The Bluegrass and Beyond

There seems to be a fund-raising walk, run or bicycle ride for just about every cause, charity and disease.

So when Ed Stodola was looking for a way to raise money to restore the Grand Theatre in downtown Frankfort, the avid cyclist decided to organize a ride.

But what a ride.

The Grand Autumn Bicycle Ride Across Kentucky is a three-day trek that covers 11 counties and more than 200 miles, from the Ohio River at Carrollton to the Tennessee line at Dale Hollow Lake. Dip your wheels at each end.

In each of the past five years, the ride has attracted no more than 35 riders, but Stodola is hoping for the maximum 60 this year. For more information, go to www.gabraky.com.

So far, the GABRAKY has raised more than $68,000 for the Grand Theatre’s $5 million renovation. It has not been a lot of money in the Grand scheme, Stodola admits. But it has provided cash flow at critical times during the seven-year effort.

“The ride also helped keep the Grand efforts in the public eye,” he said, explaining that the first ride, in 2004, came when other fund-raising efforts had plateaued.

Organizers are planning the sixth ride for Oct. 9-11, with a couple of differences.

Instead of “Grand,” it’s now the “Governor’s” ride, reflecting its designation as the Beshear administration’s first Kentucky Adventure Tourism bike tour. Also, the theater’s renovation is almost finished. An open house is planned Aug. 7.

The Grand on St. Clair Mall was built about 1910 as a small vaudeville house and enlarged as a movie theater in the 1940s. It closed in 1966, and the building was put to other uses, from a dollar store to an auction house.

There was an effort to restore the Grand in 1983, but it failed. Then, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a group of Frankfort citizens began looking for a project to build community spirit. They remembered the Grand.

Since then, several other restoration projects have begun in downtown Frankfort, which has many beautiful old buildings. “I think it’s going to have a transformational effect,” Stodola said.

The renovated Grand will show movies, host concerts and be a venue for small stage shows. None of its 420 seats is more than 50 feet from the stage.

“We’re going to market it as Kentucky’s most intimate performance venue,” said Bill Cull, chairman of the non-profit Save the Grand Inc., which owns the building and is managing the restoration.

Cull and Stodola gave me a tour of the theater last week as workmen were installing seats and putting on other finishing touches. Sections of original plaster from the 1910 vaudeville house and 1940s theater have been preserved as part of a beautiful, modern theater that includes a small art gallery upstairs.

A mid-1800s house that shared a wall with the theater also has been restored. It will be used for administrative offices and performers’ dressing rooms.

The project was put together with a patchwork of government money, grants, corporate and private donations, volunteer labor and, of course, money raised from the bicycle ride.

A concert by R&B groups The Platters and The Coasters is planned for the theater’s grand opening on Sept. 25. Other bookings so far include the New York Theatre Ballet’s production of Sleeping Beauty.

Singer John Sebastian will perform at the theater during the Alltech Fortnight Festival on the first night of this year’s GABRAKY. And when the cyclists ride south the next morning, they can take a little pride in having helped the Grand’s marquee light up the Frankfort sky again.

Have you always wanted to be an actor, but figured you didn’t stand a ghost of a chance?

Well, here’s your opportunity.

The Liberty Hall Historic Site in Frankfort is seeking actors to portray some of Frankfort’s notable ghosts as part of its 14th annual Ghosts of Frankfort production on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

Auditions will Tuesday, Sept. 16, and Thursday, Sept. 18, at Liberty Hall, 218 Wilkinson St., from 4:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. No appointment necessary — like a ghost, you just appear. Prospective actors will be asked to do a cold reading, and they should have familiarized themselves with Liberty Hall’s history.

For more information, call Jennifer L. Koach at (502) 227-2560 or go to the Web site.

Here are the parts available:

Hannah Stepney - 30-50 year old African American woman

Margaretta Brown - 25-35 year old woman

Brown Girls (Margaretta, Mary Yoder, Eliza) - 15-20 year old women

Mary Yoder - 25-35 year old woman

Mary Mason Scott - 20-30 year old woman

Gray Lady - 40-50 year old woman

Euphemia Brown - 5-8 year old girl

Miles Stepney - 30-50 year old African American man

John Brown - 40-50 year old man (preferably “robust”)

Aaron Burr - 45-55 year old man

Orlando Brown (adult) - 35-45 year old man

Mason Brown (adult) - 35-45 year old man

Yoder Brown - 17-22 year old man

Doctor Humphreys - 30-50 year old man

Doctor Brown - 40-50 year old man

Brown Boys (Mason and Orlando) - 5-8 year old boys