Some of you have, but many have not yet noticed that we have added a page here that takes you quickly to a collection of Clarence Brown Theatre show photographs from the past three seasons. We don’t have every show, but many of them are here.
Disclaimer: some of these photos were a learn-as-you go process, and most of them were taken not with an SLR with proper creative controls, but with a memory card on a video camera. The resolution is also a lot lower than today’s digital SLRs provide, so the picture size (and blow-up-ability) is less. We have a new Nikon now, and we’re making progress, though! Nevertheless, there are some interesting shots here you might find interesting. We’re storing our photos on flickr, which allows for easy maintenance and several display options.
To go to my CBT summary page, just hit the “Photos” link on the menu bar, or click here or head to http://www.uttheatre.org/flickr.php.
Enjoy!
This patron wanted us to know how she felt about our recent production of Assassins:
Friends,
My husband and I attended “Assassins” on Friday, March 9 at Carousel. Just to let you know what a fantastic performance it was! We walked out and got into our car afterwards and said, “There should have been several standing ovations and applause galore.” I guess everyone, like us, was so awestruck and profoundly affected by the magnificent portrayal of EVERY character that we were dumbfounded. Wow!
So, here’s a very belated Bravo! Bravo!
With appreciation,
Selina Duncan
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.
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.”
Enter your password to view comments
Enter your password to view comments
