By Alan Sherrod It should come as no surprise that a somewhat heated controversy arose in the U.K. over Mike Bartlett’s 2014 play, King Charles III, a dramatic projection of the accession to the throne of Prince Charles following…
Top Ten Most Read Arts Knoxville Stories of 2018
By Alan Sherrod Over the last week, we’ve taken a look back at 2018 and its memorable music performances, as well as the enlightening Top Ten lists from film critics Andrew Swafford and Reid Ramsey. But what stories and…
Review: Clarence Brown Theatre’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ – The Tradition Continues
By Alan Sherrod In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, it is Christmas Eve and time is of the essence for Ebenezer Scrooge. The familiar tale of Scrooge, from the 1843 Dickens novella that inspired a plethora of film and…
Review: CBT’s ‘Santaland Diaries’ – A Delicious Clash of Holiday Comedy and Reality
By Alan Sherrod Two Christmas seasons working as an elf in Macy’s flagship store on New York City’s Herald Square was the inspiration for David Sedaris’ essay Santaland Diaries. Read by Sedaris on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition in…
Review: ‘Becky Shaw’ – A Tidal Pool of Shifting Relationships
By Alan Sherrod A good piece of theatre always keeps its audience guessing, a bit off balance as it were, exploring a narrative hallway of doors left there by the playwright. Becky Shaw, a 2008 comedy by Gina Gionfriddo…
Review: CBT’s ‘Alias Grace’ – A Compelling and Timely Mix of Answers and Questions
By Alan Sherrod It is a bit unfortunate that it takes TV adaptations of literary works to drive mainstream cultural recognition, but apparently that’s the world we live in. As a result, one would be hard pressed to be…
Monday Arts Miscellany – September 10
A few things to plan on this week— • The Carpetbag Theatre presents Ce Nitram Sacul at the Flying Anvil Theatre, Thursday – Saturday, September 13-15, at 7:30 PM; Sunday, September 16, at 4:00 PM Tickets and Information “…a play about…
Monday Arts Miscellany – September 3
The fall arts season has traditionally started with Labor Day, so here we are. This week, add in First Friday and you have a wide range of enlightenments and diversions. Here are a few highlights. THEATRE The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra…
Review: CBT/KSO’s ‘Candide’ – The Best of Dazzling Possibilities
By Alan Sherrod For the last year or so, productions of Leonard Bernstein’s comic operetta Candide have been popping up all over the globe, from Europe to South America, thanks in large part to the encouragement and celebration surrounding…
Monday Arts Miscellany – August 27
One can feel September sneaking furtive glances at us as August stubbornly hangs on a few more days. All will be different next week—patches of urban concrete and suburban grass, accustomed to basking in the early morning sun, may find…