‘The Kentucky Cycle’ is important theatre done well | LETTER TO THE EDITOR

With a full heart, I wish to offer my abundant gratitude and utmost respect to everyone involved in the current production of "The Kentucky Cycle." To the staff and board of WICA, and superb director Michael Barker, for having the courage to challenge our community to aim high and dig deeply. To the entire production crew, for every exquisitely-crafted period prop and multi-faceted costume piece. For lighting and staging that was visually engaging and thrillingly effective. To the musicians and coordinators of textured sound effects and projected imagery that steeped each transition in the vibe of the times. And to the brave and compassionate cast, who let themselves dive headlong into characters the faint of heart would fear to inhabit.

April 22, 2010 1:55 pm

To the editor:

With a full heart, I wish to offer my abundant gratitude and utmost respect to everyone involved in the current production of “The Kentucky Cycle.”

To the staff and board of WICA, and superb director Michael Barker, for having the courage to challenge our community to aim high and dig deeply. To the entire production crew, for every exquisitely-crafted period prop and multi-faceted costume piece. For lighting and staging that was visually engaging and thrillingly effective. To the musicians and coordinators of textured sound effects and projected imagery that steeped each transition in the vibe of the times. And to the brave and compassionate cast, who let themselves dive headlong into characters the faint of heart would fear to inhabit.

Clearly, they felt supported and inspired by Barker’s thorough direction and the beautiful and haunting script by Robert Schenkkan. Yes, it’s “community theatre,” but you could spend $150 on Broadway – or Seattle – and find no more heart and soul than this troupe have been pouring into “Cycle” since January. Professional productions have an average of three weeks of previews before they’re ever reviewed, but I came opening night to Part One and Sunday, April 18 to Part 2, and I say to you, my community of Evolution-Minded Creatives, go see “The Kentucky Cycle” this weekend. It’s your last chance to experience the power of this play in the hands, bodies and hearts of our community.

I cannot express the potency of seeing this ensemble cast portray a myriad of characters through time, reappearing in each generation’s “his-stories” – a clear example of what Mark Twain meant when he said, “History never repeats itself, but it often rhymes.”

“The Kentucky Cycle” enables us to take a cold hard look at many of the choices we’ve built our nation upon, and to consciously decide whether we wish to continue in the same coal-colored vein of vanity, or transcend the hardships of our ancestors to become the united republic their hearts yearned for.

Amy Walker

Clinton