Through the deal, Hall will also commission Black playwrights.

While the impact of COVID makes this a particularly urgent moment for the survival of the city’s creative community, ArtsMemphis also plans to make Arts Week an annual event. 

Ballet Memphis produced an hour-long film of the classic holiday ballet, which will be offered free on the company’s website. The New Ballet Ensemble and Children’s Ballet Theater will screen films of their “Nutcracker” performances at Malco Summer Drive-in. 

We’re not just going to be home for the holidays, but also homebound by COVID-19. Still you’ll be able to see “A Christmas Carol” performed by Memphis actors and other seasonal shows.

In November and December, 19th century literary classics will be the focus on the TSC stage. Shows will also be simulcast for online ticket holders.

The wait is nearly over for BPACC after receiving approval from the Shelby County Health Department to return in 2021. Its abbreviated winter 2021 season, including 11 performances, is slated to begin Jan. 16, with the first show “Linda Ronstadt Experience.” 

Charles “Lil Buck” Riley is one of the subjects of a Netflix dance documentary series that debuts Friday, Oct. 23.

Robert Penn Warren interrupted his interview over coffee with Peggy Burch to bounce some novel ideas off her. A senile grand marshal taught Wayne Risher an unforgettable lesson about journalism ethics. And there’s more.

Among Iris Orchestra’s latest class of artist fellows is a native Memphian, a first for the young program.

Darius Wallace has performed as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass in schools, universities, theaters and museums around the country. “He’s one of the foremost recreators of these three men that we have in the country,” says Tennessee Shakespeare Company's artistic director.

Children who go on to become successful adults are more likely to have had some arts education enrich their experiences on that path. Studies show the correlation between arts education, academic achievement and compassion for others.

"Arts matter, dance matters," Ballet Memphis CEO Gretchen Wollert McLennon says. "Arts are a respite and a celebration. They change lives, they employ people."

After eight years on Broad Avenue, Collage Dance Collective is relocating to a 22,000-square-foot location on Tillman. This is part of the nonprofit’s vision to grow into the largest Black-owned ballet company in the South.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 4.

Mark Greaney has written nine thrillers about his legendary assassin Court Gentry, aka 'The Gray Man.' Netflix cast Ryan Gosling in the film role.

“Classical Creativity in Isolation” will open the professional theater company’s 13th season. “I don’t care for live theaters being classified as ‘non-essential’ this year,” says TSC founder Dan McCleary. 

Live theater companies in Memphis endured a long exercise in improv in the second half of the 2019-20 theater season. And 2020-21 is shaping up as more of the same.

Some of the Memphis figures buried at Elmwood Cemetery star in a film by Willy Bearden that will be streamed Oct. 10. Bearden's documentary includes a key role for himself as a former mayor of Memphis. 

From 1971 until his retirement in 2012, Chipman served over St. Jude’s communications and marketing sector, while also maintaining a presence first on stage, and later in television and film.

Bertram Williams Jr. landed a role on Starz drama "P-Valley" while working as a high school teacher in Memphis. He says the show, based on a fictional Mid-South strip club, tackles taboos that audiences should address head-on.

The arts company announced Gretchen Wollert McLennon as the organization’s new leader after a unanimous vote by board members. She will begin her tenure Aug. 1.

Harold Foxx was the first deaf comedian at the Laugh Factory and attended the comedy institution The Groundlings Theatre & School. In his shows, he says, “It’s a deaf man, calling it like it is.”

The show, which debuted in September 2019, had a 10-episode season.

Memphis-bred stunt performer and actress Carrie Bernans joins the cast of Fox's game of "Ultimate Tag," a professional take on the playground pastime.

A full house at Playhouse may look different than it did in the days prior to COVID-19. Executive producer Michael Detroit said a 'working plan' might be to sell every other seat.