Celebrate America Day includes family fun, fireworks, Patsy sound-alike contest

Release Date: 6/10/2003. Expired: 6/28/2003

The Renaissance Center will celebrate Independence Day and its fourth anniversary with its first Celebrate America Day on Saturday, June 28, concluding with a spectacular fireworks show that night.

“With the 4th of July and The Renaissance Center’s anniversary being so close together, we decided to combine the two celebrations for one big spectacular afternoon and evening of activities,” said Doug Jackson, executive director of the center. “We’ve moved our annual fireworks show from New Year’s Eve to this celebration because the weather is usually better and more people will be able to enjoy it.”

The celebration begins at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 28, and will include art workshops, CyberSphere shows, a special theatre presentation, musical performances, face painting and much more.

The Faraday Café also will be having an “All-American Cookout” with food available throughout the evening. The menu will include grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, chips, soft drinks and more 2-7:30 p.m.

Participants can make their own karaoke CD in the center’s digital recording studio for just $10. Choose from a library of hundreds of songs and live your singing fantasy as you record your own professionally mixed CD.

The Renaissance Center also will debut its brand new multimedia program Without Rights You’re Always Wrong: What the Bill of Rights Means to Freedom at 4 p.m. in the CyberSphere. Produced completely in house, this show teaches the importance of the rights guaranteed Americans in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights. The project incorporates audio, video, laser, slides and music into an educational and entertaining show as a tribute to freedom. Tickets for the show are $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and children under 13.

There will be free art activities to make a 3D star centerpiece for your own Independence Day celebrations as well as to make stars with messages of support for American troops at home and abroad.

The Visual Arts Gallery will feature In Retrospect: From Realism to Surrealism and Beyond, a collection of paintings by Dickson artist Everett Niewoehner, a retired social studies and history teacher at Dickson County High School. The Iowa native’s acrylic paintings are part of several corporate collections.

Also on display in the center’s north wing will be the winners of the Junior Duck Stamp contest. A portrayal of a pair of wood ducks won Best of Show in the 2003 Tennessee Federal Junior Duck Stamp Design Contest held March 28 at the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge. The watercolor painting by 17-year-old Jessica Mefford from LaFollette in East Tennessee won top honors from among 770 entries in four age categories. The display includes the 36 first-, second- and third-place winners in each category.

The Renaissance Center’s rotunda features a display of portraits by photographer Maria von Matthiessen on loan from the Tennessee State Museum. The pictures of country music stars are from the late photographer’s collection Songs from the Hills: An Intimate Look at Country Music. The portraits include Joe Diffie, Charlie Daniels, Billy Ray Cyrus, Roy Acuff, Wilma Lee Cooper and more. Matthiessen, who passed away in 1991 from breast cancer, has displayed works around the world, including pictures at the Smithsonian, the Vatican and Buckingham Palace.

The Virtually Unlimited Bookstore will be open through the evening.

The evening will feature the final performance of the Gaslight Dinner Theatre’s production of Always...Patsy Cline at 7:30 p.m. in the Performance Hall. Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. dinner in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre and the play are $25 per person while tickets for just the play are $15. The show is sponsored by Tennsco.

Based on a true story, the show tells the story of a Texas woman’s special friendship with the popular country legend and features a live band performing more than two dozen of Cline’s songs. Director of Music Elaine Sherrill will portray Cline accompanied by a band of Nashville professional musicians. Director of Theatre Education and Outreach Kim Leavitt plays Louise Seger, who befriends the singer.

Prior to the evening’s performance will be a Patsy Cline sound-alike contest 4-5:30 p.m. in the Performance Hall. The winner will receive free tickets to the show and a chance to perform during intermission. There is a $5 entry fee and Gary Butler, music director for Always...Patsy Cline, will accompany contestants on the piano.

The grand finale fireworks spectacular will take place following the end of Always...Patsy Cline at approximately 9:30 p.m. The display will be across the highway from the center to provide unlimited viewing from inside, on the front lawn and up and down Highway 46 South.

The Renaissance Center Community Band will be playing on the front patio area during the fireworks show.

In addition to the special Celebrate America Day activities, the CyberSphere will present its regular schedule of exciting planetarium and laser shows. At 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. is The Explorers, which explains how ancient civilizations used the stars to navigate. The 3 p.m. show is Laser Retro, featuring smash hits from the 1980s accompanied by spectacular laser effects. A collection of favorites from the Fab Four fills the dome at 8 p.m. with Laser Beatles. The 9 p.m. show is Laser X and rocks to alternative and grunge rock favorites. Admission for planetarium shows is $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and children 12 and under. Tickets for laser shows are $6 for all seats.

For more information on Celebrate America Day, call (615)740-5600. The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Celebrate America Day schedule

Release Date: 6/10/2003. Expired: 6/28/2003

9 a.m.-10 p.m. - In Retrospect: From Realism to Surrealism and Beyond, Visual Arts Gallery, free.
9 a.m.-10 p.m. - Tennessee Federal Junior Duck Stamp winners exhibit, north wing, free.
9 a.m.-10 p.m. - Portraits by Maria von Matthiessen, rotunda, free.
11 a.m.-7:30 p.m. - Virtually Unlimited Bookstore open.
2-7:30 p.m. - All American Cookout, Faraday Café.
2 p.m. - The Explorers, CyberSphere, $5 adults, $3 seniors and children.
3 p.m. - Laser Retro, CyberSphere, $6 all seats.
4 p.m. - Without Rights, You’re Always Wrong, CyberSphere, $5 adults, $3 seniors and children.
4-7 p.m. - Make Your Own CD, Audio Studio, $10.
4-7 p.m. - Star Messages of Support for Our Troops, north wing, free.
4-6 p.m. - Face Painting, N120, free.
4-5 p.m. - 3D Star art workshop (limit 20 participants), N118, free.
4-5:30 p.m. - Patsy Cline Sound-Alike Contest, Performance Hall, $5 entry fee, free admission.
5-6 p.m. - 3D Star art workshop (limit 20 participants), N118, free.
6:30 p.m. - Always...Patsy Cline dinner, Gaslight Dinner Theatre, $25, reservations required.
7 p.m. - The Explorers, CyberSphere, $5 adults, $3 seniors and children.
7:30 p.m. - Always...Patsy Cline (final performances), Performance Hall, $15.
8 p.m. - Laser Beatles, CyberSphere, $6.
9 p.m. - Laser X, CyberSphere, $6.
9:30 p.m. - Fireworks show with music from The Renaissance Center Community Band, free.

Patsy Cline contest winner to sing during performance

Release Date: 6/10/2003. Expired: 6/28/2003

Patsy Cline is one of the most revered country singers of all time and even 40 years after her death she remains a standard against which many singers are measured and compared.

As part of its Celebrate America Day and to mark the final show of the Gaslight Dinner Theatre production Always...Patsy Cline, The Renaissance Center is sponsoring a Patsy Cline Sound-Alike Contest on Saturday, June 28.

The winner will receive two tickets to that evening’s final performance of Always...Patsy Cline and get the opportunity to sing with the show’s six-piece band.

There is a $5 entry fee and Gary Butler, pianist and musical director for the show, will provide accompaniment for the contest.

The contest will be 4-5:30 p.m. Saturday in the Performance Hall as part of the Celebrate America Day festivities. Admission to watch the contest is free.

“We have had a tremendous amount of fun presenting Always...Patsy Cline with great response from our audiences,” said Elaine Sherrill, senior director of Music at The Renaissance Center who is portraying the country legend and singing more than two dozen of her songs in the show. “I’ve been a long-time fan of Patsy’s music as have many other people. She is the standard by which female country singers are measured. This contest will give anyone who wants to a chance to get up on stage and perform one of Patsy’s classic hits in front of an appreciative audience.”

Anyone interested in entering the contest can register outside the Performance Hall beginning at 4 p.m. For more information, contact Sherrill at (615)740-5545.