Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Bill McCann

Columnist

I grew up in Lexington during the 1960s and 70s. Early on, I was exposed to music in school—singing everything from “Old MacDonald” to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Television shows as diverse as “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Walt Disney”, “Bugs Bunny,” “The Flying Nun,” “Rawhide” and “My Favorite Martian” introduced me to everyone from The Beatles (Ed Sullivan) to German opera (“Bugs Bunny”). Indeed, many of those other shows expanded my mind to see possibilities I might never have been exposed to otherwise: living on the moon and traveling in a yellow submarine are but two examples.

The arts world I was exposed to then was white, male, and Euro- and Western-centric. Those are problems that still haunt many arts today. They are also topics for a future column.

From my earliest exposure to the arts, I went on to become actively involved in a great many. In the summer of 1966, I was in my first play—a life-changing event, as I would eventually be in more than 100 plays or musicals.

But at scout and other summer camps, I was exposed to basketry, leather craft, woodworking, and painting. In school and theatre, I became acquainted with set design, lighting design, stage management and more. I took voice lessons in high school and college and have sung in college, community and church choirs for most of the past 50 years.

Since moving back to Winchester in 2018, I have been participating in the Clark County Fair and Horse Show as a photographer.

When I went to Paris, France for a two-week college course in 2011, I took a camera—and promptly dropped it into water. So, because I no longer had a camera, I used colored pencils and a black leather journal—to record sites as drawings within that book, along with my thoughts and reflections.

My bad luck helped me create a wonderful souvenir that I treasure and perhaps others will enjoy someday. In two weeks, I did not become a great artist (or even a mediocre one), but I learned yet another way to make lemonade out of lemons.

Within the past month, I have been involved in helping create a radio drama for a future broadcast on an episode of WEKU (88.9 FM) radio’s Eastern Standard. I’ve conducted interviews on Eastern Standard and had one of my own radio dramas broadcast on the show, too. But being in the show—”Seven Miles to Harrodsburg” by Al DiGiacomo was really a special opportunity. It was a chance to return to what had attracted me to the theatre in the first place: Acting. In some sense, I felt I had come full circle back to what attracted me to the arts.

Yet, I have also moved on beyond theatre. I write poetry—something I came to about a year ago when I took my first poetry course. I now write plays, flash fiction (stories of fewer than 1,000 words) and essays. I’m working on a master’s of fine arts. I have a chapbook of flash fiction pieces coming out this fall. I’m not equally good at the various arts I practice or enjoy.

My plays have won awards and been produced. But the poems I’ve recently been writing are yet to find journals willing to publish them. I’m still learning the art of conducting good radio interviews. And some of these columns are better than others. My photographs have won awards at the local fair but have also been also-rans at the Kentucky State Fair. I still sing. Yet, I have been having a good time participating in, enjoying and encouraging others to experience the arts.

I’m fortunate to live in Winchester where a great many arts are available—at the Leeds Center for the Arts, two community summer concert series, a local museum, local festivals that highlight local artists, a Christian ballet, wonderful local artists whose works are available for sale on Main Street, music and theatre programs at GRC and other local schools. There are also open mic nights and live music at various local venues. The arts are alive and well in Winchester. But for local arts and artists to succeed, they need your support. Better yet, the arts need your talents and involvement.