Calendar of Events

Ben Folds, a multi-platinum selling singer, songwriter and music producer, will bring his solo tour to Knoxville in February!

Bijou Theatre, 803 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information/tickets: 865-522-0832, www.knoxbijou.com, www.ticketmaster.com

INTERNATIONAL CURRENTS
Dir. by Gianfranco Rosi
A startling, on-the-spot document of the European migrant crisis.
FEBRUARY 26 · KMA · 2:00 P.M.

The Public Cinema exists to share vital works of contemporary international and American cinema—works that might otherwise be unseen or overlooked by Knoxville audiences. Many of the films we screen are discoveries from the festival circuit; some will be Tennessee or regional premieres. Whatever we screen, our only agenda is to create a space for cinema as an art form and to promote discussion among discerning moviegoers. http://www.publiccinema.org/films/

The McClung Museum’s 7th annual Civil War Lecture series, given by Civil War Curator Joan Markel, will be held at 2pm one Sunday each month, January–April 2017 in the McClung Museum Auditorium. The lectures are free and open to the public.

This month’s lecture is “Gen. Sherman, Capt. Poe and Mr. Barnard: Harnessing the Power of Documentation and Story.”

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

Sing traditional shape note music from East Tennessee's own music book, The New Harp of Columbia. Free, all are welcome, no experience required and loaner books are provided.
Sunday, February 26, 2:00PM, potluck refreshments at 4:00PM.
Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Ave, Knoxville, TN 37916. www.oldharp.org.

Regal Entertainment Group, a major motion picture exhibitor owning and operating one of the largest theatre circuits in the United States, today announces Hollywood’s Night Out in Knoxville to celebrate the biggest awards show of the year. On Sunday, February 26, Young Variety in concert with Variety – the Children’s Charity of Eastern Tennessee will be hosting this event at the historic Tennessee Theatre in Downtown Knoxville. All proceeds benefit Variety and their Kids on the Go! program.

Guests will experience the red carpet and can participate in a green screen photo op like the Hollywood stars. The year event’s silent auction will include highly sought after items such as autographed movie posters from La La Land, Moonlight, Loving and Nocturnal Animals, a diamond pendant necklace and Tacori gem earrings from Enix Jewelers, movie memorabilia, and more. This year’s event features a Taste of Knoxville provided by some of Knoxville’s finest eateries including Cocoa Moon, FIVE Bar, Sapphire, Rothchild Catering. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased at the Tennessee Theatre Box Office and TicketMaster.com.

All proceeds will fund Variety’s Kids on the Go! program, which provides assistance to children with mobility concerns. Kids on the Go! provides walkers, wheelchairs, specially-designed adaptive trikes, stroller sand other devices to children (19 years and younger) that cannot be met by family, school or insurance. For almost a decade, Variety’s Kids on the Go! program has provided over $1 million dollars to purchase mobility equipment for special needs children in Eastern Tennessee.

Additional information is available on the Company's website at www.REGmovies.com.

I am partnering with local organizations for monthly fundraising tours, with 50% of the ticket sales will go to the participating organization. For years I’ve donated complimentary tour tickets to various organizations and their fundraising auctions. This is a way that the members of the organizations can actually participate in a tour and outreach to potential new supporters.

Our February 4th Sunday will benefit The Love Kitchen. The Love Kitchen began in 1984 as the dream of Helen Ashe to serve the needy of Knoxville. She was soon joined by her twin sister, Ellen, and the two served their first meal on February 14, 1986. The Love Kitchen now serves over 3000 meals every week. In addition to serving meals in their own building, volunteers meet each week to fill emergency food bags with canned and dry goods and deliver meals to the elderly, disabled, and homebound.

Join us Sunday, February 26, at 2:00 p.m., for this special tour. Tickets will be specially priced at $59 per person, with 50%, or $30 of each ticket going to The Love Kitchen. Your ticket price includes a guided history tour of Downtown Knoxville, plus food tastings at 4 of our finest restaurants (enough for a meal for most). To purchase tickets, please visit the Calendar on the Downtown Tours page on our website, www.knoxvillefoodtours.com. Or to give directly to The Love Kitchen, do so at www.thelovekitchen.org.

Thursdays and Fridays at 7 PM, Saturdays at 1 PM and 5 PM, and Sundays at 3 PM

The play is a live onstage version of the smash Broadway musical adapted from the classic animated film, especially written for ages 4 and older. Based on the original Broadway production that ran for over thirteen years and was nominated for nine Tony Awards, and the Academy Award-winning motion picture, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr. is a fantastic adaptation of the story of transformation and tolerance. The classic story entwines Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, with the Beast, who is really a young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and be loved, the curse will end, and he will be transformed to his former self. But time is running out. If the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he and his household will be doomed for all eternity.

The play is performed by 25 talented young actors, from ages 9 to 16.

Knoxville Children's Theatre, 109 E. Churchwell Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-208-3677, www.childrenstheatreknoxville.com.

A celebration of traditional music! JCA showcases some of the finest practitioners of mountain music across the generations, home grown in our own back yard. Friday and Saturday night we will have old time string bands and song and plenty of jamming in the basement. The festival concludes with Old Harp Singing on Sunday. This year’s performers include the John Alvis, David Lovett, the Tennessee Stifflegs, Leah Gardner and Peggy Hambright, the Knox County Jug Stompers, Y’uns, Pickett State Ramblers, Kelle Jolly, Roy Harper, Bill and The Belles, Mike and Marcia Bryant and the Mumbillies.

The Jubilee Festival is part of the Penny4Arts Program — with the advance purchase of one adult ticket through our regular ticket outlets up to three children’s tickets may be purchased for a penny each. Penny tickets are limited and must be reserved in advance through the JCA office at 522-5851.

Fri & Sat Each Evening: $12 JCA Members, Students, Seniors • $13 General Advance • $15 General Day of Show • $8 Children 12 & under • (Sunday Free)

Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/1118485, 800-838-3006 ext 1, by mail, and at the door. At the Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Ave, Knoxville, TN 37916. For information: 865-522-5851, www.jubileearts.org.

The Primary Players Children’s Theatre Group (www.PrimaryPlayers.com) brings Aladdin, Princess Jasmine, the Genie and all their friends to the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre February 24 – 26. Showtimes are 7 p.m. on the 24th and 25th and 2 p.m. on the 25th and 26th. Forty young actors sing and dance their way through this Disney classic. Aladdin JR is directed by John Cherry with music direction by Susan Daves. The Choreographer is Susie Smith with Lisa Blair stage managing.

Aladdin JR is presented through special arrangement with MTI of NY, NY. The Primary Players is a 501C(3) non-profit organization. Primary Players is a resident children’s theatre group of the Clayton Center for the Arts.

Clayton Center for the Arts: 502 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, TN 37804. Information/tickets: 865-981-8590, www.ClaytonArtsCenter.com

Between a Ballad and a Blues chronicles the life and times of famed string band musician Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong, as part of a six performance series leading up to the organization's 50th Anniversary Celebration. Performances will run at the Clayton Center for the Arts in the Harold and Jean Lambert Recital Hall, Maryville, Tennessee (adjacent to the Maryville College Campus). There will be an opening night reception (open to the public) following the performance on February 23rd in the Harold and Jean Lambert Recital Hall Lobby. http://www.claytonartscenter.com/purchase-tickets/

Between a Ballad and a Blues, a play with music from award winning, playwright Linda Parris-Bailey, tells the story of African-American-Appalachian renaissance man Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong, one of the most celebrated string-band musicians in the history of American music. The play highlights Mr. Armstrong’s more than seven decade musical career. From his start in the industrial city of La Follette, he learned to sing in at least seven languages and began playing a homemade fiddle, performing with his siblings in the 1920’s. He went on to tour internationally and throughout the immigrant mining communities and metropolitan nightlife of the US with fellow musicians, Carl Martin and Ted Bogan. Mr. Armstrong continued to perform until his death in 2003, sharing string band music with the world and planting the seeds for other American music forms including Country and Blues. The title of the play comes from Armstrong’s answer to playwright, Linda Parris-Bailey’s question: “How do you describe your music?” He responded, “It’s somewhere between a ballad and a blues.” Armstrong’s remarkable ability to adapt and survive, good–natured ribbing, lively tales and energetic musical style come to life in this original work from CBT.

Feb 23, 24, 25 at 7:30 PM and Feb 26 at 4:00 PM

Carpetbag Theatre: 865-544-0447, www.carpetbagtheatre.org

Directed by Sean Cowen; details coming soon!

Lyric Theatre: 320 Grove Street, Loudon, TN 37774. Information: 865-458-9020, http://www.lyrictheatrecompany.org/

A witty and fast-paced farce packed with memorable characters! In this hilarious restoration comedy, a young woman, her handsome lover, and their friends plot to escape a controlling guardian. Will a nosey nobleman ruin the plan or save the day? The play was written by Susanna Centlivre in 1709, with adaptations by UT Faculty Misty Anderson and John Sipes.

According to Restoration scholar Anderson, Centlivre’s comedy was the most popular play written by a woman in the eighteenth century and among the 10 most popular plays of the entire period. Audiences in Charleston, Williamsburg, Baltimore, New York, and other colonial theatre towns in the early days of America flocked to it. It even played in Havana and Kingston, Jamaica! The play’s pace calls for the kind of physical comedy one might have seen on “The Carol Burnett Show.” “The Busy Body” gives us a window into the world of marriage at a time when women’s roles were just beginning to change, and playwrights like Centlivre were beginning to see women as equals to men. Manners and codes of conduct required curtsies, bows, and polite forms of address, but marriage contracts were also big business. The two heroines struggle against arrangements that would turn them into mere goods traded between men using secret identities, tricks, messages in code, and helpful waiting maids. The results are hilarious and surprisingly modern; the young women are frank, spunky, and unstoppable, and their lovers seem to love them all the more for it.

A Pay What You Wish Preview performance, where patrons can name their own price, will be held Wednesday, February 22 from Noon to 7 pm at the theatre. A Talk Back with the actors will take place Sunday, March 5 following the matinee. A panel discussion in association with the Commission for Women will take place on March 9 at 3:30 pm in the Carousel Theatre. The Open Captioned performance is Sunday, March 12 at 2:00 pm.

Carousel Theatre, 1714 Andy Holt Ave on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. For information: 865-974-5161, www.clarencebrowntheatre.com. For tickets: 865-974-5161, 865-656-4444, www.knoxvilletickets.com