the Square
• Waverly Strickland, Madagascar, Circuit Playhouse

Best Props Design for a Drama
• Betty Dilley, Steel Magnolias, Harrell Theatre
• Brandyn Nordlof, Sweat, Circuit Playhouse
• Brandyn Nordlof, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Playhouse on the Square
• Jack Yates, Heisenberg, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Jack Yates, The Clean House, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis

Best Props Design for a Musical
• Brandyn Nordlof & Abby Teel, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Playhouse on the Square
• Brandyn Nordlof, Cabaret, Playhouse on the Square
• Brandyn Nordlof, Tuck Everlasting, Playhouse on the Square
• Jack Yates, Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• Jack Yates, Newsies, Theatre Memphis

Best Lighting Design for a Drama
• Alyssandra Docherty, The Parchman Hour: Songs and Stories of the ‘61 Freedom Riders, Hattiloo Theatre
• Justin Gibson, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Playhouse on the Square
• Mandy Kay Heath, The Clean House, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Trey Eikleberry and Justin Gibson, Junk, Circuit Playhouse
• Trey Eikleberry, Sweat, Circuit Playhouse

Best Lighting Design for a Musical
• Justin Gibson, Tuck Everlasting, Playhouse on the Square
• Mandy Kay Heath, 1776, Theatre Memphis
• Mandy Kay Heath, Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• Mandy Kay Heath, Newsies, Theatre Memphis
• Melissa Andrews & Thomas Halfacre, Lizzie: The Musical, New Moon Theatre

Best Sound Design for a Drama
• Ashley Davis, The Parchman Hour: Songs and Stories of the ‘61 Freedom Riders, Hattiloo Theatre
• Carter McHann, Sweat, Circuit Playhouse
• Joe Johnson, Heisenberg, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Joe Johnson, The Clean House, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Travis Bradley, Carter McHann, & Jordan Nichols, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Playhouse on the Square

Best Sound Design for a Musical
• Carter McHann, Tuck Everlasting, Playhouse on the Square
• Gene Elliott, Lizzie: The Musical, New Moon Theatre
• Jason Eschhofen & Reyn Lehman, 1776, Theatre Memphis
• Joshua Crawford, Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• Joshua Crawford, Newsies, Theatre Memphis

Best Music Direction
• Eileen Kuo, Lizzie: The Musical, New Moon Theatre
• Gary Beard, 1776, Theatre Memphis
• Jeff Brewer, Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• Jeff Brewer, Newsies, Theatre Memphis
• Nathan McHenry, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Playhouse on the Square

Best Choreography/Fight Choreography for a Drama
• Brittany Church, The Clean House, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Courtney Oliver & Donald Sutton, Sweat, Circuit Playhouse
• Daniel Stuart Nelson, The Legend of Georgia McBride, Circuit Playhouse
• Jordan Nichols & Travis Bradley, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Playhouse on the Square
• Naivell Steib, The Parchman Hour: Songs and Stories of the ‘61 Freedom Riders, Hattiloo Theatre

Best Choreography for a Musical
• Daniel Stuart Nelson, Tuck Everlasting, Playhouse on the Square
• Jordan Nichols & Travis Bradley, Newsies, Theatre Memphis
• Jordan Nichols & Travis Bradley, Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• Travis Bradley, Cabaret, Playhouse on the Square
• Whitney Branan, Madagascar, Circuit Playhouse

Best Supporting Actress in a Drama
• Aliza Moran, The Clean House, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Annie Freres, Twelfth Night, New Moon Theatre
• Danika Norfleet, A Song for Coretta, Hattiloo Theatre
• Susan Brindley, Agnes of God, New Moon Theatre
• Tamara Wright, The Clean House, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis

Best Supporting Actress in a Musical
• Annie Freres, Lizzie: The Musical, New Moon Theatre
• Edna Dinwiddie, 1776, Theatre Memphis
• Jaclyn Suffel, Lizzie: The Musical, New Moon Theatre
• Rebecca Johnson, Cabaret, Playhouse on the Square
• Whitney Branan, Hairspray, Theatre Memphis

Best Leading Actress in a Drama
• Jaclyn Suffel, The Clean House, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Jessica Jai Johnson, Sweat, Circuit Playhouse
• Kim Sanders, Sweat, Circuit Playhouse
• Natalie Jones, Heisenberg, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Sarah Jo Biggs, Little Women, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis

Best Leading Actress in a Musical
• Christina Hernandez, Lizzie: The Musical, New Moon Theatre
• Erica Peninger, Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• Jenny Wilson, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Kelly McCarty, Tuck Everlasting, Playhouse on the Square
• Whitney Branan, Cabaret, Playhouse on the Square

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama
• Andrew Chandler, Dracula, Theatre Memphis
• JS Tate, Sweat, Circuit Playhouse
• Justin Allen Tate, The Legend of Georgia McBride, Circuit Playhouse
• Michael Gravois, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Playhouse on the Square
• Oliver Jacob Pierce, Twelfth Night, New Moon Theatre

Best Supporting Actor in a Musical
• Donald Sutton, Tuck Everlasting, Playhouse on the Square
• Javier Pena, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Luke Conner, Newsies, Theatre Memphis
• Michael Gravois, Tuck Everlasting, Playhouse on the Square
• Talen Piner, Madagascar, Circuit Playhouse

Best Leading Actor in a Drama
• Danny Crowe, 1984, Circuit Playhouse
• Gabe Beutel-Gunn, Junk, Circuit Playhouse
• Jason Spitzer, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Theatre Memphis
• Ryan Duda, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Playhouse on the Square
• TC Sharpe, The Miraculous and the Mundane, POTS@TheWorks

Best Leading Actor in a Musical 
• Bradley Karel, Newsies, Theatre Memphis
• Donald Sutton, Cabaret, Playhouse on the Square
• John Maness, 1776, Theatre Memphis
• Michael Gravois, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Playhouse on the Square
• Ryan Gilliam, The Producers, Harrell Theatre

Best Featured Performer in a Drama
• Christina Wellford Scott, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Playhouse on the Square
• Jason Gerhard, Junk, Circuit Playhouse
• Jimbo Lattimore, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Theatre Memphis
• Lena Wallace Black, Little Women, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Steven Brown, Little Women, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis

Best Featured Performer in a Musical
• Ann Marie Hall, Tuck Everlasting, Playhouse on the Square
• Daniel Kopera, Jesus Christ Superstar, Harrell Theatre
• Jason Eschhofen, 1776, Theatre Memphis
• Jimbo Lattimore, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Kirie Walz, Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• Kristin Doty, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Playhouse on the Square

Best Ensemble in a Drama
• Little Women, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Sweat, Circuit Playhouse
• The Clean House, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Playhouse on the Square
• The Parchman Hour: Songs and Stories of the ‘61 Freedom Riders, Hattiloo Theatre

Best Ensemble in a Musical
• 1776, Theatre Memphis
• 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• Lizzie: The Musical, New Moon Theatre
• Newsies, Theatre Memphis

Best Direction of a Drama
• Dennis Whitehead-Darling, The Parchman Hour: Songs and Stories of the ‘61 Freedom Riders, Hattiloo Theatre
• Irene Crist, Sweat, Circuit Playhouse
• Jason Spitzer, Little Women, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• John Maness, Twelfth Night, New Moon Theatre
• Jordan Nichols & Travis Bradley, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Playhouse on the Square

Best Direction of a Musical
• Cecelia Wingate, 1776, Theatre Memphis
• Dave Landis, Cabaret, Playhouse on the Square
• Dave Landis, Tuck Everlasting, Playhouse on the Square
• Jordan Nichols & Travis Bradley, Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• Jordan Nichols & Travis Bradley, Newsies, Theatre Memphis

Best Production of a Drama
• Little Women, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• Sweat, Circuit Playhouse
• The Clean House, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Playhouse on the Square
• The Parchman Hour: Songs and Stories of the ‘61 Freedom Riders, Hattiloo Theatre

Best Production of a Musical
• Hairspray, Theatre Memphis
• 1776, Theatre Memphis
• Newsies, Theatre Memphis
• Lizzie: The Musical, New Moon Theatre
• Tuck Everlasting, Playhouse on the Square

College Division

Best Set Design
• Brian Ruggaber, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Kenton Jones, Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis
• Nicholas Jackson, Shaming JANE DOE, University of Memphis

Best Costume Design
• Kennon Cliche, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Jen Gillette, Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis
• Jen Gillette, Shaming JANE DOE, University of Memphis

Best Hair/Wig/Makeup
• Emily Greene, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Jen Gilette, Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis
• Rebecca Koenig & Keyauna Shorter, Shaming JANE DOE, University of Memphis

Best Props Design
• Kenton Jones, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Karen Arredondo, Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis
• Hattie Fann, Shaming JANE DOE, University of Memphis

Best Lighting Design
• Anthony Pellecchia, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Melissa Andrews, Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine, Rhodes College
• Zoey Smith, Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis

Best Sound Design
• John Phillians, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Anthony Pellecchia, Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis
• Sophia Deck, Rose and the Rime, Rhodes College

Best Music Direction
• Jacob Allen, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Eileen Kuo, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (2018 version), Rhodes College

Best Choreography
• Jill Guyton Nee, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (2018 version), Rhodes College

Best Supporting Actress in a Drama 
• Ariona Campbell, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Southwest Tennessee Community College
• Hiawartha Jackson, Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine, Rhodes College
• Eboni Cain, Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis

Best Supporting Actress in a Musical
• Erica Peninger, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Lea Mae Aldridge, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Marlee Wilson, Be More Chill, University of Memphis

Best Leading Actress in a Drama
• Jessica Jai Johnson, Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine, Rhodes College,
• Simmery Branch, Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis
• Grace Small, Rose and the Rime, Rhodes College

Best Leading Actress in a Musical
• Aly Milan, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Jess Brookes, Closer Than Ever, Southwest Tennessee Community College

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama
• Adrian Harris, Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine, Rhodes College
• Toby Davis, Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis

Best Supporting Actor in a Musical  (one nominee)

Best Leading Actor in a Drama
• Brandon Lewis, Imagination, Southwest Tennessee Community College
• Willis Green, Rose and the Rime, Rhodes College
• Christian Hinton, Shaming JANE DOE, University of Memphis

Best Leading Actor in a Musical
• Toby Davis, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Winston Mize, Closer Than Ever, Southwest Tennessee Community College

Best Featured Performer
• Riley Thad Young, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Jasmine Roberts, Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis
• John Ross Graham, Shaming JANE DOE, University of Memphis

Best Ensemble
• Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis
• I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (2018 version), Rhodes College

Best Direction
• Justin Braun, Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Dennis Whitehead-Darling, Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis
• Joy Brooke Fairfield, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (2018 version), Rhodes College

Best Overall Production
• Be More Chill, University of Memphis
• Intimate Apparel, University of Memphis
• I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (2018 version), Rhodes College

All Divisions

Best Original Script
• Shaming JANE DOE, University of Memphis
• Little Women, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• The Miraculous and the Mundane, POTS@TheWorks

Best Production of an Original Script
• Shaming JANE DOE, University of Memphis
• Little Women, Next Stage, Theatre Memphis
• The Miraculous and the Mundane, POTS@TheWorks

Categories
Art Art Feature

Local Artist’s Travels Find Expression with “Place Shapes” at the Dixon

As a child, Elizabeth Alley assumed every household had ebony pencils and kneaded erasers laying around. They were everyday objects at home where her father, Rick Alley, was an artist who worked for The Commercial Appeal for more than 30 years. He made sure there was a stack of newsprint around for his kids to draw on, a fitting medium since Rick’s father, Cal Alley, and his grandfather, J. P. Alley, were editorial cartoonists for The Commercial Appeal, J. P. having won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in 1923.

So for Elizabeth to find her passion as a fourth-generation artist is hardly a surprise, but she has assuredly followed her own path, one that has led her to the Dixon Gallery and Gardens where she has an exhibition opening this month.

Her exhibition of recent oil paintings, “Place Shapes,” runs from July 14th to October 6th in the Mallory/Wurtzburger Galleries.

Pinhao Road, oil on paper

Alley graduated from the University of Memphis in 1998 and soon after began exhibiting. And she found that she had to assign herself projects, such as a series of paintings. “After I got out of school,” she says, “I missed the regularity of it, and I kind of needed that structure. I really am best when I work in a series.”

In school, she did what art students do, which is to carry a sketchbook with her everywhere. After graduation, she still kept it with her, but, she admits, “I was lazy about sketching at the time, meaning I didn’t have a direction or a purpose for it.”

That would change.

Around 2009, Alley discovered the group Urban Sketchers, which is devoted to art done by direct observation on location, not from photos or memory. “It was a group of people doing the same things that I was doing, only doing it a little bit better,” she says.

She was motivated to start a Memphis regional chapter of the organization and has been involved in the local and the parent group since. About the time Alley got interested in Urban Sketchers, she started teaching at Flicker Street Studio where she continues to instruct in sketchbook drawing and beginning oil painting.

It is this devotion to sketching that has shaped Alley’s direction and work. She’s traveled quite a bit and has carefully recorded her experiences in far-flung places. “My connection to these places is that I’ve been there and seen them, but also that I’ve sketched them,” she says. “When you sketch anything — a place, a person — you develop this connection with it. So all of these places live in my heart now.”

How, then, did her sketchbook work in her travels turn into oil paintings in the Dixon exhibition? The works in this show all emerged from trips she made to Iceland, Newfoundland, and Portugal, where she particularly noted how the built environment blends with nature. You’ll see walls and roads but also desire paths, which, Alley says, “are where people walk in a natural environment so much that it creates a path.” She doesn’t see the world as “us versus nature,” but rather how societies can coexist with nature.

She decided to get back into oil painting, which she’d set aside for two or three years in favor of ink and watercolors, and she realized she wanted to turn the time she spent traveling into oil paintings. “In the past year,” Alley says, “I have been working on these in oils just to see what else I could do with it other than what I had already done.”

Alley has been working with the Dixon for some time now. She’s had other works on display there, and she was bringing her Urban Sketchers to the gallery, so she got to know the staff and has been doing some teaching there. The “Place Shapes” exhibition is the happy result of the ongoing association between artist and gallery.

An opening reception for “Place Shapes” will be held on July 18th from
6 to 8 p.m. at the Dixon.

Categories
Theater Theater Feature

Hamilton in Memphis: A Call to Arms

CREDIT: The Orpheum

The Orpheum

Scene from ‘Hamilton’

Hamilton bounced into the national consciousness four years ago, first Off-Broadway in February 2015, and at Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre the following August. Critics swooned, advance box office sales broke records. The show earned 16 Tony nominations and won 11, and on and on. Its success came from Lin-Manuel Miranda (lyrics, music, and book) and his understanding of what makes great musical theater and how to artfully break the rules.

In the years since, it’s conquered Broadway and started a national tour, coming this week to the Orpheum for a comparatively long run through July 28th. It earned its stripes with a fresh take on a good old American story line: Immigrants come to the New World and carve out a new nation rooted in rationalism and humanity with respect for its citizens. Okay, the white, male, non-native, land-owning citizens, but still. Except Hamilton flips it all and casts mostly non-white actors as the Founding Fathers and their wives. Genius.

Four years can be a long time, however, as in the length of a presidential term. What was born in the Obama era as an innovative take on the origins of the United States has now found itself on a very different stage. It’s the same story, yes, and if you think you’ll like a well-scripted musical heavily reliant on hip-hop but with ample R&B, pop, soul, and good ol’ show tunes, you’ll enjoy it, maybe even be moved by it.

But today you can’t help but experience it with the knowledge that the nation these people fought and died to create is deeply corrupted. The country was cobbled together by imperfect people with imperfect results, but they were doing it in the Age of Reason, a time when there was thoughtful discourse and a desire to crush tyranny. For the most part, they set up processes that would allow the country to evolve while keeping its character and integrity.

Hamilton, though, also shows the beginnings of what we have today, a government that has scant philosophy, since it runs on the energy of partisan warfare. Power to the party that gets it and holds it by any means necessary. The musical skewers the machinations of the post-Washington politicians — Jefferson, Madison, and Burr in particular — as they jockeyed for influence. But there are plenty of others to indict, then and now.

You may well come out of the musical with a good feeling, as it is a sharply directed, well choreographed, smartly written story of passions. But though it wasn’t intended when it debuted a short lifetime ago, it now also gives the theater-goer something else to carry. In a country where cruelty is mandated by the executive, where ethics at the federal level are shredded, where reason has been abandoned, where truth is fluid, let Hamilton be a call to arms to revive the era of American Enlightenment. 

Categories
Art Art Feature

“Bouguereau & America” at the Brooks

Traveling exhibitions that visit the Brooks Museum of Art typically bring works of great artists or celebrate a significant period or movement in art history. Greatness is expected.

But then there’s “Bouguereau & America,” co-organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum, opening Saturday and bringing with it some notoriety. The works by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) are remarkable — and critics have done their remarking by hammering the artist’s works despite the fact that he’s technically gifted and was the best-selling artist in America’s Gilded Age. His works made him a millionaire in the 19th century, which was extraordinary for someone who wasn’t a robber baron.

Virgin of the Angels

So why is the Brooks doing this, and why should you see it? Because the French artist had chops and is something of an American phenomenon.

Dr. Rosamund Garrett, the Brooks’ associate curator of European and decorative arts, is fascinated by the artist and his work. “Bouguereau is the epitome of academic painting,” she says. “But you’re looking at more than just a French academic painter or exhibition about French academic painting. You’re looking into the taste and aesthetic sensibilities of the elite in Gilded Age America.”

And it is that question of taste, Garrett says, that is at the center of how we regard the exhibition. She is cautious: “I personally would argue that there is no such thing as good or bad taste.” The notion does challenge objectivity: Nobody believes that they have bad taste.

Garrett continues: “What you are seeing here is the taste of these particular people who are buying his work. You are getting a glimpse of the identity that they want to project into the world.” Some of the buyers of Bouguereau’s works had established money, but most were the newly monied, often entrepreneurs.

“They want to borrow a bit of the cultural legacy of Europe,” Garrett says. “Because that gives them a sense of history, a sense of legitimacy. And if you have that, it means you have reached a certain level in society and you are here to stay.”

Dr. Stanton Thomas is a co-curator of the exhibition. He is Garrett’s predecessor at the Brooks and is now at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida. He has written: “Bouguereau delights and confounds us. It’s hard not to be seduced by his exquisite technique and the shameless beauty of his modest nymphs, woebegone children, and polished peasants.”

How else to describe B’s work? Debra Brehmer, a critic for the art blog/magazine Hyperallergic, writes, “His work still refuses to settle into a comfortable category, remaining a gelatinous melange of kitsch, academic virtuosity, and unsavory sensuality.”

The depictions are idealized: heroic men, sensuous women, playful cupids. The dreamy portrayals of peasants and beggar children are almost laughable: “These children look absolutely perfect,” Garrett says. “They’re really clean, they don’t have any dirt under their fingernails. It’s like a Photoshopped version of reality.”

For the discerning viewer, it can be a struggle. “Bouguereau has been accused of being shallow and vacuous, and these are sort of sugary confections, but at the same time just so beautiful,” Garrett says. “You cannot help but stand in front of these pictures reveling in their beauty, but afterward, when you’ve stepped back, you realize you’re having some exceptionally complicated feelings.”

Unrelated to the artistic merit of the exhibition but relevant to the museum’s plans to become Brooks on the Bluff, is the size of the show. “This exhibition has absolutely pushed our current building to the limit of what is possible here,” Garrett says. The plan for the new building would take care of such issues, the Brooks promises.

There will be a membership reception for “Bouguereau & America” on Friday, June 21st, and a free community day from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 29th. View the exhibition for free at Orion Free Wednesdays at the Brooks, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Categories
News News Blog

Belvedere’s 13th “Relatively New Music” Festival: Still Accessible, Still Free

Mark Volker, guitar and John McMurtery, flute, will perform at the 13th annual Belvedere Chamber Music Festival from June 19-22 at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.

One of the terrific cultural treasures in Memphis is happening again starting next week. The Belvedere Chamber Music Festival begins its 13th annual celebration of contemporary music next Wednesday, June 19th, offering six hour-long concerts over four days. And all are free.

“We’ve found a combination of programming that’s attractive to a lot of different people because it’s not your typical new music festival in an academic setting,” says Patricia Gray, president of Luna Nova Music, the presenting organization.

And the format since the beginning has proved successful. There’s an opening reception Wednesday and then concerts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, plus 3:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. “The concerts last an hour and there’s no intermission,” Gray says. “So, people are not sitting through five hours of Faust anymore, like it was 1880. I’ve never had anybody say, ‘I wish this lasted two and a half hours and there was a 20-minute intermission.’” And for all 13 years of the festival, the host has been Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 1720 Peabody.

The festival has donors and angels to contribute funding to pay the musicians and cover some travel. “I’d rather spend money on musicians than anything,” Gray says. “I would so much rather have 100 people free than 10 people there who spent $20 a ticket.”

With that kind of attitude, Luna Nova can concentrate on the programming which, she says, she prefers to call “relatively new” music. “I think of it as 100-120 years back, something like that.” Gray is drawn to works between the wars and the early twentieth century, but close to half of the pieces are twenty-first century. But always, without fail, the festival opens with a single work by Johann Sebastian Bach. “I always think,” she says, “Bach is the mind of God, and it is the measure that everything else is matched against, so let’s just remember who we are and think about Bach.”

What follows that Bach appetizer is well thought through. Often there are regional themes — it’s Latin American music this year — and most importantly, Gray hopes the works will connect with the listeners. “I like to have feedback from the audience that says, ‘I heard this, and it spoke to me some way.’” She wants pieces that have an emotional impact. “When I get in the car, is that still going through my mind? Do I want to go out and buy that track? You have to feel like you’re listening to music that means something beyond that moment.”

Robert Patterson, who is married to Gray, has been with Luna Nova and the Belvedere festival since the beginning. He is a composer and performer (still playing French horn with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra) whose 2011 piece “Way of the River” will be presented Friday evening.

The six-part work — each based on a literary work — came about with the encouragement of bass clarinetist Nobuko Igarashi, a frequent performer at the festival, who wanted him to write something for her instrument and voice. Sara Teasdale’s poem “The River” got his attention: “I have to do something around this.”

As he was pulling together other texts and working on the composition, he was facing the illness of his mother and then the death of his father. “During that time is when I was working on this last one of these songs, the finale,” Patterson says, “and so it just got infused with all this parental loss, passing over the river to the next life. It’s a very emotional piece for me for that reason. It started out just as a sort of a favor for a friend, but became this eulogy for my parents.”

For more information: belvederefestival.org.

Categories
News News Blog

Bovell Takes Baton as MSO Assistant Conductor

CREDIT: RR Jones

RR Jones

Kalena Bovell

The Memphis Symphony Orchestra has recently appointed a new assistant conductor, Kalena Bovell. Her first appearance in that role will be conducting the orchestra for the Leslie Odom Jr. concert at The Orpheum June 28th.

Her duties include working with youth musicians for the Orff Side by Side concerts throughout the upcoming school year in partnership with Shelby County Schools.

Bovell worked with former MSO music director Mei-Ann Chen for Chen’s final masterworks concert in 2016. She has held conducting fellowships with the Allentown Symphony and the Chicago Sinfonietta. Bovell became assistant conductor for the Chicago Sinfonietta for the 2016-17 season and made her professional debut as part of the MLK Tribute concerts in Chicago’s Symphony Center. She has also worked with the Hartford and New Britain Symphonies in Connecticut. Most recently she’s been music director of the Civic Orchestra in New Haven, Connecticut.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bovell is a graduate of Chapman University’s College of the Performing Arts where she received a Bachelor of Music in Music Education. She received a Master of Music Degree and Graduate Professional Diploma in instrumental conducting from The Hartt School.

Bovell replaces Andrew Crust, who has taken a position with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

For more information, go to kalenabovell.com.