Shakespearean actor Adam Luckey takes on new role: Shakespearean director

Adam Luckey finally finds a moment to sit down in the amphitheater at The Arboretum. It's less than 15 minutes before the start of the final dress rehearsal of his production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

"And I thought acting was tough," Luckey says, taking a deep breath.

In the whirlwind of the past hour, he has consulted with the technical crew on the setup of the stage, led the entire ensemble in a rehearsal of their curtain call, walked through some scenes with the student actors playing the fairies, and given actress Meredith Crutcher a tutorial on delivering a Shakespearean monologue.

That last item is something Luckey knows well.

During the past 15 years, he has played many of Shakespeare's iconic characters on the Arboretum stage, including Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Iago in Othello and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Add to that a turn as Hamlet at Actors Guild of Lexington, and you have an actor who knows his way around Shakespeare's words.

As SummerFest prepared to launch for 2012, he was looking at the lineup's Shakespearean show, A Midsummer Night's Dream, wondering what role he might want to try for.

"Then I thought, I want to give a shot at directing it," Luckey says. "I've had this opportunity to teach in schools and do workshops, and find a way of getting my point across or my passion for what I'm wanting certain performers or actors to do, and I just wanted to apply that to this.

"I really am having a wonderful time trying to teach my approach to Shakespeare and to allow people to find their own approach to it, and finding that balance and finding this wonderful way to tell a story."

For Luckey, it's yet another chance to work with the writer whose plays he says he could work on "50 weeks a year. Maybe 52."

So Midsummer finds him in familiar territory with Shakespeare, but he is on unfamiliar ground with a comedy. Most of his Shakespeare experience is in histories and tragedies, including Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra.

Regardless of the genre, Luckey says, the essence of the project is directing the story that Shakespeare has written, in this case, one of lovers who fall under the spell of fairies in the woods.

Luckey draws much of his inspiration from directors he has worked with, particularly SummerFest artistic director Joe Ferrell, who is directing next week's production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire for SummerFest.

"Joe always said we do this job because it's fun," Luckey says. "If it wasn't fun, why would we be doing it?"

One major way he is varying from his guru is in the show's music. Ferrell and many other directors pull from established scores, such as Peter Gabriel's work for The Last Temptation of Christ, to underscore their shows, but Luckey has written new music and combined it with tunes composed by students in the Kentucky Conservatory Theatre to give this Midsummer a fresh score.

Luckey "just has melodies in his head," says conservatory student Cameron Taylor, whose own work in the show includes the music during Oberon's final speech.

Luckey says the composition came about by accident as he started working with Garage Band, a composition software program.

"Midsummer was floating around in my head," Luckey says. "I wrote this little thing; I had no idea where it came from, but I thought, 'Let's write the music for this show, too.' I've never directed before, but why not score it as well?"

His music will underpin the production, but Luckey knows the language will carry it, which is why he spends extra time with Crutcher, who plays Helena, one of the lovers, to help her with a treacherous monologue. He talks to her about how a Shakespearean monologue can become exhausting, and actors tend to rush out of them.

He says it needs to be carried through, making the last words as important as the first.

A little while later, after Crutcher delivers that speech, Luckey shouts from the back of the amphitheater, "That's how you do it!"

It's all in the service of putting on a great show.

"The language is clear, which is of upmost importance to me," Luckey says. "Anyone can understand this. It's not going to take the Shakespeare dictionary or the archaic book of puns or anything of that nature to enjoy this."

He is enjoying his turn as director, but don't expect it to constitute a major change in his theater career.

"I'd love to go right from this to a Shakespeare production and get on the stage," Luckey says. "This is just another notch in the Shakespeare experience for me that I hope will just continue and continue."

This story was originally published July 12, 2012 at 8:10 AM with the headline "Shakespearean actor Adam Luckey takes on new role: Shakespearean director."