Blanche Pope Tosh started her life in the theatre in the third grade, when she won a city-wide talent contest reciting a humorous monologue. At age nine, she played a leading role on the stage of the Memphis Little Theatre (now called Theatre Memphis). From that point forward, she was hooked on the theatre. At Memphis Central High School, Tosh was a student of the legendary speech and drama teacher Rebekah Cohen, and studied privately with Blanche Pence and Donna Fisher Brame. She won a four-year Memphis Coterie Club arts scholarship to attend the University of Memphis, majoring in speech and drama and minoring in art, all the while hoping to become a teacher. In college, she participated in almost every theatre department stage production, won numerous best acting awards, and had lead roles in Memphis Shakespeare Festival performances. She was awarded an assistantship to Kent State University, but ended up receiving her master's degree at the University of Memphis.
Tosh began teaching at White Station High School in 1962, and during her thirty-year tenure taught speech, acting, visual art, interpretation, mass media, forensics, play production, directing, and acting for the camera. She directed over one hundred plays, established the White Station High School Speech Tournament, won countless speech and theatre awards for her school and students, and created the first high school black box theatre in Memphis, affectionately known as ABC—Aunt Blanche’s Corner Theatre.
Tosh has performed in scores of plays in almost every Memphis theatre venue, received two Ostrander acting nominations, and notably, since her first production in 1947, is a seventy-seven year veteran of Theatre Memphis. She has also appeared in films, on radio, and in many commercials and voice-overs. She was a reader for the literature series Through the Golden Door, and portrayed “Mary Morgan” for the National Cotton Council. In her retirement, she was inducted into the Tennessee High School Speech and Drama League Hall of Fame and then began to focus even more on her love for storytelling. Beyond her longtime story readings at several area churches and hospitals, where she is referred to as the “story lady,” Tosh most recently created a podcast called Aunt Blanche’s Story Corner, recording well over a hundred episodes. Blanche Tosh has written and published two children's books and remains an active force in the Memphis theatre community.
Jerry Zaks began his career as an actor appearing in plays and musicals across the country. Most notably, he appeared in the original production of Greas eand the original cast of Tintypes. He recently directed his twenty-sixth Broadway show, The Music Man, starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. His production of Mrs. Doubtfire is currently running at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre and on tour in the United States.
Zaks has received four Tony Awards for directing and has been nominated eight times. He's also received four Drama Desks, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, and an Obie. His credits include Hello, Dolly! (starring Bette Midler), A Bronx Tale (both the play and the musical), Meteor Shower, Nantucket Sleigh Ride, Shows For Days, Sister Act, The Addams Family, Guys and Dolls, Six Degrees of Separation, Lend Me a Tenor, House of Blue Leaves, The Front Page, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Smokey Joe’s Café, Anything Goes, La Cage aux Folles, Little Shop of Horrors, The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Foreigner, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, and the original production of Assassins.
Zaks began his career directing the extraordinary plays of Christopher Durang including Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, Beyond Therapy, Baby with the Bathwater, and The Marriage of Bette and Boo. Hedirected the award-winning film Marvin’s Room, starring Meryl Streep andDiane Keaton, and Who Do You Love, which was featured in the Toronto Film Festival. Zaks is a founding member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City. In 1994, he received the SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers) George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.
Zaks graduated from Dartmouth College in 1967, received an MFA from Smith College in1969, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Dartmouth in 1999. In honor of his lifetime achievement in the American theater, Jerry Zakswas inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2013.
The Bright School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was founded in 1913 by progressive educator Mary G. Bright and currently enrolls about 355 students from preschool to fifth grade. The school’s curriculum and activities are a blend of the hands-on and personalized learning upon which Ms. Bright built her school and innovative practices of today that nurture and challenge students. A comprehensive arts education program has been part of the curriculum since the early days of the school’s operation. A vibrant mural, exclusively crafted by the artistic hands of the Bright School students, is currently on display at the North Chattanooga Post Office, and their woodshop students have been featured recently in a national publication, Wooden Boat Magazine. Fifth graders participate in the weekly internal news broadcast, We’re the Bright School (WTBS), where they practice presentation skills and learn the mechanics of audio and visual equipment. All students participate in grade-level plays beginning in prekindergarten. Students can also hone their musical skills in the choir or handbell ensemble, and selected students are annually accepted to the Organization of American Kodály Educators National Conference Choir. The Bright School has placed a priority on professional development by giving teachers resources and time for training, fellowships, and pursuing higher education in their craft. They believe arts education is not just about creating artists. It’s about nurturing well-rounded individuals who are confident, creative, and compassionate.
Before the transition into a fine arts magnet school in 2006, Creswell went by many other names. The school is named after Isaiah T. Creswell, the inaugural African American member of the Nashville Public School board. His daughter, Carol Creswell, still visits the school for events. Creswell offers six vibrant art conservatories: band, choir, dance, piano, theatre, and visual art. Students take two arts conservatory classes the entire school year, allowing them to receive an in-depth arts education. Creswell has prioritized a move toward a fully arts-integrated school, as their academic classes incorporate art with help from the school’s arts integration specialist and community members. They host a weekly, school-wide meeting called “Artful Thinking” in which students analyze artwork and performances for a project that connects them to the community. They have hosted collaborative sessions with the Air Force Band and the Yeli Ensemble from Guinea, and their student art has been featured on WeGo benches across Nashville and in the annual Southwest Airlines Repurpose with Purpose Exhibit. Music students have performed at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center with the Nashville Symphony for Let Freedom Sing concerts, and the We Are Nashville choral festival and have collaborated with Intersection Contemporary Music Ensemble and National Museum of African American Music. Students have worked with singer/songwriter Kyshona Armstrong and artist Elisheba Mrozik, and their projects have been exhibited in the Taylor Swift Gallery at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
The Stewarts Creek Fine Arts Academy offers a conservatory-level arts education within Stewarts Creek High School, giving students a focused study in the arts while enjoying the benefits of a comprehensive, public high school. The spirit of collaboration between students and their arts teachers has become a visible and foundational part of the school culture. With kindergarten through twelfth grade students on the same campus, collaboration between the elementary, middle, and high school students provides students with not only sequential learning in the arts, but a growing love for creating and performing. Students receive top-notch instruction in traditional courses like art, theatre, and music, but they also have access to courses in songwriting, printmaking, technical theatre, guitar, and mixed media. Situated in Rutherford County, Tennessee, where the arts account for $52.4 million a year in economic activity, students regularly collaborate with Career and Technical Education classes, such as broadcasting and recording. In visual art, several students have received Scholastic Art Awards including the National Gold Medal Award. Theatre students have received multiple All-State theatre designations. A guitar student had the lyrics of one of her original songs performed at Vince Gill and Keith Urban’s “All-for-the-Hall” benefit concert in Nashville. Choral and instrumental ensembles have been honored and showcased at the Tennessee Music Educators Association conference, and many musicians have been selected for the Nashville Symphony’s Accelerando program.