Out Front On Main opens Marsha Norman's 'NIGHT, MOTHER for April 19-29 run

Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize Winning 'night, Mother, directed by Ryan T. Daniel, opens an April 19-29 run this week at Murfreesboro's Out Front On Main, performing Thursday through Sunday nights at 7:30 p.m. each evening

`night, Mother is described as a one-act play with two characters on the stage, Jessie Cates (played by Lora Phillips Hortert), who lives with her mother, Thelma (Meigie Mabry). The play opens with Jessie asking her mother where a particular gun is kept. She finds it with Thelma's help.

As she cleans the gun, Jessie quietly announces she's going to be killing herself at the end of the evening. Jessie's announcement sets off a fierce struggle between mother and daughter, with Thelma using every strategy she can conceive of to talk Jessie out of her plan. Thelma becomes so desperate, she even resorts to telling Jessie the truth about a number of issues that have affected her life.

Reservations and further information are available at (615) 869-8617 or at www.outfrontonmain.com. Out Front on Main is located at 1511 E. Main Street, Murfreesboro, bordering the MTSU campus.

Pictured: Lora Phillips Hortert and Meigie Marby

Jeffrey Ellis is a Nashville-based writer, editor and critic, who's been covering the performing arts in Tennessee for more than 25 years. He is the recipient of the Tennessee Theatre Association's Distinguished Service Award for his coverage of theatre in the Volunteer State and was the founding editor/publisher of Stages, the Tennessee Onstage Monthly. He is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and is the founder/executive producer of The First Night Honors, held during Labor Day Weekend, which honor oustanding theater artists in Tennessee in recognition of their lifetime achievements and includes The First Night Star Awards and the Most Promising Actors. Midwinter's First Night, held the first Sunday in January after New Year's Day, honors outstanding productions and performances throughout the state. Further, Ellis directed the Nashville premiere of La Cage Aux Folles, The Last Night of Ballyhoo and An American Daughter, as well as award-winning productions of Damn Yankees, Company, Gypsy and The Rocky Horror Show, with Ellis honored by The Tennessean as best director of a musical for both Company and Rocky Horror.

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