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Questions?  Comments?  You can reach us by phone at 423-425-2224, or by emailing Mike-Miller@utc.edu.

 

Theater for the New South revives Ancient Greek ‘Medea’

With a cast of 9, Director Blake Harris has set this production of Euripedes’ ‘Medea’ in the 1930’s, during the Dust Bowl on a military base in America.   Written 2000 years ago, ‘Medea’ is a tragic tale, full of love and hate, murder and mayhem.   Here are the details from Theater for the New South’s press release:

Medea-Lizzie Chazen

Theater For the New South presents

MEDEA
by Euripides (trans. McLeish/Raphael)

DESCRIPTION: The timeless Greek tragedy, MEDEA, explores love, betrayal, and revenge in this sharp and experimental retelling.

WHEN: August 24, 25, 30, 31 & September 1, 2 at 7:30pm

WHERE: Tanner Hill Gallery

HOW: Purchase tickets online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/263645

Reporting: Monessa Guilfoil

Listen to the Story:

Mise en Scenesters Hosts Pop-Up Movie Nights in Chattanooga

Mise en Scenesters film club has been showing independent films in Chattanooga for two years.   MES is, “Dedicated to Screening Obscure, Classic, Arthouse and Genre Films.”   Chris Dortch programs for MES.   The next two pop-up movie nights will be held at Barking Legs Theatre.   August 25th, MES will screen the undistributed, Indy film called The Color Wheel.    September 4th, MES will feature the film, A Swedish Love Story followed by a live band performance by Useless Eaters.

Mise en Scenesters has teamed up with the Chattanooga Film Society to screen Reel Old School by local film makers John Cotton and Brady Effler on August 13th, 2012 at the Downtown YMCA.   Chris Dortch is a board member of and programmer for The Chattanooga Film Society.  He envisions a future film festival and an art house theater in Chattanooga for fans of independent films.

Reporting: Monessa Guilfoil

Listen to the Story:

Comedian Hannibal Buress Headlines at Vaudeville Cafe on August 30th

Upon returning from his 27-day, stand-up comedy gig at The Fringe Festival in Edin borough, Scotland, Hannibal Buress begins his South eastern U.S. tour.    On August 30th, this Chicago-born comedian will headline at the Vaudeville Cafe in Chattanooga.   Buress’ style of comedy is steeped in commentary on every day life.

Reporting: Monessa Guilfoil

Listen to the story with Hannibal Buress:

Revolution Works Production opens new play called ‘Mystic Town’

Brent and Elizabeth Haley of Revolution Works have written and and produced an adult-themed but family friendly play called ‘Mystic Town’.     This play features Bigfoot, an alien and the Loch Ness Monster meeting up in the world of humans.     The Haleys have mostly produced film works in their almost 5 years in business in Chattanooga.   But the two decided that with it’s fantastical creatures, ‘Mystic Town’ might be more easily produced as a staged work as live theatre lends itself more readily to the idea of suspension of dis-belief.   The Haley’s discuss their work with plays and films in the audio linked below.

Revolution Works Production also has plans to shoot a full length movie in September which will be based on their script called ‘Not Quite a True Story’.   The Haley’s will be holding closed-call auditions for this film.   They can be reached at the link above.

Reporting: Monessa Guilfoil

Listen to the story:

Sensei Green Trains Third Student to Make Karate History

Two weeks ago, Katie Whipple won the Silver Medal in the non-handicap division of beginner women’s kate at the Karate National Championships.  Whipple is a 33 year old woman from Dunlap, Tennessee who is legally blind.    Sensei Corey Green began teaching Whipple just 7 months ago.  She is not the first person with special needs to train with Green, nor is she the first of his students to make karate history.   But, she is the first blind person to qualify and then win 2nd place in traditional karate at the national level.   For more about the work of Sensei Green, click here.

Reporting: Monessa Guilfoil

Listen to the story with Sensei Green:

[audio  http://archive.org/download/SenseiGreensStudentKatieWhippleMakesKarateHistory/SenseiGreen_mixdown.mp3%5D

‘Anything Goes’ at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre

There’s gangsters, stock brokers, a debutante and her high society fiance, a missionary, a night club evangelist and her tap dancing angels on board the SS American ship across the trans-Atlantic in ‘Anything Goes’.   CTC’s George Quick directs this production of  the Cole Porter musical from the 1930’s.   The show opens Friday night, July 13th on the Main Stage in Chattanooga’s theatre by the river.   Here’s more from the press release:

When the S.S. American heads out to sea, etiquette and convention head out the portholes as two unlikely pairs set off on the course to true love… proving that sometimes destiny needs a little help from a crew of singing sailors, an exotic disguise and some good old-fashioned blackmail. Anything Goes is a shining example of classic musical theater, complete with amazing tap numbers, campy jokes, unlikely happy endings and eminently hummable songs like “De-Lovely,” “I Get a Kick Out Of You” and “Anything Goes,” courtesy of the unforgettable score by Cole Porter.

Here’s the video preview of CTC’s ‘Anything Goes’ by Wadell and Associates:

Reporting: Monessa Guilfoil

Listen to the story with CTC Executive Director George Quick:

Closed Door Entertainment opens ‘The Music Man’ at the Tivoli June 29th

J.C. Smith, Founder and Producing Director of Closed Door Entertainment began producing musicals in and around Chattanooga 6 years ago.    ‘The Music Man’ will be CDE’s first production at the Tivoli theatre.    With a cast of 24 and an orchestra of 20, Smith promises that this production will be very different from the one people remember seeing in high school.

Reporting: Monessa Guilfoil

Listen to the story:

GamingUnwrapped: Wade Hinkle’s Big Goals

REPORTING: MICHAEL EDWARD MILLER

Wade Hinkle is a gamer’s gamer–he’s been playing video games since the days of Pong.  He’s turned his love of games into the Web site GamingUnwrapped.com, which is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and features game news and reviews.  He wants to grow the site into one of the Internet’s prominent gaming destinations, similar to GameSpot or IGN.  And if that’s not ambitious enough, he also wants to start an E3-style gaming conference in Chattanooga.

 

‘Hair’ Tribal Rock Musical Debuts for Chattanooga Theatre Centre

CTC opens Hair on the Circle stage on June 15th, 2012.    The following is from the press release:

Book and Lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni. Music by Galt MacDermot
Meet The Tribe, a group of politically active hippies of the “Age of Aquarius” living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting the draft in the rock-musical, Hair. The show grew out of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, and the musical’s profanity, its sexuality, and its irreverence caused controversy when it debuted off-Broadway in 1967. After moving to Broadway the following year, it ran for 1,750 performances and its songs became anthems of the peace movement. A Broadway revival opened in 2009, earning strong reviews and winning the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for best revival of a musical. Age has not lessened the powerful impact of this four-decades-old musical, as Time magazine reports: “Today Hair seems, if anything, more daring than ever.”

Hair, the theatrical love-in is one of a kind.   The play came out of the Greenwich Village theater scene in the late 60’s and rose quickly to the Broadway stage with its experimental art forms and rock songs that became top 40 hits.    Hair was banned from debuting in Chattanooga in the early 1970’s for what Memorial Auditorium board members believed were obscene acts within the play.   The musical had been banned by other cities, including Boston.    Lawsuits were filed in both cities and both worked their way to the Supreme Court.   It was ruled in the Chattanooga case that that the Auditorium Board had shown unlawful prior restraint.   To read more about the case, click here.

45 years later, this tribal rock musical is more popular than ever.    CTC’s Artistic Director Scott Dunlap calls ‘Hair’ a, “Perfect little time capsule,” of the late 1960’s with it’s many and varied references from the perspective of the Hippie culture rising out of the ashes of the Vietnam War.    This musical revival may be a kind of euphoric lament in 2012, having found no utopic,”Age of Aquarius,” to speak of.

Reporting: Monessa Guilfoil

Listen to the interview with CTC’s Artistic Director Scott Dunlap and Musical Director Andrew Chauncey about Hair: