Finding Comfort in the Good Things We Share

For many around the country, December 14^th brings thoughts of tragedy and loss. For Nashville Children’s Theatre (NCT), December 14^th brings bittersweet memories.

Four days a week, sometimes twice a day, a caravan of school buses brings thousands of children through our doors to view our productions. Prior to their arrival, their teachers spend time on the phone and email with our Registrar, who helps to plan their trip.

For 32 years, that Registrar was a woman named Lorna Turner. Lorna was committed to working with teachers all over Middle Tennessee and beyond to ensure the children’s field trips were a success.  This started by talking to the teachers to share each program’s curriculum guide and prepare for the show. It continued with leading some teachers through our financial assistance program to get them the right ticket price to make the trip happen. And when the day came, Lorna was often the person who greeted the children and their teachers at the door.

Last year, Lorna retired from her position at NCT. It provided an opportunity for us to celebrate her years of work here, and the millions of lives she affected over the years. Even Mayor Karl Dean got involved, issuing a proclamation recognizing December 14^th as Lorna Turner Day.

Lorna’s position at NCT has since been filled by a team of equally committed individuals who continue her work.  Through this team, Lorna’s legacy of service to the children of Middle Tennessee goes on.

Like Lorna Turner, there are countless others across the country who work so hard to give our children the opportunities they need to flourish and grow as they learn. This weekend, while we recognize the anniversary of this tragedy, let’s also find some comfort in the good things and good people our children will encounter in the coming year. 

Go, Dog. Go! is the most fun-packed, side-splittingly funny

hour of entertainment in all of Nashville!

Get Tickets or Schedule information.

Josh Bernaski in NCT's Go, Dog. Go!

The first time NCT did this show I played MC Dog in all but four performances, where Patrick Waller heroically stepped in for me while I attended the birth of my first son. I could not be more pleased and giddily excited to now be directing this tremendously funny show just at the time that my son is old enough to get all of the jokes.

Rarely have I had as much fun as I've had in working on this show. The staff and crew at NCT are always tremendous and this cast is absolutely phenomenal! To top it off, the playwrights have succeeded in creating the most clever and imaginative adaptation of a book for the theatre I have ever seen.

P.D. Eastman’s original book is a favorite in my house. The humor in the book comes from seeing the action and interaction of some highly mobile dogs doing very human things, all the while inviting the reader to notice the deeper significance of small thing.

The playwrights have honored the elements of the book to the point that they chose to stick to the few words that appear in the book. The result is an astounding homage to circus, to delight, and to surprise right through the very end.

Peter Vann, director

The magic of this play is that it successfully makes an audience, (I'm seriously talking ages 4-104), literally bust a gut laughing within the first 45 seconds of the show, and then has the relentless ability to sustain that feeling of breathless awe and uncontrollable laughter until the very last second of the show. It is truly astounding.

This is the perfect play for introducing the young people in your life to the fun of the theatre, and for the young person in the rest of us to come out and play.