PHOTOGRAPH BY SCOTT KELLY
The cast and playwright for Death By Drumstick: Sheldon Kahan, Kirby Hade, Craig Jones, Arikah Nash, Doug York
It’s an eerie adventure. The Perils of Francois is set in the French Quarter, in Boudreaux Manor, on a stormy night. The actors sing fun, original music, dance the tango, and even whip up some voodoo! It’s so much fun you’ll want to join the regulars at future shows to solve their many mysteries over and over again.
mystery comedy written and directed by California-based musician and playwright Doug York. It is set in Music City in the 1960s, where wannabe rock musician John Lemon is competing in the Biggest Battle of the Bands on the Planet, where the winner receives a contract with Gunshot Records, a label that promises to take the group to the top. Who will kill and who will be the victim? Sheriff Pinkerton arrives to question one and all to help solve the hilarious whodunit set to music featuring popular classic-rock songs and dances from the 60s, performed live. Audience members are encouraged to wear hippie clothes and enjoy an evening of zany, delicious fun as they interact with the cast in this musical murder mystery dinner theatre comedy. Mel O’Drama Theater productions change every three months and are performed in a variety of locations. For show dates and information, please visit www.melodramatheater. org. The film version of Jim Reyland’s play, STAND, performed across Middle Tennessee in 2012 as part of The Stand Project, is now available to stream at www.writersstage.com. Watch The STAND Film starring Barry Scott and Chip Arnold and directed by David Compton. And please consider a donation to support Room In The Inn. jreyland@audioproductions.com
This fall, Mel O’Drama Theater will add Death by Drumstick to its whodunit repertoire, an original musical murder
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF RLP
REAL LIFE PLAYERS TURN TWENTY!
2014 Real Life Players cast of their original production Back in the Day.
T
hat means the seniors that wrote and performed this year’s production weren’t even born when the founding members of the RLP did their first show, We’re All in This Together in 1995. Fun facts: Real Life Players are the only teen owned and operated theater company in the USA. RLP writes and directs an original play each spring and performs it locally. Over the past twenty years, they’ve made stops at University School, Father Ryan, Nashville School of the Arts, John Paul II, Hume Fogg, MBA, Hillsboro, St. Cecilia, Hillwood, MLK Magnet, Christ the King, Franklin High School, Brentwood Middle School, Curry-Ingram, Brentwood High School, and St. Ann’s. They have also raised almost $45,000 to support an impressive
collection of sixteen different charities, including Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and The Oasis Center for Homeless Youth. “At the core of RLP’s work is the idea that we—young people and adults—have lives that are far more similar than they are different. They believe that all of us, regardless of age, creed, color, gender, or socioeconomic status, are still human.” RLP Congratulations, Real Life Players. Keep up the good work, twenty more and twenty more…! To get involved with Real Life Players, please contact tovallibaldwin@gmail.com.
NashvilleArts.com
July 2014 | 105