Arts Rants & Ravers

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Introducing the Arts Rants & Ravers, a group of community leaders, art experts, and interesting people who are engaged in and enjoy the arts. Read what they have to say about current plays, exhibits, and arts events. Choose your favorite and feel free to respond to their reviews by submitting a comment or review of your own.

Theater Rants & Ravers

Cole Adams - Cole is a writer, singer, and guitarist, as well as a full-time salesman for the Memphis communications company American Resource Systems. He is a recent transplant from New Orleans, where he graduated miraculously from Loyola University 08’. Born the son of an English professor and a professional drummer, his exposure to the arts came at an early age. He has written for the Loyola Maroon, LFT Magazine, and numerous online magazines and blogs. He is also the author of the yet to be published play Out of Our Hands, which he would be happy to let you read.

Cole will be covering Tennessee Shakespeare Theatre. 

George Conroy - George is a native Memphian and stage addict. His own very early stage roles include Captain Hook in grammar school, Frank Butler in Central High School’s production of “Annie Get Your Gun” and insisting he was type-cast, the voice of God in “J.B.” while at Southwestern. He claims to have become a Rhodes Scholar when the school changed its name to Rhodes College thirty-something years ago. His extensive travels during a long career in public finance often allowed him to pursue his love of stagecraft on Broadway, London’s West End, and “everywhere else." When he wasn’t boondoggling he provided special projects financing for municipal, state, and federal agencies, and foreign governments. He returned to Memphis in 2001 and founded Memphis Jewish Journal magazine of which he was editor, publisher, and executive daily emptier of the office trash cans. In early 2007 he suffered a big bad heart attack, ending his publishing career and beginning his retirement.  George is now retired from retirement and writing theatre reviews for ArtsMemphis.

George will be covering Playhouse on the Square and Germantown Community Theatre.

 Glenda Mace -Glenda Mace has worked as an actress, director, and theatre administrator for over twenty years. She began her acting career during studies at the University of Memphis in 1979, went to New York in 1984 where she continued her studies at Herbert Bergoff Studios under the tutelage of teachers including Austin Pendleton, Sandy Dennis and Ann Jackson. She also studied privately with Wynn Handman, Artistic Director for American Place Theatre in Manhattan. She has acted in various theatres from New York to Florida. She was employed as Executive Director at Greenbrier Repertory Theatre in Lewisburg, West Virginia from 1995-2000, where she acted, directed and taught. She has performed on many Memphis stages during her acting career. She served as Facility Manager at TheatreWorks for nine years, resigning her position there in March of 2009. She is presently performing as a member of Playback Memphis, an interactive improvisational theatre troupe. 

Glenda will be covering Circuit Theatre and POTS as the Works.

Billy M. Pullen - Billy is currently teaching creative writing and International Baccalaureate English at Germantown High School. He is the recipient of numerous teaching honors including Shelby County Teacher of the Year, Tennessee Teacher of the Year, and Secondary Teacher of Excellence from the National Council of Teachers of English. Earning a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, he studied with the acclaimed Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA.

Pullen is a produced, published, award-winning playwright. His one-act play, Fallen Short of the Glory, has won five national prizes, including the Grand Festival Prize Winner, in New York City’s Theatre Row. He received the Tennessee Williams Scholarship to attend the prestigious Southern Writers’ Conference at Sewanee where he completed another prize-winning play, Cymbals and Sounding Brass.

Pullen has also published two short stories, “The Purple Hair of Jesus” and “Splashed Boy” with Bard College’s Literary Journal. He has a Master of Arts in Theatre and Communication Arts from the University of Memphis. 

Billy will be covering Hattiloo Theatre, Circuity Theater, and New Moon Theater.

  Memphis Symphony Rants & Ravers

George Lapides - George, a native Memphian, is a former Memphis Press Scimitar sports editor and current WHBQ-AM radio talk show personality.  His father played violin in the original MSO, conducted by Bernhard Tuthill.  When not attending sports events or playing golf, George can be seen at the Symphony and Opera.

Nathan Powell - Nathan is a music educator with a passion for the arts. He received both an undergraduate degree in music education, and a graduate degree in conducting from the University of Memphis. Along with his training, Mr. Powell has enjoyed an extremely eclectic musical career. Some of these highlights include conducting Arvo Pärt’s Berliner Messe and Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, conducting the Opera Memphis Senior Opera Conservatory, and playing the pedal steel guitar, mandolin, acoustic guitar and banjo as a studio musician. Nathan sings and assists with the choir at St. John Orthodox Church, and is currently the chorus director and music specialist at Riverdale School in Germantown, TN.

Nathan will be covering the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

Dance Rants & Ravers

Teresa Bell - Originally from St. Louis, Teresa attended high school and college locally and now considers Memphis her hometown. She is a dance instructor, private tutor, and graduate student. Although she loves all forms of performance art, she is particularly interested in modern and world dance. When not teaching or studying, Teresa enjoys sewing costumes, practicing yoga, and going to the movies.

Teresa will be covering New Ballet Ensemble and Project Motion