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kyle thomas invited to Rogue Theater Festival, will present Murfreesboro performances of new work in August

MuRFREESbORO RESidENT

Kyle R. Thomas is no newcomer to the New York City theater scene. In 2022, his monologue play Portrait of a Young Man made it to the Rogue Theater Festival in NYC. This year, once again, Thomas was one of the playwrights selected for a performance on Theatre Row in Manhattan.

Some involved with the Murfreesboro Little Theatre (MLT) accompanied Thomas to New York for the June 13 performance of his newest published play, This House Is Not a Home

“This year a full-length play of his has been chosen,” said MLT’s Shane Lowery of MLT, who co-directed the show, prior to leaving for the Big Apple. “And MLT is producing it, tossing the set in the back of my pickup, and hauling it Off-Broadway to Theatre Row on 42nd Street.”

Thomas said he was proud to share the festival selection with the Murfreesboro Little Theatre team.

“I am so excited that they are getting to go along on this wild adventure with me!” the playwright said.

Following the Rogue Theater Festival appearance, Thomas and MLT also plans to present the work in Murfreesboro this August.

This House Is Not a Home tells the story of a shoe repair shop that is one of the last of its kind.

“The owner leads a quiet existence until it is upended by the return of the son of his late business partner. The son returns and is looking for work . . . and answers,” according to the play’s synopsis. “These two men know so much and yet so little about one another. The son wants to know more about his father, and the nature of his exit from the business. The owner is reluctant to share, for reasons that become painfully clear. Not all seams can be stitched back together.”

Regarding the performance of This House Is Not a Home in June on Theatre Row in New York City, Thomas told the Pulse: “The actors did a phenomenal job, and the audience was alert and receptive and altogether excellent. It was a fantastic experience, and I am so honored that I was able to share this opportunity with Shane and everyone associated with the incredible Murfreesboro Little Theatre team.”

In This House Is Not a Home, Alec Lanter stars as Old and Jack Seage as Young. Shane Lowery and Britt Penevolpe directed the play, produced by Emma Hawkins.

Murfreesboro Little Theatre now plans two local performances showcasing the original work. The first performance will be held at the Walnut House, 116 N. Walnut St., on Saturday, Aug. 12, at 7 p.m. The second will be held at Oaklands Mansion, 900 N. Maney Ave., on Saturday, Aug. 19, at 7 p.m.

For more information, stay tuned to mltarts.com — BrItney Brown

ThE wAShiNgTON ThEATRE gALLERy AT PATTERSON

PARK Community Center will host “A Letter to Younger Self,” a collaborative contemporary art exhibit, through July 20.

The display showcases the work of local senior adults and veteran artists, many of them involved in programs at St. Clair, Patterson Park and SportsCom community centers, and offers a glimpse into the artists’ inner world. The artists share their insight into the impact and influence of the 1970s on their lives.

The 1970s are famous for bell bottoms and the rise of disco, but it was also an era of economic struggle, cultural change and technological innovations. This decade still fascinates and influences past and current generations.

Leroy and Barbara Hodges in conjunction with Cultural Arts Murfreesboro curated this art exhibit, which features the works of artists: Alice Bailey, Sylvia Buggs, Beverly Dillard, Wilda Gandy, Barbara Hodges, Leroy Hodges, Carolyn Sneed Lester, Vickie “Cat” Mathews, Rance Perkins, Rosie Perkins, Marcella Turner, Goldy Wade, Lenda Wade, Mary Wade and Mary R. Watkins.

“Writing a letter to your younger self can be cathartic. It gives one a reason to carve out time for reflection. This journaling activity can be fun and a rewarding way to acknowledge things from the past and find ways to use them to make positive changes,” according to an exhibition statement. “Writing a letter to your younger self can be excellent therapy. . . . Change and healing only happen when one can come to a sincere and heartfelt appreciation of all of your life experiences, even the unpleasant and painful ones, and see how they have led you to being who you are today. We hope this exhibit will inspire and have a positive impact on the art audience.”

The artists utilized a variety of artistic styles described as bold, vibrant, colorful, thought-provoking and surrealistic, to create the imagery for this exhibition of visual storytelling.

Patterson Park Community Center is located at 521 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Murfreesboro. The exhibit is free and open to the public through July 20, 2023. For more information, call 615-893-7439, ext. 6111 or email hodgesl@bellsouth.net.

wüden BoI

Music to Crash Your Spaceship To

European forest troll-turned-Middle Tennessee nomad Scufflemöss Treemen now “scuffles” to promote Music to Crash Your Spaceship To, the second full-length album from Wüden Boi, Treemen’s experimental, industrial-synth-hop, Japaneseinfluenced, garage-punk project.

The album sets the mood with “Lactose Tolerance,” opening in a “vastness of space,” with a David Byrne-esque wine glass hum intro going into some surgical exploration of synth rap in Treemen’s Dracula-accented vocals. Treemen now shines a troll who knows what he wants, and is evidently familiar with Puff Daddy’s flow, clueing his listeners in on what currently drives him, spitting, stuck in conditioning/holding bac scuffling/ wanting to know how I can get that bling, punctuated on the half-note.

From there, all’s fair in trolling tastes. “Otaku Kokka” runs as “Wüden Boi’s exploration in Japanese punk,” according to Treemen. The group goes in an early Ween direction with the postpunk surfer jam “Where’s Jerry,” which ponders whether someone fed Jerry to the family.

Treemen messes around with the synth on the funky, electronica instrumental “Galaxy Phantom,” while “Big Hunk Mega Funk,” the band’s bass-driven, lyrically minimal fuzz metal number, warns of calamity, insanity and profanity if folks don’t get out of the way of the “Big Hunk.”

asTeroid CiT y

diRECTOR Wes Anderson

STARRiNg Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks

RATEd Pg-13

The film opens in a television studio. Our host is Bryan Cranston, telling the story of the making of the long-running play Asteroid City. On the television studio stage is Conrad Earp (Edward Norton), the playwright, plugging away at his typewriter. Then begins the play within the movie—about a small desert town that is hosting an awards ceremony for young scientists, only for it to be interrupted by a flying saucer. The film switches between the movie (the play), the making of the play (with actors discussing their roles), and Cranston hosting the televised making-of show. Sometimes the characters are even confused about which segment they’re in.

Schwartzman plays war photographer and recent widower Augie Steenbeck, whose son Woodrow (Jake Ryan) has devised a method to project images on the moon. Scarlett Johansson is Marilyn Monroe surrogate Midge Campbell, whose daughter Dinah (Grace Edwards) is among the young scientists and mirrors her mother in falling for a Steenbeck. There are too many stars to mention, of whom some shine (Jeffrey Wright, Maya Hawk) while others get lost in the light pollution (Steve Carell, Liev Schreiber). It’s not their fault, it’s just overkill.

Asteroid City is at its best when Anderson is conducting his brand of frenetic yet controlled chaos, and when he is doing the exact opposite. The scenes between the brilliant teenage scientists, finding comradery in qualities that make them all outcasts elsewhere are Anderson at his deadpan best.

Bryce harMon

“Mozzerellica” channels Metallica on Ketamine, proclaiming Gimme sauce, gimme cheese, gimme toppings if you please. This, along with the lyrics to “Lactose Tolerance” and “Dough Roller” (which touches on Treemen’s experience working a local pizza job), lead the audience to accept the campy nature of the album, just before realizing this music is somewhat genuine local post-punk. The track “Curse for the Rotten” actually validates a bit of musical sincerity—those moments make local albums like this worth it.

Still, it’s not for everybody. I’ve often claimed one of Anderson’s earliest films, Rushmore, to be my all-time favorite movie. In that film, high schooler Max Fisher (also Schwartzman) puts on extravagant plays. It’s as if Anderson is making Max Fisher’s plays the entire movie now. Even if there are poignant themes of grief and nihilism, art and artifice (and there are), it’s all couched so deeply in sets that look like sets of sets that it will inevitably turn some people off. And that’s just fine. —

Jay spIght