Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein are excited to announce the 2015 lineup of the New Voices Young Playwrights Festival, an evening of new ten-minute plays written by local high school students and produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville. New Voices runs April 27 and 28 at 7 p.m. in the Bingham Theatre and a student matinee will be held on April 28 at 10 a.m. Tickets are free and can be reserved by calling the Actors Theatre Box Office at 502.584.1205. Tickets will be available to the public March 16 with a limit of four tickets per household.
Inspired by the Humana Festival of New American Plays, each playwright in the New Voices Young Playwrights Festival has the opportunity to develop their play through conversations with peer writers, a dramaturg, a director, and a cast. Through playwright workshops, dramaturgy discussions, production meetings, and rehearsals, the New Voices playwrights play an active integral role in the shaping of their production. All plays are fully produced with costumes, sets, props, sound, and lights, and are performed and produced by members of the Apprentice/Intern Company.
The eight plays chosen for the festival this year were selected from almost 600 submissions written independently and through New Voices Playwriting Residencies. The eight playwrights represent six schools throughout Kentucky and Southern Indiana.
Written by eight local high school playwrights, the selections include:
Sick by Huy Vo (12th grade, duPont Manual High School/YPAS), Louisville, Ky.
A Haunting in the East Wing by Katie Henning (12th grade, Mercy Academy), Louisville, Ky.
The Flingin' Wisbees by Kallen Sebastian (12th grade, North Oldham High School), Goshen, Ky.
A Starfish's World by Brooke Morrison (12th grade, duPont Manual High School/YPAS), Louisville, Ky.
Don't Leave Me Here, Okay? by Annie Stone (12th grade, duPont Manual High School/YPAS), Louisville, Ky.
Street Smarts by Lauren Titus (10th grade, Floyd Central High School), Floyds Knobs, IN.
The Rearview Mirror by Kristen Bell (10th grade, Assumption High School), Louisville, Ky.
The Torpedo Room by Benjamin Collins (12th grade, Ballard High School), Louisville, Ky.
Honorable Mentions include:
Still Waiting by Jada Trabue (12th grade, Ballard High School), Louisville, Ky.
A First and a Last by Natalie Combs (10th grade, Floyd Central High School), Floyds Knobs, IN.
The Cast
The 43rd Actors Theatre Acting Apprentice Company: Taylor Abels, Cameron Benoit, Josh Bonzie, Ali Burch, Ure Egbuho, John Ford-Dunker, Erika Grob, Kayla Jackmon, Lexi Lapp, José Leon, Joe Lino, Aaron Lynn, Max Monnig, Collin Morris, Mallory Moser, Brian Muldoon, Madalena Provo, Blake Russell, Lorenzo Villanueva, and Casey Wortmann.
Now in its 51st season, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the State Theatre of Kentucky, is the flagship arts organization in the Louisville community. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein, Actors Theatre serves to unlock human potential, build community, and enrich quality of life by engaging people in theatre that reflects the wonder and complexity of our time.
Actors Theatre presents almost 400 performances annually and delivers a broad range of programming, including classics and contemporary work through the Brown-Forman Series, holiday plays, a series of free theatrical events produced by the Apprentice/Intern Company, and the Humana Festival of New American Plays-the premier new play festival in the nation, which has introduced 450 plays into the American theatre repertoire over the past 38 years. In addition, Actors Theatre provides more than 17,000 arts experiences each year to students across the region through its Education Department, and boasts one of the nation's most prestigious continuing pre-professional resident training companies, now in its 43rd year.
Over the past half-century, Actors Theatre has also emerged as one of America's most consistently innovative professional theatre companies, with an annual attendance of 150,000. Actors Theatre has been the recipient of some of the most prestigious awards bestowed on a regional theatre, including a Tony® Award for Distinguished Achievement, the James N. Vaughan Memorial Award for Exceptional Achievement and Contribution to the Development of Professional Theatre, and the
Margo Jones Award for the Encouragement of New Plays. Actors Theatre has toured to 29 cities and 15 countries worldwide, totaling more than 1,400 appearances internationally. Currently, there are more than 50 published books of plays and criticism from Actors Theatre in circulation-including anthologies of Humana Festival plays, volumes of ten-minute plays and monologues, and essays, scripts and lectures from the Brown-Forman Classics in Context Festival. Numerous plays first produced at Actors Theatre have also been published as individual acting editions, and have been printed in many other anthologies, magazines and journals-making an enduring contribution to American dramatic literature.
