By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune Columnist
I’m looking forward to attending Jerry “Buck” Deaton’s latest play production, Kentucky on Stage, on opening night, February 27, at 7 p.m. One of the reasons I’m excited is because I’ll watch a 62-year-old man, Jerry, play himself as a 19-year-old in one of the acts. More on that later.
The program will be presented by a group he started, the Frankfort Studio Players, showing at the First Presbyterian Church, downtown Frankfort at 416 W. Main Street. In addition to Feb. 27, the dates for the show are February 28, March 1, 6, 7, and 8. Ticket prices are $15 and proceeds go to the church.
A retired lobbyist and former legislative and executive branch employee in Frankfort, this is Jerry’s fourth stage production, which has included ones called Appalachian Ghost Stories: Tales from Bloody Breathitt (2023) and Long Ago and Far Away (2025). He also produced two documentaries for Kentucky Educational Television, The Feuds of Bloody Breathitt: The Untold Story (2012) and Harry Caudill: Man of Courage (2015) and has published two books.
Not surprisingly, Jerry sees himself as a storyteller, and his passion for his state is undeniable in his tellings. Ideas for this production came mainly in an unusual way. “I got out on a bicycle and three different themes, three different acts, came in my head while I was riding that bicycle,” he said.
The Kentucky-based plays typically have the four acts directly related to each other, but in Kentucky on Stage, they’re not, according to Jerry. They all have different storylines with a light touch. “We need comedic relief now as bad as ever,” he said. He noted, also, that two of the acts are the first he has “moved out of Eastern Kentucky” where his previous plays were set.
The first act, “Madison,’ is set in modern-day Louisville in a convenience store, where employees spend much time talking about customers and spreading salacious rumors about other employees. “Wanda is a train wreck waiting to happen,” noted Jerry, “and Madison is the voice of reason.” Jerry based the act on actual people and events from personal experience.
“Long Day at the Sawmill,” the second act, is set in Eastern Kentucky’s Breathitt County, where Jerry was raised. He worked with his father in the early 1980s at his dad’s sawmill, on Long’s Creek, where, though he was not paid directly, Jerry was promised and later received financing for his college education from his father. For Jerry, his reward seemed, at the time, to be very far off and quite frustrating as a motivator.
In the act, tension develops when the mill breaks down and words not of the gentle kind ensues. “The conversation goes back and forth between what is happening there on Long’s Creek and in the lives of the odd assortment of people that have gathered to both work and watch that day at the mill,” Jerry explained.
As mentioned, Jerry will serve as more than a playwright or producer in the Sawmill act. He will play himself after the unexpected unavailability of a member of the original cast. Who could play Jerry Deaton better than himself he figured. He’ll play, with passion, an angry young man who “moans and complains to his dad and two co-workers,” resentful of being at a place he doesn’t like and doing work he doesn’t want to do. What will result from Jerry playing himself should demonstrate a great deal of authenticity.
And though Jerry and his father get along well today, he recalls the actual scene that day as one where the two were “into each other’s faces” and where “my dad and I almost got into it.”
The third act is titled “Myrtle Beach.” Jerry describes it as “a spoof on a family vacation he and his family took back in 1978, when seven of them piled into a pickup truck with a tin camper on the back and headed out on a 600-mile trip for their first look at the ocean. The early morning scene takes place on the Mountain Parkway where conversation is about the events of the day and gossip, mixed with digs at each other over relationships and their sometimes-silly comments. The closeness of four people crammed into a truck cab adds to the humor.”
The final act is called “The Chimleys,” and it might be considered both funny and educational. It follows two brothers who are history lovers, but can’t seem to agree on much, arguing over facts and public figures while taking a tour of the Thomas Clark Center for Kentucky History, in Frankfort.
Jerry called the The Chimleys story “the strangest one I’ve ever written. I don’t know how I came up with that,” he said, grinning. Along with the characters’ passion for history as a storyline, the two brothers have an obsession for the TV serial, Days of Our Lives, and it is integrated into the dialogue.
Multi-talented, it appears Jerry has found his niche in producing plays. Those productions have attracted good crowds, often spurred on by word-of-mouth by people who have seen the productions. But he is one who tends to live “in the moment” and takes things as they come. He doesn’t necessarily have a master plan for his future as a playwright. “I just love theatre,” he said. “But if I don’t come up with something else, I’m finished.”
For those who know Jerry Deaton and his passion for Kentucky, they don’t expect and want him to be finished anytime soon.
For more details, email Jerry at jdeaton@me.com.
