By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist
A few Sundays ago, Suzanne and I started our day at the First Christian Church, in Versailles, with a great sermon by our minister, Marcus Lynn, and a stirring presentation by the church’s celebrated Bell Choir. Then, we were off an hour away to Cynthiana to see a locally produced stage play at the renovated, historical Rohs Opera House.
The play, Dearly Departed, directed by Roger Slade, dealt with the death of the father in a terribly dysfunctional family in a backwoods town in the Bible belt. Most of the narrative focused on the varying responses to the death and details of the funeral arrangements. That narrative lead to the climactic scene of the funeral with the untimely absence of the minister supposed to be leading the service and the family improvising to finish the ceremony.
We enjoyed the presentation and will look to attending more at the theatre in the future.
The production made abundantly clear that all the characters had varying amounts of emotional baggage they were navigating, and I suspect most in the audience saw at least a glimpse of their own selves or families in the acting. (Hopefully not as much!) To me, that theme is the genius of Dearly Departed and speaks well of the hard work of Roger Slade and his cast who doubled as stage helpers.
A bit of a veteran in such matters, Roger has acted in several Rohs Theatre productions and helped create two original productions. He previously directed the radio drama A Christmas Carol starring Gary Sandy of WKRP in Cincinnati fame. Dearly Departed is his first time directing a full-length stage production.
Curious to find out more, I contacted the director to find out the background on Dearly Departed, and he provided interesting information. I started by asking Roger how he got involved.
“Our long-time artistic director decided to step away from the theatre company for a hiatus after our production last fall,” he explained. Roger had previous experience with Dearly Departed and offered to direct it as a spring production. The board agreed, and soon, Roger “put together my team, starting with the stage manager. I just asked the people I wanted to work with and fortunately they agreed.” Ditto with the set design, costume, and production people.
“We started rehearsing in January (2026) and rehearsals were Monday and Thursday until the week of opening when we rehearsed every night until opening on Friday,” Roger stated. “We did miss a few rehearsals due to weather, but the cast worked on their own memorizing lines.”
The actors got extra duty as stagehands because of their large number, plus limited room storage. With that, there was a learning curve. “We tried something different with the set as we had the large triangle pieces that swiveled (periaktos),” noted Roger.
Suzanne and I were impressed with the obvious commitment of the cast members. That was no accident, according to Roger.
“We had a nice mix of veteran actors, actresses, and newcomers,” he said. “Everyone wanted to be there, and they enjoyed bringing their characters to life. As director, I gave them freedom to create their character how they envisioned him or her within the scope of the play. Our theatre company also has a reputation of producing high-quality plays, so expectations are high.”
And what does Roger hope that audiences from the five showings take with them? Pretty simple. “I hope they were just able to escape the real world for two hours and laugh,” he said.
I have a feeling that most did, and that’s something we can all occasionally use in our lives. That, and maybe learn something, too.
To learn more about upcoming events at Rohs, visit www.rohsoperahouse.com.
