We Look to Actors Bridge Ensemble and Beyond for This Fall’s Theater Events

Actors Bridge Ensemble is focusing yet another season on local premieres. “We’re doing more this fall than we have done historically,” says associate artistic director Jessika Malone, who recently received her MFA in directing at Illinois State University and will stage Philip Dawkins’ Failure: A Love Story, Oct. 28-Nov. 5 at Darkhorse Theater.

“Dawkins’ play has a core ensemble of main characters,” Malone tells the Scene. “Its story concerns three sisters and the one man who falls in love with each of them. But the show also has a kind of Shakespearean chorus for which the author has said, ‘Do it however you wish … cast it in any way … make puppets, play a song … however you want to interpret this, have at it. Tailor the production to whatever fits your producing house and the artists involved.’

 “This is a story that I am very passionate about,” Malone continues. “It’s quirky and whimsical and sweet, and also a little macabre, which is always something I like.” 

In that spirit, the show opens over Halloween weekend.

 Malone has brought in the puppet troupe Sailors and Maidens as a collaborative force, and her cast of 15 includes Tom Mason, Brooke Gronemeyer, Cassie Hamilton, Amanda Creech, Dwayne Benn, Mallory Kimbrell and Kara McLeland. 

 Malone also promises some interactive pre- and post-show happenings that will draw on the play’s Prohibition-era setting. “Immersive theater is a strong rising trend,” she says. “People want to have a more direct relationship with performers.”

 Puppets also play a role in the Actors Bridge production of Robert Askins’ Hand to God, which will be performed  Dec. 9-18 at Darkhorse Chapel.

 “The play ended its New York run early this year, and we got in on the first round of regional stagings,” says Mitch Massaro, who recently completed his MFA in technical design at Yale and will direct his first Actors Bridge main stage production.

 Askins’ Tony-nominated script is set in small-town Bible-thumping Texas, where the students at the Christian Puppet Ministry put the Lord’s teachings into practice. But one devout young man’s puppet isn’t cooperating, and a shocking personality emerges that evokes hilarity as well as an exploration of faith and morality.

“I’ve always loved puppets,” says Massaro. “In America, we mostly view them as a vehicle for children. But worldwide, shadow puppetry and bunraku are high art forms intended for an adult audience. In Hand to God, the idea of puppets might imply innocence, but in the spirit of Avenue Q they give voice to repressed urges. Philosophically, there are serious ideas running through this story, but it is also just extremely funny.“

Massaro’s cast features Kim Bretton, Chuck Long, Blake Holliday, Britt Byrd and Jordan Ravellette.

Don't Miss:

Sept. 15-Oct. 2: Afflicted: Daughters of Salem at Nashville Children’s Theatre

Nashville Children’s Theatre will open its 85th season with Laurie Brooks’ riveting account of the dark events that led to the infamous Salem witch trials. Alicia Fuss makes her main-stage directorial debut, and her all-female cast features experienced players such as Amanda Card, Megan Murphy Chambers and Jamie Farmer.  

Sept. 30-Oct. 1: Upright Citizens Brigade at TPAC’s Johnson Theater

Improv comedy junkies should flock to this touring version of UCB, a highly successful ensemble that emerged more than two decades ago out of Chicago’s ImprovOlympic and was founded by noted performers and writers including Matt Besser and Amy Poehler. 

Oct. 7-23: Annapurna at Looby Theater

Veteran actor Alan Lee returns to Nashville to co-star with Holly Butler in Tennessee Women’s Theater Project’s production of Sharr White’s offbeat two-hander about a divorced couple’s funny and touching reunion — in a trailer in the Colorado Rockies. Maryanna Clarke directs.   

Oct. 13-Nov. 5: Noises Off at TPAC’s Johnson Theater

First mounted by Nashville Repertory Theatre in 2005, Michael Frayn’s wildly funny 1982 British farce returns to the Rep stage with a star-studded collection of Music City thespians, including Martha Wilkinson, Jenny Littleton, Cori Laemmel, Eric D. Pasto-Crosby and Brian Webb Russell. 

 Oct. 18-23: Rent at TPAC’s Jackson Hall

The late Jonathan Larson’s popular reworking of La Bohème won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Musical as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The show’s many fans should be drawn to this 20th anniversary tour and the chance to revisit the story of young artists struggling to follow their dreams.

Oct. 27-Dec. 4: Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook at Nashville Children’s Theatre

This adaptation by Allison Gregory from the book series finds Barbara Park’s irrepressible kindergartner on the hunt for her new furry mittens, which have mysteriously disappeared. The director is Shawn Knight, who staged last spring’s A Year With Frog and Toad for NCT. 

Oct. 28-Nov. 13: Stuff Happens at Looby Theater

Circle Players presents David Hare’s portrayal of the events that led to the post-9/11 invasion of Iraq. The noted British playwright and screenwriter treats George W. Bush and Colin Powell in the manner of Shakespeare’s Richard III or Henry V, and the script is part political thriller, part historical tragedy. David Ian Lee directs.      

Nov. 3-13: The Battle of Franklin  at The Factory at Franklin’s Jamison Theater

Franklin-based Studio Tenn stages an original work that draws on the expertise of leading local historians, then matches poetry to theatrical storytelling to relate a stirring account of the 1864 Battle of Franklin — one of the Confederacy’s most desperate and tragic Civil War engagements.   

Nov. 4-5: Sex Tips for Straight Women From a Gay Man at TPAC’s Polk Theater

Based on Dan Anderson and Maggie Berman’s bestselling 1997 book, this frank romantic comedy is set at a university, where a guest author decides to turn his appearance into an audience-interactive sex-tip seminar. The show has been playing off-Broadway since early 2014. Contains adult humor and content.

Nov. 11-26: A Lie of the Mind at Darkhorse Theater

This 1985 Sam Shepard work began life as a stage vehicle for Harvey Keitel, Amanda Plummer, Aidan Quinn, Geraldine Page and Will Patton. The setting is snowy Montana, where family dysfunction and the nature of love come under close scrutiny. Dave McGinnis directs ACT 1’s take on this challenging piece from one of America’s most important modern playwrights.  

Nov. 15-20: The Book of Mormon at TPAC’s Jackson Hall

The blockbuster musical comedy returns to Nashville, where it played to enthusiastic crowds in 2014. The show’s sharp satire, hilarious (and ambitious) musical numbers and wonderful choreography should guarantee another fulfilling theatergoing experience.  

Nov. 18-Dec. 4: Tick, Tick … Boom! at Holy Trinity Community Church, 6727 Charlotte Pike

Street Theatre Company presents Rent creator Jonathan Larson’s early autobiographical musical, which he performed first as a solo piece in the years before his untimely death in 1996. Brett Myers directs, and Randy Craft supervises the music.