Arts and Humanities

This week on our audio diary series "The Big Break," Louisville Ballet trainee Claire Horrocks gets a nice surprise during her last public performance. Actors Theatre apprentice Samantha Beach closes "Dracula" without ever going on for the role she understudied, but she already knows she'll take the stage in "A Christmas Story" during student matinees. In "Cinderella," Kentucky Opera studio artist Brad Raymond learns there's no such thing as a small role. 

When Bellarmine University theater professor and playwright Carlos Chavarria decided to write a play about Frida Kahlo, he immersed himself in the celebrated surrealist painter's life and work.

“I submerged myself for a year and a half in Frida, Frida, Frida," says Chavarria, who heads up Bellarmine's theater program. "My life has been Frida ever since.” 

The New York Times published an op-ed by poet Maurice Manning yesterday on his understanding of conservatism. In the essay, the Kentucky native and Washington County resident explains how he exercises his conservative values through his work on his farm and in his rural community:

In biology, a slant culture occurs when you tilt the test tube to maximize your potential area for cellular growth.

The producing companies of the Slant Culture Theatre Festival are taking a similar approach: by joining forces for an 11-day festival, they hope to create conditions—and a culture—that are favorable to growth for all of the performers and organizations.

Slant Culture opens at Walden Theatre Thursday and runs through Sunday, November 18.