Renaissance Center names members of 2003-04 Repertory Theatre Company

Release Date: 9/3/2003. Expired: 10/3/2003

The Renaissance Repertory Theatre Company is the in-house professional theatre troupe that performs live stage productions for thousands of Middle Tennessee school children on field trips to The Renaissance Center in Dickson. The Rep Co. also performs in the center’s highly popular Gaslight Dinner Theatre and works with the Renaissance Players on producing community theatre productions.

“We are a self-contained acting company in that we fill not only all the roles on stage but behind the scenes as well,” said Hal Partlow, managing director of the Rep Co. “Our professional actors also work on the sets, make costumes, find props and work behind the scenes for all our productions.”

The Rep Co. welcomes four new members for its 2003-04 season, which will include productions of Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Romeo and Juliet and Death of a Salesman for field trips. In the Gaslight Dinner Theatre this season, the troupe will present You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, Barefoot in the Park, The Dining Room and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.

“Our actors stay extremely busy from the day they first arrive at The Renaissance Center with rehearsals and preparations for the shows,” Partlow said. “Some days they can perform up to three different plays in one day and now the Gaslight Dinner Theatre season schedule has been expanded to include Saturday performances. At the same time they are learning their parts for upcoming shows and doing all the behind-the-scenes preparation.”

In addition to Partlow, the Rep Co. for 2003-04 consists of Amy Arrington, Christina Byron, Jeff Clarke, Matt Greenbaum and Ryan Hunt. The company also will include intern Katherine Jett.

Partlow is originally from upstate New York and has worked professionally throughout the country for many years. He has appeared in or directed most Repertory Theatre Company productions since The Renaissance Center opened, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jane Eyre, Twelfth Night, Davy Crockett: Titan of Tennessee, MacBeth, The Jungle Book, As You Like It and Richard III. In the Gaslight Dinner Theatre, Partlow has appeared as Sparky in Forever Plaid, Lucien P. Smith in The Boys Next Door, and Andy in The Star Spangled Girl. Directing credits for The Renaissance Center include And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank, Hansel and Gretel, Amelia Lives, I Hate Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Richard III, The Belle of Amherst, The Glass Menagerie, Dearly Departed, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, A Christmas Story and Annie Get Your Gun. Past credits include Buried Child, Side Show, Hello Dolly and Ruthless! Partlow will be directing this season’s professional theatre productions of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Dining Room and Romeo and Juliet. Hal will also step back onto the stage after 18 months to appear in the Rep Co.’s productions of Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse and Death of a Salesman.

Amy Arrington originally hails from Cedar Hill, Tenn., and has been with the Rep Co. for three seasons. For the Rep Co., Arrington has appeared as Amelia Earhart in Amelia Lives, Bagheera in The Jungle Book, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Elizabeth in Richard III, Mutti in And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank and Melinda in Davy Crockett: Titan of Tennessee! She has also been seen in numerous other productions, including Blanca Flor, Hansel and Gretel, The Swiss Family Robinson, Jane Eyre, Mother Goose Mayhem and It’s All Greek to Me.

She has appeared in many productions in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre. Memorable roles have included Lillian in I Hate Hamlet, Kate in Sylvia, Jeanette in Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Sister Mary Amnesia in Nunsense, Agnes in I Do, I Do as well as productions of The Boys Next Door and Robert Fulghum’s All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten and Uh-Oh, Here Comes Christmas. She has also been seen in the Renaissance Players’ productions of Godspell and The Odd Couple (female version). Other theatre credits include Delightful in Dearly Departed for Mockingbird Public Theatre, Mary in Merrily We Role Along for the Roxy Regional Theatre and Snoopy in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown for Austin Peay State University. Besides being a full-time member of the acting company, Arrington is The Renaissance Center’s resident costume designer.

This season Arrington will appear in You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, Romeo and Juliet and Death of a Salesman for the Repertory Theatre Company. In the Gaslight Dinner Theatre, look for her in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Barefoot in the Park and The Dining Room.

Christina Byron made her theatrical debut as the “C” in her 2nd grade Christmas pageant, uttering the trenchant poetry of “C is for Christmas. Welcome to our play.” Unfortunately she forgot what she was doing after the word Christmas and had to be prompted, but she feels she has made great strides since that night. She has received her training thus far from Marquette University, American Musical Theatre’s Artist’s Institute and Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts.

Favorite shows (and roles) include: Assassins (Sarah Jane Moore), Arcadia (Chloe Coverly), An Inspector Calls (Sheila Birling), You Can’t Take it with You (Essie Carmichael), and Mousetrap (Miss Casewell). She also has had the pleasure of playing a donkey in Pinocchio, a coyote in Trickster Tales, a monkey in All in the Timing, a cow in Will Rogers’ Follies and a tap-dancing goat in The Three Billy Goats Gruff. This summer, she performed the role of Irene Roth in Crazy for You at PCPA Theatrefest in Solvang, Ca.

At The Renaissance Center you’ll see Byron in this year’s professional season: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown!, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, Romeo and Juliet, Death of a Salesman, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, Barefoot in the Park and The Dining Room.

Jeff Clarke joins the company from California, where he has worked with PCPA Theatrefest for the last three years. Favorite roles include John Brooke in the new adaptation of Little Women, Eugene Fodor in Crazy for You, Stan in Chaps! and Pat Denning in 42nd Street. For the Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival, Clarke has played Master Slender in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Rosencrantz and understudy Hamlet in Hamlet. At the Lewis Theatre Co., Clarke has played Will Parker in Oklahoma, Mark in The Shadow Box, and Actor Eight in God’s Country.

Clarke received his Bachelor of Arts in Drama from University of California-Santa Cruz, and has prolific directing and fight choreography experience as well. At The Renaissance Center this year he can be seen in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, Romeo and Juliet, Death of a Salesman, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, Barefoot in the Park and The Dining Room.

Matt Greenbaum was last seen at the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival as Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice and Friar Francis in Much Ado About Nothing. He hails from Florida where he just finished his Bachelor of Fine Arts Theater Performance training at the University of Central Florida.

Some past college credits include a jealous Master Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor (for which he received the Irene Ryan Award Nomination -- Regional Finalist), drunk Uncle Sid in Ah, Wilderness!, entrepreneur Charles Dabernow Schmendiman in Picasso at the Lapin Agile and beer guzzling Olin Potts in Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander.

Greenbaum will be seen in the professional theatre productions of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, Romeo and Juliet, Death of a Salesman, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, Barefoot in the Park and The Dining Room.

Ryan Hunt is a recent graduate of the University of Evansville where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance. While in school he was seen in a variety of roles such as Greg in Sylvia, Sam Kaplan in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, Jed Rowen in The Kentucky Cycle, Part I & II, Enoch Snow in Carousel, Sexton in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and the Reverend Groves in Book of Days. Regional credits include Snoopy in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Freddy in My Fair Lady, Charlie Davenport in Annie Get Your Gun, Blood Brothers and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. With the Renaissance Repertory Theatre Company Hunt will be seen in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, Romeo and Juliet, Death of a Salesman, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol and The Dining Room.

Katherine Jett is an interning member of the Renaissance Repertory Theatre Company having performed in last summer’s King of the Ice Cream Mountain. This fall she will appear as Juliet in the Repertory Theatre Company’s production of Romeo and Juliet.

With the Renaissance Players, Jett has appeared as Mrs. Sylvia Potter-Porter and a featured dancer in Annie Get Your Gun, Simeon’s wife in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Sound of Music. She has also appeared in Aladdin and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at Sumner County Playhouse and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet and All’s Well That Ends Well with the Nashville Shakespeare Festival.

“Our four new Rep Co. members were selected for this season after auditioning dozens of applicants at a regional theatre conference,” Partlow said. “I believe we have put together an outstanding group of actors and a terrific lineup of shows for the 2003-04 season.”

For more information on Rep Co. productions for field trips or dinner theatre shows at The Renaissance Center, 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.