Although I have never been to a Star Trek convention or considered turning my basement into the bridge of the starship Enterprise, I confess that I am a Trekker. One of the best characters ever created by the series is Scotty, the chief engineer. Scotty represents the lynchpin, go-to person in every successful organization. He is the person who knows just where to apply the wrench and how hard to hit to keep the engines running. At The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, that lynchpin person is Joe Massey, Senior Vice President of Facility Services. Joe would much rather run the spotlight than stand in front of it, so you have probably never seen him. But his influence is present at every Kentucky Center or Brown Theatre performance. I recently spoke with Joe, the only person left who has been on the payroll of The Kentucky Center from day one of its existence.
JM: Originally I was a stagehand. I still have my card, which I haven’t used since 1982. The Center hired a group of us, and I was the head flyman, which meant I was responsible for all the scenery coming in and out, the curtain, those kinds of things. After that I moved into the head carpenter position – he’s the guy who used to yell at the head flyman to bring the scenery in.
SD: What were you doing before The Kentucky Center opened?
JM: Originally I was a stagehand. I still have my card, which I haven’t used since 1982. The Center hired a group of us, and I was the head flyman, which meant I was responsible for all the scenery coming in and out, the curtain, those kinds of things. After that I moved into the head carpenter position – he’s the guy who used to yell at the head flyman to bring the scenery in.
SD: What were you doing before The Kentucky Center opened?
JM: I did a lot exhibit work. I worked rock ’n’ roll on the weekends and exhibit work during the week. The company I worked for at the time was having a lot of issues over work rules and conditions. They were talking about joining the Teamsters, but I was part of the group who pushed for the Stage Hands union. When approached about the job at the Center, I didn’t have as much stage experience as some of the other people – that was an issue. I came in with very little seniority and it was rough-going for a while; but I learned the ropes pretty quick. There were three of us hired in at that level and, 27 years later, I’m the only one still at The Kentucky Center.
SD: What was it like pulling this place together from a hole in the ground?
JM: For one thing, the place was very intimidating. The biggest fly system I had worked on to that point was at Memorial Auditorium. I went from 30 line sets to 104, and 17 of those were hydraulic. I thought I had made a big mistake! This place was a factory compared to what I was used to.
SD: And, of course, nobody knew any more about the place than you did.
JM: There was a lot of hard work because of that. Jobs we had done with one or two people before now took four people – we just didn’t know it at the time. The first year we worked 100 hours a week, every week. Most of us never saw the lobbies or any part of the building that wasn’t a stage for the first six months.
SD: You have certainly become familiar with it since then.
JM: Yes, it took a couple of years, but I’m familiar now.
SD: Did you have any part in bringing the art collection into the building?
JM: I was still pretty much in production, but we had to do the lighting for a lot of it. I remember when The Coloured Gates of Louisville was installed, the artist John Chamberlain came in, got an old chair and cut the legs off and sat. He would roll stones to see if it was a good day to hang art…while the iron workers waited. Dave Russell was in charge of the project for Humana and he bit through a few cigars waiting for Chamberlain to decide if it was a good day or not. It was very important to Wendell Cherry that there was visual art in the building to complement the performing arts. I wasn’t as much of a decision-maker at that time, but it was my job to get the work done.
SD: Over the years there have been some issues over maintaining and preserving the art so it keeps its integrity.
JM: Yes, a year ago we had to take the Louise Nevelson sculpture off the wall while we refaced the lobby with new wood. As you know, the Jean Dubuffet sculptures, Faribolus and Perceval, are gone for restoration.
SD: Will they go back in the same place out front?
JM: They’re probably going to come inside. The weather has really taken a toll on them. People have given tons of thought to this decision because they are a big part of the Center’s signature.
SD: Yes, they are one of the first things people see when looking at the building from Main Street.
JM: They’ve given that a lot of thought, too, and Faribolus and Perceval will still be seen from outside.
SD: There have been some questions over the years from preservationists about how much can be done before the integrity of the work is compromised.
JM: Yes. We’re at the point now where people with those concerns feel it’s imperative that they come inside. I think we’ll be able to enjoy them a lot longer this way.
SD: The Kentucky Center has gone through a number of architectural changes over the past 27 years. What has changed about the way things are done back stage?
JM: The building was originally designed with the resident groups in mind: Louisville Ballet, Kentucky Opera, Louisville Orchestra and the Broadway Series. At the time, the first three groups were in pretty good shape and Broadway was still in start-up mode. That, of course, turned around almost immediately for Broadway. There was also a lot of local corporate money then. Over the years, that landscape changed and money has gotten tighter. We’re about two years behind the curve of the economic break. When the market went down, we didn’t feel it right away; but we will recover more gradually.
SD: What kind of changes has the downturn brought about at the Center?
JM: Before, the money wasn’t as big an issue as it is now. We have to maintain a balance and we rely on a lot of ancillary revenue streams, such as the bar in the East Room. We took that over a couple of years ago and it’s been a very good investment for us.
SD: What kind of support is coming from Frankfort these days?
JM: We don’t get a lot of operating support from the state despite what most people think. We get less now than we did 25 years ago. We rely on our earned
income and our development department.
SD: How much does it cost to run this place every day?
JM: Utilities run over a thousand dollars a day whether we’re doing a show or not. Hopefully, we’re doing shows.
SD: Broadway shows have changed a lot over the past quarter century and some of the road shows are incredibly intricate in their venue requirements. I’m thinking specifically of the structural requirements for the chandelier in The Phantom of the Opera. What kinds of changes have you had to make to accommodate those shows?
JM: We are fortunate in that the building was designed with identical grids over the stage house and the audience. All the steel that came in for the chandelier is still here and a lot of the shows coming in from New York are designed to use that rigging.
SD: How does that affect the acoustical work being done to Whitney Hall?
JM: We’re very careful to keep all our user groups in mind, even as we make acoustical changes to the hall. This summer we plan to put about $4.5 million into the rigging system. We will replace the hydraulic motors with an electric winch system.
SD: What will that allow you to do that you can’t do now?
JM: It will get our acoustical curtains working again. They haven’t worked for a while. That will help with amplified music.
SD: All the Broadway shows are amplified.
JM: Yes. This will increase our versatility. And it will also increase the uniformity of experience throughout the audience. Every seat should be a good seat.
SD: The Louisville Orchestra is not amplified. Do the acoustic clouds make a big difference to them?
JM: They do. When we first opened the building, the clouds were fiberglass. We went to a solid wood ceiling in the early ’90s. Ideally, you want a continuous material from the stage to the back of the audience for the best sound quality. When the Orchestra performs here, we’ll have the ceiling as low as possible to make the room as “live” as possible. With amplified music we’ll pull the ceiling up to control for that experience. In between those two extremes, we will be able to better accommodate the Louisville Ballet’s lighting requirements, and we’ll be able to react more nimbly to their decisions regarding music – whether they have musicians in the pit or are perform to a recording.
SD: Speaking of the Louisville Ballet, they also have special flooring requirements. What is the condition of the Whitney Hall stage in that regard?
JM: Tremendous. That’s one big change we made early on. We opened the building with a hardwood maple sprung floor, but dancer injuries went up 50 percent in the first year. When we looked at it, we found that the floor was doing everything it was supposed to, but the hardwood caused a problem for the dancers.
SD: What do they prefer to dance on?
JM: Fir or pine. The Ballet purchased a floor that we put on top of that surface, and we used that for years. When that floor began to wear out, we decided it was the time to replace the stage floor to better accommodate the Louisville Ballet and any other dance groups we host. We worked with a company that designs arena floors for basketball.
SD: So you have a professional basketball court on stage?
JM: The difference is, we’ve got a 75- or 80-pound ballerina, and courts have 250-pound basketball players! So we had to make some adjustments that would serve the dancers’ needs but still accommodate heavy scenery. We are the first venue with this combination design.
SD: Was the Louisville Ballet involved in the process?
JM: From the beginning. A committee looked at all the considerations and the result has been very satisfactory. It’s doing a really good job for us.
SD: So if Louisville gets a professional basketball team, they could play in Whitney Hall?
JM: They very well could.
SD: You have had to learn a lot of new skills over the years.
JM: When management asked me to take over Facility Management, it gave me an opportunity to develop a new set of talents.
SD: It’s funny that you went from hardly being off the stage to managing the entire building!
JM: You know, production people are kind of like actors in that they think everything should revolve around what they’re doing. I have come to see just how much the maintenance people, custodians, front-of-house managers, box office and security have to do to make sure the show comes off on time and that patrons are having the best experience possible. It’s a coordinated effort that takes dozens of people all doing their part to the best of their ability. That’s what we strive for, and I think we do a great job.
For more information about The Kentucky Center and upcoming shows, visit kentuckycenter.org. or call 502.584.7777.