Tag: Debbie Litch

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We Saw You

We Saw You: Priscilla Presley Honored by Theatre Memphis

OK. I had to have a photograph with Priscilla Presley at the Theatre Memphis tribute to her. (Credit: Jonathan Finder)

Wearing a striking Fouad Sarkis black-and-white gown, Priscilla Presley took the stage to thank her fans at “Honoring Priscilla Presley: The Artist, The Woman,” which was held July 22nd at Theatre Memphis.

“This has been a very overwhelming evening for me,” Presley told the audience. “It’s very difficult to take compliments.”

And, she joked, “I didn’t know I did so much, to be honest with you.”

Presley told the audience she learned about Memphis at age 14 from Elvis when he was in Germany during his Army days. “We had long talks about Graceland, about Memphis, about his childhood, about how much he loved Memphis.”

And, she says, “When I came here I was absolutely amazed at the friendships that I made. But not only that, the Southern hospitality just absolutely blew me away. Everyone was so kind, so wonderful as far as bringing me in, accepting me. It was something I will never ever forget. And won’t forget. I do believe Memphis is my home.”

Dabney Coors was co-chair of the event with Elizabeth Coors, as well as the organizer of the event.

The evening began with a reception in the lobby with food from chef Erling Jensen and live Memphis music, and ended with a party featuring more of the same, in addition to a chance for guests to meet Presley.

In between the parties was a tribute, where the 275 or so audience members learned about the staggering amount Presley has done and been involved in. Kym Clark and Kontji Anthony were the emcees. Special guests included T. G. Sheppard and his wife, Kelly Lang, and, by video, Jerry Schilling.

T.G. Sheppard, Priscilla Presley, and Kelly Lang at Priscilla Presley tribute (Credit: Michael Donahue)

For one, Presley was responsible for Graceland being saved and being opened to the public, instead of being sold.

She portrayed “Jenna Wade” on TV’s Dallas. She was in movies, including the Naked Gun trilogy. She came out with her own perfume and line of bed linens. She came up with the idea of coupling a lightning bolt image with the words “TCB” during an airplane flight with Elvis in a storm.

All of this and much more was referred to during the evening. According to the program, Presley also is an ambassador with the Dream Foundation, which helps fulfill dreams of terminally-ill adults. And, the program states, “She has also worked closely with the Humane Society of the United States and has spent time in DC to lobby Congress to pass the ‘Prevent All Soring Tactics’ (PAST Act) bill that will strengthen enforcement of the 1970 Horse Protection Act.”

“Congressman Steve Cohen announced from the stage that he entered a declaration in to the Congressional Record that Priscilla Presley is now an honorary Memphian,” Dabney says. “The Mayor (Jim Strickland) came with a key to the city and a proclamation, and the Tennessee governor (Bill Lee) had a proclamation for Priscilla. Kevin Kane was the presenter.”

Congressman Steve Cohen at Priscilla Presley tribute (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Mayor Jim Strickland, Jack Soden, Kevin Kane, Hayden Kane, Leighanne Hart Soden, and Melyne Strickland at the Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis. (Credit: Michael Donahue)

All the presentations were in honor of “this 40th anniversary of her opening Graceland. It could not have been a better celebration for her.”

Debbie Litch, Theatre Memphis executive producer, announced “The Theatre Memphis – Priscilla Presley Scholarship,” which, according to the program, will “make an artistic dream come true.”

Erling Jensen and Debbie Litch at the Theatre Memphis tribute to Priscilla Presley (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Memphis artists who performed during the evening included guitarist-songwriter-producer Mario Monterosso, singer/pianist Brennan Villines, who wore a pink tuxedo and slippers with the “TCB” lightning bolt on the toes, and Kallen Esperian, who sang “God Bless America.”

Kallen Esperian and William R. Eubanks at the Priscilla Presley tribute (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Brennan Villines at the Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)

“One of the most popular drinks of the evening was the one created for the party named the ‘Priscilla,'” Dabney says.

“The drink was a French 75 made with vodka instead of gin.”
It also included lemon juice, simple syrup, and champagne.

Lansky Brothers was corporate sponsor of the event. And, as a side note, Monterosso’s tuxedo came from Lansky’s.

Dabney says she received more than 100 texts, telephone calls, and emails from people about the tribute. People are “so thrilled for her and for the city of Memphis to acknowledge her continuing great works on behalf of our city,” Dabney says.

It was also good timing that the celebrated movie directed by Baz Luhrmann, Elvis, recently released and premiered at The Guest House at Graceland. “We were able to celebrate her a month after she welcomed the cast and crew and Warner Brothers into Graceland. She had a dinner party inside the mansion for them.”

Lurhmann also gave remarks via video at the event.

Dabney met Presley 25 years ago at a red carpet event in Los Angeles. “We just see each other all the time. And we just have a ball.

“This has been in my heart to honor Priscilla in our city for years and years. And her family knows it, my dear friends know it.”

Priscilla stayed in town several days after the event. Elizabeth Coors and her husband, Giles, held a private dinner party for Priscilla the night after the tribute. 

Giles and Elizabeth Coors at the Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Dr. Jonathan Finder, who attended the tribute with his wife, Jana, talked with Presley a few days after the event at Sam Phillips Recording Studio. “What struck me about chatting with Priscilla was how she came across as incredibly kind and down to Earth,” Finder says. “And at the same time so very sharp and insightful. A remarkable person who has led a remarkable life.”

Dabney Coors and Dr. Jonathan and Jana Finder at Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Lucy Woodson and Pat Kerr Tigrett at the Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Veronica Batterson, former Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, Rev. Keith Norman, and Brett Batterson at the Priscilla Presley Theatre Memphis tribute (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Cristy Beasley Cass and Cary Brown at Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Doug Browne and J. W. Whitten at Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Jerry Phillips, Scott Bomar, and Laura O’Mell at Priscilla Presley tribute. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Shirley Brown, Don and Elizabeth Scott, Gary Beard, Randall Hartzog, Dr. Mel Litch at Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Josh and Lindsey Hammond at the Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Leslie Fowler at the Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Kerri Mahoney and Scott Bomar at Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
We Saw You
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News News Blog

Priscilla Presley to be Honored at Theatre Memphis

Priscilla Presley (Credit: Christopher Ameruoso)

Priscilla Presley will be honored at a black tie celebration, “Priscilla Presley: The Artist, The Woman,”  July 22nd at Theatre Memphis.

“This is a community thank you to Priscilla for all she has done for the Memphis community,” says Dabney Coors, Theatre Memphis board member and a friend of Priscilla, who was married to Elvis Presley.

The evening will include a formal presentation in the theater with music followed by a dinner and music in the lobby.

 “I truly am honored by this,” Priscilla says in a phone interview. “Gosh. I’m a little overwhelmed because I love Memphis. I love the city. I love Tennessee.”

And, she says, “I never expected this. It’s just taken me back a bit.”

Coors, immediate past president of the Theatre Memphis board, came up with the idea for the celebration. “The idea has been in my head for the last eight years,” Coors says. “I said to Priscilla when she opened the Guest House (at Graceland), ‘Priscilla, you give and give and give to Memphis.  And one day we’re going to turn this around and we’re going to give to you.’”

Why this year? “Because this is the 40th anniversary of Priscilla opening Graceland,” Coors says. “She saved Graceland from being sold. When she was 34 years old and she became the executor of the estate, it fell to her to decide what to do with Graceland. And the bankers, the lawyers, and the IRS told her she had one option and that was to sell.

Says Priscilla: “When I was told that, I made a comment: ‘That will never happen.’ And those were fighting words for me. I searched for someone who could help me. I had a lot of people to choose from.”

She looked “from New York to Kansas City to here in Los Angeles. And Jack Soden (president and CEO of Elvis Presley Enterprises), for me, was the best as far as helping me open it up. And here we are today.  And thank God he is still with us and a wonderful partner.”

 “She has brought 22 million international tourists to Memphis,” Coors says. “And impacted our Memphis economy more than six billion dollars over 40 years. Every queen, president, and rock and roll star who comes anywhere close to Memphis wants to go to Graceland. Graceland is considered the second most famous home in America after the White House.”

 Priscilla says, “When we opened Graceland, I never thought it would be the success that it is today. And people of all ages are coming to Graceland.”

One of her missions is to bring younger people to Elvis, she says. “You know our generation loved and cared for Elvis. My concern was that the younger generation learn and know who Elvis Presley was.”

Now, that generation is “passing it down to the next generation. Keeping the Elvis tours at Graceland certainly helped. People can’t believe his accomplishments.”

She and Elvis had “a wonderful relationship,” Priscilla says. “We never had the normal divorce. We still remained friends and cared for each other very much.”

Priscilla now lives in California, but she says, “I do not really consider California a part of me. Both my kids were born here and they live here. That’s the only reason I stick around. If I had my choice, I would be there in a minute. I would. I miss Memphis. I miss my friends. I miss the laughs. I miss the stories.”

 When she comes to Memphis, Priscilla likes to “go over to The Peabody hotel and hang out a little in there. Get a bite to eat and go over to Lansky’s. Check in and see how they’re doing. It’s always nice to keep the friends you had from the beginning.”

As a non-profit, Theatre Memphis has to raise money for the event, Coors says, and they already have 50 sponsors. “Memphis has stepped up.”

Debbie Litch, Theatre Memphis executive producer, says, “Theatre Memphis is privileged and honored to pay tribute to Memphis’ national and international ambassador Priscilla Presley.”

And, she says,  “As Theatre Memphis celebrates our 100th anniversary on May 20, 2022 as one of the nation’s most recognized and oldest community theaters in the nation, we want to recognize an extraordinary lady who has championed our Memphis community for over a half century.

“We are also excited to establish the Priscilla Presley Theatre Memphis Scholarship that will be awarded annually in honor of this outstanding woman to help an established or aspiring artist to achieve their artistic dream.”

Tickets are $300 apiece. Other seats will be reserved for the “community member status” section.

Among the entertainers taking part in the event will be Gary Beard, John Paul Keith, and Mario Monterosso. A special VIP area will be included.

For tickets and more information, call Theatre Memphis at (901) 682-8323.

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Intermission Impossible Theater

Dramatis Personae: Observations from the Ostranders

CREDIT: Jon W. Sparks

The 2019 Ostrander Awards ceremony held Sunday at the Orpheum was, as one has come to expect, packed with soigné theatre lovers in character and out, in their heads and out, cheering or consoling as needed.
Jon W. Sparks

Debbie Litch, executive producer at Theatre Memphis. TM won 10 of the Ostrander trophies this year.

The event alternated musical numbers and clusters of awards, keeping things going at a good clip. Among the highlights were Debbie Litch, executive producer at Theatre Memphis, giving the Behind the Scenes Award posthumously to Mike Lupfer. Lupfer died last year at age 81 and is remembered as a worldly man with diverse interests.

As described by Chris Davis recently in Memphis magazine, he was “a teacher, a world traveler, a family man, a theater lover, a friend to many, a past chair of the psychology department at the University of Memphis, a sometimes scoutmaster, and a paragon of local leadership and volunteerism.”

Jon W. Sparks

Kenneth Neill, publisher at Ostrander sponsor Contemporary Media, Inc., and Elizabeth Perkins, Ostrander director.

The estimable Chris Ellis transported himself from Hollywood to introduce Christina Wellford Scott, the recipient of this year’s Eugart Yerian Lifetime Achievement Award. Scott and Ellis are longtime friends from back in the Pleistocene era of Memphis theater. Ellis departed the local theater scene and ended up in Hollywood where he books films and television shows with some frequency. Among his credits: Armageddon, Apollo 13, My Cousin Vinny, The Dark Knight Rises, Godzilla, Catch Me If You Can … you get the idea. He is also an illustrator who does work for Memphis magazine as well as posting death anniversary drawings on his Facebook site, occasionally serious, frequently funny, and typically offensive.
Jon W. Sparks

From left: Chris Ellis, Kenneth Neill, and Christina Wellford Scott arguing over how to pronounce Ms. Scott’s first name.

Ellis’ intro of Scott was, by the way, occasionally serious, frequently funny, and typically offensive. He insisted on pronouncing the award winner’s first name as “ChrisTYNE-a,” causing occasional moments of apoplexy in the audience, members of which would holler “ChrisTEEN-a” to no avail.

Jon W. Sparks

Kell Christie directed the all-woman Lizzie: The Musical at New Moon Theatre, which won Best Ensemble in a Musical, and earned awards for Annie Freres as Best Supporting Actress, and for Gene Elliott for Best Sound Design for a Musical.

The director Dennis Whitehead Darling got the gold of the evening, winning Best Direction of a Drama in the community and professional division for The Parchman Hour: Songs and Stories of the ‘61 Freedom Riders at Hattiloo Theatre, and Best Direction in the collegiate division for Intimate Apparel at the University of Memphis. Parchman also won Best Production of a Drama and Intimate Apparel won Best Overall Production. Yes, but what has he done lately you ask? Go to Hattiloo this weekend and see Jelly’s Last Jam through September 1st.

Jon W. Sparks

Veteran actor Curtis C. Jackson (left) with Karl Robinson, winner of this year’s Larry Riley Rising Star Award.

It was also a splendid evening for Jason Spitzer who picked up two awards for Little Women: Best Original Script and Best Production of an Original Script. Spitzer is somewhat of a fearless genius who adapts and directs stories that he loves. A few years ago he revamped a turgid version of A Christmas Carol at TM and, well, God bless us every one for that improvement.
Jon W. Sparks

Jason Spitzer (left) nabbed two awards for Little Women at Theatre Memphis’ Next Stage: Best Original Script and Best Production of an Original Script. The play also got a Best Costume Design for a Drama award for Heather Steward. At right is Jim Palmer, who won the Eugart Yerian Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016 along with his wife, Jo Lynne Palmer.

Jason Gerhard was on both sides of the awards ceremonies, first getting his own plaque as Best Featured Performer in a Drama for his work in Junk at Circuit Playhouse, and then introducing the winner of the Larry Riley Rising Star Award, Karl Robinson.
Jon W. Sparks

Jason Gerhard, winner of Best Featured Performer in a Drama for his work in Junk at Circuit Playhouse.

First time winners are predictably excited, but few were as over the moon as Ariona Campbell, who won Best Supporting Actress in a Drama in the collegiate division for Crumbs from the Table of Joy at Southwest Tennessee Community College. She attended the ceremonies with daughter London.
Jon W. Sparks

Ariona Campbell won Best Supporting Actress in a Drama in the collegiate division for Crumbs from the Table of Joy at Southwest Tennessee Community College. With her at the Orpheum ceremonies is her daughter London.

After the ceremonies, attendees adjourned to the Halloran Center next door to further schmooze, emote, pose, crack wise, and try to impress potential directors. After all, these are theater people, people.

Jon W. Sparks

John Maness was one of two winners for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his work in TM’s 1776. The other awardee was Michael ‘Quick Change Artist’ Gravois in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at Playhouse on the Square.

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Theater Theater Feature

Lullaby

In only three short years, Debbie Litch, Theatre Memphis’ feisty executive producer, appears to have reversed the storied East Memphis theater’s ruinous and seemingly unstoppable slide. The leaky roof has been patched, the tattered carpets have been replaced, threadbare seats have been recovered, and paint has been liberally applied. One only needs to look at the huge modern wood and glass sconces that now line the walls of the Lohrey Stage to understand that Theatre Memphis is back and better than ever.

Well, the building is better than ever, anyway. Although production quality has improved and Theatre Memphis has staged a handful of superlative shows, productions at the newly restored playhouse have shown a decided lack of consistency. Director Stephen Hancock’s interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is currently running on the Lohrey Stage, is a prime example. Although the set and costume design rival anything one might find on any professional stage, the cast is woefully uneven, with actors who simply cannot handle the material cast in several key roles.

The completeness of Hancock’s dreamscape vision for A Midsummer Night’s Dream is extraordinary. The soundtrack, which seems to include every great song written about the moon in the 20th century, should be on sale in the lobby. The sets are beautifully realized. Hancock is almost completely successful in reinventing Shakespeare’s famous romp in the woods by turning it into a swanky post-modern sex farce, filled with slapstick and slamming doors. He’s encouraged his set and costume designers to reach out and conjure real magic. But Hancock has made grave errors in both his casting and his staging. His extensive cutting and rewording of what is already the bard’s most accessible comedy boggles the mind.

Purists would certainly disagree (as purists will), but there’s no crime in cutting Shakespeare deeply or altering a word here and there to help modern audiences through a minefield of dead idioms. But Hancock’s edit is condescending and intrusive for more Shakespear-ienced observers who can recite passages of the text line by line. Why change a richly descriptive word like “wanton” (still in current use) into “woman,” which is blander and less musical without the added benefit of being synonymous? Why change the colorful adjective “bully” to “jolly,” and then only half the time? Why do anything more than what absolutely needs to be done?

For all of its beauty, there are numerous problems with the design. To avoid sight-line issues, the play is best observed from the upper level. The garishly conceived fairy costumes marry absurd period designs, ridiculous glitter-rock makeup, and clownish, hideously colored antenna-adorned fright wigs. Nausea is assured.

The mask design for Bottom’s ass head — a defining element in any production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream — is beautifully realized. At a distance it looks like the rat cage placed on Winston Smith’s face in the film version of 1984, but up close, it is very nice.

The play’s climactic play-within-a play ends not in riotous laughter but in silence, followed by the sound of Ashley Bugg Brown as Egea (one of the show’s true highlights) noisily sucking the last of her drink through a straw. It’s one of this Dream‘s funniest moments, and certainly its most spontaneous. It’s also telling that for all the famous words, it took a tacked-on gag to bring Shakespeare’s funniest scene to life.

Brown’s antics are joy to watch, as is the comical wooing of Marques Brown who, as Duke Theseus, handcuffs himself to his bride. Melissa Harkness and Jade Hobbs, likewise, display superb comic skills as Hermia and Helena, two Athenian virgins with man trouble. But no matter how much momentum and comic potential these actors build, all action comes grinding to a halt whenever Ian Hunter (Demetrius) somnambulates through his lines.

Hunter isn’t the only actor sleepwalking through his role. Most of the fairies move and speak like the heavily medicated, and Jacob Rickert’s Puck is no exception.

Puck, a knavish prankster sprite who delights in creating chaos, is one of those roles every actor longs to play. The joy he takes in making mischief is one of A Midsummer Night’s Dream‘s greatest delights. But Rickert mouths his lines and shuffles through his stage directions with the energy of a tree sloth.

It’s good that Theatre Memphis is back and showing the potential to produce visionary — even world class — work. But all the packaging is useless if the performers can’t get the job done.