State-Journal.com - Frankfort Faces: Delayed drama

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Photo By State Journal/Hilly SchifferNancy Atcher, 57, rehearses a monologue at First United Methodist Church. She volunteers for the church’s fine arts team.

Photo By State Journal/Hilly SchifferNancy looks through a photography exhibit on display in First United Methodist Church’s gallery.

Photo By State Journal/Hilly SchifferNancy Atcher adjusts microphones on the stage at First United Methodist Church where she helps write and direct the church’s annual madrigal dinner. “It’s a performer’s dream,” Nancy said. “The stage is kind of my office.”

Nancy Atcher is all about drama.

The 57-year-old has devoted herself to the arts and championing its creators.

After retiring from the Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Craft Marketing Program a year ago, Nancy returned to her creative roots - painting, photography and music.

“I’ve spent most of my life marketing, promoting and teaching artists how to make a living,” she says. “I couldn’t wait to retire and start doing my own thing.”

In May, Nancy and her friends Mel Smither and Helen Chadwick started the production company “We Three Girls.”

They perform around the area and staged their first production July 2 at the Franklin County Senior Activity Center - a WW II USO show.

The troupe plans to use drama to look at women’s issues such as domestic violence and share personal experiences in an educational and entertaining way, Nancy said.

“We all represent different decades. We feel like we’ve lived a lot.”

Nancy said the group is open to performing in a variety of locations - civic centers, churches, birthday parties - and scripting to meet the needs of the audience.

They’ll be performing their WWII USO show again Aug. 15 at the American Legion, and they have a Christmas show in the works.

Born in Louisville, Nancy is a distant cousin to Randy Atcher, a country musician, who entertained on WHAS in the late 1960s.

“I’m proud to have that name and carry that tradition on,” she said.

She loved music as a child and gained knowledge from her grandmother who played organ in a small church.

But when she graduated from high school, becoming an artist wasn’t an option. Her career choices were limited to nursing, teaching or becoming a housewife, she says.

So she put her dreams on the backburner for more than two decades.

“I truly believe things happen at the right time.”

In 2002 she auditioned - and was selected - for a part in Bluegrass Theatre Guild’s production of “The Music Man.”

Since then, she’s performed in Anderson County, Lexington and Harrodsburg in productions of “Love Thy Neighbor,” “State Fair” and “Steel Magnolias.”

She said she enjoys networking with other actors, directors and crewmembers.

“When you’re in a play, you’re a family,” she said.

Volunteering for First United Methodist and advancing its arts program also takes up much of Nancy’s time.

She’s an active leader in the church’s fine arts team.

The team has brought displays of photographs and paintings, commissioned a chandelier and started forming a drama ministry for the church. The church offers a jazz service on the first Sunday of each month.

“We’re really trying to focus on the arts,” she said. “We hope to find some new and talented actors.”

Exhibits in the gallery rotate every few months. Nancy said it can take a full day to arrange the works along the wall in the main corridor of the church’s new building.

In the fall, the art will focus on climate control as part of a partnership with Frankfort Climate Action Network.

Each winter Nancy helps write and direct the church’s annual madrigal dinner.

She said the set up of the church - with its stage, lighting and sound equipment - as well as its commitment to arts is perfect for her.

“It’s a performer’s dream,” Nancy said. “The stage is kind of my office.”
More churches are becoming community arts centers, Nancy said.

She said First United Methodist is working on partnerships with the Bluegrass Theatre Guild and The Grand Theatre to bring in artists, and eventually have a downtown arts tour.

“The arts bring people in and add to a cultural life and make people want to stay (in the community),” she said. “(Arts) add to the quality of life.”

Nancy said she hopes to offer workshops on how to audition and other topics regarding fine arts.

She says people have become more interested in the field through shows such as American Idol, America’s Got Talent and Dancing with the Stars.

“There’s talent everywhere,” she said.