To be or not to be? That is the question for the proposed Shakespearean playhouse in Centennial Park.

The Nashville Shakespeare Festival Executive Director Isabel Tipton-Krispin says they have a vision that is straight out of old time London.

“ The best way to describe it is an Elizabethan playhouse, much like Shakespeare’s Globe, retrofitted to fit inside the Centennial Park bandshell.”

The plan is for a two-story structure that would go up just before the annual five-week, late-summer production and taken down when it is over. The structure would have a tower on either side and, at the top of the towers, there will be little pennant shaped flags.

Actor AndrewJohnson says, that if the playhouse gets built, it could be that, too. “It’s more of a chance to not only play to people that think theater is for them, but people that think theater is not for them.”

The Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” runs through today in Centennial Park.

Follow for more from Justin Barney and tap link in bio for the full story.

Photos: Rendering by Hastings, Alex Craft, Justin Barney

Notable quotables for the week look at Nashville’s film industry, which could be on a major upswing. Paramount Skydance is hiring and building stages in the area. There’s discourse on whether Nashville can draw the talent it would need. Metro’s new enterinment office director says she’s not worried.

Earlier this summer, WPLN and ProPublica published an investigation into a company that operates juvenile justice centers acorss the state. Lawmakers are now wanting the statehouse to conduct its own investigation.

And a semi-driver allowed his intrusive thoughts to win. He crashed his rig into the entrance of the Aldi grocery store on Gallatin Pike, causing a stir for the chain’s devotees.

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Metro Nashville has filed seven lawsuits against the federal government over funding losses since President Donald Trump began his second term.

The cases, which are jointly filed with other localities and supported by the Public Rights Project, allege that the Trump administration has acted unconstitutionally by canceling or redefining the terms around dollars that had already been appropriated by Congress.

The seven challenges can be categorized into two types: There are four lawsuits challenging federal grants that were eliminated outright, while the other three cases take issue with the federal government attaching new conditions to grants that had already been appropriated.

WPLN’s Cynthia Abrams has followed the cases and reports on where they stand.

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Photos: Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP Photo

Money from a legal settlement with Volkswagen is helping pay for more electric vehicle chargers for Tennessee renters.

The new program focuses on apartments and multi-family housing. Owners and property managers can get rebates of up to 60% of the cost for new chargers.

To understand where the funding comes from, you have to go back roughly a decade to a scandal known as “Dieselgate.” For years, VW had been marketing cars as “clean diesel,” while installing devices to cheat on emissions testing. In reality, the cars were sometimes emitting dozens of times the legal limit of pollution.

That eventually led to VW paying a $15 billion settlement, some of which helps pay for program to lower pollution and support EV adoption. In past years in Tennessee, that’s included efforts to add a statewide network of fast charging stations.

EVs have been slow to gain popularity in the state. About 5% of new passenger vehicles sold in Tennessee are EVs; that’s about half the national rate, and far behind the global average of around 25%.

Tap link in bio for the full story from environmental reporter Caroline Eggers.

Images: Anderson-EV/Unsplash

Notable quotables for the week took a dive into the common threads in Nashville’s seven ongoing lawsuits against the Trump Administration. They’re largely focused on federal funding — canceled grants, new conditions on money Congress already promised. The cases have seen early successes, with the courts at least temporarily halting the revocations.

State Rep. John Ray Clemmons is among the critics of Gov. Bill Lee’s “Choice Lanes” project on Interstate 24. The state awarded the construction and management contract to a consortium of private-sector companies called Drive TN. It spans 50 years and is expected to be worth $10 billion.

There is a lot of discussion about data center proposals in Tennessee, but Gallatin has already had a hyperscale project operating in its borders for two years. It’s the top tax revenue contributor for the city government, but it still has critics in its neighborhood.

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