Calendar of Events

Winner of the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town has been hailed as the greatest American play ever written. The story follows the small town of Grover’s Corners through three acts: “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage,” and “Death and Eternity.” Narrated by a stage manager and performed with minimal props and sets, audiences follow the Webb and Gibbs families as their children fall in love, marry, and eventually—in one of the most famous scenes in American theatre—die.

Show dates are Thursday-Saturday, September 25-27 and October 2-4 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, September 28 at 2:00 pm in the Sue E. Trotter Black Box Theater at The Arts Center in Athens, Tennessee. More details TBA.

Athens Area Council for the Arts: 320 North White Street, Athens, TN, 37303. Info: 423-745-8781, www.athensartscouncil.org

Side Splitters Comedy Club in Knoxville is currently open under a new management team that is committed to keeping a full time comedy club alive and well in the community. If Knoxville wants to keep its comedy club, then its residents need to come out to see the shows now.

There are 5 shows this weekend, September 25 - 27, with Nathan Brannon of the Seattle Comedy Festival. Nathan takes the audience on a ride full of witty stories, clever punch lines, and amusing shadow puppets. He brings smiles and hilarious anecdotes to the stage every time he grabs the microphone. Nathan also added this sentence because he needed a higher word count.

Side Splitters Comedy Club – Knoxville
9246 Parkwest Boulevard
Knoxville, TN 37923
865.934.5233
www.KnoxvilleStandup.com

Jon hails from Liverpool, England and credits his grandmother for spurring his lifelong passion for cooking. With everyday solutions, lively tips and classic techniques, Jon works with one foot in the professional, and one foot in the domestic kitchen, giving his audience the skills to cook with confidence. His passion for culinary arts and teaching can make a home chef out of anyone. No matter what Jon does, he remembers his grandmother’s wise words, “to share with others.”

As in past years, the Lobby will be filled with exciting vendors from 4:00 PM until Jon begins his cooking show at 6:30. A fun way to spend an evening if you love to eat, cook and laugh!

Clayton Center for the Arts: 502 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, TN 37804. Tickets are available at the Clayton Center Box Office M-F 10AM-6PM or by phone or online: 865-981-8590, www.ClaytonArtsCenter.com

Faculty lecture explores Mary Poppins, Maleficent approaches to teaching
“Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, in a most delightful way!”
Unlike the heroine of the 1964 movie, Pellissippi State Community College’s Anne Pharr doesn’t blow into her classroom with an umbrella, but in her early years of teaching English, the assistant professor says she did make use of what she now calls the “Mary Poppins model” to engage students.
Pharr addresses the effectiveness of different teaching styles in an upcoming lecture at the college, “From Mary Poppins to Maleficent: Professorial Persona and Student Perception.” The event is at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, in the Goins Building Auditorium on the Hardin Valley Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road.
“In an attempt to engage my students,” said Pharr, who has been teaching for two decades, “I added a spoonful of sugar to any task that might seem the least bit medicinal (or unpleasant) to my students. After a few years, I began to wonder if this approach to student engagement—putting all the responsibility on the teacher—set students up for long-term success.

The presentation by Pharr, the first of the 2014-15 Faculty Lecture Series, is free and open to the community.

For more information about The Arts at Pellissippi State, visit www.pstcc.edu/arts or call (865) 694-6400. To request accommodations for a disability, contact the executive director of Human Resources at (865) 694-6607 or humanresources@pstcc.edu.

Current Exhibits at the Rose Center, Morristown, now thru October 17.

21st Annual Quilt Show
Over 70 handmade quilts
Edith Davis Gallery

Theatre Guild: Past, Present & Future
Celebrating 80 years of Tennessee's oldest communtiy theatre
Hal Noe Gallery

The Rose Center, 442 West Second North St., Morristown, TN, 37814.
423-581-4330, www.rosecenter.org

Bob Patterson, Director of the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center and Don M. Alexander, Cades Cove Heritage Tour Manager announced the 2014 Cades Cove Heritage Tours schedule of specialty tours.

Advance reservations are required.
Limit of 17 guests per tour.
Call 865-448-8838 for reservations.

Sam Venable, author, columnist, humorist, and naturalist will highlight points of interest in the GSM National Park. The 3 1/2 - 4 hour tour is $50 per person and will depart from the GSM Heritage Center at 9:30 am on the following Saturdays: May 10, August 23, September 20, October 18.

The Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center is a not for profit museum
and is located between the traffic light and the national park entrance,
on scenic Highway 73.
For more information, please call 865-448-0044

Based on the classic works of Dr. Seuss. Horton the Elephant, The Cat In The Hat, and many more of the beloved characters created by Dr. Seuss will spring to life onstage at Knoxville Children’s Theatre in Seussical, Jr. The play is a musical extravaganza from Tony-winners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty that has thrilled audiences all around the world.

Although Horton faces ridicule, danger, kidnapping, and a trial, the intrepid Gertrude McFuzz never loses faith in him. Ultimately, the powers of friendship, loyalty, family, and community are challenged and emerge triumphant!

Performances are generally Thursdays and Fridays at 7 PM, Saturdays at 1 PM and 5 PM, and Sundays at 3 PM.

Knoxville Children's Theatre, 109 E. Churchwell Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-599-5284, www.childrenstheatreknoxville.com. Reservations: tickets@childrenstheatreknoxville.com

The WordPlayers presents Steel Magnolias on Sept. 19, 20, 25, 26, 27 @ 7:30 & Sept. 21 & 28 @ 2:30 at Erin Presbyterian Church, 200 Lockett Rd., Knoxville.

The quintessential story of family and friendship in a unique Southern sisterhood, Steel Magnolias is a skillfully crafted portrayal of eccentricity, loyalty and love set in a small-town beauty parlor. The play is alternately hilarious and touching—and, in the end, deeply revealing of the strength and purposefulness which underlies the antic banter of its characters. (Recommended for ages 13+)

Tickets range from $10-$15 and may be purchased online at www.wordplayers.org or at the door with cash or check. Group Rate available and Thursday is Pay What You Can Night. For more information, call 865.539.2490

The Lyric Theatre Company presents The Importance of Being Earnest
Play by Oscar Wilde.

September 19 & 20 8 PM
September 21 2 PM
September 26 & 27 8 PM
September 28Tickets to theatre events may be purchased online using Paypal or by calling the Lyric Theatre at (865) 458-9020 - Mastercard and Visa accepted. Box office opens one hour prior to show time. Online orders will be sent an order confirmation by e-mail. Tickets will be held at the Box Office under the name of the person ordering the tickets. 2 PM.

320 Grove Street, Loudon, TN 37774 (865) 458-9020 * mailto:thelyrictheatre@bellsouth.net
http://www.lyricloudontn.com/

Pellissippi State Community College features the paintings of three area artists in its “Abstractions” exhibit. The event highlights works of John Bissonette, Jennifer Brickey and Heather Hartman, all of whom explore non-objective imagery in various forms. Brickey also is an assistant professor at Pellissippi State.

“The paintings all make use of color, space and structure to convey various ideas,” said Herb Rieth, curator of the exhibit and assistant professor at Pellissippi State. “The paintings are engaging, witty, mysterious and intense without using concrete images.”

This event is curated by Art faculty member Herb Rieth. See a brief write up in the Knoxville Daily Sun:
http://www.knoxvilledailysun.com/entertainment/2014/abstractions-exhibit.html#.VBCBzphJkeR

The exhibit is in the Bagwell Gallery on the Hardin Valley Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.pstcc.edu/arts or call (865) 694-6400.

Saturday, September 13 - 3:00
Kerry Madden – “Offsides,” memoir

Thursday, September 18 - 6:00
Amber Roessner – “Inventing Base-ball Heroes,” non-fiction

Friday, September 19 - 6:00
Carol Bradley – “The Last Chain on Billie,” non-fiction

Wednesday, September 24 - Noon
Bookaholics Book Group - “The Good Lord Bird,” fiction

Tuesday, September 30 - 6:00
Perre Coleman Magness –“Pimento Cheese: The Cookbook”

Union Ave Books, 517 Union Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902, (865) 951-2180, www.unionavebooks.com

Drawing on the collections of the McClung Museum, the University of Tennessee Library’s Special Collections, as well as private collections, this exhibit explores the fascinating intersection of art and science in the tradition of natural history illustration and features over fifty rare books, prints, and objects.

From 16th century imaginings of fantastical beasts, to the extremely accurate 19th illustrations of plants and animals, the works on view highlight how increasing access to travel, technology, and books, as well as the evolution of the field of science, changed how these artful illustrations were created and interpreted. The curators of the exhibit, Catherine Shteynberg and Christine Dano Johnson, are available for interviews or walkthroughs of the exhibit, and can be contacted directly at: cshteynb@utk.edu, 865-974-6921.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-974-2144, http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu