Debbie Kraski News

In the coming weeks, we'll give you a sneak peek to what happens backstage as we presents photographs taken during intermission at some of the hottest shows to be mounted during these hot summer months (which always leads to mischief). Today, we continue our series with photos from Daron Bruce (our lensman at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre's Fiddler on the Roof) and Matthew Hayes Hunter (who's clicking away backstage at Arts Center of Cannon County's Arsenic and Old Lace).

Something's afoot at various Nashville area and Tennessee theaters this summer with all sorts of fun and frivolity being served up for audiences. Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre offers its sparkling revival of Fiddler On The Roof, starring Derek Whittaker and Debbie Kraski, while at Dickson's Renaissance Center, the Renaissance Players presents its new production of Bye Bye Birdie, starring Carl Blunt, Michelle Valenti, Marilyn Fair and Brad Burns. Meanwhile, up in Clarksville-at The Roxy Regional Theatre-audiences are enjoying 101 Dalmatians Jr. The Musical, featuring favorite Ryan Bowie in the role of a lifetime: Cruella DeVille.

There comes a moment late in Act Two when Tevye, the beleaguered dairyman at the center of Fiddler on the Roof, remembers his daughters in childhood and laments the loss of his beloved "Chavaleh" to marriage to a gentile, which completely encapsulates the joy and the sadness that permeates this classic work of the musical theater. Derek Whittaker, playing the role of a lifetime as he leads the cast of Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre's new production of the Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick/Joseph Stein musical, is at his best in this scene, artfully blending his finely honed comic sensibilities with a genuine pathos that creates a heart-tugging moment that is genuinely effective.

Nine-time First Night Award-winner Martha Wilkinson directs Derek Whittaker, Debbie Kraski and a cast of Nashville's stage favorites in the Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre production of Fiddler on the Roof, opening tonight, May 31, and running through July 8 at the theater in West Nashville.

Nine-time First Night Award-winner Martha Wilkinson directs Derek Whittaker, Debbie Kraski and a cast of Nashville's stage favorites in the Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre production of Fiddler on the Roof, opening Thursday, May 31, and running through July 8 at the theater in West Nashville.

With a cast filled with some of Nashville's most talented stage performers, director Paul J. Cook's version of Company-now onstage at The Keeton Theatre in a sparkling new production from Circle Players-is brimming over with theatrical riches. But if you had to pick just one from among this cadre of showstopping stars, I'd pick one Ms. Debbie Kraski, whose Joanne in as memorable as any you might have seen, and as heartbreakingly genuine as any you might ever have hoped to witness.

Named as First Night's Outstanding Musical of 2011 was Lipscomb University Theatre's production of Hairspray, directed and choreographed by Justin Boccitto. ACT 1's production of American Buffalo, directed by Ryan Williams, claimed top honors as First Night's Oustanding Play of 2011, and the national touring company's Memphis, the Musical, which played Andrew Jackson Hall at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, was named as First Night's Outstanding Touring Production of 2011, besting productions of Spring Awakening, In The Heights, Wicked and Les Miserables.

With a capacity crowd of 200 people on hand at The Keeton Theatre, First Night founder and executive producer Jeffrey Ellis, who covers theater, opera and dance throughout Tennessee for BroadwayWorld.com, unveiled his choices via First Night's Top 11 of 2011, while the winners of the BroadwayWorld.com Nashville and Tennessee Theatre Awards were announced by co-hosts Britt Byrd, Jamie Free, Katherine Sandoval Taylor and Lar'Juanette Williams.

Playwright Nate Eppler, Mas Nashville's FIVE, the Boiler Room Theatre, Lipscomb University's Hairspray, ACT 1's American Buffalo and the national touring company of Memphis, the Musical were the top winners at Sunday night's Midwinter's First Night at Nashville's Keeton Theatre, which also featured the presentation of the BroadwayWorld.com Nashville and Tennessee theatre awards.

When director Paul Cook held auditions for Circle Players' production of Stephen Sondheim's Company, he had no trouble finding a devoted and enthusiastic cast for the show, which opens January 6 at the Keeton Theatre.

When director Paul Cook held auditions for Circle Players' production of Stephen Sondheim's Company, he had no trouble finding a devoted and enthusiastic cast for the show, which opens January 6 at the Keeton Theatre.

First presented in 2010 by the Bethlehem Players (of Franklin's Bethlehem United Methodist Church), Southern Fried Funeral, now onstage through November 26 at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre (where Osborne and Eppler staged their First Night Award-winning Rear Widow last year), is aging gracefully, taking on the patina normally reserved for the sterling silver serving pieces in that breakfront in the dining room. Lustrous and heartfelt - yet uproariously funny in a way that only Southerners can be - the story told in Southern Fried Funeral is authentic and genuine, farfetched and unbelievable.

Southern Fried Funeral, the latest collaboration from playwrights Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler, opens at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre on October 22, running through November 26 at the venerable Nashville dinner theater.

Southern Fried Funeral, the latest collaboration from playwrights Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler, opens at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre on October 22, running through November 26 at the venerable Nashville dinner theater.

Hosted by Jennifer Richmond and Trey Palmer, First Night, the Nashville Theater Honors Gala was preceded by the Red Carpet Event just before the tribute concert on a rainy Sunday, September 4, at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre.

Led by the charming Debbie Kraski, who commands the stage with grace and wit as the show's wacky protagonist, director Jenny Noel's talented cast delivers a pleasant and amusing summer diversion by way of John Patrick's Everybody Loves Opal, now onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre.

First Night Award winner Jenny Noel directs Everybody Loves Opal, the latest comedy onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. A comedy by John Patrick, Everybody Loves Opal runs June 16-July 23, and features a cast of some of Nashville's favorite actors.

N. Richard Nash's The Rainmaker has been a part of our collective pop culture and theatrical canon for years and is probably best known because of the 1956 film version that starred Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster, which has cast its indelible shadow on every intervening stage production since its initial release. That being said, who could have everexpected the emotional wallop packed by the superb revival now onstage at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, directed by Sam Whited? Quietly and gracefully, the impact of The Rainmaker remains as potent as it has ever been and it is performed by a thoroughly committed cast of Barn veterans and newcomers all focused on the task at hand.