Copious Notes

Warren Hammack, the longtime artistic director of Horse Cave Theatre, will be at the Kentucky Book Fair Saturday in Frankfort to support a new book of plays that premiered at the theatre during his tenure.

World Premiers from Horse Cave Theatre compiles 14 scripts from writers including Sallie Bingham, Billy Edd Wheeler and Liz Bussey Fentress, who co-edited the book with Hammack. From 9:30 until 11 a.m. Saturday, Hammack, Fentress and other actors will present cuts from plays featured in the anthology in the Glass Room of the Capitol Plaza Hotel, adjacent to the Book Fair. They will then be at the fair, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to sign books and talk to visitors.

During his years at Horse Cave, now Kentucky Repertory Theatre, Hammack established a tradition of presenting new works from Kentucky authors, some of which were filmed and presented on KET, through a project called Kentucky Voices. The anthology, published by Motes Books of Louisville, includes a preface from Hammack, an afterword from Fentress and notes from the playwrights about their shows and the productions of them.

Tom Eblen writes about the Book Fair and Kentucky’s literary tradition.

Dave Shuffett, host of "Kentucky Life" and a KET producer, teamed with author Neil Chethik to produce a KET special "FatherLoss," based on Chethik's best-selling book of the same name. Photo by Rich Copley | staff.

Dave Shuffett thought he was prepared for the death of his father.

Bill Shuffett had lived a full life before dying two years ago at age 84. By his son’s account, he was a hero dad, a guy who passed up the chance to play baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals to serve in World War II, where he earned several honors, including a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

Later, after a divorce, he became a single father of three until he remarried.

Young Dave Shuffett with his father, Bill. Photo courtesy of KET.

“He was this baseball star, war-hero dad who came home and devoted his life to his kids,” Shuffett, host of Kentucky Life on Kentucky Educational Television, says of his dad, who lived in Greensburg. “He was, for me, larger than life.”

He lived a complete, long life. And Dave figured he would be ready to carry on after the inevitable.

But his life fell apart.

“When we lost him, my whole world turned upside down,” says Shuffett.

He was on a lonely journey, thinking he was a unique case until he found a book while doing an Internet search: FatherLoss: How Sons of All Ages Come to Terms With the Deaths of Their Dads.

It was the only book he could find on the subject, and he was surprised to find that the author, Neil Chethik, lives in Lexington.

Shuffett reached out to Chethik, and initially thought about doing a segment on the book on Kentucky Life.

But KET programming director Craig Cornwell saw more.

“Dave was really hurting after his father died, and I didn’t think five minutes was enough time to express it,” Cornwell said. “It had the makings of a good story.”

Shuffett’s journey weaves through the half-hour FatherLoss: A Kentucky Life Special, which premieres at 8 p.m. Saturday, the day before Father’s Day.

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Joseph-Beth Booksellers has announced that Joe Scarborough, a former Republican Congressman from Florida who now hosts the hit political chat show Morning Joe on MSNBC, will be at the Lexington Green store at 7 p.m. June 24.

Joe Scarborough.

Scarborough will be there to sign copies of his new book, The Last Best Hope. In the book, Scarborough, “tells Republican Party bosses what they don’t want to hear, explains why Democrats are making matters so much worse, and then shows leaders of both parties the way forward,” according to a Joseph-Beth press release. On Morning Joe, Scarborough has been critical of President Barack Obama and the Democratic-led congress, but also has harsh words for his own Republican Party and its leadership.

Line tickets are required for the signing and are available with a purchase of The Last Best Hope at Jospeh-Beth.

The screen rights to Eastern Kentucky University creative writing professor Derek Nikitas‘ novel Pyres have been optioned by Andrew Fierberg of Vox3 Films, which has produced films such as this year’s Rage starring Judi Dench and Jude Law.

Derek Nikitas. Photo from St. Martin's Press.

The 2007 novel is about a rebellious teenage girl dealing with criminal conspiracies surrounding her father’s death and the detective investigating the murder. The book was nominated for an Edgar Award, one of the top honors in mystery writing, for best first novel. The screenplay is being developed by writer and director James Ponsoldt, whose first feature film was Off the Black, a Sundance Festival official entry starring Nick Nolte.

Nikitas’ next novel, The Long Division, is coming out in November.

Silas House looks on as "Long Time Travelling" director Richard St. Peter looks through the script to his first play, "The Hurting Part." Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Click the play button to hear our interview with Silas House:

Copious Notes podcasts are available on iTunes.

There’s just one weekend left in the world-premier production of Silas House’s new play, Long Time Travelling at Actors Guild of Lexington. It’s been an indisputable hit, with AGL having to add performances to accommodate the sell-out crowds.

We couldn’t let this production go without giving you a chance to hear some of our conversation with House — and simply a chance to hear that distinctive voice. In our podcast, House talks about Long Time Travelling’s theme of change, and how it applies to the play, his life and some of the causes he’s taken up, such as his opposition to mountaintop removal coal mining.

In addition to his fiction, House recently published Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fight Mountaintop Removal, a non-fiction book about mountaintop removal with co-author Jason Howard.

Long Time Travelling has four more performances this weekend, and House will give a pre-show chat at 7 p.m. Saturday, prior to the 8 p.m. performance.

Centre College’s 2009 commencement ceremonies will have a little Hollywood glitter with the address being delivered by highly successful film director Jerry Bruckheimer and his wife, Linda Bruckheimer.

Jerry and Linda Bruckheimer at Keeneland Race Track in 2004. Herald-Leader photo by Janet Worne.

Jerry Bruckheimer’s producing successes have included blockbuster epics such as the Pirates of the Caribbean series and modest stories such as Glory Road. He has also produced TV ratings juggernauts such as CSI and The Amazing Race. Linda Bruckheimer was the original west coast editor of Mirabella magazine and is the author of two best-selling novels, Dreaming Southern and the Southern Belles of Honeysuckle Way. An active preservationist, her efforts have included several buildings in Bloomfield, Ky. The Bruckheimers have a farm near Bloomfield.

Centre’s commencement will take play May 24 in Danville.

Silas House listens as Missy Johnson and rest of the cast of "A Long Time Traveling" read through the play in the lobby of the Downtown Arts Center on March 12, 2009. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

“I didn’t write an Appalachian play,” Silas House said before a group of actors dove into his latest script. “I wrote a rural play.”

Thus began the Lily author’s second journey to the stage. House, author of Clay’s Quilt and other best sellers, first wrote for the theater in 2005 when the University of Kentucky Theatre premiered The Hurting Part. This time, House’s theatrical voice is in the hands of Actors Guild of Lexington, which will open his A Long Time Traveling April 23 for a four-weekend run at the Downtown Arts Center.

Thursday night, the author gathered with the cast for the first time. It was the group’s second time reading through the show, and House’s first time hearing his words.

Members of the cast received a CD House, also a sought after Nashville press kit writer, had mixed of 22 songs he said were representative of characters or scenes from the show.

• Long Time Traveler by The Wailin’ Jennys — “Another thesis of the play. Life’s a journey and all that.”
• Bend by Ben Sollee — “What these characters have to learn to do in their relationships.”
• Denomination Blues by Rodney Crowell — “The way Adam feels about religion and the point the play is trying to make.”

Adam (Josiah Correll) is an auto mechanic who’s discovered a love for literature, much to his bride’s chagrin. Said bride, Lora (Hayley Williams), is devoted to the memory of her late father, a fundamentalist preacher in their small town. But things are changing, including her mother and her husband, and it’s putting a strain on their young marriage.

Much of the discussion at Thursday night’s read through centered on trying to find authentic voices for the characters, Alyssa Graves, who plays the left-of-center Diva, getting particular praise for an accent that sounded authentically similar but separate from the rest of her family.

After the rehearsal, House marveled at how Williams, Missy Johnson who plays Lora’s mother, and Graves whose character is their cousin, looked alike.

“The casting is just amazing,” House said.

Playwrighting is a process of writing, rewriting, seeing what works and what doesn’t, and that is the process this crew is headed into. When the rehearsal was over, House snapped his notebook closed, said, “I know what to fix,” and headed into the snowy downtown Lexington night for the drive back to Lily.

But he will be back plenty of times between now and opening night.

"The Chronicles of Narnia's" Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) may have let out his final roar on film.

If you are one of the Chronicles of Narnia enthusiasts who thinks book three, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, was the best of the C.S. Lewis series, you can stop waiting for your cinematic ship to sail . . . at least from Disney.

Over the holidays, the Mouse announced it will not pick up its option to co-produce more films from the Narnia series with Walden Media. The studio said in a faltering economy it had to be choosier about the films it produced. Last summer’s Prince Caspian, the second in the Narnia series, was considered a disappointment after the success of the first film in the franchise, 2005’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which doubled Caspian’s domestic box office gross of $141.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

News was no better for another fantasy franchise, The Golden Compass, as Warner Bros. Pictures passed on producing its sequel after a disappointing performance by the first film over the 2007 hoiliday season.

It doesn't look like Dakota Blue Richards will get to reprise her role as Lyra in "The Golden Compass" sequel. Photo by Laurie Sparham | New Line.

We often complain Hollywood makes too many sequels, however these are two a lot of people wanted to see. But it doesn’t seem enough people were interested to justify the expense of more CGI-heavy epics.

Both cases illustrate why it’s hard to build a literary-based franchise.

They were all the rage earlier this decade, as the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series swept into theaters, wowing viewers and leaving them itching for the next installments. As with any success, Hollywood wanted more, and the Narnia and Golden Compass series seemed like logical places to turn. Narnia has long fascinated readers, particularly Christians who had been flexing some financial muscle in the entertainment industry with successes such as The Passion of the Christ and a growing audience for contemporary Christian music. And Compass was from author Philip Pullman’s hit His Dark Materials series.

If the stories did as well on screen as they did on the page, Disney and New Line Cinema, Compass‘ original home, had built in tentpoles for several blockbuster seasons to come, like Potter and Rings.

But there were flaws with each series.

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