(upbeat music) - Good evening tonight on the Upper Cumberland Camera we'll look at the Cookeville Summer Theater's presentation of Broadway Celebrates Two.

We'll also go to the Cookeville Country Club for highlights of the 15th annual city amateur golf tournament.

But first here's a look at the second annual Tennessee State open tennis tournament.

The second annual Tennessee State open tennis tournament took place at Tennessee Tech last weekend with more than 150 individual registrants for the two days events.

The tournament sponsored by JC Bradford and company and Cumberland Honda was a success according to Clayton Taylor tournament, organizer and Tennessee Tech tennis coach.

- It is a very, very titillating thing to do.

It's very tough and it really takes a lot of work to do.

And, but it's well worth it because last year we raised 1,000 dollars for my scholarship program.

And as of right now, I feel that we'll have somewhere between 1,500 and maybe $1,700 raised this year for this coming year scholarship program.

- Are you brothers?

- Yes, we are.

- How long have you been playing tennis?

- I've been playing about 15 1/2 years.

- Same.

- Have you played a lot together?

- 15 1/2 years.

- Okay, why you won today?

The dapples.

How do you, after all these years you just probably know where the other guy is, right?

- Yeah, it's a combination of experience and knowing where your partner is going to be at certain times and certain shots and yes, that's a major part of it.

- How long have you been?

Where did you get the interest in tennis?

- When we were both younger we got involved in it when we were both I was in junior high and he was in high school.

We both wanted to experience tennis.

Our dad played tennis and he kind of helped us out and got us started when we were younger.

And so we both quit a lot of other sports and just took up tennis at that age.

And we've stuck with tennis most of our lives.

And that's how we got involved in.

- What do you like about tennis?

- The competition getting out and it's great exercise for any ages and stuff.

Our dad still plays he's 63.

You know, it's just fun.

You meet nice people and stuff.

- How long do you have to play to be able to compete in something like this?

Do you have to practice every day to be able to come out and compete?

- I'd say at this level you would have need to have played a very, very good high school tennis.

All you would have need to have competed on a collegiate level at a university.

I competed at Auburn University.

My brother did not play in collegiate tennis but he's been very very competitive in sanctioned tournaments all across the Southeastern part of the United States.

So we've been competing in tournaments in 10 to 15 to 20 different States for the last 15 years.

So yes, you do need to have really worked hard and, you know, competed at a high level.

- You're the coach, you're now of the tennis team at check aren't you?

- Yes, ma'am.

- And how long have you been doing that for just this past year?

- I just finished my second year and we're fixing to start our third year.

And last year we were runners up in the Ohio Valley Conference.

And this year we're looking at a top three finish again.

We lost our one, two and three players but we're having some good recruits coming in and I'm expecting a good year.

- You organized this tournament to be held in Cookeville, correct?

- Yes, I did.

I invented this tournament last year.

I called the Tennessee Tennis Association and asked them if they had a Tennessee State open.

They informed me at that time that they did not.

And I asked if it was possible for me to host one here at Tennessee Tech and use it as a fundraiser for my tennis programs.

At that time, they said, yes, last year was the first year.

This is our second annual Tennessee State open and next year we'll have the third annual Tennessee State open.

- So then you did have a lot of people enter?

- Yes, we did.

We had numerous people in the older divisions meaning age divisions, meaning 25, 30 35 40 all the way to 75.

So we had singles entries all the way up to the age, 75.

And I thought that was very, very good.

There were only about one or two men's divisions that did not make.

And then in the women's we only had five singles divisions make out of about 10 or 12.

So next year I'm hoping that I can convince some of the people here in Cookeville and around this area to play.

- Now, do you have to be an amateur to play in this or can you be a professional?

- You can be an amateur or professional to play in this tournament.

This tournament can be used for rankings in the State of Tennessee for the Southern district of the United States or also for a national ranking.

- You had probably the number one tennis player in the the number one tennis player in the was Juan Escada the number tennis player in the OVC this year.

- Juan Escada was seated first at the tournament and ended up third place this year.

He had one at the two preceding year.

So in the conference, he had only lost a number of say five matches over a three-year period which is we'll probably not be better anytime soon.

It's this year, he lost one dual match and then lost in the semis of the tournament and won the third place.

Play off a third and fourth.

But yes, we had a very, very good team this year.

And, you know, it's really hard to replace your one twos and threes.

I lose my one, two and three players and next year I'm having to bring in at least three, maybe four new players.

So I've been recruiting and I'm still recruiting.

And if there's anyone out there listening, that's very good.

Give me a phone call.

- Thank you very much.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Yes, I'm Charlotte Speekman.

- I'm Cindy Bowling.

- And where are you from?

- Nashville, both of us are from Nashville.

- Do you play tennis doubles quite often together?

- Yes, Cindy and I we're good practice partners together.

And we team up and we hadn't played as much together this last year, this summer, but as we did last year but we're trying to get back together and play some.

We know each other's game pretty good.

So that's what helps us play good together.

- When you play doubles, do you kind of have like somebody played forward and somebody played back and its strengths and weaknesses of one another?

- No, what we try to do is we try to get to the net on every point.

we've found that when we play together, that if we can get to the net, then we can win most of the points.

And so that's what we try to do when we're playing.

And that's what we did today.

- Why did you come over to the tennis tournament here?

- Well, this is a sanctioned tournament and helps for your rankings as far as your State rankings.

And so it was close by and it was a good one to come up with the play.

And it's always, they always hold a good term in here.

- It's a little cooler.

There's at least a breeze today.

- Yes it is.

And the doubles, it's not the, heat's not so much of a factor because the points are shorter and basically we're just running to the net.

So heat wasn't much of a factor today.

- Okay.

Well, we thank you for anything you'd like to add?

- No, this is the good tournaments some good competition appearance.

So we'll hope to be back next year.

- Yes, thank you.

- Thank you.

- Approximately 140 golfers turned out for the 15th Annual City Amateur Golf Tournament held recently at the Cookeville Country Club for residents of Putnam County.

We spoke with tournament organizer Bobby Nichols.

- I started this tournament at iron wood golf course when I was over there in 73 and it's grown every year.

It's just gotten larger.

We have gift certificates and trophies.

This tournament is divided into three divisions.

We have the Regular Men's Championship.

Then we have a seniors division that starts at 50 years of age and older, and that's divided into two flats.

We've got about 15 or 20 seniors playing in it.

And then also I have a ladies division and we've got, we have about five or six ladies playing any, which is really good.

And I've just always felt like Cookeville needed its own city amateur.

All the other towns around in the State or a lot of them have a CD amateur championship.

And I just felt like that Cookeville needed one.

It gave, it gives the amateur golfers a chance to participate in play in their own tournament.

And it's an individual of and it's not a team event.

There's a lot of scrambles being played two man, four man scrambled.

And this way you're on your own out there.

You're not relying on someone else.

And a lot of the amateurs express feelings to me that they would like to have this type of tournament.

And this one of the reasons we have it.

This is the 15th year for this tournament.

It's been very successful.

This is probably the largest field we've ever had.

140, we have 140 increase approximately.

And, you know, that's a very successful for Cookeville and I'm happy to be a part of it and put it on.

And one of the reasons I feel that determined has gotten better each year is because of our sponsors.

We have some outstanding sponsors that do a great job to help us promote this golf tournament and the all tournaments, no term of success unless you have a sponsor 'cause entry interface alone just won't take care of it.

That'd be, it'd be very difficult to pick a winner but I would with Malcolm of fever, 66 I've got a feeling that we'll be leading the tournament.

As, you know, we've been going through a drought.

The golf course is very, very dry.

We don't have water in their fairways.

It's held up pretty good considering.

And, but our greens and trees, I feel like are probably as good as they've ever been especially our greens.

It's been very difficult to keep our greens in good shape because of the lack of rain.

But our crew has worked hard and just every day they've stayed right on top of it.

And the greens seem to be doing seems to be in real good shape.

Overall, the course will be playing a lot easier because of the firmness of the fairway.

The players are going to get a lot more row and the shell holes will be playing much shorter.

As far as the prizes goes, we have gift certificates for all of the winners plush trophies and the prizes were quite nice.

Plus we have a little goodie bag for everyone that plays in the tournament.

They get a sun visor, very nice sun visor on the golf ball and a towel and a few other items.

(upbeat music) - In the ladies division.

Let me find it.

Where is it?

Here it is.

Okay, fourth place was Ellen McGoogan with a 179.

Third place was Sandy Caswar with 168.

Second place was Catherine Brown with the 158.

In first place went to the Net Colby with 157, congratulations.

Okay, in the seniors division.

First flight fourth place went to John's Styx with 173.

There was a tie between Tom Lankford and Bob Freeman for second and third place.

And the winner of the first flight was James Fouts.

James, Okay.

Then in the championship flight in the seniors division.

And to me, I think the senior division really does something for this term.

We always have good participation and I appreciate all of them playing in it.

I guess I'm saying that because I'm getting close to that myself.

I got a guy looking forward to it.

Okay, fourth place in the senior stuff, championship flight the seniors was Walt Baker he had 159.

Third place went to coach Brown Raymond Brown he had a 155.

Second place went to Carl and Thomas he had 149.

And our defending champion he defended his championship again Sam Quarrels he had a 141.

Congratulations.

Let's play.

Okay, now you winners be there over there.

They'll be here shortly they said.

Yeah, okay.

Now you be sure all you people that won the flight you stay around so far picture, okay?

Alright, and the second flight through the seventh flight boy it's going to be difficult.

Small as this is second flight.

There was a tie for first place.

I believe I've got this right into the net.

Take a look at this.

Between Bobby Wallace and John Copa.

I don't know how that came out.

They're playing off right now.

And third place went through around general manager, Brian Plank, congratulation Brian.

And fourth place in that pick a fight went to Larry Wailer.

Okay, in the sixth flight, fourth place went to Bill Drake.

Third place went to James Maynard.

Second place went to Billy Quarles.

Congratulations, Billy.

And the winner was Dan Petersburg.

Dan, where is Dan?

Okay.

That's the six flight.

In the fair flight here was a tie for fourth place between David Carlisle and Gary Flan for third place.

I'm sorry for third place.

Second place went to Larry Mowers and the winner of the fair flight was Dave Harris.

Is Dave still here?

Is Dave Harris still here?

Okay, the fourth flight third place was a tie between Terry Kendall and Matt.

Second place went to bill McCauley and the winner of the fourth flight was Martin Millie.

In the third flight fourth place does the two way tied for fourth place between ChiP Carl and Mike Barton.

Second place went to David Draper and the winner of the third flight.

You had to find 66 today, Ted Boss, congratulations Ted.

And in the second flight fourth place there was a tie between Roy Pate and Carl Shackleford.

They're in the playoffs.

Now second place went to touch lamb and the winner of the second flight and he had a 65 today Mac Halston, congratulations man.

First flight, the first flight, we had a three-way tie for third place tie in the playoffs now Richard Burch, Al Dixon and ken Brown.

Second place in the first flight went to Scott Macmillan and the winner of the first flight was Paul Crowl.

Congratulations Paul, 142.

Now in the championship flight, in the championship flight we had a four-way tie for third place Malcolm Lefevre, Gary franklin, Kim McMillan and Bob Garland all shot 144.

They're in a playoff right at this particular moment.

Second place in the championship flight with a 141 went to Kevin Boss.

Congratulations Kevin.

And the winner of this year's tournament this is the fourth or fifth time that he's won the fourth time or fifth?

Fifth time that Doug's won this tournament, he played a great round of golf 65-69 for first place with a 134 Doug Stanford.

Congratulations Doug.

Good playing, great playing.

We're proud of you Doug.

It's always a good tournament.

It's the best run tournament in town.

- Do you find this course easy or difficult to play or are certain areas challenging?

- Well, it's playing real short right now because it's so dry.

Probably playing easier than it's ever played.

- I just feel like this was one of the best ones we've ever had and I guess like I said I'm kind of tired and I'm ready to take a break.

- Broadway Celebrates Two.

Opens Friday night at the Cookville Drama Center and will be performed on three consecutive weekends in July.

If you love Broadway music and would like to hear all your favorites in one place then this is the show for you.

Broadway celebrates love, youth, freedom, comedy and a whole lot more in this review featuring music and dance.

We talked to choreographer Bruce Anderson about the performance.

- We started several weeks ago doing the big dance numbers which take the most time.

And we rehearsed those in the dance studio owned by the Cookville Movement Dance Arts Center.

And following a week of intensive rehearsals there we all began to meet together over here and once the big numbers are completed the big dance numbers then we start adding the the ensemble numbers.

The groups of two or more people on stage and at that point we throw in sort of a lot of other blocking.

Some of it is thoroughly planned and some of it is sort of spur of the moment.

But we start putting it together a song at a time and we have to work around the numbers of people.

What they're doing, what the song's saying, what the show it's from, was about.

And so we've been staying quite busy around here.

- Is there one special production number in Broadway Celebrates Two that you like better than the others?

- Oh no I could get shot.

- Yes because I'm listening.

- A production number that I like better than the others.

All of the numbers have some very strong, strong points and some very strong people in them.

And it's hard to make that decision.

I suppose one of the things that I enjoyed putting together the most was the segment from chorus line.

I hope I get it which is the opening number from the show where all of the dancers are on stage auditioning for parts.

And we tried in the number to make it look like an audition.

Even to the point of saying mess up here because you would make a mistake in an audition.

You know, so that's the one I guess that I care the most about because we spent more time on that one probably than anything else.

But it's certainly not the singular good thing in the good number in the show.

It's just one that I suppose I'd have to confess as a favorite.

♪ Now, I hope I get it ♪ ♪ I hope I get it.

♪ ♪ How many people does he need?

♪ ♪ How many boys, how many girls?

♪ ♪ I know the people ♪ ♪ I know the people ♪ ♪ How many people does he need?

♪ ♪ How many people does he need?

♪ ♪ How many people does I need?

♪ ♪ I really need this job.

♪ ♪ Please God, I need this job.

♪ ♪ My God I need this job.

♪ - Marie can you tell me a little bit about what the stage crew does.

- Sure we do everything.

Once the curtain opens it's our responsibility to make sure that the set gets where it's supposed to be that the actors get on stage.

You know, during a blackout the audience is out there they probably we hope don't notice anything going on but we're scurrying around back here like little animals and we change all the set and pull the ropes and do whatever needs to be done to make sure that the next scene can carry on.

- Marie would you like to introduce your stage crew.

- I'd be glad to.

Way over there is Carolyn Hawkins and next to carol is Elizabeth Jones, and then on the back rows Wendy Clement and then Diana Baranowski and missing is Barry Daniel.

But that's all of us.

- Okay, just one more interesting thing you are a lawyer, correct?

- Yes I am.

- And why are you in summer theater?

- I just love theater.

I was in theater before I was a lawyer.

So I just really enjoy it.

- And what do you generally do for a living?

Are you housewife or?

- oh I'm getting, I'm hoping to get a teaching career hear that Bob Hargis (laughs) in Putnam county.

- But you just like participating in summer theater.

- Oh yes I've been involved in a children's theater, high school local theater since I was in grade school.

- Carolyn as we know you already have a job as a teacher in Putnam County.

- Yeah, that's right donna I do I work at the junior high school.

- And so why are you involved in summer theater?

- Well I like theater and it's been a while since I've been working with summer theater and I do the flying, the various items that come down on bars and so forth during the show.

And I enjoy it.

I've missed it and I'm glad to be back.

- Now you as I said, you look young you must be a student.

- Yeah I am.

I go to VCA in Sparta.

- And you enjoy summer theater why?

- Because it gets me out and do things that have been home all summer long aboard.

- Diana we know that you're a legal secretary and a housewife why are you involved?

- I just I'm involved because I like working with the people.

I think theater is interesting and I'm more interested to work backstage because that's a lot more fun than have to be out here and be nervous in front of everybody all the time.

We can goof off a lot more backstage.

- So you all have a good time?

- Yes, we sure do.

- We work hard we don't have a good time.

- Yeah, we're all working back here.

- [Together] Yeah.

- That's it, that's it.

♪ Once you have found her never let her go.

♪ ♪ Once you have found her never let her go.

♪ - We're talking to Jean John Senior and you're back at summer theater after a little bit of a vacation.

- Well, we were constantly with it for about 13 years straight from this beginning Jean Junior started out with the first one then dot and I went 12 years straight after that.

And since then we've taken a little break from it but we got back into it this time.

- What do you like about summer theater?

- Well it gives you a chance to see what you can do.

Sometimes you wonder whether you can do it or not.

- Is it good to be back with summer theater?

- Yes it is.

I miss the friends you really make a lot of friends this way and they're sort of like family.

- And you're singing in duet, right?

- That's right.

- Why are you such a singing family?

- We just enjoy it.

- But you've all gone.

I don't know I haven't heard your voices yet.

So I can't say I've heard Jean Senior and he has a beautiful voice.

So it must run in the family.

- Well I don't know about that maybe a little of it but we enjoy singing together.

We don't really sing that much together to take the time to do it and in summer theater you have to take the time to do it.

If you're going to be in it.

- Do you like doing summer theater?

- Oh yes, I really do as dad said if we I started out with the first one phineas rainbow.

I don't even remember what year that was but then we were in just almost straight for several years and then I had to go to the surface for a couple of years.

And so I missed a couple there then got back in and after sound of music I took a little rest from that and this is the first one since then.

But I guess that was one I really enjoyed most.

♪ I know that how I've been feeling.

♪ ♪ Just to know to know how you wanna need.

♪ ♪ The all power and feeling ♪ - Okay marge what exciting, exciting thing is there to see in Broadway Celebrates Two.

- Well I think let's see there's a lot of new dance in this one we've added.

You know, we've taken a little bit away from what we had before and added some new numbers.

A lot of new dance stuff in it, a lot of new people in it, and then of course my love is the fact that the old covers are coming back like the John's family that you just interviewed.

Because they've been more involved I think as a family as we've had as many as five John's in one show.

And little Jean I shouldn't call him that but he's I've known him since he was this big.

I was in the very first summer theater show.

- Now you say you have a newcomer here would you introduce her?

- It's Janna Grier and she's a Norwegian from Norway and I'm a Norwegian from Norway too halfway.

- Okay.

- She's great, she's got just a gorgeous voice.

- And what are you going to do in the show?

- Well a little bit everything.

Friend of mine asked me that the other day he says how involved are you?

And I said well I said I've got about four solos and three dance numbers and several chorus parts he says you know he says you really are involved.

I said yeah and having a good time.

- There's something different about seeing real people performing on stage.

People that, you know, people that you see on Sunday at church or at Kroger, in the meat department whatever.

It's just enjoyable to see people that, you know, performing on a stage and it's often surprising to folks who are not aware that the person who sits next to them every Sunday may have this performer's heart that beats within them.

- And that's the Upper Cumberland Camera for tonight.

Next week studio 22 with Becky Mavira will feature visitors from Northern Ireland.

A look at the upcoming Upper Cumberland walking horse show.

And Les Baronowski will tell us about the class afloat project from Poland.

(upbeat music)