The Lexington Herald from Lexington, Kentucky • 71

Section Arts Leisure May 16 1982 Kentucky is brimming with productions Theatre of Louisville productions "The Arabian Nights" 8 pm Thursdays Fridays and Saturdays July 8 through Aug 15 Not recommended for children Tickets: $750 and $650 A children's play "Winnie the Pooh" 2:30 pm Tuesdays through Sundays (except Mondays and Fridays) July 13 to Aug 15 Admission: $350 (502) Pineville Laurel Cove Amphitheater Pine Mountain State Park "Song of the Cumberland Gap" Billy Edd Wheeler's musical drama about the life of Daniel Boone 8:45 nightly except June 7 through Oct 30 Admission: $575 adults $3 students (606) 337-3800 By Tom Carter Staff Writer Only a few years ago summer theater in Kentucky referred to a handful of historical and religious epics performed under the stars in state parks and amphitheaters Although the traditional outdoor dramas continue to thrive at Harrods-burg Prestonsburg and Pineville there will also be musicals comedies Shakespeare and some Broadway fare to enjoy in Lexington and nearby communities this summer Some of the best bets this summer include a road company production of Broadway's "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" starting June 22 at the Opera House Actors Theatre of Louisville's fascinating version of "The Arabian Nights" starting July 8 in Louisville "As You Like It" in Fayette County parks in early July and a continuation of shows at Lexington's new Marquee Theater and Levas' Theater Downunder Here's an overview of the major theater offerings of the summer Reservations are recommended in each listing that includes a phone number Prestonsburg "As You Like It" July 12-23 Features jugglers dancers clowns acrobats and mimes Directed by Julie Ann Stephens Additional details to be announced Marquee Theater 434 Interstate Avenue "Catch 22" a one-man show starring Dick Poston 8 pm May 24 Admission: $10 "The Sound of Music" June 2-27 Tuesdays through Saturdays dinner from 6 pm curtain at 8:15 pm Sundays dinner at 12:45 pm curtain at 2:30 pm Admission: $1250 Sundays $18 weekdays $20 Fridays and Saturdays "Play It Again Sam" (tentative) July 7-31 (606) 293-1671 Opera House West Short Street at North Broadway "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" June 22-27 (8 o'clock nightly 2 pm Saturday and Sunday) Tickets $19 and $25 weekends $17 and $22 weekdays $18 and $23 matinees On sale June 1 at the Lexington Center ticket office (606) 233-3565 Theater Downunder 141 West Vine Street "Kennedy's Children" by Robert Patrick July 1-3 8-10 and 15-17 "Loot" by Joe Orton Aug 5-7 12-14 and 19-21 Curtain 8:30 nightly Admission: $3 Thursdays $5 Friday and Saturdays (606) 233-1512 Bardstown My Old Kentucky Home State Park "The Stephen Foster Story" June 12 through Sept 6 8:30 nightly except Mondays 3 pm matinee Saturdays Admission: $7 adults $350 children (502) 348-5971 Berea McGaw Theater Jelkyl Drama Center Berea College Berea College Summer Repertory Festival June 30 to July 31 "Merry Wives of Windsor" June 30 July 8 16 24 and 30 "The Rainmaker" July 1 9 17 21 and 28 "Harold Bauer's Dance Marathon" July 2 10 14 22 and 31 "Come Back Little Sheba" July 3 7 15 23 and 29 8:30 pm curtain Admission: $2 for students $4 for others Special play for children "The Dancing Princesses" 2:30 pm June 27 July 4 11 18 and 25 Tickets: $1 children $2 adults (606) 986-9341 Ext 600 Danville Pioneer Playhouse "Artichoke" June 19-Julv 3 "The Admirable Crich-ton" July 6-17 "Cactus Flower" July 20-31 "The Murder Room" Aug 3-14 "Village Wooing" Aug 17-28 Dinner with theater $995 play only $495 Dinner at 7:30 nightly curtain at 8:30 (606) 236-2747 Harrodsburg Old Fort Harrod Amphitheater Old Fort Harrod State Park "Legend of Daniel Boone" June 12 through mid-August 8:30 pm Mondays Tuesdays Wednesdays and Saturdays "Lincoln" June 18 through mid-August 8:30 pm Thursdays and Fridays Admission: $650 adults $550 senior citizens $4 children to age 12 (606) 734-3346 Horse Cave Horse Cave Theater Six plays in rotating repertory: "She Stoops to Conquer" opening June 11 "The Heiress" opening June 18 "A Lesson from Aloes" opening June 25 "A Thousand Clowns" opening July 30 "Macbeth" opening Sept 3 and "The Book of Job" opening July 9 (then performed at 8 pm Sundays through Aug 29) Tickets: $850 to $450 for adults $375 for students $275 for children (502) 786-2177 Louisville Pamela Brown Auditorium 316 West Main Street Louisville Actors Jenny Wiley Summer Music Theater Jenny Wiley State Park Rotating repertory: "The Music Man" opening June 23 "The Fantasticks" opening June 26 "Shenandoah" opening July 7 8:30 nightly Wednesdays through Sundays Prices: $7 adults (Fridays and Saturdays) $5 adults (Wednesdays Thursdays and Sundays) $350 for students and children at all times (606) 886-9274 Morehead Cave Run Musical Theater Because of budget considerations More-head State University has withdrawn its support from the Cave Run Musical Theater There will be no shows this summer Lexington Guignol Theater Fine Arts Building Rose Street University of Kentucky Department of Theatre productions "Side by Side by Sondheim" June 10-12 20 and 24-25 "The Medium" (with the UK School of Music) June 17-19 and 26 and 27 8 pm curtain Tickets: $4 students $5 others Laboratory Theater Fine Arts Building Rose Street "That Championship Season" by UK Department of Theatre July 8-10 and 15-17 8 pm curtain Tickets: $4 students $5 others (606) 257-3297 Lexington parks Shakepeare's Lexingtonian's writing career takes a turn toward the future By Sharon Reynolds Staff Writer Conan the Barbarian the sword-and-sorcery hero who has slashed and roared his way across the pages of paperback novels and comic books for decades bursts into cinematic life this week Originally created by 1920s fantasy writer Robert Howard Conan enjoyed a literary revival in the 1960s But Lexington fantasyscience fiction novelist Lawrence Watt-Evans doesn't forsee any windfall for authors from the movie "Conan the Barbarian" and fantasy and the ins and outs of breaking into print "Fantasy is the most unlimited of all (literary) fields" he said "There's all kinds of fantasy" Thanks in part to the recent popularity of JRR Tolkein fantasy has become more acceptable as adult reading Evans said But the writer of the Lord of the Rings series "probably killed off epic fantasy in the traditional sense" he added "In epic fantasy of the sort Tolkien wrote everyone is good or evil "Most people just don't read books" said Evans who uses the hyphen only with his literary persona The 27-year-old writer a devoted sci-fi and fantasy reader himself for 20 years has sold four books in the past three years and is finishing up a fifth The Cyborg and the Sorcerers slated for June release by Del Rey is Evans' first science fiction novel Three others all part of a series are fantasy In a recent interview Evans talked about writing science fiction pretty clearly I think it's perfectly possible to write fantasy novels and be as serious as in anything else like getting into questions of morality of where you draw the line between good and evil" Sword-and-sorcery fantasy is more "fun and easier to read than Tolkien" Evans believes "Traditionally in sword-and-sorcery you have a culture that has no real technology nothing more advanced than the cross-bow except that they also have magic The basic form that Howard usually used is that you have a brave strong man with a sword battling evil wizards or demons or ancient curses or whatever "Conan is very different from a Tolkien hero because he is not a tall noble type who would never think of doing anything evil When he conquers the evil wizard at the end of the story usually he does so in order to kidnap the girl and go off and get drunk somewhere" While Conan imitations abound writers have come up with more variations on the sword-and-sorcery theme "People are perfectly willing to have a hero who's a wizard or a bad guy who's the swordsman instead of the other way around You can also have both hero and bad guy be wizards or swordsmen or whatever" Fantasy novels are frequently set in the far future in an entirely imaginary world "That's the easiest way to allow for the fact that you're going to have magic" Evans said Another way is to set the story in the distant past where the classical legends such as that of King Arthur and Merlin the Magician were set The original Conan stories were set 12000 years ago between the fall exposed to science at an early age His home in Massachusetts was filled with science fiction books he said He took a rather circuitous course to writing majoring first in architecture then classics and religion at Princeton University before dropping out to write full time "A lot of science fiction writers are actually scientists" he said "Those that aren't either research a lot or they fake it or they just avoid the whole question by setting their stories somewhere where it doesn't come up" Some writers of science fiction are interested in sociology rather than science he pointed out "Like what would happen if society had a different set of rules from what we have now" Evans avoids research whenever he can mostly he said "because I'm lazy" If scientific details are crucial to the story he turns to a reference book and sometimes to his wife Julie a chemist She supplied him with a short course on DNA structure for the novel he is currently working on Evans said Aware of his own limitations he tries to keep such details minimal as well as accurate In Cyborg for instance he hasn't given his hero a faster-than-light space ship "I don't think they're possible Einstein (in his Theory of Relativity) says they're not and that's good enough for me But that doesn't mean interstellar space travel isn't possible if you go fast enough" In Cyborg the hero has been traveling in space for what seems like 14 years to him but he arrives on a planet over 300 years after he set out (Turn to LEXINGTONIAN G4) of the legendary continent Atlantis and the rise of Western civilization Some writers like Evans "invent a world out of nothing" His fantasy series which he said will culminate in a fourth book now in outline form revolves around a hero named Garth The first novel The Lure of the Basilisk tells the story of Garth's search for immortal fame promised him by the Forgotten King At the beginning of the second volume The Seven Altars of Dusarra he searches instead for a way to improve the life of his people That quest leads him to a conflict with the God of Destruction the basis of The Sword of Bheleu Evans promises that his hero will be unentangled once and for all in the fourth volume In contrast to fantasy science fiction stories could possibly happen Evans said While he considers The Cyborg and the Sorcers to be science fiction some people may think of it as a mixture of fantasy and science fiction he said "Sometimes the line between the two is pretty vague" he said "The big difference between the worlds of science fiction and fantasy is that science fiction uses technology instead of magic They don't violate the laws of physics" In Cyborg he deals with a person from an advanced civilization who is dumped into a world where "magic" works The magic is actually extrasensory perception Evans explained He enjoys writing about "made-up worlds" Evans said "because I make the rules" As long as he remains scientifically accurate he can invent the specifics of that world he explained The son of a chemist Evans was I Herald-Leader Martin Jessee Fantasy science fiction novelist Lawrence Watt-Evans left and his wife Julie.