Pioneer Playhouse, Danville, Kentucky. Photo by Kirk Shlea
Kentucky’s Unappreciated Artists: Playwrights By William H. McCann, Jr.
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cross the Commonwealth, as theatres struggle to stay relevant after having to close due to the pandemic, playwrights are working hard at their craft even as most write plays as an adjunct to their “real” jobs. Though not all are members of the Dramatists Guild, today there are more than 50 professional playwrights, actively writing and pursuing production opportunities in towns across Kentucky as are expat playwrights across the country. Yet, beyond our professional playwrights there are many more “amateurs” drawn to the challenge of telling stories primarily through dialogue.1 In 2005, the University Press of Kentucky published The Kentucky Anthology in which the editor, Wade Hall (himself a playwright), wrote in the chapter titled “The Dramatic Tradition in Kentucky” that “[t]his is a short chapter because Kentucky has produced relatively few good dramatists.” The book, 880 pages in
length, devotes 17 pages to the subject of our “Dramatic Tradition,” though the final four pages are an excerpt of the autobiography of the actress Mary Anderson.2 It seems Dr. Hall felt that there were not enough good playwrights to even fill 17 pages. It might be true that “even well into the twentieth century” local theatres and colleges were reluctant to produce plays by “homegrown talent.”3 Yet, if that was true, it is no longer the case as many Kentucky community theatres produce new works, at least on an occasional basis: Antagonist Productions (Lexington), Bard Theatre (Louisville), Flashback Theater (Somerset), Leeds Center for the Arts (Winchester), Public Theatre (Bowling Green), Studio Players (Lexington), Teatro Tercera Llamada (Louisville), Theatre on the River (Frankfort), Theatre Workshop Owensboro, Village Players (Ft. Thomas)—have all produced new plays.4 In many cases they produced new 10-minute plays as part of a festival; in some cases they produced full-length plays.
Brian Walker, Dramatist Guild Regional Representative, via email Sept 21, 2020 to author. Wade Hall, ed. Kentucky Anthology: 200 years of Writing in the Bluegrass State, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky pages 567-584. 3 Ibid, 567. 4 Community theatres do not always produce new works every year. Listings of new works produced by Kentucky theatres were listed in Bill McCann, Jr., ed. Kentucky Theatre Yearbook. Cynthiana: JW Books an annual publication 2016-2019. This listing is not comprehensive of any single year but are examples taken from the 2018 and 2019 publications. 1 2
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Kentucky humanities
