Playhouse celebrates 50 years

As twilight steals across the Bluegrass, the stage at Pioneer Playhouse lights up for the opening of the 50th season at Kentucky's oldest outdoor theater.

For 50 years, playhouse founder Eben Henson has been putting on plays from great playwrights with aspiring actors for appreciative audiences - all gathered together beneath a timeless Kentucky moon. Every building on the premises tells a unique story about the Pioneer Playhouse, a veritable time capsule of summer stock theater located on Stanford Road.

The 1999 five-play schedule is: ``Jackie: An American Life,'' June 12-26, Jackie Kennedy's life story in a political light; ``Arsenic and Old Lace,'' June 29-July 10, two charming old aunts who have a bed and breakfast where guests really get to ``rest in peace''; ``The Foreigner,'' July 13-24, a man pretends to be a foreigner to avoid conversation and winds up hearing more than he bargained for; ``The Last Night of Ballyhoo,'' July 27-Aug. 7, can a Southern Jewish girl find her prince?; ``Alone Together,'' Aug. 10-21, Mom and Dad are alone, but when all three sons want to move back in, it's tough getting them to leave again.

Reserved tickets for dinner and the show are $20; theater-only tickets are $12. Performances are Tuesdays through Saturdays, and are held indoors in case of rain. Dinner starts at 7:30 p.m.; the play starts at 8:30 p.m. For more information, call 236-2747.