Berea, Kentucky
Chad Hembree
Bluegrass Storyteller
Original plays, adaptations, and dinner mysteries written in the Bluegrass, made for the stage.
The Work
Seventeen plays, adaptations, and radio dramas. Dinner mysteries where the audience becomes the detective. Stage adaptations that bring classic stories to a Bluegrass setting. A pop-rock murder mystery set in a radio station. Holiday revues that scale from eight performers to forty. Every work is built for the stage and shaped by the community that produces it.
Dinner Mystery
The Tomb
An Egyptian mystery adventure where a tomb opens, a body turns up, and the audience becomes the detective. Beatles characters add a playful, musical edge.
Dinner Mystery / Musical
Tuned in for Murder
A pop-rock murder mystery set at a radio station’s 50th anniversary. The cast plays station staff by day and 80s/90s celebrity guests by night — and someone at the party is going to die.
Stage Adaptation
Dracula: The New World
Bram Stoker’s story set in 1898 Berea. The Count’s arrival in the Bluegrass brings gothic horror into a specific, grounded American setting. Developed through multiple revisions from 2018 to 2024.
The Playwright
Chad Hembree writes stories for the stage from his home in Berea, Kentucky. His work spans original dinner mysteries, classic adaptations, radio dramas, and holiday revues — all produced by the Bluegrass Players, the adult community theater troupe he leads at The Spotlight Playhouse.
His 2026 AACT Spotlight Award recognizes a career of building theater in the Bluegrass: writing, producing, and directing for a community that shows up night after night to tell stories together.
These works are currently produced exclusively by the Bluegrass Players and are not available for outside licensing. The catalog on this site is a showcase of the work — a record of what has been written, staged, and told in the Bluegrass.