Copious Notes

Walter Tunis as Falstaff, Jesse Hungerford as Edward (Ned) Poins and Trent Fucci as Prince Hal rehearse SummerFest's production of William Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part 1," being presented July 8-12 at the Arboretum on Alumni Drive. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

Trent Fucci was doing what was normal for guys in his family.

His grandfather, Dominic Anthony Fucci, was an All-American in football and baseball at the University of Kentucky in the late 1940s, and he briefly played for the Detroit Lions in the National Football League.

His father, Sam Fucci, was a baseball and track standout at Tates Creek High School and played baseball for Auburn University. His uncle, Dominic Anthony Fucci Jr., was the 1975 Kentucky Mr. Basketball who also played baseball for Auburn and was drafted by the Chicago White Sox, making it to the teams’ Triple A affiliate.

Trent’s cousin, Ryan Fucci, is currently a baseball standout at Tates Creek.

As Trent was getting started in sports, playing T-Ball, his mom, Holly Fucci, noticed that whenever he wasn’t on the field, he was over at the stands, “entertaining the audience,” Fucci recalls, catching himself referring to sports fans as, “the audience.”

Fucci says, “My mom said, ‘We need to get you into a theater program.’”

And he did do some theater, in school at Tates Creek. But he also stayed with sports, all the way through his Freshman year at Transylvania University, where he played baseball.

“Finally, it became apparent that I needed to focus on theater,” Fucci says.

And his stage career since is another example why as much as we watch college sports programs to look for future sports stars, it’s also worth watching the stages for future marquee actors.

Fucci has gone on to graduate school at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, where he will spend his last year, the 2010-11 academic year, as an intern at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater.

And it was Orlando and the prestigious Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival that helped point Fucci toward his biggest role in his hometown.

Looking for a monologue to perform in the Festival, a couple of University of Central Florida professors pointed Fucci to Prince Hal from William Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I. Fucci’s performance of the monologue that ends Act I earned him the classical acting award in the competition.

This week, Fucci will expand his performance of that role from a signature monologue to the entire show in SummerFest’s production of Henry IV, Part I.

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Actors Walter Tunis and Adam Luckey chat with director Joe Ferrell during a rehearsal of "Antony and Cleopatra" for last year's SummerFest. Ferrell will direct "Henry IV, part 1," this summer. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Kentucky Classical Theatre Conservatory’s Summerfest, held annually at the Arboretum across from Commonwealth Stadium, has unveiled its lineup of three plays, none of which have been presented in the Arboretum in the past decade. They are:

• Henry IV, Part 1, July 8-12: Joe Ferrell directs William Shakespeare’s story of King Henry trying to maintain the throne and a relationship with his hard-drinking son and heir.
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, July 15-19: An adaptation of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s story by Jeffrey Hatcher, whose work has been seen locally at Lexington Children’s Theatre and Actors Guild of Lexington. Patty Heying will direct.
• Once On This Island, July 22-26: Margo Buchanan directs the Caribbean musical by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, whose hits have included Ragtime, Seussical, Island and music for 20th Century Fox’s animated Anastasia.

Performances will be at 8:45 p.m. Weds.-Sun., at the Arboretum on Alumni Drive. Tickets will go on sale in June for $10 adults and $5 children 12 and under. Season tickets to all three shows will be $25 adults and $12 children.

Auditions will be at 4 p.m. April 4 and 5 at the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre’s Schmidt Vocal Arts Center, 412 Rose St. For more information visit the SummerFest website.