GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – The stage in the Behan Arena Theatre at Tusculum will come to life again with an evening of improvisation. Blue Plate Special’s “Improv Night in the BAT!” is set for Wednesday, Oct. 11, as the popular group visits campus for an evening of fun and the unexpected.
The show features 90 minutes of standup, improv and sketch comedy from the Tri-Cities’ premier comedy group. Blue Plate Special is a group of 10 comedians who perform regularly around the area, including a recent appearance at the Capitol Theatre in Downtown Greeneville.
“Audiences can expect endless possibilities,” said Erin Schultz, a member of the troupe and Arts Outreach Costume Director at Tusculum College. Schultz added that the show is very interactive and depends heavily on the energy and involvement of the audience. “What we do is short-form improv that includes a series of improv games,” she said, adding that it is similar to the popular television series “Whose Line Is It Anyway.”
The show begins at 7 p.m. in the Behan Arena Theatre, located in the lower level of the Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts Building on the Tusculum campus. Admission is $15 for adults, and $12 for seniors 60 and over.
In addition to their shows in Greeneville and Tusculum, Blue Plate Special will be performing at the Gatlinburg Comedy Festival this spring.
The Acts, Arts, Academia performance and lecture series is supported by Tusculum Arts Outreach, Hearts for the Arts, the Tennessee Arts Commission, the late Dr. Sam Miller in memory of Agnes Ault Miller and generous donors and volunteers.
For more information, contact Arts Outreach at 423-798-1620 or email jhollowell@tusculum.edu.

GREENEVILLE, Tennessee – Tim Mooney will bring his one-hour, high energy version of Hamlet to the stage Tuesday, Sept. 19, at Tusculum College.
Mooney’s “Breakneck Hamlet” will be presented at 7 p.m. in the Behan Arena Theatre on the lower level (side entrance) of the Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts Building on the Tusculum campus. The performance is part of the 2017-18 Acts, Arts, Academia performance and lecture series, coordinated by Tusculum Arts Outreach.
Mooney has “recklessly sliced” his “Breakneck Hamlet” from Shakespeare’s original, cutting a four-hour play to a single hour with a single actor. This “breakneck” performance reveals Hamlet as a thrilling chameleon, with an immense intellectual capacity and a hilarious, wicked sense of humor. Rather than the melancholy Dane of more traditional interpretations of the play, Mooney’s Hamlet is a man of action with barely a second-long pause throughout.
The Chicago-based actor is a veteran of over 50 fringe festivals and 15 years of touring colleges and high schools across the US with popular one-man shows. “Breakneck Hamlet” is Mooney’s eighth (and he describes as best) one-man play, following, “Moliere than Thou,” “Lot o’ Shakespeare” (one monologue from each of Shakespeare’s plays), and “The Greatest Speech of All Time,” which included historical speeches ranging from Socrates to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Mooney has adapted 17 of the plays of Molière and is the author of the acting textbook, “Acting at the Speed of Life; Conquering Theatrical Style.” Mooney’s skill at turning rhetorical complexity into theatrical power gets its greatest test with “Hamlet.” (He has, in fact, published his complete adaptation, along with a facing-page concordance including research and acting notes, as “The Breakneck Hamlet Companion,” available via Amazon.)
“I was inspired to bring substance and passion to the soliloquies and great speeches (while bridging the gaps of the ongoing action with a playful, snarky commentary that I can’t quite resist),” Mooney says of “Breakneck Hamlet.”
“The intent is to add by subtraction,” he continues. “By removing a dozen actors and three hours of melancholy, we surface the power that the original Elizabethan audience must have felt. It gives the modern audience access to what is generally considered the greatest play of all time. We are suddenly more aware of a delicate and dangerous political battle, between two equally powerful, and equally aware players fighting over who gets to be king.”
Admission to the play is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors 60 and over, and $5 for children 12 and under. Special discounts for adult or senior tickets are available for groups of 15 or more.
The Acts, Arts, Academia performance and lecture series is supported by Tusculum Arts Outreach, Hearts for the Arts, the Tennessee Arts Commission, the late Dr. Sam Miller in memory of Agnes Ault Miller and generous donors and volunteers.
To reserve tickets or for more information, contact Arts Outreach at 423-798-1620 or email jhollowell@tusculum.edu.

GREENEVILLE, Tennessee – MO5AIC, described by Tony Bennett as “the best vocal group I’ve ever heard,” will bring their special brand of music to the stage at Tusculum College on Wednesday, Aug. 16.
The five-man vocal group will be performing at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts Building on the Tusculum campus. The performance will be the first in the 2017-18 Acts, Arts, Academia performance and lecture series, coordinated by Tusculum Arts Outreach.
MO5AIC performs a unique blend of R&B, pop, rock, jazz, big band and Top 40 songs with a twist. Offering a different face of a cappella music, the five-man group performs with no instruments, using just their voices and microphones to create a full sound that has audiences frequently puzzled about where the band is. MO5AIC features Josh Huslig, Heath Burgett, Jake Moulton, Corwyn Hodge and Roopak Ahuja. The group was started by Huslig, who was turned on to vocal music when he heard Prince’s “7” in high school and realized that the voice can be just as an interesting as the instruments accompanying it.
As the vocalists came together, their talent first received widespread attention when they submitted a video to CBS News’ The Early Show, which was conducting a nationwide search for
The Great A cappella Group.” The contest was judged by personal heroes of the members of MO5AIC, Boyz II Men, and they won.
In 2008, MO5AIC earned more attention and accolades through MTV’s “Top Pop Group,” talent show. While the contestants were to be pop groups, MO5AIC found themselves as the only a cappella group competing and had to fight to keep their all-vocal sound when asked to use instruments by the show’s executives. MO5AIC won the contest, much to the surprise of those executives.
The group has opened for such acts as Stevie Wonder, Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, Jay Leno and the late Prince and appeared on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” MO5AIC’s talent also landed them a residency headlining the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.
Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $5 for students.
The Acts, Arts, Academia performance and lecture series is supported by Tusculum Arts Outreach, Hearts for the Arts, the Tennessee Arts Commission, the late Dr. Sam Miller in memory of Agnes Ault Miller and generous donors and volunteers.
To reserve tickets or for more information, contact Arts Outreach at 423-798-1620 or email jhollowell@tusculum.edu.