Shawn Whitsell is widely known in local circles for his work as both a gifted theater artist and a dedicated activist. And beginning March 25, he’ll be able to merge those two passions with a new drama class at Nashville Children’s Theatre.

A play ends. The lights come on. Spectators gather their belongings. And then, a crew member brings several chairs onstage, and the actors and director come walking out. 

It’s been almost exactly one year since OZ Arts closed its doors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But this weekend, the contemporary arts center will reopen with a unique work that promises to explore timely issues of isolation and interpersonal connection.

Feb. 11 would have been David Compton’s 59th birthday. And while Nashville’s theater community still mourns the loss of this remarkable actor, director, designer and educator, who died in 2016, it’s clear that his legacy lives on. In fact, Rosemary Fossee has marked the occasion with the rel…

Valentine’s Day is around the corner, I've just realized. If you’re also surprised by this news, maybe you don’t have anything planned. You can get in the spirit with a series produced by the Nashville Repertory Theater, Actually Love: Dramatic Readings of Historical Love Letters. Released o…

On Monday, Verge Theater Company continues conVERGEnce, the virtual discussion series that has been opening up conversations about representation in theater. Past discussions centered on anti-racism and reimagining arts institutions. At 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, Verge will host New Works as a P…

The holidays are quickly approaching, and already the Tennessee Performing Arts Center has wrapped up the perfect treat with its newly filmed version of Mark Cabus’ acclaimed solo performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. But what started as a way to reach local students has emerged…

In October, the small-but-mighty Verge Theater Company kicked off conVERGEnce, a series of conversations with theater makers and arts professionals that address contemporary issues in the industry from the sound booth to the board room. Ahead of that virtual discussion, Verge board member Te…

Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theatre — a mainstay in the local arts community — has announced that it’s closing its doors, ending its 53-year run as the nation’s second-oldest dinner theater.

Along with the industries of music, film and visual art, theater is having a reckoning about systemic racism. In June, a group of more than 300 BIPOC theater makers formed the group WE SEE YOU, WHITE AMERICAN THEATER and published a letter excoriating the industry for the inequitable practic…

Within days of the COVID-19 shutdown in March, local theater companies began fielding a barrage of questions from concerned patrons. When will performances resume? What does this mean for ticket holders? Four months later, struggling arts organizations face an even more pressing conundrum — …

Since 2011, Tennessee Performing Arts Center has been putting local students in the spotlight with its Disney Musicals in Schools program. In fact, TPAC Education and Metro Nashville Public Schools actually pioneered the innovative program, when they were selected by Disney Theatrical Group …

Verge Theater Company — one of Nashville’s best small-theater groups and certainly the most fun — announced a call for submissions for a virtual cabaret.

Nashville Repertory Theatre brought its season-reveal party online yesterday, announcing the first of its 2020-21 productions on Facebook, Instagram and on the nonprofit’s website. Karen Sternberg — who destroyed us all as Blanche DuBois in February’s A Streetcar Named Desire — announced the…

There’s a longstanding debate in the theater world — is sound a technical field or an artistic form? For Nashville-based director-designer William Kyle Odum, it’s both.

With a blend of classics and new hit sensations, there’s something for everyone in Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s 2020-21 Broadway season.

Director Nat McIntyre and his stellar cast give A Streetcar Named Desire contemporary chops

Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s Macbeth officially opened at Belmont’s Troutt Theater last week, with a clash of swords and a bleak but thoroughly engrossing vision. 

From Joan Didion to Gabriel García Márquez, William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, literature is often preoccupied with memory, a theme that Nashville Story Garden takes on in If You Forget Me. Written by Chicago-based playwright Nora Leahy — who is also managing director of that city’s Jackalo…

Since arriving in Nashville in 2013, Carrie Brewer has earned a solid reputation as an actor, singer and teaching artist. But Brewer also is an accomplished fight choreographer, having worked extensively in the indie theater scene in New York and teaching stage combat at The American Musical…

Hamilton is the hottest ticket in town. But as theater lovers throughout the region snatch up tickets to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster hit — which arrives at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center Dec. 31 — some local students are busy creating their own stories.

If you’d asked artist and writer Bandy a few years ago about the idea of sharing a deeply personal poem in front of an audience, they would have said it was impossible. But that was before they joined the Poverty and the Arts (POVA) Artist Collective in April.

Patrick Cassidy is rightfully proud of his theatrical career, which spans nearly 40 years and includes Broadway, film and television. But these days, the acclaimed actor, director and educator is most eager to discuss his new leading role — as artistic director for Studio Tenn in Franklin.

It wasn’t long ago that most theater companies built their seasons around the tried and true — balancing familiar classics and musicals with perhaps a more contemporary piece penned by an established playwright. But over the past several years, Nashville’s professional theater scene has demo…

In July, the internet lost its collective mind when the trailer for Tom Hopper’s film adaptation of Cats hit YouTube. Yes, that Cats — the fourth-longest-running musical on Broadway, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s totally unnecessary fever dream adapted from T.S. Eliot’s even less necessary book of p…

If you lately feel a little squirmy, a little squirrely, a little unusually patriotic, you might be awaiting Hamilton. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop musical about the founding fathers won 11 Tonys in 2016, and seats in New York's Richard Rodgers Theatre are still hard to snag. The touring pro…

An accomplished actor, director, writer and producer, Mark Cabus has traveled the world, working in film and television as well as onstage. But it’s the simple art of storytelling that he finds most rewarding.

Navigating what’s known to education theorists as the school-to-prison pipeline takes much more than a glance at a few statistics, but demographic information about our schools can be telling. In Nashville, Hume Fogg Magnet High School’s student population is 24 percent black, and 7 percent …

The Tony Award-winning revival of Once on This Island officially opened its North American tour at TPAC Tuesday, earning big cheers from an enthusiastic crowd.

As adults, we often try to shelter children from life’s harsh realities. But with the world premiere of Return to Sender, Nashville Children’s Theatre takes on tough issues with a focus on empathy and understanding.

Nashville Repertory Theatre’s Ingram New Works Project announced its 2019-20 lineup of Ingram New Works Lab playwrights last week — including Jeesun Choi, Gina Femia, Morgan Gould and Haygen-Brice Walker. 

You may not know Scott Leathers. But chances are, you’ve seen his work.

Thanks in part to the gamer-geek characters in Netflix’s Stranger Things, Dungeons & Dragons is experiencing a revival in the popular imagination. And why shouldn’t it? The influence of the quintessential role-playing game is evident in even our most advanced modern technological gamepla…

It’s been almost 20 years since Urinetown the Musical first made a splash, opening on Broadway in 2001. But with its acute observations on everything from economic inequality and corporate greed to environmentalism, this smart satirical comedy seems more relevant than ever before.

Theater enthusiasts are in for a treat as TPAC kicks off another strong season with the six-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. The musical is scheduled to run in TPAC’s Jackson Hall Sept. 10-15, and in honor of its appearance, the production is hosting a digital lotte…

Have you ever been caught in a secret that took on a life of its own? Meet Evan Hansen, the teenager at the center of Dear Evan Hansen, the six-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical kicking off TPAC’s season Sept. 10-15.

At first glance, Be More Chill might seem like just another high school musical. But beyond the familiar tropes and well-worn gags, this offbeat sci-fi comedy delivers a genuinely funny — and surprisingly heartfelt — salute to the insecure kid in all of us.

You know you’re in trouble when you depend on Shakespearean fairies to fix your toilet. 

Billed as a dark comedy, Pittsburgh-based artist Mora V. Harris’ highly imaginative new work, You Are What You, centers on a competitive eater named Francie. The play — which is currently receiving its world-premiere run at The Barbershop Theater courtesy of Garden Theatre Company — showcase…

If you’ve been itching to get out and experience innovative local theater, there’s no better way to do it than by full immersion. Kindling Arts Festival is a packed four days of dance, performance art and plays by local artists. Producing director Daniel Jones says he and others founded Kind…

Acclaimed Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen will open the season at Tennessee Performing Arts Center Sept. 10-15. The play, which won the Tony award for Best Musical in 2017, has something special in store for each city on its tour, including Nashville. Fans can see their likeness as part of…

Local all-ages theater company The Theater Bug will mount a new production of Showmance — the third edition of the company’s most popular play — July 25-Aug. 10 at New Life Baptist Church. The musical was written by The Theater Bug artistic director Cori Anne Laemmel and Eric Fitsch. The sho…

It’s been said that there are only a handful of stories out there, their basic structures all a part of our cultural knowledge. We tell these stories — voyage and return, star-crossed lovers, Icarus flying too close to the sun — because we hope there are still more lessons they might teach u…

The internet has lost its mind over the new trailer for Cats — the first movie version of the fourth-longest-running musical on Broadway, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s totally unnecessary fever dream adapted from T.S. Eliot’s even less necessary book of poetry, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.

OZ Arts announced its 2019-20 lineup on Thursday, and the contemporary art center is staying true to its mission of bringing contemporary artists and ensembles from around the world while inviting local artists to play in the expansive warehouse. This year saw the departure of artistic direc…

René Copeland is preparing to step down from her position as artistic director of Nashville Repertory Theatre after a 15-year run.

As a child, Cynthia Harris would sit in her mother’s beauty shop and listen to her mom talk with her aunts. Their voices were all so similar, rising and falling as one and creating a distinct, pleasing melody. More than just pleasant sounds, these everyday interactions signified the communit…

Jakob Lewis has a sheet of yellow legal paper taped to his computer in his office at OZ Arts Nashville. “Hey!” it reads. “Look at this! Isn’t it beautiful?”