Copious Notes

Missy Johnsston, Chris Rose and Robbie Morgan are members of a love triangle in Samuel Beckett's "Not I," which will be presented in the Community Theater Festival at the Southeastern Theatre Conference in Lexington, March 4-6. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Usually, as February turns into March, many Lexington theater practitioners are packing their bags to head south to the Southeastern Theatre Conference‘s annual convention.

But this year, they’re keeping their clothes in their closets, preparing to play gracious hosts as 4,000 theater folk descend on Lexington.

“Most years I spend all my days in auditions and callbacks,” says Larry Snipes, producing director of the Lexington Children’s Theatre. “This year, we’ll be busy managing a festival site.”

The Children’s Theatre will be in the heart of the action for the four-day event, which runs Wednesday through Saturday.

Roseanne Mingo, destination sales account executive with the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau says taking up six hotels and numerous venues, SETC is one of the larger conventions to come to town. She says she conservatively estimates its economic impact at $1.2 million.

For the most part, the convention will take place in the blocks along Broadway between High and Short streets. The University of Kentucky’s Guignol Theatre will also be a venue for the SETC high school theater festival, which will include Lexington’s Paul Laurence Dunbar High School as a participant.

A quartet of theater festivals – children’s, high school, college and community – is one of the major facets of the festival, which also includes massive auditions where theater companies from across the country hire actors, and more than 300 seminars and workshops.

“It is a busy, busy, busy three days,” Lexington Children’s Theatre education director Jeremy Kissling says.

SETC director Betsy Baun says Snipes and the LCT crew were keys to attracting the convention back to Lexington for the first time since 1978.

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