Shelia Hwang jokes that instead of her daughter inheriting an interest in photography from her, it was Hwang who picked up an interest in seeing her daughter’s talents.

About five years ago, Jack Williams was playing at a songwriter’s round in Nashville, Tennessee, when he was approached by a publisher who asked why Williams hadn’t considered releasing his own record.

The Full Moon Players’ “Million Dollar Quartet Christmas” is showing a second weekend at Cypress Moon Studios.

FLORENCE — A familiar tale of four sisters will hit the Shoals Theatre stage with a musical twist on Thursday with "Little Women," the musical. 

LONDON — British actor Timothy West, who played the classic titular Shakespeare roles of Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth and who in recent years along with his wife, Prunella Scales, enchanted millions of people with their boating exploits on Britain's waterways, has died, He was 90.

Robert Rauch, a photography and design professor at the University of North Alabama, said he doesn’t preach environmentalism to his students, but he does try to live out his own convictions and set an example to not only students, but his community.

The nearly all-female cast of “The Haunting of Hill House” is thrilled to extend the frights this Halloween season with a showing of their spooky play at Cypress Moon Studio in Sheffield.

A photograph taken by Robert Rausch of the Tennessee River churning from the spillways of Wilson Dam between Florence and Muscle Shoals serves as the cover photo for a recent collection published in “Southern Cultures” quarterly magazine.

Whether she is doing special effects makeup, directing behind a camera, acting on stage, or helping to produce the next show at a local theater, Lily Holly Retherford is thrilled to be involved in the performing arts in whatever way her talents might be needed.

Erin Dailey is an architect who cut her teeth in the profession in New York after she moved there in 2003 to study at The Cooper Union, a university that focuses on art, architecture and engineering. These days, however, Dailey finds herself building abstractions from cardboard and scrap paper.

Gary Fuqua and Preston Cox have each been involved in theater and performing arts for most of their lives. This fall, they will both try their hand at directing for the very first time with an upcoming production of the musical “Girlfriend.”

NEW YORK — Ken Page, a stage and screen actor who starred alongside Beyoncé in “Dreamgirls,” introduced Broadway audiences to Old Deuteronomy in “Cats” and scared generations of kids as the voice of Oogie Boogie, the villain of the 1993 animated holiday film ”The Nightmare Before Christmas,″…

Amanda Perry said it’s fairly common for her to direct mother and daughter duos in a single play from time to time, but for the first time in her directing career, she’s not only working with one father and son pair, but three.

When Hannah Grace Stewart auditioned for a role in “Legally Blonde the Musical,” she was vying for the part of Elle Woods, but she admits she didn’t have very high hopes of landing the lead. For one, she said, she was a little too, well — brunette.

LaDarius Prince said he got his love of dance from his mother, Yelonda Brown, who was involved in performing arts and dance throughout high school.

Hall was seven years old when she walked into the auditorium of the Roxy Theatre in downtown Russellville for the first time.

When the Roxy Theatre opened its doors in downtown Russellville for its first audience on Sept. 15, 1949, Lila Hovater was seated in the ticket booth, taking money and admitting guests.

When Jesse Lane, producer of the independent theater company Echoe Productions, decided to take on “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea,” a raw, one-act play by John Patrick Shanley, he knew Chelsea Hughes would be perfect for the role of Roberta.

LaRue and Muriel Harding have developed their reputations as artists locally and abroad, and though they’ve each exhibited their works in the U.S. and in parts of Europe over the past few decades, their upcoming exhibit, “Long Time Coming,” at the Tennessee Valley Art Museum is a rare event …

When Steifon “Fletch” Passmore was asked to audition for an upcoming play by Echoe Productions, which will show at The Village School in Sheffield next weekend, his initial response was “no.”

Monica Yother, a Huntsville artist who forged her career in graphic design and illustration, found art journaling as she was searching for a creative outlet outside of her professional work.

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By Chelsea Retherford

When Cynthia McClanahan moved to Florence with her husband about six years ago, the first event they attended was Wine Fest.

Tennille Thompson Sullivan and Danielle McCann have watched their daughters take the stage in community theater productions around the Shoals, but this time, they’ll be the ones taking the spotlight.

By Chelsea Retherford

Gene Anne Gifford always knew she wanted to pursue music, but the picture she’d envisioned for her career slowly changed shape over the years to include musical theater and other genres she hadn’t previously considered.

Zach and Blake Adams, Avery Guinn, Alex Livingston and Haley Crowell will sit around a piano in Sheffield this weekend, emulating the spontaneous moment from Memphis, Tennessee, in 1956 that would go down in rock and roll history.

FLORENCE — More than 30 individuals of all ages and backgrounds took the stage Monday night at the Shoals Theater to honor the life of W.C. Handy. 

When Atlanta, Georgia, artist Stacey Brown visited Florence for the first time as a juried artist participating in the Kennedy-Douglass Centers’ annual Arts Alive Festival, he said the Shoals city reminded him of his small hometown, Murfreesboro, North Carolina.

Dylan Bales has a vision of transporting audiences to a “world of pure imagination” next week with the Gingerbread Players’ production of “Willy Wonka” at the Shoals Community Theatre in Florence.

Anna Bond Kelley feels that being thrust into the role of Joanna “Annie” Sullivan, one of the lead characters in “The Miracle Worker,” midseason last year, helped her get into the head of the person she’d be portraying on stage for the final weeks of the show’s 62nd run in the Shoals.

Khamela White, who will be entering the eighth grade at Muscle Shoals Middle next school year, was just developing her creative passions when she began to lose her sight.

Nadene Mairesse found a love for fashion design early in life, but it wasn’t until the California native moved to Colbert County in 2013 that she found a passion for more organic creative processes in her field.

Kerrigan Casey feels she’s always had a creative spirit, but more recently, she’s been using her artistic talents to create change, beginning in her Shoals hometown.

Jane Zeff, who serves as the director for summer camps and chair of the Children’s Art Committee at Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts in Florence, said she was struck by a few of her students at the end of camp last year. That moment inspired her to expand the camp this summer to students…

By Chelsea Retherford

Chaunery Tanguay will step onto the stage in Florence next week as Ren McCormack, a lead character in “Footloose the Musical,” which shares a plot and much of the same music as the 1984 film starring Kevin Bacon.

Jeremy Painter walked into Laurie Mitchell’s eighth-grade history class in 1998 and was wonderstruck. Mitchell, who was also the Mars Hill theater instructor, had a bulletin board up in the classroom of every school play and all the cast members she’d ever taught and directed.

Marianna Davis said, like most kids, she always loved “playing pretend,” as she was growing up. That love of make-believe eventually led her to try out for a school play “Peter Pan,” as a sixth grader at Muscle Shoals Middle School.

Whenever Clint Grinnell puts on the wardrobe to play Jesus in the Passion Play produced by Florence First Assembly of God, he said the role reminds him to strive to be as Christlike as he can in his day-to-day activities.

Benjamin McGee is returning to his Shoals hometown this spring a filmmaker, but the young director said he’s just getting started.

Since 2007, architectural photographer Michael Parker has shot fascinating scenes from around the globe, mostly from the seat of his bicycle. When asked about combining his two passions, he said cycling not only transformed his photography, but it also changed his view of the world.

Emily Borden and Katie Dalrymple have been involved in community theater for at least 15 years.

A former Florence High School student, Jalen Kirkman, has found his way into the spotlight as a musical theater student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.