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HomeAchieversBelmont Talent Featured in First Night's 2018 Top Ten List

Belmont Talent Featured in First Night’s 2018 Top Ten List

First Night’s Top Ten for 2018 was recently announced in Nashville and Belmont was included in many of critic Jeffrey Ellis’s annual rankings of the best in Tennessee theater. This year’s finalists were announced via a Facebook live stream with the hosts of Midwinter’s First Night. Winners will be announced at an event held on Sunday, January 28 at Music Valley Event Center in Nashville.

Mentions from Belmont’s College of Visual and Performing Arts are as follows:

  • Top Ten Outstanding Plays for 2017The Amish Project, Actors’ Bridge Ensemble and Belmont University Theatre
  • Top Ten Outstanding Musicals for 2017: Fiddler on the Roof, Belmont University Musical Theatre
  • Top Ten Outstanding Directors of a Play for 2017: Jaclynn Jutting, The Amish Project, Actors Bridge Ensemble and Belmont University Theatre & Jaclynn Jutting, The Whale, Verge Theater Company (Jutting is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Theatre & Dance and head of Belmont’s B.F.A. Directing program)
  • Top Ten (plus one) Outstanding Directors of a Musical for 2017: David Shamburger, Fiddler on the Roof, Belmont University Musical Theatre
  • Top Ten Outstanding Musical Directors for 2017: Jo Lynn Burks, Fiddler on the Roof, Belmont University Musical Theatre
  • First Night’s Top Ten Outstanding Choreographers for 2017: Anna Perry, Fiddler on the Roof, Belmont University Musical Theatre; Emily Tello Speck, 9 to 5: The Musical, Belmont University Musical Theatre & Emily Tello Speck, Spamalot, Studio Tenn (Tello Speck is a 2003 musical theatre alumna, a 2013 vocal pedagogy master’s alumna and was a member of the musical theatre faculty before moving to Houston over the summer.
  • Top Ten Outstanding Actors in a Play for 2017: Brent Maddox, The Elephant Man, Studio Tenn (Maddox is an Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Department of Theatre and Dance) and Shawn Knight, The Whale, Verge Theater Company (Knight is a long time Lecturer in the Theatre & Dance Department)
  • Top Ten Outstanding Actresses in a Play for 2017: Amanda Bell, The Amish Project, Actors Bridge Ensemble and Belmont University Theatre (Bell graduated from Belmont in May 2017 and was a senior in while in this production last April)
  • Top Ten Outstanding Actors in a Musical for 2017: Gabe Hoyer, Fiddler on the Roof, Belmont University Musical Theatre (Hoyer is a current Belmont student)
  • Top Ten Outstanding Ensemble for a Play in 2017The Amish Project, Actors Bridge Ensemble and Belmont University Theatre

 

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