Tennessee Shakespeare Festival: Lane Davies directs another fine one

The Tennessee Shakespeare Festival just wrapped up this past weekend, and BRBTV really enjoyed the time there! We made the journey to beautiful Bell Buckle, Tennessee, once again, as we did two years ago. This time, we got a chance to do fresh interviews with director Lane Davies, the original Mason Capwell of our beloved "Santa Barbara," as well as longtime TV actor Jerry Winsett, who took to the stage as Aegeon and a special "surprise" character in this year's production, "The Comedy of Errors." It was the fourth summer for the popular festival, and BRBTV kicks off a full week of coverage of the event with today's overview ...

Davies put a twist on this Shakespearean classic, setting it in 1880s West Virginia, and you'll hear why in our BRBTV interview with him on the BRBTV YouTube channel, along with our fun chat with Winsett, both of which we'll be highlighting this week. The two have known each other a long, long time -- longer than you realize! And you'll hear that mentioned in the interviews, too. Their working association with the festival is a great one, as this year's production attested. Winsett was wonderful in his dual roles.

Davies took to the stage, himself, for this one, albeit briefly -- introducing the play. Davies often appears in these productions, and he told BRBTV he's considering a role in next year's production, the name of which he tips us off to in our interview. We'll post the YouTube video soon ...

The play's opening number was rousing, above, and below, Winsett shone in his own stage time. Look for more photos of Winsett and the rest of the actors later this week, as our coverage of the fest continues ...

Photo at top from the Tennessee Shakespeare Festival website; other photos by Billie Rae Bates / BRBTV