The Yum! Brands Foundation has pledged $17,000 in annual support for this valuable component of Walden Theatre’s educational mission. The gift will support just over 35% of total production costs and provide a subsidy for about 300 students from low-income public schools to participate.

“Yum! Brands has shown how deeply they care,” said Charlie Sexton, Walden Theatre’s Artistic Director, “not only for the arts but for arts education as well. This grant will enable us to continue providing the highest quality arts education experiences the region has to offer.”

Walden Theatre’s Cornerstone Classics Series selection is drawn from the “cornerstones” of Western literature and theatre. Titles such as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Crucible, and this year’s Julius Caesar are pulled directly from schools’ core reading lists and brought to life on stage by Walden Theatre’s young actors. The Cornerstone Classic is Walden Theatre’s best-attended production of the season, and it is an important, annual educational experience not just for the show’s young actors, but also for the more than 1,500 area school children who will attend student matinée performances at the Brown Theatre. The total audience reached by this production will be an estimated 2,500+ adults and teens in the Greater Louisville community.

“It is such a unique and captivating experience for the student audience to watch their peers perform such challenging material on stage,” said Alison Huff, Managing Director at Walden Theatre. “I’m always amazed at how you can hear a pin drop in a theater full of 1,500 middle and high school students! We are thrilled that the Yum! Brands Foundation is now helping us make classic literature come alive for young people in our community.”

The Yum! Family Series is an arts education program designed to give students a wide range of arts-rich educational experiences including in-classroom workshops, student matinées and playwriting residencies. Funding from the Yum! Foundation ensures that children throughout our community have the opportunity to learn about and experience theatre arts, helping students develop imagination, observation skills, collaborative skills, deeper and more complex thinking skills, abstract thought and self-esteem.  Each year, thousands of elementary, middle and high school students will experience the thrill of live theatre with the generous funding from Yum! Brands Foundation.

For Friday, even if JCPS cancels classes, please check back with us either on Facebook, Twitter, here, or the website for the word. We’ll also send an email if classes get canceled.

Please watch this space, plus email, the website, Facebook, and Twitter for updates.

The wait is over, here’s the cast:

Remember, rehearsals start January 10 (tomorrow) at 6:30!
Remember, rehearsals start January 10 (tomorrow) at 6:30!
Remember, rehearsals start January 10 (tomorrow) at 6:30!

Scripts are in the costume shop.

The American Clock

Quinn
David Watkins

Lee Baum
Ciaran Brown

Rose Baum
Allison Spanyer

Moe Braun
Marshall Makk

Robertson
Carter Caldwell

Actor #1
Abbey Kass

Actor #2
Elliot Vitaz

Actor #3
Theo Edwards-Butler

Actor #4
Sydney Welch

Actor #5
Peyton Froula

Actor #6
Callie Trawick

Actor #7
Brooke Morrison

Actor #8
Lexi Drexelius

Thursday, Friday, Saturday evenings @ 7:30pm
Saturday matinees @ 2:00pm
(+ matinee prices on the 2nd Thursday evening)

In this contemporary-dress version of the classic play, a cabal of politicians is convinced that Caesar’s power has corrupted her rule. She refuses the crown–not once but three times–but the plotters nevertheless fear the worst kind of tyranny. Against a background of mistrust, and fueled by individual ambitions, former advisors and friends plot a shocking act of betrayal.

But can the republic withstand chaos and civil war as rivals contend for power in the vacuum left by the widely popular Caesar?

The political intrigue in JULIUS CAESAR is a fascinating counterpoint to current events as leaders around the world and in our own country– some reviled but others beloved and respected–are accused of tyranny or corruption and sabotaged by even the people they trust the most. And all this in the context of a hyper-mediated world full of camera phones, always-on social utilities, and a non-stop news cycle.

JULIUS CAESAR is the latest offering in Walden Theatre’s Cornerstone Classics Series. Drawn from the core reading lists of classic literature and theatre, the series has recently brought to life TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and THE CRUCIBLE for large audiences, including thousands of students from area schools. The Cornerstone Classics Series is a unique way for teachers and administrators to enrich the core curriculum for thousands of young people, and for the theatre-going public to engage with the enduring dilemmas and conflicts that inform our literary classics.

This year we have a brand new way to give. Walden Theatre has three great projects posted on the website power2give.org.

Every tax-deductible dollar you give to a Walden project will be matched by a corporate donor, making your gift go twice as far.

The 1400-seat Brown Theatre is SOLD OUT for a matinee of Julius Caesar, performed by Walden’s young actors for their middle & high school peers. Help us raise $3,000 for rental fees. Remember, we only need $1,500 from you to secure the matching funds!

Just $3,000 underwrites the pilot phase of two new interdisciplinary Outreach programs that use drama as a tool to teach science and math curricula in elementary & middle school classrooms. Your $1,500 will be matched by Republic Bank to fund this innovative project!

Two-thirds of funding for “Exploring Drama through History” Outreach workshops at Slaughter Elementary is secured. Help these at-risk 5th graders bring history to life in their classroom by contributing just $520to bridge the funding gap. Republic Bank will match the rest!

Please support one or more of these great Walden Theatre programs posted on the power2give website.

Immediately following the performance, stick around for an alumni reception. Catch up with everyone you remember, and see what the upcoming graduates can do.

Those auditioning should prepare a one-minute contemporary monologue. The director will also be asking actors to read from the script. Callbacks are Thursday Jan 5 from 7:30-8:30 (immediately following the Thursday auditions). Sign up sheets are posted in the Walden Theatre lobby. Use them!

Please bring in a registration form to the audition. As you know, you have to be enrolled to participate. Studio, Apprentice, and Performance students can audition.

A visionary in the field of arts education, Mrs. Sexton founded Walden Theatre in 1976 to give young people the opportunity to grow and develop through the study and experience of theatre. Her leadership as Producing Director oversaw the organization’s inclusion as a member of the Fund for the Arts and the purchase of its property on Payne Street, where the Nancy Niles Sexton Stage honors her legacy.  She served as Producing Director until 1999, though she maintained an active role with young actors and playwrights beyond her official retirement.

Mrs. Sexton shared her expertise as an educator with lectures and workshops on theatre training for young people throughout Kentucky as well as in Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Ontario. Along with founding Walden Theatre, she launched a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1976 that led to the creation of the first Shakespeare Festival by and for young people in the United States. She also started Walden Theatre’s young playwrights program, which continues to develop and produce new student works every year for the theatre going public.

Mrs. Sexton wrote 15 original works for Walden Theatre, and several of her plays — covering everything from the life of Thomas Edison and the 1937 Louisville Flood to the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II — are still performed for area school students. She co-authored the play My Days as a Youngling which was based on the early years of her uncle, Kentucky balladeer John Jacob Niles, and a performance of the play was broadcast on the KET public television network. 

My Days as a Youngling was recognized with the Distinguished Play Award presented by the Children’s Theatre Association of America in 1983. Other major recognitions include the Presentation Academy Tower Award for Women Leaders in 1999, a Gheens Premier Award in 2007, and Walden Theatre’s inaugural Stage-Setter Award for Arts Community Impact in 2008.

Mrs. Sexton earned a BA in English/Drama from the University of Kentucky, and she did graduate work at the Yale Drama School. She was a member of Actors Equity Association, and she performed the folk music and legends of Kentucky all her life. She directed widely throughout her career, including an AFTRA Award-winning production ofThe Taming of the Shrew for WKPC-TV. As an actor, she performed with the Kentucky Opera, Actors Theatre of Louisville (including the Humana Festival of New American Plays), Stage West (Springfield, Mass.), and Walden Theatre.

She took huge delight in the achievements of her grandchildren and had fond memories of all the students she taught over the years. She is survived by her loving husband of 53 years, Robert Sexton; children Robert Franklin Sexton III (Nancy) and Charles Niles Sexton (Laura); grandchildren Aaron, Ian, Ben and Rena; sister, Beverly Niles; niece, Sandy Bennett.

Her funeral service will be 10 a.m. Thursday, November 17, 2011 at St. Matthews Baptist Church, with burial in Cave Hill Cemetery to follow. Her visitation will be 2-8 p.m. Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at Pearson Ratterman Brothers Funeral Home, 12900 Shelbyville Road. In addition, there will be a memorial celebrating Mrs. Sexton’s life and career on Saturday, November 26, 3-5 p.m. at Walden Theatre.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Mrs. Sexton’s memory can be made to Walden Theatre.