About Playhouse 615
Our mission
Playhouse 615 engages, inspires, entertains and challenges audiences with theatrical productions. We train and support the next generation of theatre artists through class work and performance opportunities and feed the souls of the more seasoned performers while they "flex" their acting muscle.
We celebrate the essential power of the theatre to illuminate our common humanity. Moreover, we make theatre of the imagination. Above all, we aim to tell stories that stick somewhere in your heart, your brain or you guts.
Our Team
Ann Street-Kavanagh
Managing Director
Ann Street-Kavanagh, a Nashville native, studied Performing Arts at Western Kentucky University. She has worked as a professional actress across the United States. Some of her work includes Molly in The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Nellie in South Pacific, Adelaide in Guys & Dolls, Titania in a Florida tour of A Midsummer's Night Dream, Ste. Robert Anne in Nunsense, Annie in Misery, Faye in The Sugar Bean Sisters, Dorine in Tartuffe, Barbara in Run For Your Wife (director Philip W. McKinley), Lily St. Regis in Annie (director Philip W. McKinley), and Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes. She's done the rounds in Steel Magnolias as Shelby, Truvy, Ouiser and M'Lynn.
Ann has played both Lucy Bell and Kate Batts in Spirit, which is a yearly part of the Bell Witch Fall Festival. She took home a Best Actress award for Mama Rose in Gypsy and Mother Superior in Agnes Of God. Ann played Mary Margaret in the World Premiere of And Where Were You, Dr, Spock? and Mary in So She Lived, which was written & directed by Emmy winner Chris Boardman. She was Brandy in the mid-west premiere of Rhythm Ranch, which was featured in the Festival Of First Stage Musicals in NYC and directed by Broadway's Philip W. McKinley. Her directing credits include The Predicament, Annie, Graceland, Sleeping Beauty, Love, Sex & the IRS, Oscar & Felix, The Wizard Of Oz, and Snow White.
Ann's work includes jingles, commercials, and film as well as cruise ships and stand-up comedy. Besides her time at Western Kentucky, she studied playwriting under James Kirkwood, directing with Talia Shire and Christopher Cain, film acting with Ruth Sweet, and stand-up comedy with Leslie Norris. She taught, directed, and owned Street Performance, a children's theatre for three years. Ann also toured, recorded, and performed with legendary Vern Gosdin, "The Voice", for over ten years. She currently sings with Nashville Vocal Jazz Company and acts whenever possible!
Joel Meriwether
Artistic Director
A native Tennessean, Joel's theatre involvement goes all of the way back to high school when he auditioned for his first play, The Solid Gold Cadillac. Shortly after graduation, he moved to Michigan to attend college where he auditioned for his first college play, The Bald Soprano, and to his complete surprise, he was cast and subsequently discovered a lifelong love of the performing arts.
Thirty-seven years later, Joel holds both a Bachelor of Arts from Lipscomb University and a Master of Arts from the University of Delaware in theatre-related academic studies. He's performed in over 100 plays, including two seasons of summer stock at the renowned Cherry County Playhouse in Traverse City, MI where he had the pleasure of performing alongside Laugh-In regulars Arte Johnson, Ruth Buzzi, and Henry Gibson as part of the apprenticeship program.
Favorite professional roles include Boris Kolyenkhov in You Can't Take It With You and Scanlon in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, both at the 14th Street Playhouse in Port Huron, MI; and more recently, local audiences may have seen him as Justice Wargrave in And Then There Were None and Mr. Tierney in the TN premiere of The Birds, both at Encore Theatre Co. in Mt. Juliet. Apparently, Joel has developed a knack for playing characters who are of unsound mind!
In addition to his academic course work, he studied with acclaimed Nashville acting coach Ruth Sweet at The Actor's Studio and with Dennis Ewing (Actor's Inc.), Dorothy Marie Robinson (Nashville Public Theatre), and Jill Massie (The Dramatic Arts Studio).
In 1986, Joel directed his first play, Arsenic And Old Lace for the now defunct Chapel Playhouse in Lebanon, TN, and has gone on to direct many, many more. Favorite directorial experiences include Hedda Gabbler and The House Of Yes for Rogue Stage Ensemble, 1776 for Murfreesboro Little Theatre, Run For Your Wife and Wait Until Dark, both at Encore Theatre Company and Spirit for the Bell Witch Fall Festival in 2019.
As Joel's creative passions have evolved, he has also been influential in the formation of several theatre organizations including The Performance Factory, Rogue Stage Ensemble, and Encore Theatre Company, and now he is excited to collaborate with Ann Street-Kavanagh in the development of Playhouse 615, an arts facility dedicated to training theatre artists and producing live theatre.