BY HAYLEY WILSON If you enjoyed Tennessee Stage Company’s recent production of Henry IV Part II, you’re in for a treat—and more Falstaff. They have brought back the beloved boorish knight in Merry Wives of Windsor, co-directed here by…
Review: TKD’s ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’: An Intoxicating Comedy
BY HAYLEY WILSON All families have their secrets, but perhaps the Brewsters of Brooklyn, New York, have a few more than the rest of us—maybe eleven or twelve, they’ve lost count. And by secrets, I mean bodies buried in…
Review: TKD’s ‘She Kills Monsters’ – A Nerdy 90s Throwback
BY HAYLEY WILSON You enter the playhouse of Theatre Knoxville Downtown, and encounter a dimly lit stage. As you take your seat, the house lights fade, and you must roll a stealth check to silence your phone and hold…
Review: Tennessee Stage Company’s ‘Henry IV Part I’ Turns The Bard’s Histories into Herstories
BY HAYLEY WILSON Shakespeare’s history plays are known for centering powerful men; in a long list of Richards, Johns, and so, so many Henrys, women are hardly central to this genre in the Bard’s repertoire. However, that doesn’t mean…
Review: Theater23’s ‘Decoration Day’ — A Memorial Day Treat
BY HAYLEY WILSON Appalachia has its many traditions, one of which is Decoration Day, a time during late spring to early summer where families flock to the cemeteries to tend to the burial sites of their loved ones. This…
Review: TKD’s ‘Bug’ Gets Under the Skin
BY HAYLEY WILSON Paranoia can feel like an infestation, a slow and subtle creeping until you’re overwhelmed by racing thoughts like scuttering insects. Director Joseph Johnson knows just what it takes to get audiences’ skin crawling with his production…
Review: River & Rail’s ‘Eurydice’ – Mythology in Wonderland
BY HAYLEY WILSON If you thought River & Rail’s final show at the Old City Performing Arts Center would be last year’s holiday special Little Women, think again—they have come back with a bang for one final production to round out…
Review: Knoxville Theatre Club’s ‘Cindy & Ella’ — The Tragic Roots of Fairytales
BY HAYLEY WILSON You might not think that the old adage “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” would apply to princesses and fairytales, but Knoxville Theatre Club’s JP Schuffman and Sara Gaddis might beg to differ.…
Next Rung Productions’ ‘Page Against The Machine’— Pitting Playwrights Against Programs
BY HAYLEY WILSON To ChatGPT, or Not to ChatGPT. That is the existential question plaguing many of us today now that Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini have become more and more unavoidable. From using…
Review: TKD’s ‘Private Lives’ Airs Out the Dirty Laundry
BY HAYLEY WILSON Sometimes, old flames don’t die, but come back with a roaring and furious passion. This is the case with Noel Coward’s 1930 play Private Lives, a quick-witted and entertaining comedy of manners that gets close to…
