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Pike Theatre Company ‘Treads the Boards’ at KTA
By
Carol
Spence
LEXINGTON, Ky., (Nov. 15, 2006) – It’s 2 o’clock on a Friday
afternoon in Lexington. At a time when local
 stages
are usually dark, a small company of actors and backstage crew
from Pike County are showing people “The Way Home” at Kentucky
Theatre Association’s annual conference.
Constance Alexander’s new script, which addresses the emotional
and financial toll cancer can take on its victims, was
originally produced and performed by the Artists Collaborative
Theatre in Pikeville in October. ACT is an umbrella program of
Pike Arts Inc. of the University of Kentucky Cooperative
Extension Service. “The Way Home,” performed as a staged
reading, is the five-year-old company’s first entry into a KTA
competition, itself the first step toward the national
competition of the American Association of Community Theatre.
With limited resources, taking a show on the road – especially
entering it into a statewide competition – can be daunting,
Stephanie Richards said. Richards, the play’s director and fine
arts agent for the UK Cooperative Extension Service in Pike
County, was referring to the tremendous amount of work required
from everyone involved. But in her eyes, the material and the
company were too strong to let the opportunity pass by.
“It was too good of a show with too good of a message and too
good of an ensemble to not take that step,” she said.
Seated on a dark stage, isolated in three spotlights while
images and statistics played across a screen behind them,
Shirley Bee, Vanessa Hall and Mary B. Anderson spun a story of
hope and perseverance for an audience that included three KTA
adjudicators. According to the festival’s program, the judges
evaluated the production using criteria that included character
interpretation, pacing, appropriateness of the material for the
company, and overall impact. At the conclusion of the
performance, company members were treated to a live critique
from each of the judges. The actors agreed that can sometimes be
difficult to sit through.
 “I
just thought my throat was going to open up and my stomach was
just going to go,” Bee said. “But then after they (the judges)
got started, it was OK. This was the first patch of the first
competition that we’ve been in. So I’m much better than I
thought.”
Hall smiled when she thought back on the critique session.
“You know, constructive criticism, we all say we really want it,
but sometimes it can be tough to take and that’s a lesson in
itself. So we’re glad to learn it. We wish it didn’t have to be
so constructive, but…,” she said, her voice trailing off into a
hearty laugh.
To Richards, however, the experience isn’t about the
competition.
“I really work hard to not let the competition be the driving
force,” she said. “It’s more for an experience and sharing the
message, advancing the skill level, exposing them to different
types of theatre. Keeping us in Pike County only gets us as good
as what I can give us. Getting them (the company) down here (to
KTA), well, they get to see six more shows tomorrow. So it’s the
experience more than the competition aspect.”
Overall, the experience has been a good one for these three
actresses, both here in Lexington and back at home in Pike
County.
“It began to build a real community of cancer survivors, I think
this play did,” Hall said. “I think it’s important to give women
voices.”
At 87, Anderson was acting in her third ACT production. She was
able to bring a little extra to her role of Pat. Anderson was 46
years old when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The
experience, she said, brought her closer to what her character
was experiencing. All three actresses have learned from Richards
to use their experiences to develop rich onstage characters.
“We take our experiences, our real life experiences, and use
them to create something else,” Hall explained. “It just builds
the entire community. I’m just really grateful for that.”
At the close of this year’s festival, the company came home with
two awards in the community theatre category. Anderson was named
best supporting actress and Bryan Ratliff won for best
multimedia. |
Contact: Stephanie Richards, 606-432-2534 |
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