By Alan Sherrod Ending the season with a large and colorful bang has generally been the modus operandi for the Clarence Brown Theatre, closing out with a season finale production that pulls out all the stops with a visual…
Tuesday Arts Miscellany: A New Footprint for Knoxville Opera’s Rossini Festival Adds To A Busy Weekend
For the last 17 years, Knoxville Opera’s Rossini Festival International Street Fair has grown and evolved from an event aimed mostly at opera-goers, into a multi-genre, multi-stage festival of performances, artisans, and food that attracts a diverse cross-section of Knoxvillians.…
Review: The Cast of CBT’s ‘Detroit ’67’ Finds Treasure in the Basement
By Alan Sherrod Detroit in the incendiary “long, hot summer of 1967” is the setting for Dominique Morisseau’s Detroit ’67 which opened on Friday evening at Clarence Brown Theatre’s Carousel Theatre. While that summer was defined by racial tensions…
Review: CBT’s ‘King Charles III’ – A Possible Future Chases the Past
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…