Copious Notes

Scott Terrell conducts the Lexington Philharmonic and the Kentucky State University Gospel Ensemble. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com

Here are some photos from Saturday night’s rousing concert by Scott Terrell and the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra with guests the Kentucky State University Gospel Ensemble and Grammy Award-winning vocal group Take 6.

The Kentucky State University Gospel Ensemble performs More Abundantly at the Singletary Center for the Arts.

The Kentucky State University Gospel Ensemble performs More Abundantly at the Singletary Center for the Arts.

If you want to read more about it, check out Tedrin Blair Lindsay’s review at LexGo.com and Walter Tunis’ take on Take 6 at his blog, The Musical Box.

The Kentucky State University Gospel Ensemble performs with the Lexington Philharmonic at the Singletary Center for the Arts.

The Kentucky State University Gospel Ensemble performs with the Lexington Philharmonic at the Singletary Center for the Arts.

Scott Terrell conducts the Lexington Philharmonic and the Kentucky State University Gospel Ensemble.

The Kentucky State University Gospel Ensemble performs with the Lexington Philharmonic at the Singletary Center for the Arts.

Take 6 - (L-R) Cedric Dent, Alvin Chea, Joey Kibble, Claude McKnight, Mark Kibble and David Thomas - opened its set at the Singletary Center with Bless this House.

Cedric Dent and Alvin Chea of Take 6 perform Bless This House to open their Singletary Center concert.

Alvin Chea, Claude McKnight and Joey Kibble of Take 6 perform Smile at the Singletary Center.

Take 6 performs Wade in the Water and gets the Singletary Center audience involved.

Transylvania University Theatre’s new rock ‘n’ roll version of Euripides’ 405 B.C. Greek tragedy The Bakkhai is on stage at the Lucille C. Little Theatre through Nov. 13. Click the play button to see a slide show from the production and here to read more about it.

The University of Kentucky Theatre opens its new production of Stephen Currens and David Aldrich’s Gorey Stories, which premiered at UK in the mid-1970s and went all the way to Broadway. Enjoy Angela Baldridge’s photos from the production, above, and read more about the show here.

There is no actual Red Barn, just like there’s no Grand Ole Opry.

“You create the vision in your mind,” says Ed Commons, producer and director of Red Barn Radio, the Bluegrass radio showcase heard each week at 9 p.m. Saturdays on WEKU-FM 88.9 and 11 p.m. Saturdays on WUKY-FM 91.3. “You can imagine about the music. You hear the interviews and the people. It’s a place people would like to have grown up, a place they would like to go in their hectic lives today where we’re just a little kick back, and you can hear music of another time.”

And its a place that is recreated most Wednesday nights at ArtsPlace in Downtown Lexington.

There, in the theater behind the gallery and offices of LexArts, Commons, host Brad Becker and the rest of the Red Barn crew gather to put on a radio show that brings in Bluegrass musicians from emerging artists to established stars such as this week’s guest, Dale Ann Bradley, three-time International Bluegrass Music Association female vocalist of the year.

Early Wednesday evening a banner hangs over the Church Street side door of ArtsPlace directing guests up a short flight of stairs into the theater where the show is recorded.

A pair of folding tables is set up with CDs from some of the show’s artists, swag from the radio stations, pizza from show sponsor Dominos and coffee.

Within a whiff of the pizza, Becker chats with Charles and Mary Farmer, a couple that drives up from Stanton four or five times a year for Red Barn tapings.

“It’s a fun evening’s entertainment,” Charles says. “And for $5, what more can you ask for.”

Unlike its rootsy-radio sibling, Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour, which tapes Monday nights at the Kentucky Theatre, Red Barn doesn’t try to record a show in real time. The artists play several sections of four-to-six songs, and they take a couple breaks for Becker to conduct interviews. Commons will later splice the parts together to form a 59-minute show.

“We call the live show ‘gathering our assets,’” Commons says. “We try to gather a minimum of 40 minutes of music recorded, Brad does a couple interviews, and we also do a live give-away each week for our audience.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Paragon Music Theatre offers up its first ever full production at the Lexington Opera House in the summertime with The Sound of Music, July 30-Aug. 1 and Aug. 6-8. Click the arrows above to see our photos from the show, and click here to read more about the show’s star, Sydney Steele.

Slideshow photos by Mark Cornelison | Herald-Leader

Many people spend their days in downtown Lexington offices ­crunching numbers, manipulating the English language and engaging in strategy sessions. The folks at ­Lexington Children’s Theatre solve problems like how to turn an ­actor into a blueberry and make pink ­squirrels come to life on stage.

“Even in my job, where I spend most of my days writing checks, people will come ask me to help build a blueberry, and then I’ve spent half an hour working on a blueberry,” says Lesley Farmer, managing director at the Children’s Theatre.

Resident designer and costume director Eric Abele (with sketch pad), associate education director Amie Dunn (with pink squirrel), and director Jeremy Kisling are the team behind the Lexington Children's Theatres production of "Willy Wonka." Copyrighted photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Resident designer and costume director Eric Abele says, “I ­absolutely love to talk about my job on ­Facebook because I get to say, ‘Today, I ­reinforced blue hammers for pink squirrels, and I have the coolest job in the world,’ because I do.”

These days, the Children’s ­Theatre staff has put the coolness into ­overdrive in preparing for its ninth annual summer family musical: Willy Wonka.

Although the Children’s Theatre and Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have been around for decades, this is the first time the two have met in a full-blown LCT production.

A big reason, co-director Jeremy Kisling says, is the many challenges that Dahl’s story presents to a stage adaptation.

True, there have been two movies, the latest being the 2005 Tim Burton version, which took full advantage of current CGI technology. But tricks like turning an actor into a blueberry — which happens to Violet, one of the five children touring the factory, when she chews gum she isn’t supposed to — on film is far different from ­doing the same thing on stage.

“It needed to be quick, it needed to be easy for ­someone to manipulate, it needed to appear out of ­nowhere, it needed to go away really quickly and it needed to be huge,” Abele says. “So we actually had a lot of meetings to determine what this thing could actually be, and the thing we came upon was the idea of a paper lantern.”

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SummerFest closes out the 2010 season with Rent, through July 25. Given the show’s stature in recent theater history and this being the first locally-produced version of it, we’ve been giving it some extensive  coverage, so here’s a little Rent reader:

• Review: Rent
• Rent recalls scariest days of AIDS
• Profile of Johnny Dawson who plays Roger
• Rent roles a dream come true for local actors
• Audio slideshow from Rent rehearsals
• Copious Notes Rent notebook

For the cast of SummerFest‘s production of Rent, this week is the culmination of a journey that, for many, started the first weekend of the year. For numerous performers, it’s also the fulfillment of a long-held dream to play the characters and sing the songs from a show that, to them, is much more than a ground-breaking and award-winning musical. Click play, above, to hear and see more.

Read more: Life imitates art as Rent cast forges emotional connections

Read more:

• Candace Chaney’s review of Pride and Prejudice
• Becoming Darcy
• Mother-daughter act

With the men in high collars and tailcoats and women in long dresses, this summer night has the air of an aristocratic garden party in the Arboretum.

That’s close to what is happening onstage in ­SummerFest’s production of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which runs through Sunday night. But backstage, where we are, its much more of a variety show, from card den to track meet to tailor shop to knitting circle, all played out with the hush of a library.

Backstage at the annual outdoor summer theater ­festival is quite different from a traditional theater, folks involved with the festival say, and not just because of the bugs and the heat.

“It’s much more ­communal,” says Tim Hull, who plays several roles in Pride and Prejudice. “In most theaters, everyone is off in their dressing rooms backstage and you don’t see a lot of each other. Here, we’re all out in this space, and we sort of have to stay in it.”

When offstage, the ­actors have to stay in a fairly confined area directly behind the stage. Otherwise, the audience might see Tom Phillips (Mr. Darcy), making funny faces at microphone technician Kim Dixon; or Stephanie Peniston (Lady Catherine) not wearing her gray wig and working a crossword puzzle.

If you were ­wondering if those jackets and ­complicated shirts are hot on the men, yes they are. Read the rest of this entry »

Rains Tuesday delayed construction on the set for SummerFest’s Pride and Prejudice‘s. But crews – including cast members from other SummerFest shows – worked through the night and Jon Jory’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic is set to open under clear skies tonight.

Read more: SummerFest’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ has a real mother-daughter act
Read more: SummerFest’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ has a real mother-daughter act
Read more: SummerFest’s Pride and Prejudice a real mother-daughter act