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Humana Festival of New American Plays Opens at Actors Theatre

21.05.12

It starts with a script that fights its way past nearly 1,000 competing stories to the top of the stack and onto the final bill. It ends with the thrill of discovery, as audiences experience the new work for the first time. The 36th Humana Festival of New American Plays opened Wednesday at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where every spring, new plays are born.

Ten plays by fourteen playwrights will make their world premieres over the next five weeks. The annual showcase of new work, underwritten by the Humana Foundation, has introduced more than 400 plays into  American theater. These  include recent hits like Gina Gionfriddo’s 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist, “Becky Shaw,” and Jordan Harrison’s entry last year, the acclaimed “Maple and Vine.”

The Humana Festival celebrates a diverse slate of American playwrights working in a variety of styles and perspectives, with bright-eyed hopefuls enjoying their first prominent premieres alongside award-winning veterans. And it attracts a wide audience as well — during last year’s festival, Actors Theatre filled nearly 40,000 seats with local patrons and out of town visitors from the theater world, many of whom are looking for the next great show to produce.

Source: WFPL