Actors Theatre of Louisville Announces 2010 Humana Festival of New American Plays
By: Gabrielle Sierra Nov. 16, 2009
Actors Theatre Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein are proud to announce the lineup of the 34th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, the nation's pre-eminent and longest-running new play festival. This season, the Humana Festival is slated for February 21 through March 28, 2010.
The Festival will feature a wide range of works from fifteen playwrights. "The Humana Festival is the country's opportunity to celebrate theatre's newest works by both emerging and established playwrights," Marc Masterson, the company's Artistic Director, announced today. "This year's selection of ten plays comes together as an array of styles and stories representing a collection of America, the likes of which can only be found in Louisville, at Actors Theatre. The Humana Festival is unmatched in sending new works out into the world and in introducing a strong chorus of playwrights' voices every year."
"The Humana Festival is the American theatre's incubator, introducing more than 400 plays to the world over the past 34 years," adds Jennifer Bielstein, the Theatre's Managing Director. "With the full support of the Humana Foundation, we continue our longstanding commitment to new plays despite these challenging economic times. This year we are introducing discount opportunities that will help our colleagues and theatre lovers from around the country to join us here in Louisville to unite in support of the American theatre."
This year's festival is comprised of ten full productions including seven full-length plays presented in rotating repertory in Actors Theatre's 637-seat Pamela Brown Auditorium, 318-seat Bingham Theatre and 159-seat Victor Jory Theatre, a site-specific play at 21c Hotel Museum Hotel showcasing The Actors Theatre Acting Apprentice Company and three ten-minute plays which have yet to be announced. For more than three decades, Actors Theatre celebrates its underwriter, The Humana Foundation - the philanthropic arm of Humana Inc. Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.
Full-length plays include Ground by Lisa Dillman; The Cherry Sisters Revisited by Dan O'Brien with music by Michael Friedman; Fissures (lost and found) by Steve Epp, Cory Hinkle, Dominic Orlando, Dominique Serrand, Deborah Stein and Victoria Stewart; Phoenix by Scott Organ; Sirens by Deborah Zoe Laufer and The Method Gun created by Rude Mechs and written by Kirk Lynn. The site-specific work commissioned for the Acting Apprentice Company, titled Heist!, was conceived and created by Sean Daniels and Deborah Stein.
Descriptions of the Festival's world premiere lineup, along with playwright biographies, are as follows:
HUMANA FESTIVAL PRODUCTIONS
Sirensby Deborah Zoe Laufer
directed by Casey Stangl
February 21 through March 28, 2010
Bingham TheatreEnchanting music, memories of passionate youth, and Facebook Scrabble conspire against drifting empty-nesters Sam and Rose in this captivating comedy. Will a 25th anniversary cruise to the magical and mythical Greek Isles rekindle their relationship? Rose hopes so, but Sam has other ideas.Deborah Zoe Laufer collaborated on Brink! for last year's Humana Festival. Ms. Laufer is a 2009 recipient of the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award. Her play End Days was awarded the America Theatre Critics Association Steinberg Citation in March 2008. It received its New York City premiere at The Ensemble Studio Theatre in March 2009 through an Alfred P. Sloan Grant and premiered at Florida Stage, as did her plays The Last Schwartz and The Gulf of Westchester. Out of Sterno debuted at Portland Stage Company (Maine) in March of 2009 with grants from The Edgerton Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. The acting editions of End Days, The Last Schwartz and Out of Sterno are published by Samuel French. Ms. Laufer is a graduate of The Juilliard School.
Fissures (lost and found)
by Steve Epp, Cory Hinkle, Dominic Orlando, Dominique Serrand, Deborah Stein and Victoria Stewart
directed by Dominique Serrand
commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville and The Playwrights' Center
February 26 through March 28, 2010
Bingham Theatre
Steve Epp was an actor, writer, director and co-Artistic Director at Theatre de la Jeune Lune, winner of the 2005 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre, from 1983-2008. In his 25 years with Jeune Lune, Mr. Epp collaborated on the creation and performance of more than 50 productions. Acting credits include title roles in The Miser at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Tartuffe, Hamlet and Figaro. Mr. Epp co-authored Children of Paradise, winner of the 1993 Outer Critics Circle Award for best new play. He also wrote and/or adapted scripts for Crusoe, Don Juan Giovanni, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The 3 Musketeers, The Magic Flute, Figaro, Medea, The Little Prince and The Deception. Mr. Epp is the author and performer of The House Can't Stand, a new one-person show. He was a 1999 Fox Fellow, and is a 2009 McKnight Theatre Artist Fellow.
Cory Hinkle's plays have been produced or developed at the Guthrie Theater, American Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Summer Play Festival, Illusion Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Workhaus Collective, Page 73 Productions, Hangar Theatre and Red Eye Theater, among others. Mr. Hinkle has been commissioned by the Guthrie Theater and Actors Theatre and is a former MacDowell Colony Fellow, Sewanee Writers' Conference Fellow and recipient of a Jerome Travel and Study Grant. Mr. Hinkle is a Core Member of The Playwrights' Center, a member playwright of Workhaus Collective and received two Jerome Fellowships through The Playwrights' Center. Mr. Hinkle earned his M.F.A. in Playwriting from Brown University and his work is published by Playscripts, Inc. and Heinemann.
Dominic Orlando won his second Jerome Fellowship through The Playwrights' Center last year, and was commissioned by Actors Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Nautilus Music-Theater and Teatro Del Pueblo. A former McKnight Fellow, Mr. Orlando is also a Core Writer and a co-producer with The Playwrights' Center's company-in-residence, Workhaus Collective. Mr. Orlando is a four-time fellow to The MacDowell Colony, and has been a writer-in-residence at Yaddo, The William Inge Festival, Ucross Foundation, The Edward F. Albee Foundation, Djerassi and The Atlantic Center for The Arts (a residency with Paula Vogel). In 2008 Mr. Orlando worked with New York Theatre Workshop, The Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas) and The Tokyo International Festival for the Arts. Dominique Serrand, a Paris native, was Artistic Director and one of the co-founders of Theatre de la Jeune Lune (1978-2008). Mr. Serrand staged several operas and his directing credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theatre, American Repertory Theater, Guthrie Theater, The Children's Theatre Company and the Alley Theatre, among others. Awards include 2005 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre, a 2005 USA ARTIST Ford Fellowship, and a 2009 Bush Fellowship and Mr. Serrand has been knighted by the French Government in the order of Arts and Letters.Deborah Stein's work has been produced and developed at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Theatre @ Boston Court, The Public Theater, Guthrie Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Stages Repertory Theatre, Women's Project & Productions, the Wilma Theater, Live Girls! Theater, Ars Nova Theatre and Theatre Artaud; and internationally in Poland, Ireland, Edinburgh (the Traverse) and Prague. A frequent collaborator with Pig Iron Theatre Company, Ms. Stein was twice nominated for the Barrymore Award for Best New Play. Her writing is published in TheatreForum, Play: A Journal of Plays and The Best American Poetry of 1996. Ms. Stein received her M.F.A. from Brown University and two Jerome Fellowships at The Playwrights' Center, where she is co-producing director of the Workhaus Collective. Ms. Stein is the recipient of the 2009-2011 Bush Artist Fellowship and a member of New Dramatists. Victoria Stewart At Actors Theatre of Louisville: Trepidation Nation. Regional Theatre: Workshops include Rich Girl at Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Hardball at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Northlight Theatre, City Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Donmar Warehouse, Leitmotif at South Coast Repertory. Off-Broadway: LIVE GIRLS at Urban Stages, Hardball at Summer Play Festival, The Last Scene at The Public Theater (workshop). Other Theatre: LIVE GIRLS at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Stage Left Theatre. 800 Words: The Transmigration of Philip K. Dick at Workhaus Collective, Live Girls! Theater (Seattle). Awards include the Francesca Primus Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (finalist), McKnight Advancement Grant, Jerome Fellowship, and Helen Merrill Award. Television: Appetite for Self-Destruction (HBO). Ms. Stewart graduated from The University of Iowa and is a Core Member of The Playwrights' Center and Workhaus Collective.Groundby Lisa Dillman
directed by Marc Masterson
March 2 through 28, 2010
Pamela Brown AuditoriumWhen Zelda inherits her father's pecan farm, she discovers that the world at the border between the United States and Mexico has changed. As she faces hard choices about keeping or letting go of The Farm, Zelda's beliefs about family, home, community and civil rights are tested in the face of a shifting political and social landscape. Lisa Dillman makes her Humana Festival debut. Selected Chicago credits include Detail of a Larger Work at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Flung and Half of Plenty at American Theater Company; and The Walls at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. Ms. Dillman's plays have been produced in New York by Hypothetical Theatre Company and Summer Play Festival (SPF), and in Los Angeles by Rogue Machine Theatre. Her play Rock Shore was developed and presented in the O'Neill Playwrights Conference. Ms. Dillman has received new play commissions from Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre and the Chicago Humanities Festival, and has twice been honored with playwriting grants from the Illinois Arts Council. Her work is published by Smith and Kraus, Heinemann and Dramatic Publishing.Phoenix
by Scott Organ
directed by Aaron Posner
March 5 through 27, 2010
Bingham TheatreAn out-of-character one-night stand spills into 7 weeks, 4,000 miles and 6 cups of coffee as two strangers question the calculated lives they lead and contemplate the uncertain world that might be. A sly comedy about how getting off course can put you on the right track. Scott Organ joins Actors Theatre for the first time. Mr. Organ is the author of the full-length plays The Faithful, Fixed and The Remainder. His short plays China and The Mulligan were published in New American Short Plays 2005, edited by Craig Lucas, and his play and everybody else was published in Best American Short Plays. Mr. Organ has written other short plays, many of which were performed at Atlantic Theater Company's 453/New Works Series. He is the author of the screenplays Ghostkeepers and The Better Man; and the television pilots The Powerball 7 and The Pines.The Method Gun
created by Rude Mechs
written by Kirk Lynn
directed by Shawn Sides
March 16 through 28, 2010
Victor Jory TheatreThe Method Gun explores the life and techniques of Stella Burden, actor-training guru of the 60s and 70s, whose sudden emigration to South America still haunts her most fervent followers. Ms. Burden's training technique, The Approach (often referred to as "the most dangerous acting technique in the world"), fused Western acting methods with risk-based rituals in order to give even the smallest role a touch of sex, death and violence. A play about the ecstasy and excesses of performing, the dangers of public intimacy, and the incompatibility of truth on stage and sanity in real life. Kirk Lynn is a Founder and one of six Co-Producing Artistic Directors of Rude Mechs. With Rude Mechs, Mr. Lynn has written and adapted more than a dozen plays including Lipstick Traces, Requiem for Tesla and I've Never Been So Happy, winner of a National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development Award, set to premiere in Fall 2010. Mr. Lynn also adapted The Wrestling Patient, a finalist for a NEA New Play Production Award, for 40 Magnolias in Boston. He wrote Major Bang for The Foundry Theatre in New York, with whom he is working on a new commission about "value" and its myriad meanings in America. Mr. Lynn received his M.F.A. from the Michener Center for Writers and currently teaches at The University of Texas at Austin.
Since 1995, Rude Mechs has used performance to explore collectivity, collaboration and community. Co-Producing Artistic Directors Madge Darlington, Thomas Graves, Lana Lesley, Kirk Lynn, Sarah Richardson and Shawn Sides have created a mercurial slate of 22 original theatrical productions ranging from Low-Fi, Agit-Prop, Lec-Dems to Multi-Media, Romantic-Era, Closet Dramas. What these works hold in common is an emphasis on corporeality, an intellectual savoir-faire, a preference for the actor above the character and a cheeky sense of humor. Rude Mechs tours these performances nationally and abroad; maintains The Off Center, a performance venue for Austin arts groups of every discipline; and produces Grrl Action, a year-round program in autobiographical writing and performance for teenage girls.
The Cherry Sisters Revisitedby Dan O'Brien
original music by Michael Friedman
directed by Andrew Leynse
part of the Brown-Forman Mainstage Series
March 18 through April 11, 2010
Pamela Brown AuditoriumHow far can you go with ambition, gumption, a good heart-and no talent? The Cherry Sisters' dreams of Vaudeville took them from their Iowa barn to Broadway, where their inept acrobatics and tone-deaf
caterwauling continually sold out, bringing them fame-and a barrage of rotten cabbages. With music by Michael Friedman (This Beautiful City, Gone Missing) and based on a true story, Dan O'Brien's thought-provoking comedy takes a look at the insatiable urge to perform, and the audience's inability to look away.Dan O'Brien's most recent production was The House in Hydesville at GeVa Theatre Center. Regional Theatre: Moving Picture at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Key West at GeVa Theatre Center; Lamarck at Perishable Theatre (Osborn Award / American Theatre Critics Association). Off-Broadway: The Dear Boy at Second Stage Theatre; The Voyage of the Carcass at Soho Playhouse (Stage 13); The Voyage of the Carcass at HERE Arts Center (Page 73 Productions); Am Lit at The Ensemble Studio Theatre. Additional Credits: Mr. O'Brien was recently the Hodder Fellow playwright-in-residence at Princeton University.
Michael Friedman At Actors: This Beautiful City, Gone Missing, Act a Lady, Uncle Sam's Satiric Spectacular. As Composer/Lyricist, Mr. Friedman's credits include The Civilians' This Beautiful City, Gone Missing, [I Am] Nobody's Lunch, and Canard, Canard Goose? as well as Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Saved, The Brand New Kid and In the Bubble. Co-author credits include Paris Commune (with Steve Cosson). Film: On Common Ground, Coach. Other credits include The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Roundabout Theatre Company, Second Stage Theatre, Soho Repertory Theater, Theatre for a New Audience, Signature Theatre and The Acting Company, as well as regional theatres throughout the country. Mr. Friedman's additional credits include: Artistic Associate at New York Theatre Workshop; Associate Artist for The Civilians; MacDowell Fellow; Princeton University Hodder Fellow and the 2007 Obie Award.
Heist!
conceived and created by Sean Daniels and Deborah Stein
written by Deborah Stein
directed by Sean Daniels
with animation by Adam Pinney and Rene Dellefont
performances at 21c Museum Hotel, 700 West Main Street
March 12-28, 2010
Numerous community-wide events will be held throughout the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Some highlights include:
February 22 at 7:30 p.m. - 34th Humana Festival of New American Plays Opening Party and Kick-off Celebration. Free to the public.
March 27, 9 -10 p.m. - Harold and Mimi Steinberg American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) New Play Award
March 27, 10 p.m. - 2 a.m. - 34th Humana Festival of New American Plays Gala
A complete list of events can be found at www.ActorsTheatre.org.
TICKETS
Humana Festival single ticket prices range from $30 to $56. Tickets will be available to subscribers as of November 16 and to the general public on November 20. For information or reservations call (502) 584-1205 or 800-4-ATL-TIX, or visit our website at ActorsTheatre.org.
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