SHELBYVILLE, Ky. — On a Monday night, Cheryl Van Stockum was curling her hair, getting into costume as Scottish housekeeper, Janet McKenzie. 

"It’s the first time we’ve been in these costumes," she said. "It’s the first time trying to see if we like what our hair looks like like." 

Opening night was four days away for Agatha Christie’s "Witness for the Prosecution,” presented by Shelby County Community Theatre. 

While it was crunch time for the cast and crew, it took two years to get to this point. 


What You Need To Know

  • Shelby County Community Theatre has been presenting productions for 45 years

  • The theatre went dark for 18 months due to the pandemic

  • Federal data show performing arts presenters were among the hardest hit areas of the economy in 2020

  • Revenue generated by other events and community donations allowed the theatre to continue operating 

The play was supposed to open in 2020. Van Stockum, the theatre's executive director, recalled when COVID-19 shut everything down. 

Cheryl Van Stockum is executive director of Shelby County Community Theatre. (Spectrum News 1/Erin Kelly)

"Rehearsals were well under way for The Glass Menagerie in this upstairs space and we got the announcement like everybody else did: you got to stop, you got to go home, you got to shut down," she said. 

The little theatre at the corner of 8th and Main in Shelbyville went dark, an unexpected intermission that lasted 18 months. 

"It was hard," said Van Stockum. "It was really hard. This is home.”

The theatre improvised by holding outdoor Shakespearean monologues and launching a series of podcasts and online classes. 

They offered ticket packages that could be used for future productions, too.

The revenue generated by the events plus the donations from the community allowed the theatre to continue operating.

"We were just very, very grateful so then in turn we felt like we needed to give gifts back to the community, so that’s when we came up with three virtual productions and they’re beautifully stitched together and edited, but it was very lonely," she said. "We still didn’t have our camaraderie that we had."

Indoor productions resumed in September of last year. 

Federal data released this year show performing arts presenters and companies were among the steepest-declining areas of the U.S. economy in 2020. 

Shelby County Community Theatre has resumed indoor productions. (Spectrum News 1/Erin Kelly)

Van Stockum never doubted the nonprofit theatre would survive, thanks largely to the generosity of the community and sponsors, she said.

"I hope that everybody leaves this, whether you’re in the show, whether you’ve worked the show, whether you’ve come to see it, with being changed, with being different with being immersed in part of the story," she said.

Forty-five years after the theatre’s first production, the lights still go up.

As they say, the show goes on.

"Witness for the Prosecution" opened last weekend. You can catch it Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.