Copious Notes

The University of Kentucky Theatre presents the final weekend of Andrew Kimbrough’s production of Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” which will offer a new spin on how you view Guignol Theatre productions. Literally, Tony Hardin’s set faces the back stage of the Guignol with three rows of seats along the back wall. The primary set consists of an living room where Nora Helmer (Alys Dickerson) watches her idyllic world fall apart in what is widely considered the first feminist play. The set, which includes a jagged wall to peek into the office of Nora’s husband Torvald’s (Chris Floyd) office and an exterior wall that flies in for some scenes and a trapdoor staircase through which characters enter and exit. Nelson Fields costumes complete the Victorian look in the production that also stars Brian Sprague as Nils Krogstad, Abby Sheridan as Kristine Linde and Jeremy Gillett as Dr. Rank.

Studio Players gets the holiday theater season going with a different take on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” The theater presents a minimalist production of Tom Mula’s “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol,” which supposes Scrooge’s redemption was Marley’s ticket out of an eternity in chains. Photos by Rich Copley | staff.

Read more about “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol.”

As promised, here’s the slideshow from the first act of Paragon Music Theatre’s Hello, Dolly! Oct. 22-25 at the Lexington Opera House.

Feature story: Adam Richard Fister has become a staple of Lexington musical theater.

Click the play button to hear a podcast of our River of Time report for WEKU-FM 88.9:

Copious Notes podcasts are available on iTunes.

The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre presents the world premier production of composer Joe Baber and librettist Jim Rodgers’ River of Time Oct. 8-10 at the Lexington Opera House. The opera, commissioned by UK Opera, looks at Abraham Lincoln’s early years including his search for purpose in his life and the roots of his desire to fight slavery. Photos by Rich Copley | staff.

Feature: Lincoln Opera portrays a ‘journey to greatness’

Six veteran Lexington musical theater performers team up with director Stephen Currens for Beguiled Again, a musical revue of the songs of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. It plays Sept. 24-Oct. 4 at the Downtown Arts Center. We caught up with the cast at a rehearsal Sept. 22. The lights and set weren’t quite together, but we got a good idea what it’s going to look like.

Press the play button to hear our podcast with Balagula Theatre co-director Ryan Case.

Copious Notes podcasts are available on iTunes.

Balagula Theatre opens its first official season Sunday, Sept. 13 with ‘B’ for Beckett (A Night of Samuel Beckett’s Plays). It kicks off a lineup of absurdist, exesstentialist theater at Natasha’s Bistro and Bar, including works by Eugene Ionesco and Jean Paul Sartre.

Read more about Balagula and Studio Players’ season opener, Agatha Christie’s The Unexpected Guest here.

And see an Unexpected Guest slide show here.

Studio Players kicks off the 2009-10 arts season in Lexington Sept. 10 with a good ol’ Agatha Christie whodunnit: The Unexpected Guest. It’s a dark night — can’t remember if it’s stormy — and a stranded traveler enters a home looking for help, but finds a woman standing over her dead husband with a gun in her hand. Rather than turn her in, the weary traveler tries to help her cover up the crime. But is it a crime she committed? And if not, who did?

The show runs through Sept. 27 at the Carriage House Theatre on West Bell Court. Click here for show and ticket information.

Read more about this show and Balagula Theatre’s ‘B’ for Beckett here and see a Beckett slide show and hear a podcast with Balagula co-director Ryan Case here.

SummerFest closes out its 2009 season with the musical Once on This Island by writer Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty. The musical tells the story of Ti Moune, a peasant girl in Haiti who believes the gods spared her life so she could save a rich boy, Daniel, and fall in love with him. The production is directed by Margo Buchanan. Performances are July 22-26 at the Arboretum on Alumni Drive. Photos by Rich Copley | staff.

Feature: UK Opera students spend summer exploring musical theater in Once on This Island.

They were going with the rain plan.

With just five days left to film, the cast and crew of Unrequited faced something they have not seen much of in the previous three weeks of filming the teen psychological thriller in Central Kentucky: precipitation. But that meant they could easily adjust to shoot a key interior scene between troubled Ben Jacobs and his ex-girlfriend Jessica Morgan.

This didn’t faze actors Michael Welch and Sarah Habel.

“We’ve got some important stuff to do today,” Habel, who just came downstairs in the secluded Scott County home where they have been filming, cheerfully saids to director Jason Epperson.

Unrequited is an important film to most everyone involved.

For Kentucky-based Lucky Day Studios, it will be the debut feature that they hope will show they are capable of making high quality films.

For Winchester native Epperson, it will be his debut feature after making a name for himself nationwide as the first runner up on the Fox film director series On the Lot.

For Welch, it’s a chance to take the lead after getting on many movie fans’ radars with his supporting role in Twilight, and fellow actors such as Habel also hope to turn heads with their performances in the gritty drama.

And for much of the Kentucky-based crew, its a chance to put their best feet forward as brand new tax incentives could potentially start attracting more film work to Kentucky.

“The crew senses this is something meaningful,” Epperson says. “We want to all be successful together.”

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SummerFest presents Patti Heying’s production of Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde July 15-19, 2009, in the Arboretum on Alumni Drive. In this version, Jekyll is played by one actor (Bob Singleton) and Hyde is played by four different actors who interact with Jekyll. Photos by Rich Copley | staff.