In 1983 we lived in the Roxy, working like field hands to pull up carpet, clean up pigeon waste, remove tattered chairs and battered curtains, and put doors on the men’s room stalls (which had not had any since the building opened in ’47). Five o’clock visitations from well-wishers made for long days and longer […]
Theatre 101
CDE Lightband (Bradley Jackson, Jeremy Dixon, George Benjamin, Brent Berry and others) and APSU Department of Art + Design (Scott Raymond, Patrick Gosnell, Rachel Bush, Chloe Clark, Courtney Hill, Seth Branch, Sophia Eisenbart, Precious Miller, Stephanie Klapperich, Mylisha Edwards) have given us such a brilliant set for Green Day’s American Idiot, multimedia notwithstanding. I cannot […]
APSU Opera recently presented two glorious and well-executed pieces — A Hand of Bridge and This is the Rill Speaking — both brilliantly directed by Lisa Conklin-Bishop. The performances always bring me to tears. The talent, the energy and sheer joy of it all make for a glorious Sunday afternoon. I wanted to stand up […]
“Jack, Jack, Jack Head in a sack The house is getting colder …” I sing those Sondheim lyrics every time our postman Jack Deacon drops off the mail. I doubt he knows the song is from Into the Woods, nor does it really matter. I know Jack to be a good father, for he mentors […]
My dearest friend said to me that seventy-five percent of my problem was that I am gay. I was thunderstruck. Then I thought it over and considered maybe he was right. I wonder if my being gay kept people from coming to the theatre. Could that be true? I hope and pray not. Iain Dale […]
The Magnificent Ambersons and The Taming of the Shrew were lavish on a dime, which is only possible when a theatre has access to a storehouse of furniture, props and just “stuff.” And, better yet, when it need not be bought … A myriad of productions require a myriad of things, some for one-time use […]
In our very first cold, bleak winter of ’83, we received our first donation of support. It came from Millersville, Pennsylvania. The check was from a former Clarksvillian, Mrs. George L. “Monte” Narber, who had heard about us from her friend, the late beloved Grace Cunningham. Her check gave us the one thing we most […]
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” so says William Shakespeare in As You Like It, one of the 27 or so plays attributed to the Bard of Stratford-on-Avon, whom we honor in this 400th anniversary of his death. For the last 31 years, the Roxy Regional Theatre has […]
Tonight, the long awaited and always hoped for opening of The Magnificent Ambersons comes to fruition, with its first public performance before an audience — mine being the only eyes to have seen the finished product at the final dress rehearsal. An audience, often referred to as “the beast with a thousand eyes,” will see […]
“The Magnificence of the Ambersons began in 1873. Their splendor lasted throughout all the years that saw their Midland town spread and darken into a city. In those days, the only public conveyance was the street car. A lady could whistle to it from an upstairs window, and the car would halt and wait as […]
