Copious Notes

The Downtown Lexington Corporation’s Kentucky Star awards will be presented tonight to two well-known, active artists in Kentucky and a well-known entertainer from the early 20th Century.

The awards, which will be presented in a 6 p.m. ceremony at the Downtown Arts Center, will go to University of Kentucky Opera Theatre and American Spiritual Ensemble director Everett McCorvey; author, activist and playwright Silas House, and magician and hypnotist William Preston Slusher.

McCorvey, who lives in Lexington, has directed the opera program at UK since 1991. During his tenure, the opera program has risen to national prominence and UK Opera Theatre has become one of Lexington’s most popular performing arts groups. McCorvey is also a well-known tenor-soloist and founded the Spiritual Ensemble, which performs throughout the U.S. and Europe.

House, who lives in Lily, is a best-selling author of novels such as The Coal Tattoo and Clay’s Quilt. He has two forthcoming books: Something’s Rising: Appalachian’s Fighting Mountaintop Removal, due March 17, and Eli the Good, due in September. House is also a music journalist and anti-mountaintop removal activist. His second play, Long Time Traveling, produced by Actors Guild of Lexington, will open at the Downtown Arts Center April 23.

Slusher was born in Pineville in 1915 and became a self-taught magician, initially touring around Eastern Kentucky and eventually becoming known nationwide.  He also became known as a impressario, booking entertainers such as Bob Hope and Tex Ritter at Fort Meade, Maryland during World War II. He eventually helped launch some of the first summer outdoor musicals in Kentucky.

The stars will be honored with their names in stars on Main Street in front of the Downtown Arts Center.  The ceremony is free and open to the public.

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.