Karyn Czar: reporter by day, comic actress by night
Karyn Czar is different things to different people in Lexington.
To radio listeners, she is a reporter for WUKY-FM 91.3 and host during the station’s daily broadcast of NPR’s Morning Edition. It’s the latest in a number of radio gigs for Czar.
But theater audiences know Czar as prolific actress who specializes in comic roles, like her current turn in AthensWest Theatre Co.’s season finale, Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge. With the show heading into its final weekend, we asked Karyn a few questions.
Q. You have a job that requires you to get up early, and an avocation as actress and theater artist that tends to run late. When do you sleep?
A. I am a vampire. The sparkly kind from the Twilight series. They don’t sleep. Actually a colleague taught me the joy of split sleep. Five hours at night. One or two in the afternoon.
Q. What do you like most about radio and journalism?
A. As a DJ, I love mixing music and all of the great stunts I’ve gotten to do on the air. As a journalist, I can’t believe I get paid to meet so many interesting people and share their stories. Getting to the truth of a difficult piece also drives me.
Q. What keeps you coming back to the stage?
A. Complete insanity? I feel at home at the theater, be it on stage or behind the scenes.
Q. You have played a variety of parts. Do you have a favorite?
A. Peter Pan, the Wardrobe in Beauty and the Beast and Hazel in the current production of Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge.
Q. Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge brings AthensWest Theatre’s debut season to a close. What has it been like to work with this company?
A. I have worked with amazing groups along the way, but the cast and crew of Golden Boy have been the most supportive, talented and kind group of people I have ever encountered. We have become a true family, and I’d give any one of them a kidney if they needed one. I don’t mean that as a joke. I really would.
I hope that generations from now, someone is throwing the 50-year anniversary party for AthensWest. They are vital to Lexington’s arts scene and deserve to be a permanent fixture in this community.
Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge continues at 8 p.m. April 29-30 and 2 p.m. May 1 at the Downtown Arts Center, 141 East Main Street. Call 859-425-2550 or visit Athenswest.org for tickets.
This story was originally published April 28, 2016 at 12:59 PM with the headline "Karyn Czar: reporter by day, comic actress by night."