Copious Notes

Trish Clark and her daughter, Ellie Clark, photographed in 2010 in front of the University of Kentucky’s Guignol Theatre. Trish has been named interim director of Woodford Theatre and Ellie is one of the directors of Project SEE Theatre. © Herald-Leader file photo by Rich Copley.

Trish Clark, former drama teacher at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and former artistic director of the Lexington Shakespeare Festival, has been named as the interim artistic and executive director of Woodford Theatre.

Clark steps in for Steve Arnold, who left the theater in October after just over a year in the post. He had succeeded longtime director Beth Kirchner, who made the Versailles theater one of the region’s premier community theaters during her 16-year tenure.

Clark, 59, said the opportunity came along at a good time after her position with the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre’s educational outreach programs was eliminated in a widespread round of layoffs earlier this year. She says she has not decided whether she will apply for the permanent director job at Woodford.

“They needed some immediate care, and that’s what I can do,” Clark said, taking a break from watching rehearsals of The Christmas Foundling, which opens Friday and runs three weekends. “Being around so long, I knew I could get people together, and they’ve been really good about stepping up.”

In two weeks, Clark has retained directors for the three remaining shows on the season after The Christmas Foundling, including bringing Kirchner back to direct Driving Miss Daisy, Feb. 1 to 17.  She changed the April production of Neil Simon’s God’s Favorite to Simon’s The Odd Couple, because she said the cost of the set for the originally scheduled play would be prohibitive. Tonda-Leah Fields will direct Odd Couple and retired University of Kentucky Theatre professor James W. Rodgers will direct the season finale, The Secret Garden, May 31 to June 16.

Clark said she does not know what role she will play in selecting a 2013-14 season for Woodford Theatre.

Clark’s daughter, Ellie Clark, is one of three co-directors of Lexington-based Project SEE Theatre, so there are now two theaters in the family.

Rains Tuesday delayed construction on the set for SummerFest’s Pride and Prejudice‘s. But crews – including cast members from other SummerFest shows – worked through the night and Jon Jory’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic is set to open under clear skies tonight.

Read more: SummerFest’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ has a real mother-daughter act
Read more: SummerFest’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ has a real mother-daughter act
Read more: SummerFest’s Pride and Prejudice a real mother-daughter act

Music director Mark Caulkins and director Tracey Bonner observe dance auditions for "Rent." Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

• See the entire cast list for Rent and the other SummerFest shows, The Merchant of Venice and Pride and Prejudice.
• Read the first entry in our Rent Notebook.

Tracey Bonner and Mark Calkins had seen several traditional musical theater vocal auditioners for SummerFest‘s production of Rent. Then things got a little American Idol on them.

John Dawson, a member of the Lexington-based band Partly Cloudy, stepped into the room. He didn’t have 16 bars of prepared sheet music as the others did. He didn’t need an accompanist. He just had a song from the rock-opera band Dear Hunter to sing.

And in many ways, he was exactly what Bonner, the stage director, and Calkins, the music director, were looking for.

Patrick Joel Martin (foreground, in tie) in the dance audition portion of auditions for Summerfest's production of "Rent."

“You have a real musical soul,” Calkins said, taking Dawson through some vocal scales.

Bonner had given him a little direction on how to sing his song a second time, and “he jumped right into that world,” she said.

Rent is a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, but it’s also a rock show. SummerFest officials hoped to attract local musical theater talent to auditions last weekend, but they also were looking for people like Dawson, rock singers with stage experience that’s more oriented to fronting bands.

SummerFest and its predecessor, the Lexington Shakespeare Festival, have had success with rock musicals the past decade, but casting has often been a nail-biter.

“We did five auditions for Hair,” Kentucky Classical Theatre Conservatory director Trish Clark said of the 2008 production. In 2004, the Shakespeare Festival put out a specific call for actors to play the title role in Jesus Christ Superstar after several rounds of auditions failed to yield a leading man.

This year, things weren’t left to chance. SummerFest and conservatory president Joe Cannon Artz trolled local clubs with business cards, encouraging singers to come out for roles including Roger, the rocker trying to write one great song before the effects of AIDS start to take his life. That attracted Dawson, who was cast as Roger.

Although it’s cast for a rock vibe, the Rent ensemble will get a classical experience working with Calkins, an accomplished tenor and an assistant professor of music at Berea College.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bob Singleton and Adam Luckey, shown here in the SummerFest 2009 production of "Jekyll and Hyde," will be back in "The Merchant of Venice," this year. By Rich Copley | LexGo.

In many pursuits we talk about how something looks on paper — how capable are the forces that have been assembled at accomplishing the task at hand? By that criteria, it looks like a great July in the Arboretum for SummerFest 2010.

Cast lists have been released for all the Summerfest productions, and they all include some of the Lexington area’s top talents as well as intriguing new names, and a few old friends we haven’t seen on stage in a while.

The Merchant of Venice, for instance, includes Lisa Thomas and Jeff Sherr, one-time local stage mainstays who’ve been away lately. Pride and Prejudice has Kentucky Classical Theatre Conservatory director Trish Clark playing mother to her real life daughter, Ellie Clark, as Elizabeth Bennett and also features the return of Tom Phillips to local stages as Mr. Darcy. And the Rent cast mixes fresh faces like local rocker John Dawson as Roger with familiar musical talents like Nick Vannoy as Collins in an intriguing cast. And the cast lists overall are dappled with actors in “I can see that” roles like Adam Luckey as Shylock in Merchant.

So here’s how SummerFest looks on paper. In a few months we’ll see how it looks on stage.

The Merchant of Venice

July 7-11, directed by Ave Lawyer

Shylock - Adam Luckey

Portia - Lisa Thomas

Antonio - Carmen Geraci

Bassanio - Bob Singleton

Gratiano - Evan Bergman

Salarino - Ryan Briggs

Lorenzo - Tanner Gray

Jessica - Joe Elswick

Nerissa - Rosanna Hurt

Launcelot - Patrick Davis

Duke - Jack McIntyre

Aragon - Jeff Sherr

Balthazar - Cameron Perry

The roles of Tubal, Morocco, and Salanio have yet to be cast

Pride And Prejudice

July 14-18, directed by Sullivan Canaday White

Mrs. Bennett - Trish Clark

Elizabeth Bennett - Ellie Clark

Jane Bennett – Holly Brady

Mary Bennett - Annie Barbera

Kitty Bennett - Erin Cutler

Lydia Barrett / Georgiana - Avery Wigglesworth

Mr. Darcy - Tom Phillips

Mr. Bingley/ Colonol Fitzwilliam - G. B. Dixon

Charlotte - Sarah Levy

Sir William Lucas/Mr. Collins/Mr. Gardner - Tim Hull

Miss Bingley/Mrs. Gardiner - Vanessa Becker

Lady Catherine - Stephanie Peniston

George Wickham - Drew Davidson

The role of Mr. Bennet has yet to be cast.

Rent

July 21-25, directed by Tracey Bonner

Mimi Márquez - Jessica Lucas

Roger Davis - John Dawson

Mark Cohen - Chip Becker

Maureen Johnson - Caroline Griffeth

Angel Dumott Schunard - Emanuel Williams

Tom Collins - Nick Vannoy

Joanne Jefferson - Sheronda Piersall

Benjamin ‘Benny’ Coffin III - Thomas Gibbs

Seasons Of Love Soloist - Jessica French

The Ensemble Includes: Casey Mather, Justin Norris, Sarah Matthews, Brandon Smith, Andrea Johnson, Beth Kovarik, Wood Van Meter and Katie Berger.

If you are a musical theatre performer, Kentucky Classical Theatre Conservatory literally has a way for you to start the year off on the right foot.

Tracey Bonner, who will direct this summer’s production of “Rent” for KCTC’s SummerFest, will be leading a three-day musical theater intensive starting at 1 p.m. Jan. 1 and running through Jan. 3. Admission is $50 to the workshop, open to high school students and up.

Bonner is a Lexington native who has performed in national touring companies and regional productions as well as choreographed and directed across the country. She is currently adjunct faculty at Azusa Pacific University and Miracosta College in California.

The workshop, held at the Schmidt Vocal Arts Center across from the Singletary Center for the Arts on the University of Kentucky Campus, will focus on Rent in both individual and ensemble classes.

For an application, visit the KCTC website. For more information, call KCTC education director, Trish Clark at 859.806.7429 or kctcsummerfest@yahoo.com.