summerfestTOP
summerfest
SummerFest, the annual summer outdoor theater event, will be moving to MoonDance at Midnight Pass amphitheater in the Beaumont Circle for its next string of productions in 2014. Since 2007, the event was held at the UK Arboretum.
In the previous years, SummerFest crews would have to assemble a raised stage for the summer run, and then a different set for each production. MoonDance comes furnished with a covered half-shell stage, and will give the staff one less weather-related variable to negotiate and more energy and resources to focus on the stage set.
“We’ve been looking for awhile to raise the production values of our shows, and it’s very difficult when you’re building from scratch in the middle of a field,” executive director Wesley Nelson said. “We had been saying for quite awhile, ‘If we only had an outdoor facility, that would be fantastic.’ We’ve been saying that for years."
After last summer’s production of “Peter Pan” had poor ticket sales due to rainy weather, a SummerFest sound designer mentioned MoonDance as a possible new location for productions. Nelson had never been to the new facility, which was constructed in 2010 by developer Andy Haymaker.
“I went out there to look at the space, and as soon as I started walking around the space, I saw the potential immediately,” Nelson said.
Along with the permanent stage, the MoonDance facility also comes equipped with a designed seating arrangement, and Nelson said SummerFest will still offer blanket and chair general admission seating. Though, because MoonDance only has a seating capacity near 1,000, Nelson said organizers may have to deal with sold-out shows.
“One of the new things that we will have to be prepared for with this space is that it will be possible for us to sell out,” he said. “In the Arboretum, you could seat people as far as the eye could see because there weren’t any boundaries. With a space like this, because it is a permanent structure, there will be capacity boundaries.”
With the move also comes a shuffling of the programming for the coming season. This summer, SummerFest will present William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and the dark comedy “Little Shop of Horrors” – a favorite production of Nelson’s that he says wouldn’t have gone over as well in the environment at the Arboretum.
"It’s the move to MoonDance that let us do that show. For years we had considered doing ‘Little Shop,’ but it just didn’t feel appropriate for the space that we use at the Arboretum,” he said. “The great thing about the MoonDance stage, it has the ability to accommodate larger shows, but at the same time, smaller shows look appropriate in that space as well.”
Organizers are still solidifying the July and August dates for the upcoming season.
SummerFest is an artistic offering from Kentucky Conservatory Theater, which also promotes education for theater arts to high school students. Nelson said Kentucky Conservatory Theater organizers would also be announcing new educational opportunities to coincide with the move at the beginning of next year.
Nelson said SummerFest currently only has a one-year contract with MoonDance, but he’s positive about the upcoming relationship.
“We’re very excited. We’ve enjoyed our time at the Arboretum, we’ve had a great relationship with them, but we’re excited about this new change,” he said. “We’re hoping that it opens us up to a whole new audience base. We’re excited to offer what we’ve been doing for years to a whole new group of people.”