Go Memphis

Ekundayo Bandele feels that the time has finally arrived. Hattiloo Theatre, the black repertory company he founded on Marshall Avenue, is halfway through its fourth season. His team of actors and stagehands gets stronger with every show. And now, he wants his actors to get some respect. With the opening of August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson" this weekend, Bandele has started featuring actors' names on posters, in lieu of having a marquee. "They deserve it," he said. Full story »

There’s a wedding at the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center this weekend the likes of which you’ve never seen — and would never want to see except on stage. But, oh, what an event it is. The Southern farce “Dearly Beloved,” by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, is a successor to “Dearly Departed,” a theater favorite about the zany goings-on of a Texas family in deep dysfunction trying to plan a funeral. It seems that weddings can be just as traumatic — and hilarious. Full story »

It was late on a Sunday evening when everything Jackie Nichols had worked for, everything he'd put his energy and imagination into creating, fell horribly into perspective. His life's biggest achievement, a $12.5 million performing arts center on the corner of Cooper and Union, was nearly ready for its public debut. But on Jan. 3, one phone call turned everything upside down. Nichols doesn't remember whose voice it was, only the urgent tremble in it. Full story »

Find out what's playing on performing arts stages throughout the Mid-South. Full story »

For people who came of age in the early 1960s and '70s, there was no tuning out the Four Seasons, the pop group whose string of hits started in '62 with "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Walk Like A Man" and lasted through the disco era with epic pop gems like "Who Loves You" and "December, 1963 (Oh, what a night!)." The national tour of "Jersey Boys" begins a 24-performance run at the Orpheum theater on Wednesday. Full story »

When composer Christoph Gluck debuted his finest opera “Orfeo ed Euridice” in 1762, the great hero was portrayed by a eunuch. When Opera Memphis stages its version of Gluck’s “Orpheus” this and next weekend at the Clark Opera Memphis Center, the leading role will be sung by a man, a woman, and a man who sings like the original eunuch. For the opera company, “Orpheus” is something of a historical experiment. Full story »

Memphis native and playwright Katori Hall is the winner of the 2010 William Inge Theatre Festival's Otis Guernsey New Voices in the American Theatre Award. Full story »

Robert Moody has been a guest at the podium of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra several times in the past. Now he'd like to make it permanent. He is auditioning this week for the job of conductor and music director to replace retiring maestro David Loebel. "Being the city's orchestra and the region's premiere orchestra gives us a certain amount of clout. And how do we use that to reach as many people as possible with great artistic, entertaining musical experiences?" he asks. Full story »

Robert Moody has been guest conductor for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra several times in recent years, but usually pops concerts. This weekend, however, two programs are titled “Moody Conducts Mozart." “I wanted to reintroduce myself to the orchestra and reestablish the way in which we connect,” Moody said. “It’s important make sure in the eyes of fellow musicians and certainly the audience that I never get pigeonholed into a standard stereotype of a type of programming.” Full story »

Construction workers, some dressed in flannel, some in suits and loosely knotted ties, arrived at the theater and walked right past the celebratory wine. The keg was in another room. They were in Midtown on Thursday night for an evening of theater appreciation of sorts — an "arts" event for men and women who don't usually get out to shows. Today, the public gets to inspect their labor, the new Playhouse on the Square on the corner of Cooper and Union. Full story »

In his high school yearbook, Aaron Braxton predicted the three things he intended to do with his life: actor, writer and teacher. Juggling all three has been a challenge at times, but not impossible. This weekend, Braxton performs his one-man show "Did You Do Your Homework?" as part of Playhouse on the Square's Solo Works series at TheatreWorks. Full story »

It's hard to say why Memphis has such a love affair with the performing arts, or how a city its size can sustain as much theater, dance and music as it does. Despite the ongoing recession, arts survivors include an opera company, a professional dance troupe, and almost as many stages as there are actors to perform on them. Within a week, Playhouse on the Square will cut the ribbon on a brand new theater and arts center at the corner of Cooper and Union. Full story »

It's been a year of promise and peril as the city's classical music organizations face significant transitions. The Memphis Symphony Orchestra has been auditioning candidates to replace retiring maestro David Loebel. One of the four conductors up for the job is likely to be named in February and will come aboard in the 2010-2011 season. Meanwhile, the IRIS Orchestra announced a slimmed-down 2009-2010 season with only five concerts because of the weak economy. Full story »

Would you like murder most foul with your pasta? Phyllis Appleby will be glad to serve it up in the form of the humorous Death Du Jour Mystery Dinner Theater she's been presenting for several years. Full story »

This is "Nutcracker" weekend for local dance companies, and on two ends of Shelby County, Hoffmann's story is once again playing out on stages. At the Orpheum, Ballet Memphis performs its large-scale production of "The Nutcracker," complete with Tchaikovsky's music and delicate Sugar Plum Fairies. At the Germantown Performing Arts Centre, New Ballet Ensemble has up-sized its contemporary "Nut ReMix," a 21st century adaptation of the story set on Beale Street. Full story »