An upcoming main-stage play at New Stage Theatre hits all the blues-music bullet points—the magical spell of its sound, its Mississippi Delta and field-worker roots, its musical flip side in spiritual communities, the crossroads myth, its “devil’s music” moniker and how British rockers rode its inspiration to riches.

British playwright Stephen Jeffreys completed “I Just Stopped By to See the Man” in 2000, and the play focuses on the humanity of those in its orbit. Salvation and sacrifice, redemption, reconciliation and temptation are threads in this character study of three people who must come to terms with their choices, their fears and the truth in their souls.

The play opens Feb. 2 and runs through Feb. 13. Set in the 1970s Mississippi Delta, Jesse “The Man” Davidson, last of the Delta bluesmen, lives in a shotgun house on a rural crossroads. Legends credit a devil’s deal behind his skill; the musician himself is reported to have died 14 years prior to the play’s start.

Even Jesse’s life in obscurity, with its outlook for trouble from any direction, cannot keep a determined interloper from stopping by to see him. Karl, a British rock star with a band on tour in the region, is determined to seek out the authentic source of the music he plays for a living, as if to sanctify his soul and secure his future. Jesse’s daughter, Della, stands with these two men at a crossroads, weighing what their choices—and sharing the truth about her own—will cost her.

In Jesse, Mark G. Henderson finds a fascinating personality: famous, talented and accustomed to the limelight, but now isolated from the recognition he once knew. “Oftentimes when I think of Jesse, I think of the concept of an Achilles heel,” Henderson, longtime speech/communications and theater professor at Jackson State University, says.

“With all great men, there’s something about them that’s their weakness, that could destroy them,” Henderson adds. “I’m still looking at Jesse. Is it his love for the blues? He loves the blues so much that he doesn’t want anyone else to play around with it. He feels like you have to have a right to sing the blues.”

DeShawn White of New York City, a Maryland native making her New Stage debut, has the nuanced role of Della, an activist and truth-teller. “She tells it like it is,” White says, “but at the same time, she’s hiding and she’s not living her own truth. The tug of war that’s going on within her, I think, is really compelling.”

As the larger-than-life English rock star in love with the blues, Austin Hohnke, also of New York, is struck by all the things Karl fears. “He’s scared of being alone, despite performing to these huge audiences. He seeks recognition, and needs to feel that there’s some legitimacy to what he’s doing,” Hohnke says. “It’s that fear of being a fraud.”

Hohnke was last seen at New Stage playing Carl Perkins in “Million Dollar Quartet,” an experience that gave him a great foundation and springboard for this production, he says.

“We went to Sun (Studio), and we went to Graceland, so we saw the adoption (of blues) in early rock ’n’ roll. … There are a lot of parallels I could draw,” he says. “As far as digging into legitimate blues, this has been just a great opportunity to dive headfirst into it.”

Not many plays focus on the blues, without being musicals, notes Francine Thomas Reynolds, New Stage Theatre artistic director who also sits in the director’s chair for this production. The play’s plunge into the culture, language and impact of the blues, and the three strong characters that drive its story drew Reynolds to this rich drama.

“They’re not stereotypes at all,” she says. “These are deep, multifaceted characters.”

“Everybody has a secret, and you find out what those secrets are. They’re revealed throughout the play, and how those secrets are driving them,” Reynolds says. “But on top of it all is layered this exploration of the blues. Who has the right to sing the blues? What is the blues?”

“I Just Stopped By to See the Man” folds into the theater’s Mississippi play initiative with its setting, recognition of music’s roots and the way Mississippi informs the Jesse character.

“There’s universality in their desires—keeping secrets, desiring relevance and legitimacy,” Reynolds says. “They could be anywhere, really, but it adds so much life to it, that it’s a Delta blues player.”

The stage play does include some music—guitar playing and singing—“but the whole idea is to get someone to sing and play the blues,” Reynolds emphasizes.

Mentions of real blues artists, messages coded in song, the strength and pull of the Black church, political context of race relations and more give the play an air of authenticity.

“Jesse’s character is kind of a meshing of all of these blues singers who are from MIssissippi or who are from the South,” Henderson says, and the playwright gets that right. “I think he speaks their thought process pretty well—how they felt or how they thought, being a blues singer in America against the backdrop of white supremacy.”

“Sometimes we see people who are famous or who are in the limelight, and you see their glory, and you don’t realize they still have a story,” Henderson adds. “There are some things that they’ve dealt with, that probably were the impetus for much of their success, because they were able to, as in Jesse’s character, overcome the status quo to leave the cotton fields, to make some leaps. And, he was able to use those experiences in his music.”

That, too, should connect directly with audiences here, he says. “Any Mississippian in that audience, if they haven’t experienced it, I guarantee you, it’s not even six degrees of separation, it’s two degrees of separation of someone they know who has a family member who has experienced everything that’s being talked about in this script.”

“I Just Stopped By to See the Man” runs from Feb. 2 to Feb. 13 at New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.) in Jackson. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays. General admission is $30, with discounts available for students, senior citizens, military and groups. Attendees may buy tickets at the theater box office, by phone at 601-948-3531 or online at newstagetheatre.com.

Fully vaccinated audience performances are Feb. 2, Feb. 4, Feb. 6, Feb. 8, Feb. 10 and Feb. 12, with proof of vaccination required, including for all children. A socially distanced performance will be on Feb. 9. A pay-what-you-can performance will be on Feb. 3. Artworks from H.C. Porter’s “Blues @ Home: Mississippi’s Living Blues Legends” series will be on exhibit in the Hewes Room at the theater throughout the show’s run, and Porter will be on hand to share insights on the project at 6:45 p.m. on Feb. 10, prior to that evening’s performance.

This story originally appeared in the Mississippi Free Press. The Mississippi Free Press is a statewide nonprofit news outlet that provides most of its stories free to other media outlets to republish. Write shaye@mississippifreepress.org for information.

Jake Milton's first taste of acting came when he reenacted scenes from "The Father of the Bride" after his mother showed the 1991 film to him and his siblings. "'Father of the Bride' I and II were staples at my house, and they still don't get old for me," Milton recalls. But his true awakening came a little later when he watched "Titanic" for the first time.

"I remember feeling emotional at the end (of the movie), and I love being able to bring that to people. Film gives you the freedom to be emotional when in life, we pull back," Milton tells the Jackson Free Press.

Although Milton acknowledges that many actors "cut their teeth" by performing in plays and that he got his start on the stage, he always knew that his goal was screen acting. "I did 'MASH' (onstage), and someone asked if I wanted to audition for an independent film. I hoped it wasn't a serial killer," Milton quips.

That first opportunity thrust Milton into the spotlight, as he received the leading role in "Captive," which, just as he had hoped, was not a horror movie. It was instead the story of a thief who had expected to burglarize an empty home but found himself trapped with the lady of the house.

Milton's early success allowed him to network with other actors and directors. "Some people say that if you don't have an agent, you don't have a career. There's some truth to that, but it's still possible to get out there," he says.

Milton's own career arc proves his theory, as he completed his first role in a feature film earlier this year. "A Stranger Among the Living," which local filmmaker Chris Wesley Moore directed, relates the story of a teacher wrestling with guilt after surviving a school shooting.

Prior to accepting the role, Milton had done short-film and web-series work. His favorite, "Grief Monster," was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic. "I loved it because of what it was birthed out of," Milton says. "There's not much growing in the world; people feel halted and stunted. (This movie) was about getting to be resilient in that way."

Resilience is nothing new to Milton, who spent the last three years caring for a dying relative. "They were a huge supporter of me and always helped me, and this was a time when they needed someone to help them, and I did that," he says.

Milton plans to carry these lessons of resilience into his future career.

"I look forward to continuing to work, and I hope to get substantial work—work that means something to me," he says. "I hope that leads towards working with people that I've looked up to and respect, whether it's someone who's known or someone who comes along and isn't."

Follow Milton on Instagram @the_only_jakemilton.

Since its founding in 1945 as the Jackson Opera Guild, the arts organization formerly known as the Mississippi Opera Association has gone through a number of changes. On Jan. 26, 2020, the opera guild announced its latest metamorphosis—a new name, Opera Mississippi. Coinciding with the company's 75th anniversary, the shift reflects new initiatives and other developments Opera Mississippi has in store.

For starters, the organization is establishing a donor-level social program called "The Opera Circle," which will consist of "meet the artists" parties, small-group pre-show happy hours and VIP events. Some events will be open to the public. Through the program, Opera Mississippi hopes to cultivate new opera and musical stage enthusiasts by allowing attendees to more directly interact with the organization's representatives and the artists that make their way to Jackson to perform.

"We wanted to celebrate our 75th year by increasing our audience and universe of donors to a broader section of Mississippi art enthusiasts," board member and Opera Circle Program Chairwoman Shannon Warnock says about the changes. "My husband and I got involved when our son (Jay) was a student performer, and we've been impressed with the caliber of performances and professionals that Opera Mississippi produces. So we are honored to be part of the family of opera supporters in the state and encourage any others to join us as we celebrate our 75th anniversary and go forward to 75 more fantastic years."

The Opera Circle is separate from The Guild, which serves as a community for the organization's "Opera family" that aims to cultivate attendance and provide financial support for Opera Mississippi.

Opera Mississippi hosts productions that feature singers, musicians, actors, writers, dramas, comedies, dance performances and more. Some international artists who have taken the stage include Beverly Sills, Monserrat Caballe, Robert Merrill, James McCracken, Roberta Peters, Jan Peerce, Richard Tucker, Norman Treigle, Renee Fleming and many others. The organization still has two upcoming shows for this season: "Take Five: The Dave Brubeck Centennial" on March 16 and "Romeo et Juliette" on April 25.

In addition to shows, Opera Mississippi also implements a variety of educational and community outreach programs, such as the Children's Opera, wherein the organization arranges free performances for students across the state, allowing them access to different forms of music that they might not have access to otherwise.

Another opportunity that the arts organization offers is the annual John Alexander International Vocal Competition, the only nationally advertised music competition in the state. Named after the internationally known operatic tenor who heralded from Meridian, Miss., the competition seeks to recognize talented performers of vocal opera and musical theater from across the nation. Contestants are split into student artist (ages 18-25) and young professional artist (ages 26-40) categories for the event.

First-, second- and third-place winners respectively receive $1,000, $500, and $300 monetary prizes, as well as priority consideration for roles in upcoming Opera Mississippi productions. Winners are also invited to perform during the "Stage Stars of Tomorrow" gala concert held later each year.

For more information on Opera Mississippi, its productions and its programs, visit operams.org.

'Take Five: The Dave Brubeck Centennial'

American composer Dave Brubeck left his mark on the world as a pioneer of "cool jazz," a modern style characterized by relaxed tempos and lighter tone that often incorporated elements of classical music. In 1959, The Dave Brubeck Quartet released "Time Out," which included the track "Take Five," composed by quartet-member and saxophonist Paul Desmond. A hit, the song was reissued in 1961 and became the biggest-selling jazz single in history, later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1996.

Opera Mississippi celebrates Brubeck's legacy through a production featuring his and his quartet's works, as part of this season's Cabaret at Duling Hall series. The Sam Bruton Quartet—Sam Bruton on piano, Larry Panella on saxophone, David Pellow on bass and Peter Wehner on percussion—recreates the iconic tunes surrounding "Take Five."

The show will be held on March 16, starting 7:30 p.m., at Duling Hall (622 Duling Ave.). Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door.

'Romeo et Juliette'

First performed at the Theatre Lyrique in Paris in 1867, "Romeo et Juliette" has since become a staple in the opera scene, with various theaters and arts organizations performing it multiple times around the world each year.

Created by French composer Charles Gounod as a musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's original work, the opera contains five acts and is known for the four duets the main characters perform, as well as the popular waltz song "Je veux vivre" for the soprano.

Opera Mississippi closes its 2019-2020 season with a production of Gounod's work. The titular leads are played by Cody Laun (Romeo) and Stacey Trenteseaux (Juliette). The show is on April 25, starting at 7:30 p.m., at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). Tickets range from $35 to $65 for general admission and from $20 to $30 for students and military with ID.

Like a lot of children growing up in the '80s, Keri Horn loved to watch cartoons like "The Smurfs" and "The Care Bears." But she might have been one of the children approaching the television set with a tape recorder.

Horn would record the voices of her favorite characters to listen to later. Through this practice, she soon realized the same person was voicing her favorite characters and that she wanted to be a voice actor for a cartoon. Soon after that, her father, Walt Grayson, who was a radio host at the time, pulled her into the booth to help record a commercial when she was 10 years old.

"When I went into acting, I thought, 'My ultimate goal is to be the voice of a cartoon character sometime down the road,'" Horn says. "(Thinking about) acting, I was just like, 'Oh, yeah, you could also do stage. You could also do TV. That's OK. But the ultimate goal is to be able to wear jeans all the time—and pajamas.'"

Horn describes voice acting as using different dialects and accents to become a character and tell a story. Part of what drew Horn to voice acting is that changes in 
appearance over time does not affect the job. In the voiceover booth, Horn isn't limited to roles that require a middle-aged, 5'2" woman. Over the course of her 30-year career, Horn has been an ogre, a cat, an elf, and far more for commercials, audiobooks, video games and TV shows.

Horn studied acting at Hinds Community College before earning her bachelor's degree in theater in 1998 from the University of Southern Mississippi.

In 1999, she began working at Mississippi Public Broadcasting, where she still works as a closed captioner and writer. She has also been a puppeteer and producer there.

“Working here for 20 years, I’ve seen (MPB) morph a little bit. The products that we’re putting out these days, there might be fewer things, but the quality of products that we’re putting out … is just amazing to me,” Horn says.

Horn says she has spent as much time at MPB as she has because she gets to work with some of the most creative people in the state, whom she says are her main reason for staying.

One of the most meaningful awards Horn says she has received for her work was when the team that helped her produce “Ed Said '' won three regional Emmys in 2017 for writing, music composition and show. The show centers around a puppet named Ed, a boy who loves to learn, sing and rap about being healthy.

Another notable moment for Horn was when “Between the Lions,” a show MPB co-produced with WBGH and Sirius Thinking, won a National Emmy in 2009 for writing. She accepted the award in Los Angeles from Bindi Irwin, who Horn says said she loved the show in the cutest, Australian accent.

Accolades aside, Horn says being a voice actress does not require much—just a closet, microphone and computer—but the most important supplies are coaching and the will to hunt for work.

"This is a gig economy, and this is definitely something that you go out, and you beat the bushes, and you find the work," Horn says. "After the audition, after you get the job, that's when the fun starts. But getting the job is the job. Doing the job is the fun part."

A work week for Horn includes three hours of script writing, one-to-two hours of cutting a script and five hours per day of closed captioning, and that’s just at MPB. When she goes home, she searches for auditions, recording with audition scripts, and works on new character voices. However, if she’s working on a play with New Stage Theatre or working on an improv show, her schedule changes.

“That’s the fun part. There is no ordinary week, and I get to wear jeans everyday,” she says.

Beginning March 30, Horn will be teaching voiceover classes at New Stage Theatre on Monday nights from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. until April 20. The classes cost $175 for the four-week session.

Students can expect to learn how to approach a script, what clients are looking for, where to find character voice inspiration, microphone etiquette, studio setup and lessons on vocal health. At the end of the class, students will receive a recording of the work they've done in class to monitor their progression.

For more information, contact New Stage Educational Director Sharon Miles by email at smiles@newstagetheatre.com or by phone at 601-948-3533, ext. 232, or visit newstagetheatre.com.

Jacksonians need not break out their snorkels to feel like they are taking a gander under the sea this weekend. Each year, Power Academic and Performing Arts Complex, or Power APAC, produces a ballet for February featuring an all-student cast. This year, the dance department offers an adaptation of "The Little Mermaid."

The entire story is told through "a mixture of ballet and musical theater movement" as dancers perform to the lyricless orchestral arrangements, Marlena Duncan, chairperson of the Power APAC Dance Department, says. Duncan and dance faculty members Carleigh Dunbar and Bethany Philipp developed the choreography for the show, which features 95 student cast members and is assisted by a six-person senior production crew. Main characters include Ariel, played by high school junior Ryan Crockett, Flounder, played by eighth grader Serena McGlorthan, and more.

"These students exemplify the type of APAC dancer that we want to use as role models for all of our students," Duncan says about Crockett and McGlorthan. "They are disciplined, they have integrity, they have a very strong professional work ethic. I believe that these students will go on to continue their dance training in college. I believe they will continue to give back to their community through choreographing, performing or teaching dance within the community."

The Power APAC dance curriculum also covers dance history, composition, portfolio development, re sume building and more. "They're not just learning techniques. They're learning life skills, a way to be disciplined in this life, and a way to support themselves financially. ... They're coming into college with what a senior may have when leaving a college program," Duncan says.

To join Power APAC, rising fourth through eighth grade students must first be accepted into academics for Power APAC and Bailey APAC, and any high schooler may audition. Auditions will be held on Saturday, May 9, from 8 a.m. to noon. In addition to dance, programs include piano, voice, strings, theater arts and visual arts.

Duncan gives thanks to Jackson Public Schools for its part in supporting the Power APAC program for the 37 years since its founding.

"Jackson Public Schools is the only district in the state of Mississippi that took a risk on creating such a fine arts program for grades 4-12, and that is a strong positive not only for JPS but for Mississippi," she says. "This has been a fine arts magnet program, and it is the only program of its kind in the state of Mississippi."

The show will be held on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 21-22, starting 6:30 p.m. at the Power APAC Auditorium (1120 Riverside Drive). Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for students. For more information or to learn of other upcoming shows, visit jackson.k12.ms.us/power or call 601-960-5387.

College can often be the time when we discover more about ourselves in a way that helps guide us as we choose the trajectories of our lives. Mac Mitchell entered Belhaven University his freshman year as a creative writing major, but felt something was lacking.

"Writing for me was missing something, a little unsatisfying," Mitchell says.

"I auditioned for a theater event, a night of one acts, and I just fell in love with the stage and the idea that you could write something and that you would see people physically perform it and say the words that you wrote. There was something in that that appealed to me. It felt more alive and more collaborative compared to the more isolated work I had been doing."

Taking on theater as a second major, Mitchell began developing his craft in dramatic writing. Today, he has become the residential screenwriter for the Hearth & Mantel Theatre Company.

Mitchell had been roommates with James Kenyon, founder and artistic director of the organization. Kenyon and his wife Laina founded the company in 2017, shortly after graduating from Belhaven themselves. Unable to affordably acquire the rights to put on an established play, they reached out to Mitchell. By December 2017, Mitchell's first full-length screenplay, "If I Had Wings," had been transformed into the Hearth & Mantel's first live production.

"('If I Had Wings') brought us together to do something that wasn't there before and provided a space where all of our different creative energies could combine and come together to make something," Mitchell says.

Since then, Hearth & Mantel's has produced two more of Mitchell's original plays, including "After We Become Rain" in 2018 and "The Lady With Bruce Willis Eyes" in 2019. He wrote the latter as a 10-page monologue for a college assignment. After polishing the work on and off since then following the encouragement of his friend Noel Robinson, Mitchell pitched the play to Hearth & Mantel as something to do for the spring, but the theater decided to use it for the fall's production instead. Despite the tight time window, the troupe had a functional one-woman show within two months.

"The Lady With Bruce Willis Eyes" was the first time Mitchell had the chance to work so closely with the cast and crew during rehearsals. "(H)aving someone very excited to direct and to perform the words you write—there's no feeling like it. We eventually got the story on its feet, and I was really proud of it," Mitchell says.

One aspect of theater that Mitchell particularly enjoys is the communal experience that can come during moments of a play when one can feel the collective emotion of everyone around.

"What I enjoy most about what I do is at the end of the play, the feeling when the lights go down and you know it's over, but it's broken your heart, and it's made you laugh, and it's made you reflect on things you haven't thought about in years or may not want to think about," Mitchell says. "There's this silence after the lights go down when you know everyone should be clapping, but nobody wants to break that moment. It's that feeling of being connected after what you've seen, and the process of getting to that moment is what I enjoy most—working toward something that connects us and makes us feel alive but alive together."

Next, Mitchell will be performing with Hearth & Mantel for the first time as an actor in its upcoming production of "Big Mama's Kitchen." He also has a few ideas for future plays in the works, including a comedy about a wedding.

In his spare time, Mitchell has been reading more southern literature to help him better understand where he is from and how experiencing Mississippi can bolster his own writing. He also enjoys running, which he says can help clear his head or inspire him with fresh ideas.

For more information on the Hearth & Mantel Theatre Company, visit hearthandmanteltheatre.com.

New Stage Theatre prides itself in maintaining professional quality in every main stage production, ranging from master works and contemporary classics to new plays. Jane Reid Petty, New Stage's founder, believes that the artist comes first and that making sure to sustain a positive environment where artists can collaborate and bring out the best performances in one another is relevant to the image and integrity of Mississippi heritage.

Each year, New Stage Theatre produces five plays in its subscription series, a holiday show, an annual SchoolFest matinee and a summer camp show featuring local talent for children. The theater also has a second season called Unframed at New Stage Theatre Series that features cutting-edge plays directed and performed by local artists.

This winter season, New Stage presents Roald Dahl's "Matilda the Musical," directed by Sharon Miles with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin. Matilda is the story of an extraordinary girl who is bold and courageous with a limitless imagination, pushing against the odds to write her own destiny. The play is suitable entertainment for children and adults to enjoy and has won 16 Best Musical awards. On Jan. 30-31 and Feb. 6-7, the show starts at 7 p.m. On Feb. 1-2 and Feb. 8-9, the show starts at 2 p.m. Both Jan. 31 and Feb. 1-2 shows are already sold out. Tickets are $38 each and can be purchased here. Season ticket subscribers can purchase discounted tickets. No children under the age of 5 are allowed inside.

New Stage Theatre is located at 1100 Carlisle St. For more information call 601-948-3533 or email mail@newstagetheatre.com.

The Mississippi Jazz Foundation named Jeffrey Cornelius, a senior at Murrah High School, as the up-and-coming artist of the year during its 16th annual Night of Musical Artistry at Duling Hall on Nov. 29. During the event, the foundation honors Jackson artists who have made exceptional contributions to music scene.

Cornelius, 16, has been a musical theater performer with New Stage Theater in Jackson since 2013. He received the up-and-comer award for his recent performance in a cabaret at New Stage’s Toast to Broadway, an annual fundraiser at Jackson’s Old Capitol Inn that honors longtime performers with the theater group.

Lynda Swims, Cornelius’ grandmother, helped introduce him to New Stage when she signed him up for the group’s annual Broadway Junior Theater Camp during the summer of 2013. Cornelius had performed on stage as Tiny Tim during a production of “A Christmas Carol” at McWillie Elementary School before attending the camp, but his time there still proved to be a new and unexpected experience for him, Cornelius told the Jackson Free Press.

“That year, the theme of the camp was ‘High School Musical Junior,’” Cornelius says. “I hadn’t expected much going in, but I ended up getting my first leading role as Ryan Evans. Being there was insightful because I had never thought of theater as something people could take so seriously. Seeing all the teachers there and how they loved what they were doing made me want to do it too.”

After four weeks of rehearsals at the camp, participants got the chance to audition for the following season of performances at New Stage. Cornelius succeeded in his audition and New Stage place him in his first official role as Young Scrooge in its 2013 production of “A Christmas Carol.”

Since then, Cornelius has performed with New Stage in “Seussical the Musical Junior,” “Peter Pan,” “Legally Blonde Junior,” “Our Town,” “Singin’ in the Rain Junior,” “Aladdin” and “Frozen.” He also performed with New Stage’s adult ensemble as an apparition during the 2019 “A Christmas Carol” production.

“At this point I feel like I’ve grown up with ‘A Christmas Carol,’ from being Tiny Tim in elementary school to being part of the adult ensemble track now,” Cornelius says. “Looking at kids performing in the junior troupe today, I can remember being where they are now. Getting to work with professionals in the field has made an even deeper impression on me, and now I know it’s what I want to make a living doing.”

Recently, Cornelius received an invitation to attend The Impulse Musical Theater Workshop at the University of Michigan. For three and a half weeks, Cornelius and 39 other students will work with professional Broadway performers to learn about the craft and the college musical theater audition process. Cornelius says he plans to pursue a degree in musical theater from UM after graduating a year early from Murrah High School in May 2020.

“I’ve come to see theater as a chance for me to let go of what’s happening in my day-to-day life, tell a story full of lessons to be learned and focus on giving the audience a good performance,” Cornelius says.

Cornelius is also a member of the speech and debate team at Murrah and is involved in the school’s Power APAC theater department and Power APAC orchestra. Cornelius has been playing instruments since he was 6 years old and currently plays piano, guitar, violin, cello, ukulele and more.

His mother, Kimberly Cornelius, works for United Health Care, and his father, Marc Cornelius, serves as a manager at Nissan.

Web Editor Dustin Cardon regularly writes Biz and Higher Ed roundups for the Jackson Free Press. Send tips for business and education-related stories to dustin@jacksonfreepress.com.

The opening nights of the Hearth & Mantel Theatre Company's production of "The Lady With Bruce Willis Eyes" brought in a larger crowd than the troupe anticipated.

"We were thrilled with the audience reception," director Michaela Lin says. "They chuckled at the right places and there were tears where we expected."

The solo performance show, Lin says, is about a dancer and how "she would get out of bed in the morning, get in her car, go to work, then go to the bar and return home for bed. She is in a rut."

The play has already been performed twice, on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5, but theater fans have three more opportunities to view the show: Dec. 11-13 starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Arts Center of Mississippi.

"(Hearth & Mantel Theatre Company) first started with our shows produced in local homes. We are excited to have the opportunity to present on the stage of the Arts Center of Mississippi," Lin says.

The production is made possible through a partnership with the Millsaps College Theatre Department and the Greater Jackson Arts Council.

"The play begins with a speech from the main character. She kind of goes through her life as a dancer with the speech and the audience is sucked into her story," Lin says. "The main character, Hollie, portrayed by Lydia Lippincott, talks about her life story, and about three moments, each traumatic in their own way, which define her story as a dancer."

"I don't need to tell anymore about the plot," Lin says. "But there are surprises which are acted out with great emotion."

Award-winning playwright, Mac Mitchell, wrote the original production. "He was inspired to write the play because of a poem he wrote when in college," Lin says. "He was interested in the life of a dancer and how it can affect people. He wanted to tell their stories." Mitchell also collaborated with a dancer, Noelle Robinson, which added to the depth of the play.

"Mitchell is a member of our original team. We first met summer of 2017. Our first meeting was with James and Laina Kenyon. We had come together with the dream to begin a theater company in Jackson," Lin says.

The company applied for 501(c)(3) status in 2018. Founding members include Michael Tobin, Michaela Lin, Lydia Lippincott, Laina Kenyon, James Kenyon, Frannie Maas and Mac Mitchell.

"We all have full-time jobs, (but) we love our Theatre Company and are passionate about it," Lin says.

Going forward, the organization aims to apply for grants, meet regularly, plan stage productions, read submitted plays, hire a full-time staff, rent or purchase a space for productions and also provide educational opportunities for students.

"The Lady with Bruce Willis Eyes" is the troupe's third main-stage season. Previous productions featured "If I had Wings" and improv-shows, such as "Deep South Pops," which was performed at the Olde Towne Depot in Clinton The official improv group is called "Dismantle," used as an opportunity to teach local playwrights how a play comes together.

The troupe teaches the submission process and holds readings and tryouts. The next play is planned for spring 2020 and will be a comedy with a playtime between one hour to an hour and 15 minutes, Lin says.

Any local playwrights who would like to submit work may contact the Hearth and Mantle Theatre Company via their website, hearthandmanteltheatre.com.

"The Lady With Bruce Willis Eyes" will be held at the Arts Center of Mississippi (201 E. Pascagoula St.) from Dec. 11-13, starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 general admission and $10 for students, and they may be purchased online or at the door.

For people around the world, Charles Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol" is a familiar, heartwarming story. Jackson metro residents will have an opportunity to spend some time with Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future as they experience the holiday favorite live this season.

New Stage Theatre presents regular showings of "A Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story of Christmas" starting Dec. 5. The family-friendly performance features a swirling chorus of characters who dance and sing while retelling the tale of redemption, magic and hope. The production will mark the 24th season that New Stage has produced the play, as well as the fifth adaptation of Dickens' original work the theater has performed.

New Stage first performed this adaptation written by Michael Wilson last holiday season. However, Artistic Director Francine Thomas Reynolds says that this year's production includes some changes and additions that viewers should enjoy.

"We are increasing certain aspects of the play. We have a new set and a new costume designer," Reynolds says. "We've added a lot of sound effects and added or increased a lot of projection effects like the snow, ice, fog and ghosts." Reynolds says she hopes the improvements not only provide a more enjoyable experience, but also highlight New Stage's dedication to bringing quality performances to the stage.

"I hope the audience leaves knowing that we are a professional theatre and that we produce all our shows (while) doing a good job artistically, each year of raising the level of artistry in our community and raising it for ourselves," Reynolds says.

The cast features both new members as well as familiar faces from last season's cast, including returning cast member Turner Crumbley as the play's most notable character Scrooge and returning cast member Ethan Hartfield as Tiny Tim.

The cast is comprised of 18 adults and 14 youth characters. Crumbley, who has been in preparation for the role for four months says he is excited for the opportunity to perform the role again.

"I am particularly fond of 'A Christmas Carol,' both the book upon which the play is based and the play itself," Crumbley says. "I really like this particular script by Micheal Wilson. I think of it like a real roller coaster ride. It's got a really strong pace. At times, there is a lot of humor in it in addition to all the thrills and feels that come with the ghost story aspect of it."

Hartfield, who is 9 years old, will star as Tiny Tim. The youngest member of the cast says he hopes all will enjoy experiencing the show as much as he does performing it.

"It's a very good show. It has lots of (effects) like the ghosts," Hartfield says. "It is a lot of fun."

Reynolds notes that although there have been some changes and additions to the performance since last season, the message of redemption and selfless giving the timeless classic offers has not changed.

"The most important thing is that the story that a lot of people already know the ending to still moves them to go out and have a good holiday season and to think of those things that can change our hearts for the better," Reynolds says.

"I think that's the reason we do "A Christmas Carol."

New Stage performances of "A Christmas Carol" will be held Dec. 5-7, Dec.11-14 and Dec.17-21 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 8, Dec. 15 and Dec. 22 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $35 and $30 for children, students, seniors and military. Tickets can be purchased from the box office located at New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.), by phone at 601-948-3533 or online at newstagetheatre.com.

"Cirque Dreams Holidaze," a multimillion-dollar circus-like show that centers around the sense of wonder surrounding the holiday season, is coming to Thalia Mara Hall on Dec. 9. Director Neil Goldberg has selected 20 acts from around the world for this two-hour, two-act show.

"There's never a shortage of talent because our planet is our landscape. Every year there's new talent, new music; there are always new costumes," Goldberg says. "The costumes are worth the price of admission just by themselves. There are over 300 costumes in the show."

The centerpiece of the show is a 24-foot-tall, steel-framed Christmas tree. When the curtain comes up, performers are all dangling off the tree, wearing intrinsic costumes, all made by the Cirque Productions studio in Florida. One by one, each of the performers comes down to center stage and performs, culminating in a fantastical show that encapsulates the tone of the holidays.

"You can hear the gasp of the audience when the curtain comes up because it's unexpected. People think that the curtain's going to come up. and they're going to see a tent and a swinging trapeze. We try to achieve the unexpected," Goldberg says.

Goldberg notes that one of his top priorities in creating a holiday show was to make something that is not only enjoyable, but also affordable for families to have a wonderful experience.

"I love everything about the holiday season. I love the lights, the smiles on peoples' faces just because they see something that's magical," Goldberg says. "That was really my inspiration for creating the show and here we are, going into our 12th season."

The last time a Cirque Productions show came through Mississippi was in 2014. Goldberg emphasized the importance of making a show that can travel to hometown theaters all over the country.

"I grew up in a small town, and even though I was in New York, I was on the south shore. Not everyone can afford to buy a ticket to a Broadway show or fly to New York or go to Las Vegas. One of the sights that I set on was to be able to bring this talent and these types of shows to theaters all across the country. And that's why we're going to 60 different cities," Goldberg says.

Goldberg says he hopes that "Cirque Dreams Holidaze" will leave people ready to get into the holiday spirit. The show covers all areas of the holidays including Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year's.

"I hope that after people see the show on Monday, Dec. 9, that on Tuesday, Dec. 10, as a result of the show, they're compelled to go buy a gift. Set up their Christmas tree. Decorate the house. Just get in the spirit of celebration and festivity," Goldberg says.

Neil Goldberg was born and raised in New York, and he first got involved in Broadway and performing when he was 8 years old. He started Cirque Productions in 1993 with two other people.

Now, "Cirque Dreams Holidaze" is playing in 60 different cities in shows put on by six different companies across the country in its 12th season.

Cirque Productions also recently became a part of Cirque Du Soleil.

"Cirque Dreams Holidaze" begins at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 9 at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). Tickets can be purchased online at thaliamarahall.net or jacksonbroadway.com.

For New Stage Theatre's 54th season, the company is putting a focus on plays with a literary bent. New Stage started off with "Into the Breeches," a production that follows a group of women in 1942 as they produce "Henry V" with an all-female cast. The play was Sept. 10-22. Here's a preview of what else to expect this year.

"Murder on the Orient Express"

Oct. 22-Nov. 3

For those who love thrillers and mysteries, get ready for New Stage's production of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express." The play, adapted from Christie's novel of the same name, tells the story of a group of strangers stranded on the Orient Express who must solve a murder mystery before the murder 
strikes again.

"A Christmas Carol"

Dec. 3-22

The multiple-time-winner for Best Stage Play in Best of Jackson returns this year. The production is about Ebenezer Scrooge, a man who is rich but poor in spirit. Along this journey, ghosts of his past, present and future come to visit him as he learns about the true spirit of Christimas.

"Matilda the Musical"

Jan. 28-Feb. 9, 2020

Those who read Roald Dahl's "Matilda" or remember the movie from the '90s will definitely want to check this production out. In the story, Matilda Wormwood uses her telekinetic ability to deal with family problems and her school Head Mistress Agatha Trunchbull.

"Pipeline"

March 10-22, 2020

This adaptation of Dominique Morisseau's "Pipeline" tells the story of the American education system against a backdrop of African American literature. In the play, Nya, is a public high-school teacher who is trying to give her son Omari a better life. When he almost gets expelled, Nya has to deal with his anger and her choices as a parent.

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time"

April 21-May 1, 2020

This play brings Mark Haddon's novel of the same name to life. The plot follows Christopher, a 15-year-old who decides to investigate the death of his neighbor's dog, and the journey threatens to turn his whole world upside-down.

"Ragtime"

June 2-14, 2020

This production, adapted from E.L. Doctorow's 1975 novel "Ragtime" and with a Tony Award-winning score and book, is about immigrants and the fight for the American dream. The musical, set in New York City, tells the story of Coalhouse Walker Jr., an African American pianist in a white family from New Rochelle, N.Y., and a family of Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side.

Tickets for dramas and comedies are $30 general admission, and $25 for seniors, students and military; and tickets for musicals are $35 general admission, and $30 for seniors, students and military. Ticket prices for groups of 15 or more are $18 each for dramas and comedies, and $22 each for musicals. For more information about each production, visit newstagetheatre.com.

Actor Chris Roebuck paces at the front of the stage at Black Rose Theatre, singing out lines for "The Music Man" as other cast members call back.

"Ya got trouble," he sings. "Right here in River city! With a capital 'T.' And that rhymes with 'P.' And that stands for Pool. We've surely got trouble! Right here in River City! Remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock and the Golden Rule! Oh, we've got trouble. We're in terrible, terrible trouble."

His character, Harold Hill, is trying to convince the town that trouble will befall the community with the addition of a pool table at a local billiard parlor. How to prevent that trouble? Forming a boys' band. Hill has plans to sell them instruments and skip town, but his interest in the librarian and the only trained musician in town, Marian Paroo, puts a fork in those plans.

Black Rose is performing the musical Aug. 2-4 and 8-11. The theater's performance will be more stripped down than some other versions, says director Joshua Harris.

"Owing a lot to the small and intimate space there at Black Rose and owing a lot to current trends in musical theater when it comes to revivals today, our production of 'The Music Man' is more of a down-to-earth production," he says. "We're not really concerned as much with the stereotypical spit-and-polish as we are with authenticity, with authenticity in the sound and authenticity in the characters. It's going to be a little more scaled down than other productions of 'The Music Man.'"

Originally, Harris was not much of a fan of the show, he says.

"I had seen it because, well, I'm a person, but I was never really a big fan of it," he says.

However, after Black Rose asked him to be the director in late 2018, he began researching the musical and found out that playwright Meredith Willson based it on his childhood in Mason City, Iowa.

"It resonated a little bit more with me because it was the story of an actual person," he says. "... I had actually seen other plays that may have on paper been more appealing to me, but 'The Music Man' has been a great match for me."

Black Rose's production will not use any painted background scenery. Instead, the theater will project the scene onto a white screen in the back of the musical's space. One thing Black Rose, is not doing, though, is using canned music, in which musical cues are prerecorded. Instead, the theater has a real band.

"I don't know if my conscience would be clear if I didn't have a visible, live concert band for a show about a marching band," Harris says.

Finding the band was one of the bigger challenges, he says. He needed musicians that could both tackle the level of music in the show and would have time in the summer for the production. Because the vocal parts of the music were not as difficult as they can be, Harris says they were able to work on the purpose behind the music and why a certain character is singing lyrics in certain notes.

"I think you'll see that work come out on stage," he says.

With the musical's first opening in 1957, some parts of the play could seem dated to some audience members (for example, Hill's persistence to win Paroo over can border on harassment), but Harris says "The Music Man" is a production that should not be reimagined too much.

"It is the playwright's life story," he says. "This story was actually inspired by Meredith Willson remembering himself as a 10-year-old."

Willson may have even written himself into one of the characters, but Harris says he will leave audience members to figure that out.

Black Rose Theatre Company (103 Black St., Brandon, 601-825-1293) will perform "The Music Man" Aug. 2-4 and 8-11. Tickets are $15 for general admission, and $10 for children, students, military, first responders and seniors. The production begins at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 2-3 and 8-10. The play will have a matinee performance at 2 p.m. on Aug. 4 and 11. For more information, find the event on Facebook.

UPDATE: New Stage Theatre will hold over its current production of Bright Star. See additional dates at the end of the story.

William Helms stopped near a rail trestle in the St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad on Aug. 14, 1902, to pick up some lumber for a barn. After a train sped by, he began to hear what at first he thought was field mice. But then he discovered something else: a telescope valise with a five-day-old infant inside. To this day, no one knows why someone had tossed him off a train.

"Bright Star" by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell aims to fill in those gaps of information—fictionally, of course, says New Stage Theatre Artistic Director Francine Thomas Reynolds. The musical, which takes place in the 1920s and 1940s, is loosely based on the legend of the "Iron Mountain Baby." New Stage is performing "Bright Star" from May 28-June 9.

"This play answers that question: 'Where did this baby come from?'" she says.

"Or offers a suggestion," adds Sari Koppel. She plays Alice Murphy, who goes on a journey to find her long lost son after meeting Billy Cane (played by Tyler Bellmon) a soldier who has returned from World War II.

The Americana-style musical centers around Murphy and her journey to find the son she lost. The musical switches between Murphy in her mid-30s in 1945 and 1946 as the editor at the Asheville Southern Journal, and her as a teenager in 1923 and 1924, when she has an unplanned pregnancy and loses the child when someone throws it off a train.

The play opened on Broadway in 2016. That year, it was nominated for numerous awards, including Tony and Drama Desk Awards, and won a Drama Desk for "Outstanding Music," a Theatre World Award for "Outstanding Debut Performance," and Outer Critics Circle Awards for "Outstanding New Broadway Musical" and "Outstanding New Score." The musical was also nominated for a 2017 Grammy for "Best Musical Theater Album."

Because of the folk style of the musical, "Bright Star" is different than what people may expect from musical theater, Reynolds says.

"There are standard anthem-type songs, ballads, and then upbeat kind of songs that you would find in musicals. It's just that it's accompanied by fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, that type of accompaniment, as opposed to trumpet, trombone, you know, brass and woodwinds," she says. "It's more string-based. Steve Martin didn't want it called a bluegrass musical, but there's a sense of bluegrass in the score."

One important part of "Bright Star" is the ensemble.

"In some instances, (it) becomes the Greek chorus of the show, not really commenting, but being part of the story by participating in most of the musical numbers," she says. "The music kind of soars. The vocals in the show are beautiful."

The ensemble also helps create a sense of community, Koppel says.

"Whether it's the '20s or '40s, they really set the opinions of those times, and things like that, which was quite incredible," she says.

Reynolds chose the show for this season because of its literary bent. In "Bright Star," Cane wants to be a writer, and Murphy is the editor for the Asheville Southern Journal.

"They mention things like Carl Sandburg, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway," she says. "All these names are thrown out. Billy Cane's love interest manages a bookstore. ... Literature is a big part of this show."

It also fit with this season's theme, the "power of place."

At one point in the show, Koppel's character says, "It'd be easier to get Lincoln off the face of Mount Rushmore than to get home out of the heart of a southern writer."

"(That line) just spoke to Mississippi," Reynolds says. "Plus, (the play) really fits in because of what Sari was just saying about the music and folk music, it speaks to the people of the area. 'Bright Star' has a strong sense of place in its story. Place is really important, where they grew up, Zebulon, North Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina, Asheville, North Carolina, that's part of the story."

"Bright Star" is all about story, Reynolds says.

"The story isn't told by big spectacle; the story isn't told by big dance numbers, though there is some dancing in the show. ... The music definitely tells the story, but it's not told by flash," Reynolds says. "It's told by the ability to weave a tale, and that's what it's about. How to write. How to tell stories."

"'A sweeping tale of pain and redemption,' as (the synopsis) says," Koppel says.

And though it has some dramatic elements to it, "Bright Star" is also a heartwarming comedy.

"A baby gets thrown off a train, and that's dramatic, but it's Steve Martin," Bellmon says. "There's humor and heart, and it's hilarious. It's not all dramatic."

Tickets are $35 for adults, and $28 for seniors, students and military. Performances are May 28-June 1 and June 4-8 and 13-15 at 7:30 p.m., and June 2, 9 and 16 at 2 p.m. For more information, visit newstagetheatre.com.

A lot can change in eight years. For example, in 2000, the manufacturing industry experienced a sharp drop of employment due to layoffs, factories moving overseas, manufacturing automation and more. Data from the Economic Policy Institute shows that from 2000 to 2014, the country lost 5 million manufacturing jobs. Then, in 2008, the recession started.

Those two time periods provide the setting for Lynn Nottage's play "Sweat," a production about a group of people in a factory town who are dealing with the repercussions of a de-industrializing world.

New Stage Theatre will perform this play April 23-May 5. It is currently one of the most produced plays in this theater season, says New Stage Creative Director Francine Thomas Reynolds. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017, and has been nominated for Tony Awards and Drama Desk Awards. It received an Obie Award in 2017 for its run at the Public Theater in New York City.

"It's a really strong play," Reynolds says.

With the theme of New Stage's current season being the "power of place," "Sweat" fit, she says.

"They talk a lot in the play about, 'That doesn't happen to us. This our place. We built this town. We built this city. This is my place. I know the workers,'" she says.

In the beginning of the production, theatergoers meet the group of friends who work on a factory floor, and there's an opportunity for one of them to move to management—blue collar to white collar. They all vye for the job, and when character Cynthia gets it, the dynamic in the group changes, Reynolds says.

"In that time that Cynthia moves to management, there is a process of, you don't know if they're going to close down the plant, but there's definitely a process of laying off workers and asking them to take, like, up to 60 percent cut in pay to make it all work," she says. "There's a lot of discussion about their place: 'Where do I fit in? What do I do now?'"

The play is also about relationships, Reynolds says, including mother-and-son relationships, an estranged marriage and the friendships among some of the workers.

She wanted this to be New Stage's selection of a contemporary play this season because of its popularity but also because it presented an opportunity to showcase local talent, she says.

"It's the type of play that I knew, even though it takes place in Pennsylvania, I knew that our pool of actors would be able to really dive in and do justice to this script," she says.

She hopes the play raises awareness about what's currently happening in the workforce.

"The gap between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' is just getting wider and wider," she says. "Wages are not increasing at the rate of cost of living. People are having to take more than one job to survive."

While the setting in the Rust Belt may not be familiar to some in the audience, Reynolds says the play could take place anywhere.

"You'll recognize what the people are going through just to make a living wage, just to survive, and how they deal with change," she says.

There's also some mystery in the play, as it opens with two characters talking to their parole officers, and the audience learns why as the play travels between the time periods.

Reynolds says that anyone who has a job can probably identify with the characters in the story.

"A play like this helps people reflect and come to (an) understanding about how we have become so polarized," she says. "You see people who are together at the beginning of the play, and then you realize how events affect their relationships. Politics. Economy. All those types of things."

New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.) will perform "Sweat" April 23-May 5. The theater recommends the play for ages 16 and up, as there will be some language. Tickets are $30 for general admission, and $25 for students, seniors and military. For more information, visit newstagetheatre.com.

Years ago, among the parade floats and walking krewes in the then-named Mal’s St. Paddy’s Parade was a group full of people dressed head to toe in bright pink and green, complete with crowns, boas, capes and other accessories. Everyone knew them on sight: the Sweet Potato Queens.

Though the Queens have been absent during the parade’s recent years, they will return for this year’s Hal’s St. Paddy’s Parade & Festival—the same year, coincidentally, that New Stage Theatre will produce the first licensed version of “Sweet Potato Queens" the musical.

SPQ founder Jill Conner Browne, the woman whose life the musical is based on, calls it “divine cosmic convergence.”

Earlier this year, parade cofounder Malcolm White asked her if she could give he and the other organizers a date for when the Sweet Potato Queens would be part of the parade. She said this year. Then, as soon as the play was ready to be licensed, she immediately called New Stage Theatre Creative Director Francine Thomas Reynolds and asked if the company would consider the production for this season.

“It’s just been a divine cosmic convergence of things, that it worked out in their schedule,” Browne says.

She founded the Queens in the early ‘80s.

“I did it purely to entertain myself,” she says. “And truth be told, I do it today, purely to entertain myself. That it has turned out to entertain a whole bunch of people is wonderful. I would do it flat by myself. (It's) the most fun I’ve ever had, every year.

The Queens marched in the very first parade and continued until 2010, when Browne announced that SPQ had grown too large for the St. Paddy’s Parade. They created the Zippity Doo Dah Weekend, with its first iteration arising in Fondren in 2011. SPQ currently has 6,429 chapters registered across the world.

The idea for the musical planted itself in Browne’s head after author Willie Morris had a dream about it. After the Los Angeles Times ran a front-page story about the Queens in 2003, singer/songwriter Melissa Manchester had dinner with Sam Haskell, former executive vice president and worldwide head of television for the William Morris Agency, which was shooting the pilot for a TV show on Browne’s life.

He told Manchester about Browne and the pilot, and Manchester told him that she had read about the Queens in the LA Times. He gave her Browne’s book, “Sweet Potato Queens Book of Love.”

“As she read all of that, she started hearing music,” Browne says.

The two connected, and Manchester told her that she wanted to create a musical based on the Queens.

“I said, ‘Well, as it happens, that has always been my dream for it,’” Browne says.

Manchester wrote the music, Sharon Vaughn wrote the lyrics, and Rupert Holmes wrote the script. The play premiered at Houston’s Theatre Under The Stars’ TUTS Underground in March 2016.

“It’s a pretty star-studded cast of writers on this,” Browne says. “I had no idea how to go about getting a musical done. I just knew I wanted it. It came to me, and I’m thrilled.”

New Stage’s production runs of the musical March 13-24. Its plot centers around Browne's life and the creation of the Sweet Potato Queens.

“It’s the story of Jill’s life told as a musical, but it’s also a celebration of Jackson and the tradition of the Queens and the St. Paddy’s Day Parade, and the phenomenon that came out of it, this huge, huge movement of these ladies and men who dress up and parade their 6,400 chapters of the Queens all over the world,” says director Randy Redd. “They all gather, they all come here to Jackson, and as far as we know—this morning, Jill said she’s expecting millions—lots of queens to swarm Jackson for the parade.”

Redd, a Brookhaven native, has directed plays for New Stage such as “Smoke on the Mountain” during the 1993-1994 season, and “Million Dollar Quartet” in the 2016-2017 season. Though he is generally pretty serious about the theater and his work, he says, this play in particular is all about fun. He infused that attitude into choosing the cast and creative team.

“It’s all about fun, and it’s all about play,” he says. “... You’ve got to let go and have fun to work on the show, so I wanted people around me that were a lot of fun and that had wild, creative ideas.”

He says the show plays like “a big fever dream fantasy of Jill’s.”

“In my concept of this show, it’s like Jill is rehearsing the Broadway musical of the story of her life in front of us,” he says. “We get to see that. At some points that musical is fully realized, and at other moments, it’s still a little rough around the edges, and she’s still working out parts of it, but she’s always rehearsing the story of her life.”

In choosing someone who could play the Browne, Redd looked for someone who could fit her fantasy of who would play her in the movie of her life—“5-foot-2, long red hair, big breasts, small feet and she could sing,” Browne has said on multiple occasions, including in her speech during the 2014 TEDxJackson.

Redd chose Janine LaManna, an actress who has starred in Broadway plays such as “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “Seussical the Musical,” to play her in the production.

“I needed someone who not only who physically matched Jill’s fantasy, but also somebody who had the heart and spirit and the fun, and more of the fun; it’s what Janine LaManna is bringing to this part,” he says. “It’s so hilarious and yet so heartfelt; it’s so soulful what she’s doing on stage.”

Even if people think they know the Queens, Redd says, this play will show them more about Browne’s life and where the group really came from.

“Janine is doing that,” he says. “Janine is doing all the deep dive to get at the essence of Jill. I don’t think we could ever crack who Jill Conner Browne really is. I’m still just like staring at her whenever see her, I’m like, ‘Who are you? What are you made of? Are you really sweet potato on the inside? … She’s a real force, so charismatic, so dynamic, and to find someone to take that and then blow that up larger than life, how do you take that and use that in a musical? Janine is doing that. She is killing it. I’m really excited for audiences here to see that and to feel that.”

Because of the Queens’ origins, Redd says audiences in Jackson may enjoy the story more than they would in other places.

“We’ve worked really hard on the script to focus it on Jackson and to finetune all those details,” Redd says.

He has worked closely with Holmes on making changes to the script to make the musical more accurate to Jackson, such as the names of streets, hotels, restaurants and grocery stores, and the distance between here and Hattiesburg.

“He’s been very open to me saying, ‘Let’s make this more Jackson specific,’ so that this is truly a love letter to Jackson and the Queens’ birth in Mississippi,” Redd says. “That’s really important to get that right.”

While some Mississippi stories and plays may become a broad southern narrative, he says, the musical “Sweet Potato Queens” is different because it’s specific to Jackson and Mississippi.

“If you grew up here, you know how specific some of these references are, and what it means to be from Mississippi,” Redd says. “They’re a very specific, a very sweet challenge to define what that is, and this play does a really good job of capturing that.”

New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St., 601-948-3533) will produce the “Sweet Potato Queens” musical from March 13-24. The showtime for March 13-16 and 20-23 is 7:30 p.m. The play will have a matinee showing at 2 p.m. on March 17 and 24. Tickets are $35 for regular admission, and $28 for students, seniors and military. For more information, visit newstagetheatre.com.

In summer 1926, the rains began in the central basin of the Mississippi River. The river swelled to higher levels than ever before until April 16, 1927, when the levee broke along the Illinois shoreline. A few days later on April 21, the one at Mounds Landing, Miss., broke.

To this day, the Great Flood of 1927 remains one of the largest natural disasters in the U.S. It flooded more than 23,000 square miles of land, with some residential areas submerged in 30 feet of water. Flood waters inundated 41,673 homes;, destroyed 21,836 buildings and damaged 62,089 more;, caused the loss of thousands of cattle, work and farm animals;, and hindered an entire year of crop production.

It also displaced thousands of African Americans, many of whom were forced to stay and rebuild the levee, and aid in recovery efforts. The event contributed to the Great Migration, when 6 million southern African Americans migrated north between 1916 and 1970.

The flood affected many cities in Mississippi, including Greenville, the setting of New Stage Theatre's production of Marcus Gardley's "Hell in High Water." The play tells the story of how the event affects the city's people, specifically the African American population that lived in the refugee camps along the levee, and how the flood affected the Great Migration in the 1920s.

"The dark side of all this is Greenville, was, in a study, one of the worst places of the refugee camps," says New Stage Artistic Director Francine Reynolds, who is at the helm of this play. "And they were refugee camps on the levee for all the African American citizens."

After Reynolds heard about Gardley's play, originally titled "On the Levee," in 2011, she began the process of tracking the script down. She finally got it in 2017. After first reading it, she began searching for the right season to put the production in.

"The play culminates with a lot of citizens of Greenville joining the Great Migration, so it wasn't really going to fit with Mississippi's bicentennial year, and it wasn't going to fit with our 50th anniversary season, so I held onto it," she says.

In 2017, it was part of New Stage's Mississippi Play Series, and Reynolds says that they received a positive response. Also, she saw it as a possible teaching opportunity.

"What I found out was a lot of people didn't know about the 1927 flood, and how it affected much of the state and all of the Mississippi River Delta area, and Greenville a lot," she says.

New Stage received a $15,000 grant in 2018 from the National Endowment for the Arts to perform the play, and then Reynolds contacted blues artist Vasti Jackson about composing music for the production and also about playing the role of the blues musician in the play.

While the play focuses on the history portion, "Hell in High Water" is about more than that, both in terms of subject matter and atmosphere, Reynolds says.

"The play is very poetic in the way the writer puts the words together on the page, and it's epic, so it's woven with music throughout," she says.

The play centers around white landowners LeRoy and William Percy, as well as Joe Goodin and his son, James, among the African Americans stranded on the levee. It also has element of romance.

"It touches on all these things that were part of the history, but it's also really about these relationships," Reynolds says. "You'll learn little snippets about the flood and stuff like that, and what happened after."

Since New Stage cannot have actual water on the stage, she says the cast and crew decided to stick with Gardley's poetic style. A structure with platforms will be on the stage for the play's different settings, much of which will be the levee.

"The levee and the water are the metaphors for everything," she says. "To me, in life, and in the play, the river reveals the true character of people. It really does. All these different characters have different reactions to the flood."

For the water, the theater will accomplish that through light and sound, and other effects, and in New Stage's version, Reynolds says the cast will essentially personify the flood through sound and movement.

"What I think the playwright is showing us is struggle, despair and hope out of this disaster," Reynolds says, "and how people respond to disaster, and the fabric of the whole state history, and the history of America; this Great Migration, going to Chicago, going to St. Louis and Memphis, and what that was; and how ... like in (the) 1927 Mississippi Delta, how music was used to tell the story also."

New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.) will perform "Hell in High Water" Jan. 29-Feb. 10. On Jan. 31, Robert Luckett, the director of Jackson State University's Margaret Walker Center; Rolando Herts, the director of Delta State University's Delta Center of Culture and Learning; and Vasti Jackson will participate in a dialogue about the 1927 flood. During Youth Night on Tuesday, Feb. 5, tickets will be $10 for those ages 18 and under. During the play's run, New Stage will also exhibit photos from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History's 1927 Flood Collection in the Hewes Room.

Tickets for "Hell in High Water" are $30 for general admission, and $25 for students and seniors. For more information, visit newstagetheatre.com.

Numerous conversations filled the air at New Stage Theatre's rehearsal space, as the actors in "The Diary of Anne Frank" talked during a 10-minute break. After the sound of classical music came out of a small boombox, the actors quieted down.

"Saturday, January 1, 1944," actress Elizabeth Thiel said. "Another new year has begun, and we're in the middle of the great terror known as winter. We've been here one year, five months and 25 days. We're all thinner, paler and a lot hungrier. We've been plagued by medical problems. Someone's always suffering from something, and although we can't call a doctor, our favorite dentist is never far away."

Thiel stars in the theater's production as Annelies "Anne" Marie Frank, a young Jewish girl who went into hiding in a hidden annex with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. During that time, she documented her thoughts and living conditions in her diary, which was published in 1947, two years after her death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

For Thiel, the most challenging part of her role is playing Frank not just as a teenage girl but as who she was, she told the Jackson Free Press.

"Luckily, we all have her diary, so if I have a question about something, I can literally go look up exactly what she thought about it," she said. "... It's essential research. It's her heart on paper."

"The Diary of Anne Frank" is part of New Stage Theatre's 53rd season, the theme of which is "The Power of Place." Artistic Director Francine Reynolds said she came up with the idea when she noticed a connection between many of the plays this season, including "A Christmas Carol," "Sweet Potato Queens" and "Sweat."

"All of them seemed to have something to do with home and horizons and finding a place and sense of place with the southern shows in the season ... characters finding their places or seeking their places or defining their place, or relating to their place," she said.

Eventually, she and Ginny Holladay Jessee, a marketing associate for New Stage, came up with the phrase, "The Power of Place." While it may not share the southern setting of some other productions, "The Diary of Anne Frank" also fits that description in its own way, Reynolds said.

"I think, with 'The Diary of Anne Frank,' what I keep saying is that her diary in real life created or solidified her place in enduring history because what is actually a great piece of literature has become like the embodiment of hope and humanity," she said. "Without this dairy, we wouldn't have this look at the Holocaust. We'd have other looks. We have a lot of looks, but this was the look of the Holocaust through two years of writing by a young girl from age 13 to 15."

The day after German police arrested the Franks and van Pels, Miep Gies, one of the Dutch citizens who helped hide the family, went back to the secret annex and gathered all of Frank's papers. She kept them safe until Otto Frank, Anne's father and the lone survivor of the group that had been transported to concentration camps, returned from Auschwitz. He made the first transcription of her diary for friends and relatives in Switzerland, who convinced him to submit for publication. Since then, "The Diary of Anne Frank" has been published in more than 60 countries and 70 languages, and sold more than 25 million copies.

Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett adapted the first version of Frank's memoir for the stage in the 1950s, and it premiered at Cort Theatre in New York City in 1955. Playwright and actor Wendy Kesselman wrote the 1997 Tony Award-winning revision of the play, which New Stage is adapting for its production.

Hayden Schubert, who portrays Peter Van Daan in New Stage's production, said playing a character who was a real person is more complex than playing a fictional one.

"You're really representing their stories," he said. "It's not just a character that was created out of thin air. It was a person who lived and breathed, and so you really want to make sure that you are keeping true to who they were. Something I like to keep in mind is, if they were sitting in the audience, would they be proud of the performance? Would they like the representation that we're giving?"

Emily Wright, who plays Anne's mother, Edith Frank, is a teacher at Northwest Rankin Middle School. She said that for the past few years, students have not read "The Diary of Anne Frank," instead reading newer books such as "Night" by Elie Viesel or "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" by John Boyne.

"We don't want to forget her story," Wright said. "It's really nice to remind people of her."

"There are so few historical accounts and particularly war stories told by young people, and told by women," Thiel said, "and here, we have a young girl giving nothing but a personal account of herself and her family. I would really hate to see that disappear from the canon. ... There's room for all of them. As long as we're talking about it, let's talk about it from these different perspectives."

Schubert said it is important to tell stories like Frank's so the next generation will know about them.

"These historic plays really don't get done often enough," he said. "As beautiful as fiction is, there are still stories that need to be told. No matter what, they should always be told."

In the wake of events such as the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlotte, N.C., in 2017, Reynolds said she wants people to know what was actually happening in Nazi-occupied Germany, as opposed to what society is telling people now.

Despite the tragic end to Frank's life, Reynolds said that one undeniable thing about "The Diary of Anne Frank" is the message of hope and faith in humanity that it gives, even in the midst of tragedy and turmoil.

"There was a person and people who had great courage and great faith in humanity, and great hope," she said. "... The play itself is sad, but the thing that is illuminating about the play is that people can, under extreme circumstances, still have hope in humanity."

One of Anne's last entries in her diary was on July 15, 1944. She wrote: "It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."

"The Diary of Anne Frank" is at New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.) from Oct. 23 to Nov. 4. Showtimes are Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $30 per person, and $25 for seniors, students and military.

New Stage will host panel discussion "Anti-Semitism: The Holocaust and Today" on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 6:30 p.m., with Aaron Ahlquist, the director of the Anti-Defamation League South Central Region. On Thursday, Oct. 25, at 4:30 p.m., New Stage will have its annual Teacher Preview event, where local educators can preview the season's touring shows and then watch "The Diary of Anne Frank" at 7:30 p.m. For Youth Night that evening, participants ages 18 and under can reserve tickets in advance for $10. On Oct. 23, Oct. 25, Oct. 27, Nov. 1 and Nov. 3 at 6:45 p.m., students from the New Stage's Youth Acting Troupe will also perform a short scene from Michael Slade's "And a Child Shall Lead."

For more information, visit newstagetheatre.com.

The Oxford Film Festival, an annual independent film festival that launched in Oxford, Miss., in 2003, recently announced that it is partnering with the Magnifying Glass Fellowship in Mississippi to offer grants of up to $2,500 for local filmmakers.

The Magnifying Glass is an independent film fellowship that Russell Sheaffer, founder of California-based film company Artless Media, created. The fellowship focuses on small-budget, progressive or radical short films that address social issues such as violence, racism, sexism, homophobia and gun control. Films should be two to five minutes long with a total budget of no more than $2,500.

“One of the most important things for our film festival is a diversity of voices, so we’re excited to partner with the Magnifying Glass to help Mississippi filmmakers create their stories,” Melanie Addington, executive director for the Oxford Film Festival, told the Jackson Free Press. “We’re looking for anyone in Mississippi who has a story to tell.”

Filmmakers from Mississippi must submit their application online along with their idea for a short documentary on social issues before midnight on Oct. 31.

Submissions should include a one-page explanation of the project, an expected total budget, a description of intention for the awarded funds, key crew bios, a sample of the filmmaker’s previous work that is less than five minutes long, if available, and an outreach strategy. The Magnifying Glass will give preference to artists who are documenting oppressed communities of which they are a member.

Applicants who receive grants will be able to screen their documentary at the 2019 Oxford Film Festival, which takes place from Feb. 6 to Feb. 10. Projects must be complete and ready to screen by Jan. 2, 2019.

For more information, visit oxfordfilmfest.com. Learn more about the Magnifying Glass Fellowship here.

Schwartz & Associates Launches “Buddy Bear” Campaign

Richard Schwartz & Associates, P.A. (162 E. Amite St.) held a press conference on Wednesday, Sept. 19, to announce the launch of a campaign to provide free Teddy bears for children at accident scenes or other traumatic events.

The law firm will partner with local law enforcement agencies and first responders to give out what it is calling “Buddy Bears.” Police departments in Madison, Rankin and Hinds counties have collected the first 500 stuffed animals.

“The Buddy Bear is a stuffed bear wearing a blue T-shirt to symbolize police officers,” Kelli Williford, marketing director for Schwartz & Associates, told the Jackson Free Press. “Richard gave them that name because we want them to serve as a friend or buddy for a child to hold on to in the wake of a tragic incident like an accident.

“We want a first responder to be able to help better console these children in difficult times and hopefully have an impact that can make such experiences less traumatic for a child. The idea is for officers to keep the Buddy Bears in their vehicles to have ready if the time comes.”

Departments wishing to participate in the “Buddy Bear” campaign can call the public relations department for Schwartz & Associates and request the number of Teddy bears they would like to receive. Schwartz & Associates can provide more bears by request when they run out. Although the campaign is geared toward police officers, other first responders such as firefighters and paramedics are also welcome to participate.

For more information, call 601-988-8888 or visit 1call.ms.

‘Broadway in Jackson’ and ‘Jackson Live!’ Return to Thalia Mara

Chicago-based company Innovation Arts & Entertainment is bringing its two local series, “Broadway in Jackson” and “Jackson Live!,” back to Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.) this October.

“Jackson Live!” will feature a variety of musical performances, including Grammy Award-winning blues guitarist Buddy Guy in concert on Oct. 11, musical circus act Cirque Musica’s “Wonderland” on Dec. 20, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in Concert” on Jan. 19, 2019, and gospel, soul and R&B legend Mavis Staples in concert on March 22, 2019.

“Broadway in Jackson” will include six theatrical productions, including Tony Award-winning musicals such as “Jersey Boys” on Nov. 10, “Kinky Boots” on Feb. 6, 2019, “Les Misérables” on March 5, 2019, and “The Sound of Music” on March 23, 2019.

For a full schedule of events, as well as information on season tickets and VIP services, visit jacksonbroadway.com or call 888-502-2929.

On Tuesday, Aug. 7, performance troupe beheard.world will perform in Jackson for its first show on a five-city tour through cities along the Great Migration Trail, or the path of 4 million African Americans who fled the South in the 1900s in search of social and economic justice.

The purpose of the tour is to inspire dialogue among people of different racial identities, group co-founder Anna Myer says. "Our goal is to start a conversation," she says. "It's about listening to one another and having empathy for each other, both black and white."

beheard features a racially mixed group of hip-hop and contemporary dancers, spoken-word poets and filmmakers. The other cities on the tour include Memphis, Tenn., St. Louis, Ferguson, Mo., Milwaukee and Chicago. Filmmakers will document the group's journey for a film called "Up the Migration Trail."

Myer wants the tour to help communities uncover ways to bring about social change.

"There are different levels of racism that exist, and it's important to know how to lend a hand to make 
change," she says.

The evening's festivities will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Mississippi Museum of Art's Art Garden (380 S. Lamar St.) with a poetry reading and a rally for equality. In conjunction with a youth marching band, beheard.world will then walk from the garden to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum to perform its headlining set, "Invisible: Imprints of Racism." The free performance starts at 7:30 p.m. and ends with a facilitated audience talkback.

"We're using the tools we have to create a wide swath of awareness and give people who want to do something about it a place to latch on," co-founder Jay Paris says. "This is a chance to say, 'I'm committed, and I'm 
standing up to change it.'"

For more information, find the event on Facebook.