BY HAYLEY WILSON In addition to a spotlight production headlining the festival, the Tennessee Stage Company’s New Plays festival also features a series of staged readings of works in the latter stage of development. This year, three new plays…
Review: Tennessee Stage Company Presents New Play ‘Landscape, With Color’
BY HAYLEY WILSON Tennessee Stage Company’s New Play Fest is in full swing this month, with a variety of events from full stage plays to staged readings, table readings, and even free community events. The New Play Festival kicked…
Review: TKD’s ‘A Sherlock Carol’ – A Delightful Holiday Mystery
BY HAYLEY WILSON Who would have thought that two of our most beloved franchises would work together so well? In Mark Shanahan’s 2021 A Sherlock Carol, Arthur Conan Doyle’s sleuths find themselves thrust into the familiar narrative of Dickens’s…
First Take Co.’s Upcoming ‘In The Castle of Eternal Sunset’
BY HAYLEY WILSON New Playwright, Unexpected Venue, and an Emphasis on Play First Take Co.’s next theatrical venture in Knoxville is more of an adventure, blending the beloved tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons with deep emotional introspection. Director…
Review: ‘The Harvest’ at Clarence Brown Theatre’s Lab Theatre — Seeking Stability During Times of Change
Faith can be a safe haven for many of us, providing answers to life’s tough questions and a community to lean on. But just as often as it offers such answers, it can provoke just as many questions. This questioning is at the heart of Samuel D. Hunter’s 2016 play ‘The Harvest’, where a young man wrestles with the death of his father, his broken family, his faith, and his sexuality. ‘The Harvest’ runs through Nov. 9 at the Clarence Brown Theatre Lab Theatre.
Review: Theatre Knoxville Downtown’s ‘The Birds’ — Horror Waiting in the Wings
In the spirit of spooky season, Theatre Knoxville Downtown offers a little fright of their own with their latest production, ‘The Birds’. While those of us might be most familiar with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film, playwright Conor McPherson’s ‘The Birds’ (2009) is yet another adaptation of British author Daphne du Maurier’s popular 1952 short story of the same name.
Review: TKD’s ‘Laughter on the 23rd Floor’: A Battle of Wits
When life feels hard, comedy can be a balm to the soul and even a force for change. That’s what Neil Simon’s 1993 play, ‘Laughter on the 23rd Floor’, now in a production at Theatre Knoxville Downtown, reminds us of.
‘The Business of Smiles’ Follows Knoxville Children’s Theatre to New Site
BY HAYLEY WILSON I sat down with Knoxville Children’s Theatre Executive Director Sien Moon to discuss KCT’s move into their new forever home at The Foundry on the Fair Site at 747 Worlds Fair Park Drive. When I asked…
Review: Knoxville Theatre Club’s ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ a Force of Nature
Director JP Schuffman and Knoxville Theatre Club brings us an absolutely stunning production of Southern playwright Tennessee Williams’s 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that attests to the tenacity of the human spirit in the face of futility, death, and anguish: “there’s nothing more determined than a cat on a hot tin roof.”
Renascent Productions and First Take Co.’s ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’: Love, Sex, and Funny Business
By Hayley Wilson
‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ ran for three performances at the Clayton Center for the Arts on Maryville College campus. However, its short run was no indicator of its appeal: opening night was a full house, and the laughter that filled the auditorium was palpable. This production had a little something for everyone, because at its heart, I Love You is about our desire for human connection—and the many opportunities we have to thwart or complicate that desire for connection.
