Lisa Denton and Barry Courter
LISA DENTON: Barry, I’m always grateful for Nightfall and Chattanooga Market to give us something to do during the long, hot, summer dulldrums – yes, that’s how I spell it. Then I realized we have more bright spots on the calendar this week.
Starting with Chattanooga Theatre Centre opening “9 to 5” on Friday. That’s the musical based on the 1980 movie, and the stage production has more music written by Dolly Parton than just the title song.
BARRY COURTER: Dolly who? You mean your BFF? You two are on a first-name basis, right? That should be a good one at the CTC.
LISA: Plus the Scopes Trial Play & Festival is returning to the Rhea County Courthouse the next two weekends. And on the first Saturday, there’s a scavenger hunt and a concert by Grammy-nominated songwriter Bobby Taylor.
BARRY: That’s another good theater production. And, since we’re talking about theater, the Ringgold Playhouse is doing one of my favorite plays, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” at the Ringgold Depot the next two weekends as well. Remember Aunt Martha’s recipe for wine?
“For a gallon of elderberry wine, I take one teaspoon full of arsenic, then add half a teaspoon full of strychnine and then just a pinch of cyanide.”
“Should have quite a kick,” Mortimer says.
Good stuff.
LISA: Mortimer also says, “Look I probably should have told you this before, but you see well insanity runs in my family It practically gallops.”
What a great line. What a relatable line.
BARRY: And you gotta love the title of the event Thunder Creek Harley-Davidson has planned for those who can’t get to the huge bike rally in South Dakota: “Too Broke for Sturgis Bike Night.”
LISA: I’m waiting on “Too Broke To Buy a Bike Night.” I did get a new (to me) lawn mower the other day, though. Which is good, except now I won’t get to tell people that the way I get my mower ready for spring is to call him up on the phone and say, “Hey, Ronald, can you come mow my yard?”
Speaking of the great outdoors, Back Alley Productions is continuing its traveling tour of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” with a stop at Coolidge Park on Friday. They’ll be at Camp Jordan for two shows the following weekend.
And Sunday’s Chattanooga Market is the Slider Smackdown. I like that word, “smackdown.” Also, shakedown, knockdown, crackdown, hoedown, throwdown. And how traffic reporter Sean Paul gives you the “lowdown on the slowdown.”
BARRY: That is better than “Sean Paul informs y’all.”
And folks interested in good music and seeing the new library at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga can do both on Tuesday when the second show in the Patten Performances series will take place in the library’s Grand Reading Room. Some of the staff and guest performers that are part of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival at the University of the South will be performing.
Get event details every Thursday in ChattanoogaNow or online anytime at www.ChattanoogaNow.com.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.