The cast of four at the Kentucky Theatre Association’s Community Theatre Festival on Saturday also won Best Ensemble for their one-act play Overtones, a 1915 powerful story about women, and their id and ego. They performed the play, which dramatizes the unconscious on stage, at the competition at Morehead State University.“Of course, I think we were the best at the festival, and when we received first runner-up I was pleased, since they decided to send the top two to SETC,” said Cyndi Powell Skellie of Shelbyville, who directed the play. The Best Play first-place winner was Balagula Theatre in Lexington for their performance of two short pieces by Samuel Beckett.
Skellie said the Best Ensemble award “really speaks to the talent that we have in Shelby County.” In addition, Lynne McReynolds Chenault of Shelbyville (pictured, above right, in photo) won Best Actress.
Along with Chenault, the Overtones cast includes Faith Matthews Muller (pictured left), Elisa Poe- Freeman (second from right) and Olivia Martin (second from left). Martin is a senior at Christian Academy of Louisville, and the youngest actress in the play. Her mother, Lynn Martin, designed the props and costumes, and John Chenault provides technical assistance.
Alice Gerstenberg’s Overtones, inspired by Sigmund Freud’s theories, shows two women—Harriet and Margaret—and how they appear to each other, and their inner selves as they really are. Cyndi Powell Skellie of Shelbyville, who is directing the play, said she chose the piece because of the “concept of a woman having to overcome her basal instincts just to fit into society.”
At the Southeastern Theatre Conference in Lexington March 3-7 more than 4,000 theatre artists and enthusiasts will gather. The SCCT will compete against community theatres from 10 other states.
The SCCT has been out of the competition scene for many years, mainly due to costs, but previously has received awards at KTA for several productions. Now, the theatre has plenty going on. This weekend there are three more showings of The Last Night of Ballyhoo, followed by auditions for Romeo and Juliet, which shows two weekends in February. Not to mention a host of other events.
Skellie said with SETC more than two months away, she isn’t yet sure how they will keep the Overtones momentum going.“I don’t know,” she said. “We’ve [the SCCT] got to get Romeo and Juliet underway, two December fundraisers, and a fundraiser in March, as well as keep Overtones fresh. We can do it. I know we can. Today, I’m going to be like Scarlett O’Hara—I’ll think about that tomorrow!”
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