It’s always good to see our alumni working, especially when it involves the performing arts!

UT Theatre graduate (and Box Office worker!) Thomas Webb has been living in L.A., and performed in the just-closed I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change at the Two Roads Theatre (Studio City).   Mary Mallory in the Tolucan Times says:

Thomas Webb radiates a winning charm, wistfulness, and goofiness.

And some of you might have caught his appearance on MadTV (Feb. 18, 2007) in a parody of Grey’s Anatomy and House.  Of course, it’s preserved on YouTube.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel’s drama critic Doug Mason has been quite impressed with the professional offerings of the Clarence Brown this season, but he extends his praise to Assassins, with an undergraduate class:

Undergraduate theater students have had it rough at the University of Tennessee since the department started a graduate program.

Undergrads rarely got cast in UT productions. Many sought work with community theater companies just so they could set a foot on a stage before they finished their degrees.

That’s one of the things new theater department head Calvin MacLean vowed to change. And it’s been done gloriously with an undergrad production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins” that is another can’t-miss gem in the Clarence Brown Theatre’s renaissance season.

Mason obviously likes the musical and all the individual efforts:

The cast is fantastic, especially Ash Edwards as Byckc, Jasson Broter Cring as Guiteau and Rachel Jae Estenston as Moore. A further professional sheen was added by the clever direction of Terry Silver-Alford, the multiple-level stage design of Nate Sinnon, the multigeneration costumes by Jeffrey Todhunter, the effective lighting of Jeff Meyer and the music direction of James Brimer.

 Read the full review.

KNOXVILLE –- The University of Tennessee’s Clarence Brown Theater presents William Shakespeare’s tragedy, King Lear, March 1-11.  

The production will be performed in the Lab Theater as part of the Clarence Brown Theater’s (CBT) Studio Series.

King Lear is Shakespeare’s harrowing look at the inevitability of death amid the conflicting values of love and duty, friendship and betrayal, leadership and loyalty, and good and evil. Lear, king of England, surrenders all of his power to his daughters as a reward for their demonstrations of love toward him. His plan to test the love of his daughters goes tragically awry and throws the kingdom into chaos, and Lear into madness.

Written around 1605, King Lear is usually compared with Hamlet as one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays.

Jed Diamond, head of UT’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) acting program, will direct the play. Previously based in New York, Diamond has acted at the Roundabout Theatre in New York City, the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., the Syracuse Stage, the New York Shakespeare Festival and numerous other theatres.

All involved with the play are students of UT Theatre’s professional training program, and include actors Jessica Culaciati, Zack Fine, Adam Heffernan, Lena Hurt, Shinnerrie Jackson, Jon Liddiard, Lindsay Torrey, and Christopher Tramantana; and designers Brian Barker, scenic design; Emily Strickland, costume design; and Leigh Brown, lighting design.

Tickets for the show are $10 for the general public and $5 for UT students. The Lab Theatre is located on the north side of the CBT building and accessible from the Joe Johnson-John Ward Pedestrian Mall.

For tickets, call the CBT box office at 865-974-5161 or Tickets Unlimited at 865-656-4444.

Contact:
Robin Conklin, Marketing and PR Director, (865) 974-2497 

The UT Department of Theatre is hosting visits from three candidates for the Directing faculty position. 

Students (and interested staff) are encouraged to meet with these candidates.

Kate Buckley is visitinig our campus on Friday, February 23.

Stefan Novinski will be available to meet with students and others at 2:30 p.m., Friday, March 2 in the Lobby of the CBT.

M. Burke Walker will be available at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 6 in the Lobby of the CBT.

**AUDITIONS**

The Smoky Mountain Palace Theatre is searcing for outstanding talent for Fixin’ 2 Rain  and the Smoky Mountain Opry.

If you are an exceptional singer, actor, dancer, or musician come introduce yourself at our auditions and show us your skills.

SINGERS, ACTORS, and DANCERS
Auditions will be held Monday February 26 - Tuesday February 27 from 9am-6pm

Singers: Please have a short prepared vocal number

Actors: Please have a 2 minute piece prepared. You may be asked to read from the script as well.

**All singers and actors will be expected to participate in a very easy dance audition.

MUSICIANS: Auditions will be held Tuesday February 27 from 6pm-until
Slots open for Drums, Bass (acoustic and electric), Guitar/Mandolin/Banjo/Dobro, and Piano

Questions contact Brittney Davis at  bdavis0725@aol.com

The word is now getting out — we’re opening a very different musical this week in Assassins.

Doug Mason writes in The Knoxville News Sentinel:

Well, yeah. It’s a musical about assassins.

A musical.

About assassins.

There were some negative reactions when the musical was first announced, the director says. “Some people worried that these were serious issues and they would be turned into some kind of trivial matter,” he says.

“But that is what absolutely has not happened.”

Sondheim’s musical “really gives us a glimpse into people that most Americans have historically dismissed as crazy,” he says. “What this show does is look at them as people, as human beings.

“It’s not trying to sympathize or justify their goals. But it shows who they were, what their backgrounds were, what were the social and political issues of their times.”

Former Clarence Brown Theatre Artistic Director Blake Robison’s production of A Prayer for Owen Meany  has been nominated for five Helen Hayes Awards, the recognition of excellence on the professional stage for the metropolitan D. C. area. 

Not only was the production nominated as Outstanding Resident Play, but Robison was nominated for Outstanding Director, Resident Play, and Matt Detmer, who has appeared at the Clarence Brown Theatre in several productions (last in Stones in his Pockets), was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor, Resident Play.

The production was also nominated for Outstanding Sound Design, Resident Play.  The Round House production of A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage was also nominated for The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical.

Read the full article in Variety.

or, read the announcement from the Helen Hayes Award website.

IMMEDIATE AUDITIONS - NC

Wilmington, NC — Fincannon & Associates Casting:

Auditions for the film “The Marc Pease Experience” starring Jason Schwartzman and Ben Stiller.

Seeking 18-23 year olds for SAG role in high school stage production of the hit Broadway musical The Wiz within the movie.

Interested: Contact Kelly or Tara at 910-251-1500.

Auditions February 12 & 13.