Spreading the Arts: Bluegrass Community Theatre to return to touring with 'Meeting the Museum'

Jul. 20—When Grae Greer, founder and president of Bluegrass Community Theatre, created the organization in 2018, her main intention was for it to be a touring company that would bring the world of performing arts to others.

"We wanted to bring theatre to different community spaces that weren't able to come to a brick-and-mortar space, to make it more accessible," Greer said. "This is more for those community spaces that don't have access to stuff like this."

For 2020, Greer wrote a script for a production titled "Meeting the Museum" — a 20-minute show about museum curators and art historians Andy and Pierre taking the audience on a tour of some famous art pieces, ranging from Grant Wood's "American Gothic" and Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."

While "Meeting the Museum" was set to play at a number of locations that March, the production was halted after about two shows at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

But after a three-year pause, Greer and some of the original company are ready to head back out on the road.

"A lot of the kids that were in that show (in 2020) are now seniors, so we thought it would be a really great way to bring back some of the original cast," Greer said. "We've got the original director and one of our original leads, and then everybody else is new."

Matthew Chandler, director of the show in 2020 and now, said the hiatus was helpful in leading the charge for the seven cast members.

"I felt like I wasn't as experienced (then) as I am now," Chandler, 16, said. "Now that I am back in the director's shoes, with the experience I have now as an actor and being on the stage, I feel like I can kind of relate to the actors on stage and give better advice (than before)."

Greer said a vital part of each show is audience participation.

"It's super interactive," Greer said. "We have the audience come on stage with us ... and at the end we have an audience member challenge one of our actors to an art contest."

Greer and Chandler said the show — which will be performed at places such as Girls Inc., H.L. Neblett Community Center and a variety of daycares and community centers starting next week — will not play out the same because of the different demographics of each crowd.

"Every show is different. We can't control how people respond and what they do on stage with us," Greer said. "A lot of these shows are improv-based because each audience is going to be different."

Besides meeting people where they are with the arts, Greer and Chandler feel this also benefits the cast.

"We are education first; and that's education for the community and our performers," Greer said. "This is giving our cast the ability to be flexible and to know how to improv and know how to interact with people of all different abilities, because we're going to different spaces with people that we may not know.

"In the long run, they're impacting more people in the community than they would if we had one or two shows in one space. We're reaching a greater audience; and I think for a lot of (the performers), they're getting that experience in meeting people in the community who want to be a part of these things but may not always have the resources."

"For the actors, I can say that performing in so many different places can be a real challenge if it's your first time," Chandler said, "but ... you can switch up how you play things up and kind of improve your skills as an actor."

A public performance of "Meeting the Museum" is at 4 p.m. July 30 in The Acorn Theatre in the Humanities building at Owensboro Community & Technical College.

Admission is free but donations will be accepted.

For more information, visit BCT's Facebook page at facebook.com/bluegrassctheatre.