Copious Notes

Silas House looks on as "Long Time Travelling" director Richard St. Peter looks through the script to his first play, "The Hurting Part." Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

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There’s just one weekend left in the world-premier production of Silas House’s new play, Long Time Travelling at Actors Guild of Lexington. It’s been an indisputable hit, with AGL having to add performances to accommodate the sell-out crowds.

We couldn’t let this production go without giving you a chance to hear some of our conversation with House — and simply a chance to hear that distinctive voice. In our podcast, House talks about Long Time Travelling’s theme of change, and how it applies to the play, his life and some of the causes he’s taken up, such as his opposition to mountaintop removal coal mining.

In addition to his fiction, House recently published Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fight Mountaintop Removal, a non-fiction book about mountaintop removal with co-author Jason Howard.

Long Time Travelling has four more performances this weekend, and House will give a pre-show chat at 7 p.m. Saturday, prior to the 8 p.m. performance.

Patrons at the Mother’s Day performance of Silas House’s new play, Long Time Travelling, will get an extra treat. Cellist Ben Sollee, a Lexington native and University of Louisville graduate, will perform a set before the 2 p.m. performance of the Actors Guild of Lexington production at the Downtown Arts Center.

Ben Sollee at The Dame, Dec. 11. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Sollee’s Bend was one of the songs House cited as inspiration for the play about change in the life of a rural family. After the performance, Sollee and House will particpate in a talk-back session about the play, arts and activism.

House will also give a pre-show chat at 7 p.m. May 16, prior to the 8 p.m. performance of the play that night.

Sollee also has another gig at the Dame coming up at 8 p.m. May 21 with special guest Anni Rossi.

Actors Guild of Lexington will reprise its production of Theresa Rebeck's "Bad Dates," a one-woman show starring Leslie Beatty, June 18-27 at the Downtown Arts Center. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.

The economic downtown hasn’t hurt some local theaters at the box office, lately.

This week, both Actors Guild of Lexington and the Lexington Children’s Theatre announced they are adding performances of their current productions because the originally scheduled dates are selling out. And Actors Guild will reprise its previous production, Theresa Rebeck’s Bad Dates, in June.

Lexington Children's Theatre's production of "How I Became a Pirate" features (clockwise from top) James Hamblin, Mark Funk, Nicole Floyd, Daniel Nation and Lew Bowling.

The additional shows actually continue a trend stretching back to earlier this year when Studio Players added a performance of its production of The Last of Mrs. Lincoln, which quickly sold out.

Lexington Children’s Theatre’s production of How I Became a Pirate has added a performance at 2 p.m. May 17. The only tickets left for its remaining scheduled performances are pay-what-you-can tickets for the 7 p.m. performance this Saturday, and those tickets are only available to walk-up patrons the night of the show.

Actors Guild of Lexington will add a performance to the world premier production of Silas House’s Long Time Travelling at 7:30 p.m. May 14. The play is selling quickly on the strength of good reviews and House’s popularity as a Kentucky-based author.

Bad Dates, a one-woman show starring Lexington actor Leslie Beatty,  was a hot ticket in March and April and will return to the Downtown Arts Center stage June 18-27. Showtime and ticket information is forthcoming.

Bad Dates is something of a stand-in on the summer calendar for Shakespeare at Equus Run, AGL’s outdoor production in Midway, which was cancelled this year due, in part, to the economy. The series had run two years, and Actors Guild officials hope to bring it back in future summers.

Here’s our slide show of Actors Guild of Lexington’s production of Silas House’s Long Time Travelling. 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 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.

This weekend, Actors Guild of Lexington presents acclaimed novelist Silas House’s second work for the stage, A Long Time Travelling. In the play, House set out to explore the idea of change through members of a family whose shifting ideas about religion and identity challenge their relationships.

We’ll have more about the show in Friday’s Herald-Leader and at LexGo.com. In the meantime, here’s a slide show from a couple of Longtime Travelling rehearsals.