Copious Notes

I was trying to break a wide-angle addiction when I took this shot of Luther Lewis III rehearsing for UK Opera Theatre's "It's a Grand Night for Singing." But here, the14mm lens caught the majesty of Luther's voice and the moment.

When producer Jeffrey Day (left) and director Jason Epperson (right) suggested we meet at the pool of a horse farm where they would be shooting their forthcoming feature, "Unrequited," it seemed like a cool opportunity for a portrait with a little "Hollywood in the Bluegrass" feel.

This was the second year I spent covering my beat with a camera in my hands a lot of the time. As I said, last year, covering stories as a writer and a photographer is an interesting approach, because you are instinctively trying to match these images to the story you are writing in your head. Or, in the case of slide shows I put together, you are trying to come up with images that tell the story.

Here are some of my favorite shots from 2009 and the stories behind them. Over the holiday weeks, I also encourage you to look out for year end packages from our amazing staff photographers. I know at least one great Lexington arts image is in that group too.

I have to confess, one of the reasons to get out the Lexington Children's Theatre's "Celebrity Celebration" show was the prospect of seeing State Sen. Kathy Stein and Lexington Legends founder Alan Stein as Becky Thatcher and Tom Sawyer.

Shooting shows has really enhanced my appreciation for set and lighting design, and I thought these next two shots of Jennifer Parr singing "Hello Young Lovers" in Paragon Music Theatre's "The King and I" (above) and Adam Luckey in SummerFest's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (below) really showed exquisite work.

Shooting Lexington Philharmonic guest conductor Mei-Ann Chen in a March rehearsal, at one point I chose a spot next to the violins to capture some of Chen's big expressions as she was exhorting the orchestra. I think my positioning really annoyed one of the violinists, so I tried to make quick work of the shot, which Chen helped with by concentrating on the violins for a moment. When Weekender page designer Randy Medema chose this shot to run with the story, I was really happy he validated my choice of locations -- apologies to the violins.

I don't think any actor ended up in front of my lens this year as much as this UK kid, Jeremy Gillett -- this would also indicate he's a really good actor who keeps getting cast. This moment was from a rehearsal of UK Theatre's "The African Company presents Richard III" in which Jeremy played the passionate Papa Shakespeare.

A few weeks before Studio Players' production of "Always Patsy Cline" opened, I went out to see Patsy, aka Heather Parrish, perform with her band, June July at Lower 48, which is now closed. It gave us a chance to see some of that Patsy spirit in Parrish, and another dimension to her music. Manning the bass is Ethan Hayen.

One of the cool things about being on the set of "Unrequited" in July was seeing some local talent I've covered for years, like sound engineer Wes Kawaja here, working with Hollywood talent like "Twilight's" Michael Welch, who Wes is wiring up.

Shooting drama, you like to get a picture that tells the story, and I thought this one did it for SummerFest's "Once on This Island." The Gods -- Erzulie (Alicia Helm McCorvey), Papa Ge (Jason Thompson) and Asaka (Tamera Izlar) -- conspire to play havoc with the life of Ti Moune (Tai-Kristin Smedley).

A cool thing about this job is when someone calls you up and says something like, "Want to come hear one of the first readings of Silas House's new play." Here, House listens as Missy Johnston reads some of his words in "Long Time Travelling."

And then, a few weeks later, you see the show on stage. In the world premier production of House's play at Actors Guild, Josiah Correll and Hayley Williams were Adam and Lora, childhood sweethearts who've grown apart in marriage.

Sad story behind this image. After an interview with Actors Guild artistic director Richard St. Peter and managing director Kimberly Shaw to talk about the theater's plans for the future, we went down to the Distillery District to see their new Manchester Street office, which was formerly Theo Edmonds' gallery. A month later, the theater lost its funding from LexArts and both St. Peter and Shaw left to pursue other opportunities.

I went out to shoot The City, a new band formerd to play fundraising gigs for not-for-profit groups, the day after Derby. Usually, the day after Derby, you want to just sit and stare out into space. But the music and moments like this one with drummer Arthur Rouse made the shoot a lot of fun.

Another cool thing about this gig is getting to go hear the new voice professor, soprano Cynthia Lawrence, rehearse with the UK Symphony.

In the UK Opera Theatre's world premier production of composer Joe Baber and librettist James W. Rodgers "River of Time," Billy the Barber (Reginald Smith Jr.) reminded Abraham Lincoln (Nick Provenzale) of his promise to end slavery.

I love getting great looks, great expressions, and Brittny Congleton delivered here, singing "A Little Priest" from "Sweeney Todd" with Alex Parker in a rehearsal for the UK Musical and Operetta Organization "A Night with Stephen Sondheim."

So, I'm heading out to interview iconic Kentucky photographer James Archambeault at his Scott County home, and my editor Scott Shive asks me to get a new shot of him. The one we had on file was more than a decade old. Photographing James Archambeault -- as one person said, that's sort of like cooking for Bobby Flay. But Archambeault was a prince about it, and meeting him was one of the highlights of the year for me.

Here’s our slide show of Lexington Children’s Theatre’s Celebrity Curtain Call. Mouse over the bottom of the slide show to get controls. Click on the little comment cloud to the left to activate captions (if you want captions on this show, it’s probably best to go to the large version of the show). If you click on a photo, it will take you to a larger version of it at Picasa, and you can click the link at the bottom left of the slide show window for a larger version of the whole show.

Emcee Jim Richardson opened the Lexington Children’s Theatre’s Celebrity Curtain Call 70th Anniversary show noting Gov. Steve Beshear had sent a letter congratulating the theater for “engaging young people in theater education.”

“That won’t happen tonight,” Richardson quipped.

Then he said U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler (D, Ky.) had sent a letter congratulating the theater for “bringing Central Kentucky youth to the stage” to the stage.

“That won’t happen tonight,” Richardson reiterated.

No. Saturday night was all about adults who had either been in or supported Lexington Children’s Theatre over the decades getting up and having a little fun. (There was an 18-cake party for the kids last weekend at Jospeh-Beth Booksellers.)

The Curtain Call probably didn’t change anyone’s life the way the theater clearly has, judging by some of the comments made during the evening. The event was a testimony to the lasting impact an arts group can have on a young person’s life.

But as unique evenings of theater go . . . well . . . where exactly do you think you’re ever going to see Alan and Kathy Stein play the marriage proposal scene between Tom and Becky from Tom Sawyer again?

There are lots of things that look good on paper, but don’t really work that well in practice. This was not one of those things.

The Steins delivered a really sweet moment, a lot of laughs and one epic smooch during their show-stealing scene.  Big L even demonstrated some theatrical acumen, tossing in stage phrases like “I shouldn’t have stepped on your line” and “back in character,” during the scene, which went so far off script prompter Vivian Snipes, LCT’s artistic director, threw up her hands.

Her husband, LCT producing director Larry Snipes, prominently pointed out the prompter before the show started, and it turned out she was greatly needed. One of the most accomplished actors in the cast, Transylvania University theater director Tim Soulis, gave something of a master class in covering line kerfuffles in his scene and staying in character playing the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland.

Photographer Larry Neuzel, who was there shooting for LCT, observed that the show got funnier the more lines were dropped. Karyn Czar and Pamela Perlman, both active area performers, helped serve as ringers to hold scenes together.

A performer in no need of a ringer was WVLK radio host Jack Pattie as Bottom from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Pattie had played the role at LCT when he was 15, and he played it Saturday like he’d just turned 16.

Other participants in the show included Business Lexington editor Tom Martin, State Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr, Lexington Center director Bill Owen, former Mayor Teresa Isaac, former Major League Baseball Player Doug Flynn, past president of United Way of the Bluegrass Kathy Plomin and chief judge Megan Lake Thornton.

Isaac’s scene From The Goblin’s Goblin — with Owen, Flynn and Czar — had her giving her shoes to Flynn. She said she went into Shoe Carnival and told the sales person she needed something she and big man could wear, and showed off the resulting backless pair of heels Flynn donned at the end of the bit.

Check out our slide show from the Celebrity Curtain Call above or at Picasa.

WVLK's Jack Pattie, who has been playing Santa Claus the last few years. He will return to his roots, Lexington Children's Theatre, for a benefit peformance April 25. Photo by Matt Goins | LexGo.com.

A 70th-anniversary party calls for more than one ­celebration, and in reality, the Lexington Children’s Theatre wanted to have two anyway.

So the celebrations will commence with an 18-cake birthday party on Saturday, ­followed by a celebrity  retrospective of LCT’s past seven decades on April 25.

“It just makes me feel old,” Children’s Theatre director Larry Snipes jokes, when asked about the anniversary. Then, looking at the Celebrity Curtain Call show that he is directing, he says, “We wanted to look at what this theater has produced over the last 70 years, and we wanted to have some fun with it.”

The April 25 show will feature excerpts from many of the theater’s past plays over the theater’s seven decades, starting with Noah’s Flood in 1939 up to How I Became a Pirate, which will close out the current season.

It helps that numerous local celebrities are LCT veterans, including WVLK-590 AM radio personality Jack Pattie, actor and attorney Pam Perlman, WLAP-630 AM reporter Karyn Czar and Lexington Center director Bill Owen among others.

“Jack Pattie and I always had supporting roles, and Jim Varney got all the good parts,” says Owen, whose job has him in charge of Rupp Arena and the Lexington Opera House among other facilities.

Varney, who grew up in Lexington, went on to worldwide fame as the goofball character Ernest P. Worrell in television commercials and movies. He died in 2000.

Owen will actually reprise one of his roles, from a play called The Goblin’s Goblin.

Among the other celebs in the show will be Lexington Legends president Alan Stein and his wife, state Sen. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, who will perform the scene from Tom Sawyer wherein which Tom asks Becky to marry him.

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