He sings, he dances, he writes and he philosophizes. Everyone's favorite beagle proves just what a well-rounded dog he really is when the Mind Enriching Theatre series at The Renaissance Center in Dickson presents SNOOPY!!! the musical based on characters from the tremendously popular Peanuts comic street by Charles Schulz.
The MET series production of SNOOPY!!! will be presented at 9:30 a.m. Wednesdays, June 20 and 27, and July 11 and 18, in the center's performance hall. Tickets are $4. The show also is available for field trip performances for groups of 25 or more on Wednesdays and Thursdays through July 19.
Created as the sequel to You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, SNOOPY!!! focuses on the life of Charlie Brown's loveable beagle, with songs about his life at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, his flighty friend Woodstock and all of the charming characters that surround him. The show follows the everyday trials and tribulations they experience through a year, from school to gazing at the clouds, from Easter to Halloween.
Snoopy (Bryan J. Wlas) is joined by Charlie Brown (Ryan Hunt) and his sister Sally (Sara Schoch), Lucy Van Pelt (Cheyenne Nelson) and her brother Linus (Nathan W. Brown), Peppermint Patty (Anna Hammonds) and Woodstock (Katherine Jett) in a musical journey through a year in the life of a smart-aleck beagle, loveable kids and one accident-prone bird.
SNOOPY!!! is directed by Hal Partlow, the manager of the Renaissance Repertory Theatre Company and managing director of the MET series. The New York native has directed more than 40 shows and appeared in over 30 productions at The Renaissance Center and has been working in professional theatre for more than 20 years.
Wlas, the center's resident choreographer, is a native of Woodridge, Ill. and a graduate of Millikin University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre and a Dance minor. He has appeared in Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions of A Grand Night for Singing, Smoke on the Mountain, Anything Goes, Christmas My Way: A Sinatra Holiday Bash and Nuncrackers, Renaissance Players productions of Little Shop of Horrors and Children of Eden, and MET series productions of HONK!, Pinocchio and Bird Woman (The Story of Sacagewea).
Hunt returns to the role after appearing in the MET series production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown in 2003. He is a native of Evansville, Ind., holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance from the University of Evansville and has appeared in professional productions in Tennessee, Georgia, New Hampshire, New York and his home state of Indiana. He has performed in 30 different productions at The Renaissance Center over the last four years, including the current Gaslight Dinner Theatre show Chicago and the upcoming Renaissance Players production of Cats, and appeared in New York City in the off-Broadway musical Closer Than Ever and in Kiss Me Kate in Cohoes, N.Y. Hunt also can be seen in the current Gaslight Dinner Theatre production of Chicago.
Schoch originally hails from Cleveland, Ohio, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from State University of New York at Fredonia and has been seen in numerous productions throughout the country. She has appeared in six Gaslight Dinner Theatre shows, including the current production of Chicago, two Renaissance Players productions and is now in her fourth play for the MET series.
Nelson is an Arkansas native who recently returned to The Renaissance Center to play Velma Kelly in Chicago. She previously appeared in the MET series production of HONK! and the Gaslight Dinner Theatre's Anything Goes as Reno Sweeney. She was most recently seen at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis as the Sour Kangaroo in Seussical! The Musical, Madalaine True in The Wild Party and Madame de la Grande Bouche in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. She spent last summer in interior Alaska playing Fannie Quigley, Mistress Quickley in The Merry Wives of Windsor and directing Parallel Lives.
Brown, the center's resident musical director, is originally from Sterling, Ill., and holds a BM in Vocal Performance from Illinois Wesleyan University. He has appeared in four Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions, two Renaissance Players shows and the MET series productions of HONK! and Pinocchio. He has served as musical director for more than a dozen Renaissance Center productions.
Hammonds is a native of Evansville, Ind., and received her Bachelor of Arts in Music Business from Anderson University in Anderson, Ind., where she toured Scandinavia and the United States as a member of the AU Chorale. She has appeared in seven Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions, including the current offering of Chicago, has had roles in six Renaissance Players productions and is now in her ninth show for the MET series.
Jett has appeared in six Gaslight Dinner Theatre shows, including Chicago, five productions for the MET series and more than a dozen Renaissance Players shows, including this summer's production of Cats. She has been an apprentice for the Nashville Shakespeare Festival and has choreographed several high school and community productions in the Nashville area. Jett has been accepted into the theatre program at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Wash., and looks forward to moving there this fall.
For more information on the MET series production of SNOOPY!!!, call (615) 740-5600 or visit www.rcenter.org. To purchase tickets for one of the upcoming shows, call (615) 740-5570. To schedule a field trip to see the show, call (615) 740-5533.
The Renaissance Center is a fine arts education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.