From the early days of the Capitol Arts Center as a vaudeville house in the 1890s to the Regal Cinemas Bowling Green 12 and the Regal Greenwood Mall Stadium 10 today, Bowling Green has a lot to offer in the arts.

Early years

According to “A Salute to Theatre in Bowling Green” by Nancy D. Baird and Carol Crowe-Carraco, Bowling Green has been welcoming to the performing arts. They describe Bowling Green’s early 19th century theaters as “crude, makeshift edifices.” Enterprising individuals could turn any vacant building that could accommodate performers and an audience into a theater. Seating, heating and lighting arrangements were primitive. The programs given in Bowling Green antebellum theaters included spectacles, dancing, recitation, pantomime and combination animal-dramatic performances as well as true drama. There were also melodramas, farces and comic operas. Shakespeare and Sheridan were favorites, but local authors fared well.

Because performances were long, they started early. Admission was 25 cents to a dollar, being raised to keep out undesirable people. Blacks and ladies not received in society sat in segregated sections. Sometimes unaccompanied ladies were refused admission.

Traveling theatrical companies and amateur groups performed regularly in Bowling Green. There were several amateur groups. Showboats also provided entertainment.

Bowling Green’s first building for theatrical productions was Odeon Hall. The original three-story building was erected in 1866 by John Cox Underwood, according to “Our Heritage: An Album of Early Bowling Green Kentucky Landmarks” by Irene Moss Sumpter. The first performance there was a piano recital in 1869. Later there were local talent plays, minstrels and Broadway shows making stops between shows in Louisville and Nashville. After it was purchased in 1887 by Pleasant J. Potter it became The Potter Opera House. The building was later renovated for business. At one time it was the home of BB&T bank. The building still stands at the corner of Main and College Streets and is currently not occupied.

The Princess Theatre

The Princess Theatre was owned by the Crescent Amusement Co. and opened in July 1914, according to information provided by Miranda R. Clements, Greenways coordinator of the City-County Planning Commission. It may have been one of the first theaters built in Kentucky for the express purpose of showing motion pictures. After operating for more than 40 years as a theater, the Princess at 430 E. Main St. closed in 1957 and was remodeled in 1959 for retail use. Several retail operations occupied the building until 1980. The theater, which is now known as the Princess Building, once again houses several businesses.

Capitol Arts Center

The Capitol began as a vaudeville house in the late 1890s before being renamed the Columbia Theatre, according to the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center’s website at theskypac.com, which operates the Capitol.

According to information provided by Clements, a series of theaters have occupied the site since the Columbia Theatre opened in 1911. Remodeled and renamed the Capitol Theatre in 1920, this building was razed in 1938 to allow construction for the present structure. Owned by the Crescent Amusement Co. of Nashville, the Capitol was the fourth theater in Bowling Green run by the company. Closed as a theater in 1972, the Capitol reopened in 1981 as the Capitol Arts Center. This building is one of the few Art Deco structures found in the area.

The Columbia Theatre was redesigned as a movie house in the mid-1930s and presented movies for more than three decades before it closed in 1967, according to the SKyPAC website. After being vacant for more than 10 years, a group of citizens formerly known as the Bowling Green-Warren County Arts Commission purchased the building. After reopening in 1981, the building was managed by the Capitol Arts Alliance for 30 years. 

Public Theatre of Kentucky

Public Theatre of Kentucky has a rich history. It began with the Alley Playhouse in 1963 with individuals who loved theater and saw a need for it in Bowling Green, according to information provided by producing director Amber Turner. Under the direction of Dr. Russell H. Miller, and with lots of support from Western Kentucky University, the former warehouse on Morris Alley was named after the famous theater in Houston called Alley Theatre. The Alley Playhouse stage was “in the round” as 135 canvas director chairs served as seating for patrons. After the death of Miller in 1969, the Alley Playhouse closed its doors and once again became a warehouse.

Following her graduation from Western Kentucky University, Marci Woodruff continued her education, receiving her Ph.D. from Florida State University. She pursued a career in higher education, holding teaching positions at University of Pittsburgh and Bloomsberg State University. At Bloomsberg she became familiar with a small professional theatre that prospered in that quaint community. To establish such a theatre became Woodruff’s dream. She and three young actors moved to Bowling Green and founded PTK in 1987. 

During the 1980s and into the early 1990s PTK performed at the Capitol Arts Center, the former Leachman Auto Building and the storefront at 912 State St. Whit Combs, a friend and former mentor of Woodruff, was a constant supporter and advisor to the project. He and his wife, Gerri, often opened their home to the many guest artists that Woodruff brought to the theatre. Woodruff, the resident company, guest directors, actors and designers, WKU and community talent, produced plays that become known for their high standards and quality.

Ironically, the 1993-1994 season marked the beginning of a new era for the Public Theatre of Kentucky. It was the first season in the newly renovated Phoenix Theatre and was the first season without Woodruff. Newly designed by Tom Tutino, the old Alley Playhouse was christened the Phoenix Theatre and opened with Beau Jest. The Phoenix Theatre was named after the bird from Arabian mythology that lived for 500 years, burned itself to death and rose out of its own ashes to start another long life. The phoenix is symbolic of life that goes on forever.

It was during this season that the board of directors maintained the PTK without the services of an artistic director. Combs took on many of the responsibilities of that position.

The following year, Mike Thomas became the artistic director of theater. Popular and charismatic, Thomas dubbed himself “Mr. PTK.” Many new innovations and community outreach programs were started during his tenure. In December of 1996, Combs died and PTK lost its dear friend and staunch supporter. The Whit Combs auditorium in the Phoenix Theatre was dedicated in honor of his memory.

Before the decade came to a close Thomas took a position in Frankfort and Mark Funk became the artistic director. Funk’s association with PTK began in the early years with Woodruff. Before becoming the artistic director, Funk had served as actor, musical director, director and assistant to Thomas. Funk’s directorship gave needed continuity to PTK.

The millennium was ushered in at PTK with Alexis Combs McCoy, Combs’ daughter, as artistic director and Delia Brown as producing director. Beginning with the McCoy/Brown tenure, a number of innovative additions came to PTK, including the Sunburst Youth Theatre, which involves youth of this community in theatre activities and public performance.

In January 2002, Brown took over the responsibilities of artistic and producing Director at PTK. In the past year PTK has grown to include even more outreach programs for southcentral Kentucky. The After Hours Series is very popular and has brought new audiences to the theatre. The Mondays @ 7:00 New Play Reading Series, in which PTK will present staged readings of original scripts, further promotes theatre in this region.

Bowling Green welcomed Woodruff to the Phoenix to direct “Crimes of the Heart” during the fall of 2001. After her many years at The Public Theatre of Kentucky, this was her first production in the Phoenix Theatre. From 2011 to early 2015, Jenny Wells took over from former director Brown. In April of 2015, Turner was named the producing artistic director.

PTK does four to five Mainstage productions and three to four Sunburst productions per season. There is also a summer arts camp, Turner said.

“The kids produce their own show and have guest speakers such as Broadway the Clown and Alice Gatewood Waddell,” she said.

PTK always tries to get the community involved, Turner said.

“For example, Wendy’s of Bowling Green has really helped us get the word out about our show (‘Inside Out Atlas’),” she said.

The Phoenix Music Series showcases local and regional musicians. The After Hours Series usually features edgier productions. Turner also wants to collaborate with someone like Yellowberri to start a movie night.

“Our auditorium is a perfect place to set up a screen and show movies in an intimate setting,” she said.

Turner hopes to expand PTK’s reach into acting lessons.

“We’re doing improv lessons right now. We’re looking at doing outreach in the schools,” she said. “We’d do whatever workshops they want us to do rather than have the children bussed to our facility.”

Getting ready for a season takes a lot of work, Turner said.

“I read a lot of scripts. We invite some of the local directors to submit scripts,” she said. “A couple of board members read scripts. Then you have to think about what the audience wants to see – drama, comedy, new, classic.”

Turner is excited to be producing director.

“I can’t wait to see the season I had a chance of choosing unfold,” she said.

For more information, visit ptkbg.org.

Fountain Square Players

Fountain Square Players has been around in a sense since 1977. With the help of Combs and Bill Leonard of WKU’s Department of Theatre, a group set out to bring the defunct Alley Players back to life as the Warren County Community Theatre, according to information provided by FSP historian Elizabeth Honeycutt, who also manages the theater group’s rehearsal space.

“The idea was that there could be a place for grown people who still loved play acting. There are lots of children’s theater now,” she said. “When we got here there was only was the Red Stocking Revue and the Alley Players had been here but were defunct. The Western Guild had been here but was defunct. The Red Stocking Revue had a gala once a year.”

WKU provided direction, funding and space. “A Thurber Carnival” was presented in June. A second play, “Spoon River Anthology,” followed in late July. Two more plays were produced in collaboration with WKU the next summer. In 1978, the name was changed to Fountain Square Players. Articles of Incorporation were filed and the first “season,” 1978-79, came to pass.

The fledgling group had to find a place to perform. During the first three full seasons, plays were produced at various places on WKU’s campus, at Warren County Court House, at State Street United Methodist Church, in different stores in the vacant Bowling Green Mall and in the Holidome motel. In April 1981, the Capitol Arts Center allowed the group to present “Little Mary Sunshine” in the renovated Capitol Theatre building. They stayed at the Capitol for the 1981-82 season, opening with “Our Town.”

“We had a court room drama there,” Honeycutt said of the court house. “I think we had one twice.”

Next was the quandary of where to build the sets. Members’ garages were quickly outgrown and borrowed spaces needed to be used by others. A successful production of “Annie” brought in enough money for FSP to buy a scene shop and studio at 313 State St. The mortgage was burned in the summer of 1989.

“We’re not just actors,” Honeycutt said. “We have to perform in other areas, too.”

In August 1993, Public Theatre of Kentucky allowed FSP to use the Phoenix Theatre, which was the old Alley Playhouse, to produce “The Cemetery Club.” Several other plays were also produced there.

In 2001, just before their revival of the play “Farndale Avenue Housing Estates Dramatic Guild’s Production of ‘A Christmas Carol,’ ” the Capitol suffered damage to its ceiling and they had to find another home. Van Meter Auditorium, the old courthouse and the old Bowling Green Junior High were some of the places FSP performed at before they returned to the Capitol. Funding caused them to move back to the Phoenix, where they’ve been since 2006.

Bill Russell, who died last year, was a guiding force for FSP for a long time, Honeycutt said.

“He helped build sets and costumes. He wrote a play that we did, a musical,” she said. “He directed a lot of them. He won a Jefferson Award last year.”

FSP has been a haven for all types of people, Honeycutt said.

“We’ve fostered some people who have made it a career,” she said. “We do it just for fun.”

For more information, visit fountainsquareplayers.org.

Horse Cave Theatre

While Horse Cave Theatre, which later became known as Kentucky Repertory Theatre, is no longer open, it had a major impact on southcentral Kentucky.

As long-time artistic director Warren Hammack said in October 1977, after one season of Horse Cave Theatre: “live things grow,” according to information provided by Sandra Wilson, executive director of the Horse Cave/Hart County Tourist Commission. The theatre had started on vision and faith. It had played to over 9,000 people in its inaugural year. “Candida,” “Mary, Mary” and “The Glass Menagerie” had been artistic successes.

The theatre was incorporated Oct. 22, 1975. It began as a dream in the mind of a native son. Tom Chaney had grown up in Horse Cave and became involved with theatre at Georgetown College as part of the Orlin and Irene Corey era at that small Baptist college in the bluegrass region. With a friend in 1966, he began dreaming his dream of a theatre in his hometown which would educate and entertain local children and adults as well as tourists who came to visit nearby Mammoth Cave and other attractions of the area.

In 1975, Chaney returned to Horse Cave as a dairy farmer after stints as college instructor, theatre technical director and editorial writer. Bill Austin, a local businessman who owned the largest tourist attraction in Horse Cave, liked Chaney’s idea of a theatre and put his resources behind it. Together they looked about to recruit a director to join them in the task of changing their dream to a community dream with money and muscle behind it.

Hamamck had shared theatre at Center College with Chaney, going on to Europe and the Dallas Theatre Center to study and winding up in Los Angeles. He was available and excited about the Horse Cave project. According to Hammack’s report to the board of directors on Oct. 31, 1977: “It (HCT) came into being at that time (1975) primarily because of the vision and work of two people, Tom Chaney and Bill Austin. I had become actively involved about two months prior to the milestone event (incorporation)… . From that time until now I see the life of Horse Cave Theatre springing from and resting on one thing: faith … faith in the idea and faith in each other.”

The prospectus of the theatre as set forth by Austin, Chaney and Hammack rested on several pillars: an audience of tourists in cave country and local residents within a 250 mile radius; a true repertory season with different plays performed on succeeding nights; a professional company who are members of Actors Equity Association; and a promotion staff to get the word out.

Funds were raised for the first season with a $150,000 line of credit at the Horse Cave State Bank, backed by pledges from scores of area businesses, individuals and even children. The estimated budget was $150,722, including renovation of the building, salaries, publicity, travel, sets and costumes, etc. The Austins donated the rent of the building and paid for its renovation.

From the first season a Children’s Theatre Workshop was held. By the fifth season there was an outreach production for students. Volunteers assisted professionals with costumes, sets, props, box office duties, ushering and a hundred other tasks. Actors and technicians from around the country enriched the life of Horse Cave and the surrounding area by living and working here.

Hammack began a series of new plays he called Kentucky Voices, plays by Kentuckians or about Kentucky. Most of them were developed in playwriting classes at the theater.

The theater continued to expand, purchasing the original building and its neighbor and creating offices, a costume shop, a rehearsal hall and ample backstage space. The season also continued to expand, extending through October and occasionally offering a Christmas production.

Hammack retired in early 2002, after completing 25 seasons of directing and acting and building the theatre. Robert Brock was artistic/producing director from 2002-11.

The theater was making its final curtain call in 2012. Kentucky Stages artistic director Ken Hailey made an offer to buy it after moving its operations to the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center. The organization tried raising money through Indiegogo, a fundraising site, but didn’t succeed. Citizens First Bank in Bowling Green now owns the property.

BG OnStage

BG OnStage developed in 2009. It’s first name was the Art Education Task Force, said Elise Charny.

“That proved to be a mouthful, so we changed it,” she said. “We are mainly a school-based group.”

It started with visual arts and dance, Charny said.

“We wanted to get kids involved,” she said. “The kids showed more interest in theater, so we became a theater company.”

BG OnStage is community theater with classes, workshops and productions, Charny said.

“Our smallest class size is 10, but the cast can be as many as 40 people,” she said.

It’s not just for children, Charny said.

“We have a lot of adults that come and perform in our pieces,” she said. “We have ages 6 to adult.”

The goal of BG OnStage is to promote education through theater, Charny said.

“We like to get on stage, but there are tools to learn like ensemble work, leadership and public speaking,” she said.

BG OnStage has performed a variety of plays, including “Junie B. Jones,” “James and the Giant Peach,” “Anne Frank” and “Charlotte’s Web.” They do their productions at WKU’s Van Meter Hall Auditorium, which lends itself to big productions, Charny said.

“It’s nice to get them while they’re young and watching them go through their teen years,” she said. “We have fun with our adults, too. They’re either serious or they enjoy being there.”

Charny hopes to do the musical “Sweeney Todd” with mainly high school students and older this summer.

“We had a lot of educators and teachers in the community who wanted to be in our productions, but they had to be in their classrooms,” she said.

Charny fondly remembers the musicals she did with Fountain Square Players.

“Fountain Square Players used to have a summer musical every year. I participated in four of them,” she said. “It was usually in late summer or early fall.”

All kids need theater, art and some enrichment, Charny said.

“It allows them to see through the eyes of someone else, which helps the grow as people,” she said. “Arts are being taken out of schools.”

For more information, visit bgonstage.org.

Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center

Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center is one of the latest on the arts landscape in Bowling Green. The 74,500-square-foot SKyPAC opened its doors on March 10, 2012. The organization came about after a group of people saw a need for something larger than the Capitol. State Rep. Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, secured $6.7 million in the state budget for seed money for SKyPAC. There was also additional funding, including county tax revenue bonds being paid for with a special motel tax and Bowling Green’s Tax Increment Financing district for the project. There were also naming opportunities to raise money. Even though it has gone through financial turbulent waters, SKyPAC, has recently celebrated its fourth season.

Shows such as “Million Dollar Quartet,” which tells of a jam session with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash at Sun Record Studios in Memphis, help bring people in, said SKyPAC Executive Director Jan Zarr.

“We’re bringing in top quality entertainment where people don’t have to drive out of town,” he said.

There have been education and outreach programs. such as Blues in Schools, presented by the Kentucky Blues Society.

“We’re reached 50,000 students and educators in the last four years,” Zarr said. “We continue to expand in neighboring counties. One reason is the Duncan Hines Festival proceeds.”

SKyPAC has contributed to Bowling Green and Warren County’s economy, Zarr said.

“We bring people into Bowling Green that go to eat in restaurants, go to shop and get gas,” he said. “For ‘Annie,’ we were able to provide wardrobe people and stagehands.”

Zarr wants SKyPAC’s reach to be beyond its walls.

“We want to become more than an arts center. We have a much larger reach than we’ve had in the last four years for the BRADD region,” he said. “We want to make a better quality of life for people in this region.”

Zarr wants to bring more educational opportunities to more than just kindergarten through 12th-graders. He wants to reach seniors, adults and young adults as well.

“They can have that experience,” he said.

When kids walk into the theater during school day performances, “they think they’re in the Taj Mahal,” Zarr said.

“We’re bringing students in the arts and giving them the opportunity to have something we hope will last them a lifetime,” he said.

The shows are part of the educational outreach. An example that Zarr remembers is the Pink Floyd Experience.

“We saw hundreds of parents, but I was surprised at how many young people 12 and up came to that show,” he said.

SKyPAC isn’t solely for the arts. It has been used as a venue for nonprofits and commercial businesses who want to rent space for meetings or other events. People have also had weddings, showers and trainings there, Zarr said.

“The facility is to be used by the community. We want to make it more so,” he said.

It is also a space for schools in the BRADD region, Zarr said.

“There are up to four every year (that can) use the main hall, the Capitol or smaller spaces for free through contributed funds that come in on an annual basis. We send out applications to all the schools. They have to apply for it,” he said. “They have to answer certain questions. We look at how it will affect the community of that school.”

For more information, visit theskypac.com.

Xclaim!

Another place for youth to perform is Xclaim! Helmed by founding executive director Christopher Cherry, Xclaim! provides a place where school-age children and teenagers can not only perform in plays, but learn the skills they need to become good actors. Weekly acting, voice and dance lessons are offered for fees, and participants learn backstage production as well. Everything is through donations, sponsors and social activities.

For more information, visit xclaiminc.com.

– Follow features reporter Alyssa Harvey on Twitter at twitter.com/bgdnfeatures or visit bgdailynews.com.