Tag: Tennessee Shakespeare Company

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Theater Theater Feature We Recommend We Recommend

TSC Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series Returns

For last year’s Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series, the company performed Macbeth. (Photo: Courtesy TSC)

On select dates through the month of October, Tennessee Shakespeare Company (TSC) invites you to free outdoor performances of The Tempest for the company’s seventh annual Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series. 

Though scholars categorize the play as a romance, TSC’s artistic director Dan McCleary says the story encompasses so much, touching on themes of betrayal, revenge, and love; it even dips into the genre of science fiction as the world of the story is entrenched in magic. “The Tempest starts tragically,” the director says, “but it ends with grace, and along the way, there’s some of the most beautiful poetry.” And some of this poetry you probably recognize: “brave new world,” “What’s past is prologue,” “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”

This year happens to be the 400th anniversary of the printing of Shakespeare’s First Folio, in which The Tempest appears first in the collection. Written in 1610-1611, the work is thought to be one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote alone. “It’s his farewell to the stage,” McCleary says. “And so it’s personal and, like the best science fiction stories, even though it might be in a land of fantasy, it’s quite meaningful. And Shakespeare is meant to be played, not read. It’s meant to be fun and not every word is meant to be understood necessarily. But it is meant to be enjoyed.”

For TSC’s performances, the company has condensed the play to 90 minutes, “without sacrificing any of the story or any of the music — a good 60 to 65 percent of the play is music. It’s sung or it’s danced or it’s underscored down to the island [the play’s setting].”

The performances, McCleary adds, will also be outdoors, so the sounds of nature and Memphis — airplanes, birds, cars, neighbors passing through — will add to the soundscapes and to the theatrical experience. “The whole notion of [the outdoor performances] to make it accessible, surprising, and fun,” McCleary says. “We wanted happy accidents with patrons. We wanted to be in a public forum, where we might confound people’s notion of a Shakespeare play and theater space. The whole purpose of this initially was wanting to capture a young person who was, for instance, coming by on a skateboard and just capture that person for five minutes and then maybe they’re on their way, but they had five minutes of hearing and seeing Shakespeare. We hope it brings an immediacy to the storytelling that audiences walk away, saying, ‘I’m never going to see something like that again.’”

For this series, in addition to the traditional free outdoor performances, TSC has added two ticketed indoor performances on October 28th and 29th for half-priced admission. For these two performances, patrons can purchase tickets here. A full schedule of performances can be found below, and more information on TSC’s Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series can be found here. 

FREE Outdoor Performances, No Reservation Required:
Friday, October 6, 7 p.m.: Overton Square’s Chimes Square Courtyard
Saturday, October 7, 4 p.m.: Woodlawn, LaGrange, Tennessee, no reservations required
Sunday, October 8, 3 p.m.: Dixon Gallery & Gardens
Friday, October 13, 7 p.m.: Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center
Sunday, October 15, 4 p.m.: Overton Shell
Thursday, October 19, 7 p.m.: Broad Avenue Wiseacre Brewery
Friday, October 20, 7 p.m.: St. George’s Episcopal Church
Saturday, October 21, 7 p.m.: Collierville Town Square’s Train Depot
Sunday, October 22, 3 p.m.: Davies Manor

Half-Price Tabor Stage Performances, Reservations Required:
Saturday, October 28, 7:30 p.m.: Tennessee Shakespeare Company
Sunday, October 29, 3 p.m.: Tennessee Shakespeare Company

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Theater Theater Feature

Toil and Trouble: TSC’s Macbeth

(left to right) Pershon Harper, Kellan Oelkers, and Rose James (Photo: Joey Miller)

Do you know the origins of the word “assassination” or the spell “Double, double, toil and trouble”? Like many things in the modern English language, it’s Shakespeare. More specifically, Shakespeare’s most infamous and haunting work: the Scottish play, Macbeth.

Macbeth is a general under King Duncan in 11th-century Scotland. When three witches prophesize his ascension to the throne, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth kill the king and a score of other characters to quench their thirst for power. Paranoia and madness plague them, leaving tyranny, murder, and civil war in their wake. The Scottish throne hangs in the balance as destiny, ambition, and pride sound as war horns behind the general’s banners.

This year, Tennessee Shakespeare Company (TSC) has selected Macbeth for its free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series. The series allows TSC to tour a condensed version of one of Shakespeare’s plays and offer people an accessible way to experience his work, as well as support the work of the education staff’s Macbeth Initiative. The initiative is part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Shakespeare in American Communities project, through which TSC offers workshops to both teachers and students on how to teach and interactively learn Shakespeare’s work on their feet and in the thrall of performance. The tour of Macbeth showcases these teaching artists in a live production.

One of the challenges of having a touring production performing outdoors is adapting to the space. For last Friday night’s show at the International Harvester Managerial Park in Lakeland, the company accomplished this masterfully, beginning just as the sun set behind the tree line. The actors melted out of the horizon in a haunting pageant of choreographed movement that set the tone of elegance and intensity that would build up over the next 85 minutes.

This production has, of course, been scaled down from the full version of Shakespeare’s work. Director Stephanie Shine weeded through two and a half hours’ worth of text and successfully showcases who these characters are as humans. The action and relationships complement the bard’s poetry, so the audience receives a clear message without getting lost in the language.

Shine is also working with just six actors playing 25 characters. They seamlessly transition from character to character through techniques such as the old man’s physicality adopted by Rose James’ portrayal of King Duncan or Nicolas Dureaux Picou’s dialect work for Siward and Porter. Allison White’s costume design does wonders in helping the audience track which actor is playing what character. The actors sport kilts, color-coded to distinguish the different family houses and made from what looks to be repurposed flannel shirts that give a minimalist modern edge to the show’s overall design.

The most compelling point in any production of this play is the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The actors, TSC veterans Michael Khanlarian and Lauren Gunn, have explosive chemistry, and Khanlarian’s magnetic portrayal of the infamous Scot draws wandering eyes even when the scene’s focus is not on Macbeth. If nothing else convinces you to see this play, Khanlarian’s “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow …” speech is an astounding rendition.

The work of Pershon Harper, Rose James, and Kellan Oelkers as the witches displays tight synchronicity, giving the impression of one mind in three bodies. When they magically emerge to forewarn Macbeth of his fate, it gives that quintessential spooky element audiences crave so close to Halloween.

Every able person with the time to see this production, should. Aside from the stellar skills of the six-actor ensemble, seeing Shakespeare’s writing in motion and in real time is how we keep these works alive.

TSC’s Macbeth runs every weekend until October 23rd. For locations and touring schedule, visit tnshakespeare.org.

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Art Art Feature

ArtsMemphis Awards 2022 Enhancement Grants

Tennessee Shakespeare Company (Courtesy ArtsMemphis)

ArtsMemphis has released the names of the seven recipients of their 2022 Enhancement Grants. According to ArtsMemphis, the Plough Foundation established the grants in 2005 “to strengthen organizational infrastructure and position [selected organizations] for sustained growth and community impact.”

The grants were awarded to Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group, the Metal Museum, Soulsville Foundation, Memphis Youth Symphony Program, the Young Actors Guild, Arrow Creative, and the Tennessee Shakespeare Company.

“This program encourages our operating support grantees to pursue significant projects that propel their missions forward and enable them to, in essence, ‘enhance’ their presence and impact both locally and globally,” said ArtsMemphis President & CEO Elizabeth Rouse in a statement.

All of the recipients have received Operational Support Grants in the past from ArtsMemphis to assist with their general functioning and programming costs. The Enhancement Grants have arrived at a critical juncture when many local arts organizations are continuing to recover from the pandemic and its myriad effects. 

Some of these organizations, like the Soulsville Foundation, have existed for decades, while others, such as the Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group, have been formed relatively recently. 

Soulsville School (Credit: Jesse Davis)

The Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group aspires to transcend cultural divides in the Mid-South through arts programming, language workshops, and festivals that celebrate and promote Latin American and other underrepresented cultures. Dorimar Ferrer, the executive director of the Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group, elaborated on the organization’s origins, which began with a small group of dedicated Latina women, as well as their community-oriented mission. 

“We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that was approved in 2014,” Ferrer said. “We wanted to educate. We wanted to share our Latin American culture, to be proud of our own culture. We wanted to build a cultural bridge between cultures.”

While Ferrer acknowledged the ongoing effects of the pandemic, she emphasized that the company adapted quickly and continued providing programming, albeit digitally. 

“We never stopped for the pandemic,” Ferrer said. “We said, ‘Okay, it is time to be creative.’ We made all of our programs virtual. During the pandemic, we did 150 programs.”

Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group (Courtesy ArtsMemphis)

Ferrer spoke on how the pandemic empowered the company’s leadership to learn new technologies and discover nontraditional ways to connect with others. 

“We created programs called ‘Storytimes’ on Facebook Live,” Ferrer said. “We did a ‘reverse’ parade for the Day of the Dead celebration. We had the parade stationed at Overton Park, and people drove by to see the parade. It has been a great opportunity for us to learn new skills.”

The company intends to use the Enhancement Grant funds to support and expand their local bilingual theater workshop program, which meets regularly at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Ferrer looks forward to seeing more workshops proliferate throughout the city and compensating their theater teachers for their time. 

“We do [workshops] the third Saturday of every month,” Ferrer said. “They’re free for the community. We hope to grow the program by expanding locations. We want to pay our teachers too because it is important for us to pay our artists.”  

Cazateatro celebrates Black History month annually with an Afro-Latino week that features speakers, workshops, and programming. In addition to expanding the theater workshops, the company plans on using the Enhancement Grant to convert this event into a month-long affair that will feature more performers and artists than was previously possible. 

“We hope to grow the [Black History Month] program,” Ferrer said. “Three or four days is not enough. We hope to do other events during the year as well to celebrate Afro-Latino culture.”

Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group (Courtesy ArtsMemphis)

Ferrer has created a welcoming space open to people of all identities and backgrounds. Her and the company strive to make the arts more inclusive for everyone, regardless of their nationality. 

“With this accent, it was impossible for me to do theater [in Memphis],” Ferrer said. “And I don’t want that to happen for my community. Our door is always open no matter what.” 

Ferrer encourages interested parties to reach out to her or visit the company’s website for more information on upcoming events and volunteer opportunities. 

“We are always looking for people to help us at the theater,” Ferrer said. “You do not need to have theater experience to be part of Cazateatro. Everyone is welcome.”

Other organizations, such as the Soulsville Foundation and Arrow Creative, will use the grant money in a different way to promote organizational growth and community outreach. Both plan to use the money to renovate their respective spaces. 

“​​The challenges and opportunities over this past year have forced our organization to fight harder and to become more innovative in ways that we provide service and fundraise. We have been more intentional in assuring we meet the needs of Memphis children within the communities we serve,” said Sabrina Norwood, Executive Director of Young Actors Guild. “Our programs constantly evolve and shift to continuously meet the needs of those we serve.  Every challenge has been met with a creative eye and innovative planning to make the necessary adjustments.”

ArtsMemphis has announced that they are now accepting applications from organizations for their next round of Operating Grants. Those interested can find more information about Operating Grants and the full list of Enhancement Grants recipients at artsmemphis.org. 

“Despite the pandemic pause on our industry in 2020, we as an organization have never pressed pause,” said Rouse. “Continuity in our support of local artists and arts organizations has been critical, and we all must contribute to keep these organizations not only afloat but thriving in our city.”

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We Recommend We Recommend

Tennessee Shakespeare Company Presents “Ada and the Engine”

Rachel Cendrick as Ada (Photo: Tennessee Shakespeare Company)

“She walks in beauty, like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies,” read the first lines of Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” — lines that double as the first lines to Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s newest production, Ada and the Engine, which revolves around Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s forgotten daughter.

“What gives Ada life is the heartbeat of her father’s literature,” says Dan McCleary, director of the show. “She never actually met him. Her mother was intent on her never being like her father and forced her into a life of science and mathematics. And that’s not where women go at this time in London, but Ada is adept at it — more than adept.” As such, Ada went on to coming up with binary coding — those zeros and ones that are the foundation of modern technology.

Because of her continued role in our technology two centuries later, the play is a “fantastical marriage between the historical and the modern, and so it’s a production unlike any we’ve done before. Audiences will get a sense of true-fact history on stage, but also you’ll see the modernity in the costumes, in the lighting projections, on the set, in Edison bulbs on stage, and in the music. There’s a lot of modern dancing in the piece. There’re musical pieces that audiences will have heard and original music. … There’s even a bit of time travel where Ada ultimately meets her father and sees the past, present, and future.”

Like her father, Ada was interested in poetic, rhythmic patterns, which allowed her to recognize the patterns of binary coding. In that way, McCleary says, “The show becomes a beautiful, artistic argument for ensuring that reading fiction, reading poetry, and studying the humanities should be as central to every child’s education as science and math.”

Ada and the Engine, Tennessee Shakespeare Company, 7950 Trinity, Opening November 11th, 7:30 p.m., $20-$35.

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We Recommend We Recommend

Tennessee Shakespeare Company Explores the Work of Carson McCullers

CREDIT: Courtesy Tennessee Shakespeare Company

Tennessee Shakespeare Company will explore the popular Southern Gothic/realism writer Carson McCullers (1917-1967). A rare multi-form fiction writer, she penned characters who were usually in physical, psychological, and spiritual isolation. Feelings, no doubt, within her own life.

Her music studies were abandoned after losing Juilliard tuition money on the subway. Her romantic life was tragic, complicated by physical pain, addiction, and illnesses. Plagued by strokes, she was ultimately confined to a wheelchair due to partial paralysis. She described her writing as “a search for God.”

The performance will be directed by Stephanie Shine who will be joined on stage by fellow TSC actors Cara McHugh Geissler, Jasmine Robertson, John Ross Graham, Michael Khanlarian, and Irene Keeney.

“Carson writes with all of her questions about life and love guiding her pen,” says Shine. “Her singular ability to conjure characters of rich complexity, and sometimes surprising duplicity, makes her a great humanist. Her people breathe, and we breathe with them because of their haunting humanity. Rarely has a writer been able to capture detail that both clarifies and entices as she does. Even more inviting, Carson’s words are thrilling when spoken out loud.”

Excerpts will be featured from McCullers’ play, A Member of the Wedding, and major works, including The Ballad of the Sad Café and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Excerpts will also be read from her first published work when she was 19 years old — the short story “Wunderkind” — as well as two of her poems.

The Hunting Heart: Carson McCullers, online from Tennessee Shakespeare Company, tnshakespeare.org, Sunday, Jan. 24, 3 p.m., $15.

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Cover Feature News

Give Memphis! Great Local Gift Ideas for the Holidays

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

If 2020 has proven anything, it’s that we need to come together to support our community — the health, happiness, and longevity of our fellow Memphians count on it now more than ever. While we may not be able to gather with friends and family for gift exchanges like we have in the past, we can still lift their spirits with thoughtful presents that help our local restaurants, retail outlets, and entrepreneurs keep doing what they do. Think local this season!

A Box of Magic

Have a giftee in your life who seeks to better understand their own power, to look within and outside for growth and restoration? Give them a box of magic, or as Sami Harvey, owner of Foxglove Pharm, calls it: a Coven Box.

“I’ve always been amazed by Mother Nature’s ability to heal, and I love finding new ways to use her ingredients to solve my problems,” Harvey says. “I started Foxglove Pharm in 2017 because I wanted to share some of those solutions with my community.”

Each subscription box ($40/month) includes a rotating variety of handcrafted herbal “remeteas” (About Last Night: Hangover Tea, Out of the Blue: Third Eye Tea, and others), scented oils, Resting Witch Face skincare products, rituals, and more special items that “honor the moon, the current astrological phase, and a featured plant.”

Sami Harvey

Each month, she partners with another local maker or small business to spotlight their wares. For her Foxglove offerings, Harvey is “the only witch in the kitchen,” so the products are small-batch and made with “ethically sourced, organic, sustainable ingredients.”

Regarding the rituals included in a box (or separately on the website), Harvey says, “These aren’t like supernatural spells that will destroy all your enemies and turn Michelle Obama into your BFF. But they’re ways to meditate and channel your energy into manifesting a better reality for yourself. The real magic ingredient is you and your intention.”

Visit foxglovepharm.com to order a Coven Box and shop products. — Shara Clark

Feed an Artist

The old cliché about “starving artists” has seldom been more true. Buying art is often the last thing folks are thinking about during tough times like these, but our Memphis painters and sculptors and photographers — and their galleries — have bills to pay, just like the rest of us. That’s why this might be a great year to put a new painting on your wall, or gift someone a work of art so they’ll be reminded of you every day.

Courtesy Jay Etkin Gallery

Untitled by John Ryan

There are many fine galleries in Memphis. Here are just a few: L Ross, David Lusk, Jay Etkin, Crosstown Arts, Orange Mound Gallery, Art Village, Cooper-Young Gallery, and B. Collective. Artists featured include Matthew Hasty, Jeanne Seagle, John Ryan, Mary Long, Roy Tamboli, Eunika Rogers, Cat Pena, Yancy Villa-Calvo, Hamlett Dobbins, Anne Siems, Tim Craddock, and many, many more. In addition, many galleries are featuring special holiday shows.

End what has been a nightmarish year on an upbeat note: Buy a piece of art. It’s good for your heart. — Bruce VanWyngarden

Let Them Eat Cake

I’d be happy to receive a Memphis Bourbon Caramel Cake from Sugar Avenue Bakery, either in or out of my stocking. This is the Sugar Avenue collaboration with Old Dominick Distillery.

Just listening to Sugar Avenue owner Ed Crenshaw describe the six-inch cake makes me crave a slice or three: “The cake is four layers. Each layer is literally soaked in a bourbon caramel sauce. And then our caramel icing, which we make from scratch.”

Courtesy Ben Fant

Sugar Avenue cake

Sugar Avenue worked with Old Dominick’s master distiller/senior vice president Alex Castle to come up with the perfect blend of cake and bourbon. Old Dominick’s Huling Station Straight Bourbon Whiskey was chosen for the cake, which has “a great hint of bourbon flavor,” Crenshaw says. “We add bourbon to the icing and ice the cake with it.”

To help you get even more into the holiday spirit, Sugar Avenue Bakery recently began adding two-ounce jars of extra caramel sauce with every bourbon-flavored cake.

Memphis Bourbon Caramel Cakes are $55 each, and they’re available at sugaravenue.com. — Michael Donahue

Accessorize in Style

When Memphians need to give the gift of stylish living, they turn to Cheryl Pesce, the jewelry and lifestyle store in Crosstown Concourse. The store takes its name from its owner, Cheryl Pesce, a jewelry maker, entrepreneur, and all-around style guru.

This month, Pesce opened a second store in the Laurelwood Shopping Center, giving Bluff City-area shoppers double the chances to find — and give — stylish accoutrements. “I’m banking on Memphis,” Pesce explains. And Memphis seems ready to support Pesce. “We had a grand open house, social distancing into the parking lot, and it went well.”

Courtesy Cheryl Pesce

Handmade jewelry from Cheryl Pesce

The store opening story is just the tip of the breaking-news iceberg, though. Pesce tells me excitedly that she’s been in touch with fashion designer Patrick Henry, aka Richfresh, about his newly designed Henry Mask. “I spoke with him today and — drumroll — we will now be carrying his masks in my Laurelwood store.”

But wait! That’s still not all. The ink is still fresh on a deal for Pesce to carry Germantown-produced Leovard skincare products. “I will be his only brick-and-mortar store in the country,” Pesce says. “So there are a lot of cool things happening, most of them local.”

In the smaller store in Crosstown, Pesce sells hand-sewn baby items, masks, Christmas ornaments, and anything with the Crosstown logo — she’s the official source for Crosstown-brand goods. Laurelwood is larger and a little more deluxe. “One of the focuses for that store is local and regional artisans,” Pesce says. She carries Mo’s Bows, Paul Edelstein paintings, and, of course, hand-crafted jewelry. “That’s really my wheelhouse.

“My studio is at Laurelwood,” Pesce says, “so not only is it made in Memphis, made by me, but it’s all under one roof now. The store, the studio. You can literally come pick out your own pearls — ‘I want this pearl on that earring’ — and then I craft it for you right there.”

Cheryl Pesce is located at 1350 Concourse Avenue, Suite 125, and at 374 Grove Park Road South, Suite 104. Find out more at (901) 308-6017 or at cherylpesce.com. — Jesse Davis

Good Reads

There’s something that comes from holding the edges of a book and being taken to a distant land or wondrous world. Whether it’s due to happenstance or the crazy and confusing world in which we find ourselves now, I have been reading more and more as the months drag on. To fuel my ever-growing hunger for words and phrases completed on the page, Novel has been my go-to place.

Novel is proof that when you are doing something you love, the results will follow. The bookstore, founded in 2017, is the go-to for other local book enthusiasts, too — and with good reason. Their staff will go to the moon and back to help you find the book that fits you just right, and if you’re looking for something specific, chances are they will be just as excited about it as you are.

Matthew J. Harris

of what gift to give this season.

Many of their aisles have felt like a second home to me the past few months. And with books in every genre, it is often easier to ask them what they don’t have, rather than what they do. Personally, I love their new-this-year home delivery option, which offers a safe way to give the gift of literature this holiday season. — Matthew J. Harris

Hit the Boards

This year has given us plenty of time to learn new skills. And what better way to get your mind pumping in both a constructive and competitive fashion than with a game of chess?

The Memphis Chess Club recently opened its new café/headquarters Downtown at 195 Madison Avenue, and the three levels of annual memberships make for a great gift, whether someone is looking to seriously pursue an interest in the game or just learn a few tips and tricks.

Samuel X. Cicci

A Memphis Chess Club membership isn’t as risky a move as the Queen’s Gambit.

The social membership ($50) allows members to play chess in the café area at any time, with tables, pieces, and clocks all provided. The full membership ($100), meanwhile, affords all of the social perks but provides unlimited and free access to all classes and tournaments, which are held at the club weekly. It also offers discounts on merchandise, and members are able to check out materials from the club’s chess library, which contains old magazines and strategy books.

For whole families looking to kickstart an interest in the game? The family membership ($150) contains all full membership benefits and includes two adults and all the children in a household.

And, hey, if chess isn’t your thing, the spacious café is a great space to just hang out or study while sipping on some brewed-in-house coffee or munching on one of chef Grier Cosby’s specialty pizzas.

Visit memphischessclub.com/join for more information. — Samuel X. Cicci

The Gift of Grub

Food is fun and helps define Memphis culture. Those who make that food and fun are in trouble.

Restaurants have maybe suffered more than any small business during this pandemic. Restrictions on them have come and gone and may come again soon. Memphis restaurateurs have shown amazing resilience in these ups and downs. They’ve shifted business models, adapted to the latest health directives, and adjusted staff levels (laying off workers and hiring them back) to match it all.

Memphis Restaurant Association/Facebook

Support local restaurants — so they can stick around.

However, we forever lost some Memphis favorites, like Lucky Cat and Grove Grill. The National Restaurant Association said nearly 100,000 restaurants across the country closed either permanently or for the long-term six months into the pandemic. Nearly 3 million employees have lost their jobs. Help restaurants out and have food fun, too. This holiday season, buy gift cards from our local restaurants.

At the pandemic’s beginning in March, we told you about a national push to buy “dining bonds” or “restaurant bonds.” Many Memphis restaurants jumped in — many selling gift cards at deep discounts. For restaurants, gift cards are quick infusions of cash, helpful in tough times.

So instead of that scarf you’re kind of on the fence about, spend the same amount on a restaurant they love. It’ll be unexpected and, yes, come with some delayed gratification — delicious delayed gratification. Present it not as a gift card but as that dish they love from that place they love.

Sing it with me: “Everybody knows, a burger and some mistletoe help to make the season bright. Memphis foodies, with their eyes all aglow, will find it hard to sleep tonight.”

Gift cards are available at almost every restaurant and for almost any amount. Check websites and socials for details. — Toby Sells

Music to Their Ears

Remember when giving music was a thing? Physical things like LPs, CDs, and cassettes could be wrapped. But now that everything’s ethereal, there’s still a way to give the gift that keeps on giving: Patreon. Musicians are embracing this platform more and more, and it’s working for them. A subscription to their accounts may just be the perfect gift for the superfan in your life who already has everything.

Mike Doughty (Soul Coughing, Ghost of Vroom) relies on his Patreon subscribers for both income and inspiration. As he told the Detroit Metro Times, “Doing a song a week is amazing, and that is really what, if I had my druthers, I’d do for the rest of my life.” Patrons can subscribe at different levels, each with premiums like CDs and T-shirts, but everyone paying at least $5 a month can access Doughty’s song-a-week and more.

Greg Cravens

Other Memphis-affiliated singer/songwriters like Eric Lewis, J.D. Reager, and (coming in December) Marcella and Her Lovers also have accounts. And last month, label and music retailer Goner Records began offering Patreon subscriptions that include access to the Goner archives and exclusive music and videos.

Patreon’s site notes that “there isn’t currently a way to gift patronage,” but if you get creative, you can search for an artist on patreon.com and buy a subscription in a friend’s or family member’s name — and they can thank you all through the year. — Alex Greene

Support Arts and Culture

“A plague on both your houses!” cried the dying Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, and it seems the COVID-19 pandemic took that sentiment to heart, emptying out our theaters and concert halls and thinning out attendance at museums. But still they persisted. The organizations behind the arts we love are still at work online, virtually, distancing, and striving to keep the arts alive — especially in programs aimed at young people.

You can help the old-fashioned way by getting season subscriptions and memberships for whenever the lights come back on — and they could use that support right now. Or make a simple donation. Help keep Memphis culture alive by giving gifts on behalf of the following, but don’t be limited by this partial list — if you have other favorites, give them a cup o’ kindness as well.

Jon W. Sparks

Spring, Summer, Fall at the Brooks Museum by Wheeler Williams

Performing arts organizations:

• Playhouse on the Square (playhouseonthesquare.org)

• Theatre Memphis (theatrememphis.org)

• Opera Memphis (operamemphis.org)

• Ballet Memphis (balletmemphis.org)

• New Ballet Ensemble (newballet.org)

• Cazateatro (cazateatro.org)

• New Moon Theatre (newmoontheatre.org)

• Hattiloo Theatre (hattiloo.org)

• Tennessee Shakespeare Company (tnshakespeare.org)

• Memphis Black Arts Alliance (memphisblackarts.org)

• Emerald Theatre Company (etcmemphistheater.com)

Museums and galleries:

• Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (brooksmuseum.org)

• Dixon Gallery and Gardens (dixon.org)

• National Civil Rights Museum (civilrightsmuseum.org)

• Metal Museum (metalmuseum.org)

• Stax Museum of American Soul Music (staxmuseum.com)

• Pink Palace Museum (memphismuseums.org)

• Children’s Museum of Memphis (cmom.com)

• Fire Museum of Memphis (firemuseum.org) — Jon W. Sparks

Basket or Box It for a Gift That Rocks It

Need something sweet for your honey this holiday season? Thistle & Bee has the gift that gives twice. A relaxing gift box contains raw Memphis honey, a milk and honey soap bar, and a pure beeswax candle ($20). Every item is handcrafted and directly supports women survivors to thrive through a journey of healing and hope.

Social enterprise director at Thistle & Bee, Ali Pap Chesney, drops a stinger: “We partner with other businesses, too. Feast & Graze uses our honey.”

Feast & Graze/Facebook

Feast & Graze

The cheese and charcuterie company Feast & Grace is co-owned by Cristina McCarter, who happens to co-own City Tasting Box. Boxes are filled with goodies promoting local Black-owned businesses like Pop’s Kernel and The Waffle Iron. An exclusive limited-quantity holiday gift box, Sugar and Spice, just rolled out for the season in two sizes — regular ($74.99) and ultimate ($124.99).

Memphis Gift Basket is owned by Jesse James, who says he is rolling out a new logo this week. Along with the new logo are new products for baskets ($55-$100) that focus on diversity by including more women- and minority-owned businesses, in addition to local items with iconic names like The Rendezvous and Memphis magazine. Guess what else you might find in a Memphis Gift Basket? Thistle & Bee honey.

Now that we’ve come full circle, check out these gift box and basket businesses, as well as partnering companies, for errbody on your holiday list — including that corporate gift list.

Visit thistleandbee.org, citytastingbox.com (use code SHIP100 for free shipping on orders over $100), and memphisgiftbasket.com for more. — Julie Ray

Lights, Camera, Action

A lot of businesses have been hard-hit during the pandemic, and movie theaters have been near the top of the list. With social distancing-limited theater capacity and Hollywood studios delaying major releases into next year in the hopes a vaccine will rekindle attendance, theater chains like Memphis-based Malco have been in dire straits. The exception has been drive-in theaters, like the Malco Summer Drive-In, which have seen a renaissance in 2020.

If you want to support this local institution and give a treat to the movie-lover in your life, you can buy them a Malco gift card. Available in any denomination from $10 to $500, the gift cards can be used for movie tickets and concessions for any film now or in the future. You can also enroll in the Malco Marquee Rewards program, which allows frequent moviegoers to earn points toward free tickets and concessions.

Greg Cravens

Malco has taken extraordinary steps to ensure the safety of its patrons, including mandatory masks, improved air filters, and non-contact payment options. And if you’re not comfortable sharing a theater with strangers right now, there’s a great option: The Malco Select program allows you to rent an entire theater for a screening of any film on the marquee — and that includes screenings in the massive IMAX theaters at the Paradiso. Prices start at $100, which works out pretty well if you want to watch Wonder Woman 1984 with your pod this holiday season. And if the person you’re buying for is a gamer, Malco has a brand-new option. With Malco Select Gaming, you can bring your system to the theater and play Call of Duty or The Last of Us on the biggest possible screen. — Chris McCoy

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We Recommend We Recommend

Tennessee Shakespeare Hosts Coriolanus Salon (Live and Live-Streamed) This Weekend

CREDIT: Courtesy of Tennessee Shakespeare Company

Tennessee Shakespeare Company founder and producing artistic director Dan McCleary will lead the company of actors in the title role in Coriolanus. As well, viewers will be taken into the cesspool of politics of 493-489 B.C.E. It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same.

This political powerhouse has been appreciated by both political leaders and progressive theater companies in the last two centuries for national propaganda and citizen protest mobilization.

Courtesy of Tennessee Shakespeare Company

Coriolanus

“For a story that was ancient and well-known, the play’s ending was and remains surprising and moving,” says McCleary. “It is a harsh, bloody, painful look at a young republic struggling with its checks and balances through the austere nurture of male Roman virtue. This leads to a personal sacrifice that we do well to remember during our own election season. We all must be Tribunes of the people right now. We all must vote.”

A fatherless Martius is raised as a killing machine being of the patrician class. Martius cannot help but speak of his disdain for the office and the plebeian class; and with his potent threats and opposition in the Senate, he is banished from Rome only to join his archenemy in laying vengeful siege to his home and his family. But when the women and children of Martius’ family are deployed in supplication to him, what happens next is knowingly mortal.

The salon will feature approximately 10 scenes extracted from the play, interspersed with conversation about their creation and relevance, both live and online.

Like to a Lonely Dragon: Shakespeare’s Election of Coriolanus, Tennessee Shakespeare Company, 7950 Trinity, tnshakespeare.org, Friday, live and live-streamed, October 9, 8 p.m., $15-$25.

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Intermission Impossible Theater

Tennessee Shakespeare Announces 13th Season


Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s (TSC) 13th season will get underway next month fully accepting the mandates of the ongoing pandemic while employing as much creativity as possible.

First off is the Dr. Greta McCormick Coger Literary Salon Series, which begins August 30th and will explore more than 40 writers and literary works against a backdrop of seasons, holidays, and events.

The Free Shakespeare Shout-Out Series will visit eight outdoor locations in October with a Romeo and Juliet production. TSC founder and producing artistic director Dan McCleary says it “embraces (and masks) the Elizabethan quarantine Shakespeare refers to in his text.”

Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night takes the Tabor Stage in February, followed by the Elizabethan Feast benefit party, which was cancelled this past season due to COVID-19 restrictions.


Salons and performances will take place on the Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor Stage with online simulcasts for each performance, filmed by one camera.


TSC will enforce all state and local health safety criteria, including social distancing, family groupings of no more than six, reduced seating capacity to 33 percent, required distance from audience to performers, multiple entry/egress ways, hand-sanitizer stations, and mandatory face-coverings. The Tabor Stage will seat 54 patrons.


“As the world has shut down and our health has been endangered, we have learned how essential classical theatre and education is to our community,” says McCleary. “We thought they were very important.  But in fact, they are necessary. What William Shakespeare, great artists and philosophers, daring social protesters, and quarantined inventors have endured and produced before us should serve as lessons. We need each other, our creativity, and our compassion to live together.”


For more information, go here.

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Theater Theater Feature

Et tu, Brute?: Tennessee Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

It has been said that Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is a play without villains, and that makes its tragedy all the more poignant. The point of the drama may be that violent solutions to political struggles will only backfire in the end, no matter how noble the intentions of its perpetrators. As a corollary, the play demands that we see both good and bad in all political actors, irrespective of their ideologies.

It’s a point that Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s (TSC) production of the play, which opened last Friday and continues through Sunday, October 6th, conveys well. And in the current divisive political era, it’s perhaps the message we most need to hear.

The Bard seemed to intuit the drama’s universal themes. After Caesar’s death, Cassius pauses to ask, “How many ages hence shall this our lofty scene be acted over, in states unborn and accents yet unkown?” Yet the perennial relevance of the play can obscure its deep ambivalence about seizing power by any means necessary.

TSC’s staging avoids any literalist trappings, and thus remains true to the play’s original even-handedness. True, the program does reprint, without comment, the Declaration of Independence (like the play, slightly abridged by the company), suggesting obliquely that we apply its lessons to our own country and time. But beyond that, director and company founder Dan McCleary avoids any overt linkage of the drama to our age.

That was obvious before the play even began on opening night, when McCleary welcomed the audience to TSC’s “history museum.” It’s an accurate description of the set created by scenic designer Brian Ruggaber, a multi-level faux-marble courtyard dotted with displays of Roman swords and ruined statuary. The lighting design by Jeremy Allen Fisher accentuates this by largely favoring the full illumination of a museum display. The overall effect suggests that the narrative’s events be seen at a safe remove.

While such an approach can emphasize Julius Caesar‘s universality, it can also mute the darker elements of the story. Visions of the bloody dead rising up to speak to the guilty lose their frightful, gothic edge when so brilliantly illuminated. And yet the imaginative sound design by Eric Sefton compensates for this to a degree. Even while being seated, one hears the noises of sea waves, chanting mobs, and sword play, sounds that are effectively combined with strategic lighting cues during the play itself; and the haunting music by the Westerlies suggests darker tones. But all of this seems to work at cross-purposes with the flat-white lighting palette.

Similar cross-purposes are at work in the cast as well. In many cases, this enhances the play, as when Michael Khanlarian, as Caesar, evokes arrogance and benevolence in equal measure. This is true to the work’s refusal to paint any character as a villain, yet also can undercut the dramatic need for Caesar’s power grab to be so outrageous that assassination seems the only option left to the conspirators. As it is, their motivation to kill their leader, and their inner struggle with such motivation, seems lost in the face of Caesar’s geniality.

Nonetheless, Paul Bernardo brings a gravitas and urgency to Cassius that evokes enough inner torment over the decisions he and the other conspirators make to fuel the play’s momentum. And Phil Darius Wallace may well be this production’s most valuable player, portraying both the noble Marc Antony and the doddering, comedic Casca with equal aplomb.

The actor’s challenge with all Elizabethan writing is to deliver the lines with enough nuance and dynamism to suggest real conversation, as opposed to recitation. These two fine thespians excel at this, with the rest of the cast following suit for much of the production. Yet the overall effect is to present the story somewhat abstractly: as a well-lit thought experiment, set out on a pedestal, ripe for contemplation. In the end, that may be the truest way to make this historical drama relevant to today’s climate of authoritarianism and resistance.

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Theater Theater Feature

Once & Future: Tennessee Shakespeare Returns to the Forest of Arden

Joey Miller.

“All the world’s  a stage…” — As You Like It

“Also I know what thou arte, and who was thy fadir, and of whom thou were begotyn.” — Le Morte D’Arthur 

I swear, this review is all about Shakespeare and sheep, but it may take me a minute to get there.

See, last night one of my teenage twins randomly started talking about King Arthur. It was a fun, speculative monologue about how different, sometimes contradictory pieces of the legend appear at different points in British history, and how all these shifts in emphasis are difficult reconcile into a cohesive story.

“Maybe this is what’s really meant by Arthur living in a kind of suspended animation on the Isle of Avalon,” I suggested, when it was my turn to talk again. “Maybe we resurrect him — and change the story — whenever ‘England’ is questioning or needing to affirm certain core values.”

I share this super nerdy anecdote about my family’s weird dinner conversations, because the stories we tell over and over again always serve this rhetorical need, whether they’re fact or fantasy. We’re always refining our past and measuring new values against convention and, for better or worse, nothing’s more persuasive than old blades that cut true. Except for an old, rusty blade wielded by a wild-eyed nut who thinks it’s Excalibur. Either way, the metaphor holds up well enough when applied to Shakespeare’s pliable, popular, gender-wise comedy, As You Like It. 

As You Like It almost always lives up to its name. Memphians have often followed the misadventures of Rosalind, Orlando, and the exiled Duke, as well as various clowns, poets, farmers and professional wrestlers as they’ve journeyed from urban to rural environments looking for sanctuary or satisfaction only to discover love in its infinite variety. In recent decades we’ve been treated to a folksy version of the story set in the Old West and accompanied by melancholy string bands. We’ve seen it in a few surreal dreamscapes with accordions and jug bands. We’ve even seen it outdoors in suburban Shelby County.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s (TSC) revival is a charming affair with period music and costumes, and a lively atmosphere designed to conjure a romantic Elizabethan spirit. What it might lack in a unique point of view, it makes up in in clarity and accomplishment.

Tennessee Shakespeare is still settling into its new Trinity-Road home — a custom-built hall of glass and steel that wasn’t custom built for them. It previously housed Ballet Memphis before the dance company packed up camp and moved to Overton Square. The building was, as TSC’s founder Dan McCleary noted in a teary curtain speech, designed for bodies, not for the voice. But that’s all one. TSC is completely at home and comfortable in its identity as a classically oriented company doing the classics classically. The converted dance studio, a modest and intimate echo of Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, provides this long peripatetic group, with a sense of stability and ownership it’s only occasionally found performing in borrowed spaces.

As You Like It doesn’t need a unique point of view to say its piece about attraction, gender identity/politics, other kinds of politics, religion, pedantry, or the urban/rural divide. It does those things on its own, if you let it. A bit of non-traditional casting only reenforces what’s already there without calling too much attention to itself. 

For all of its wise fooling, and keen commentary on urban affairs, it’s often noted that As You Like It is also the closest Shakespeare ever came to writing a musical. The structure is all star-crossed love stories, melodrama, comedy routines, sports entertainment, and song.  Tennessee Shakespeare’s never hesitated to stop any of its shows with an ancient melody or jig, and if the inescapable sounds of Christmas haven’t already worn you out on “Greensleeves,” the song and dance aspect’s covered well enough. 

Sara Malinowski and Nicolas Durreaux Picou lead the tight and versatile ensemble and make a fine couple both as Orlando and Rosalind and Orlando and Ganymede. They are strongly supported by Stuart Heyman, Merit Koch, Marlon Finnie, Claire Hayner, Caley Milliken, Gabriel Vaughn, and a large ensemble of seasoned Shakespeareans.  Joey Miller.

Of all the great clowns, Touchstone’s probably my favorite. He shifts fluidly between so many classic comic types — the lawyer, the minister, the lover, the pedant, the poet, the brawler, and he’s an ever attentive servant to none but his own appetites. Paul Kiernan’s improvisations are forced, sometimes, but he’s keen to the funnyman’s word games and quick with a bit of classic fooling, and even a bit of sleight of hand. Touchstone’s misguided love affair with Audrey, the shepherdess, is an especially fun lampoon of the central story that speaks many silly, sad truths about affairs of the heart and affairs of the pants. 

I haven’t forgotten the promise of sheep. Though, it seldom appears in any serious commentary about the text, subtext, metatext etc., there can be little doubt that an As You Like It without sheep jokes isn’t an As You Like It worth sitting through. Whether one chooses to go blue and bawdy or green and wholesome, the opportunities presented by a pastoral (read “poop-mined”) environment are too good to pass up, though a surprising number of productions do just that. TSC’s given us a free-range affair where the wooly critters sometimes populate the entire stage, bleating, chewing their cud, and staring down the audience as only sheep can — Delivering an entire monologue’s worth of editorial content with a well placed “baa.” It’s the most lighthearted piece in a tightly wound show made of air and imagination.

Tennessee Shakespeare’s newest As You Like It may not be one for the ages. Though set in the present on a makeshift stage full of actors wearing antique and anachronistic fashion, it’s certainly not one for the moment. But it is both literally and figuratively one for all seasons, and for each of the seven ages of man — suitable for all weather and ACA compliant to boot. What’s not to like?

As You Liked It — Some past productions of Shakespeare’s comedy show just how flexible it can be. Theatre Memphis, Tennessee Shakespeare’s first production, Rhodes College, and Rhodes College.