33rd Annual Humana Festival Of New American Plays 3/1/09

The Humana Festival of New American Plays; Actors Theatre of Louisville's main venue for producing new work, is an annual event held in February and March.

The 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays will take place March 1-April 11, 2009.

The Humana Festival of New American Plays is made possible by the generosity of The Humana Foundation. Over 300 Humana Festival plays have been produced, including full-lengths, one-acts, monologues, T(ext) shirt and car plays, representing the work of over 200 playwrights. Over three-fourths of the Humana Festival plays have been published in 17 Actors Theatre anthologies as well as individual acting editions, making them now part of the permanent canon of American dramatic literature.

Three Humana Festival plays have won the Pulitzer Prize: D. L. Coburn's The Gin Game, Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart and Donald Margulies' Dinner With Friends. Keely and Du by Jane Martin and Omnium-Gatherum by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros and Theresa Rebeck were finalists.
Five Humana Festival plays have won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize: How to Say Goodbye by Mary Gallagher, My Sister in this House by Wendy Kesselman, A Narrow Bed by Ellen McLaughlin, My Left Breast by Susan Miller, One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace. Nine others have been finalists.

Naomi Iizuka's Polaroid Stories won the Pen Center USA West Award and Bridget Carpenter's The Faculty Room won the Kesselring Prize for playwriting.

Six Humana Festival plays have won the American Theatre Critics Award: 2 by Romulus Linney, Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies, Talking With by Jane Martin, Keely and Du by Jane Martin, Jack and Jill by Jane Martin, Getting Out by Marsha Norman.

Four Humana Festival plays have won the Obie Award: Slavs! by Tony Kushner, My Left Breast by Susan Miller, Marisol by José Rivera, One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace.

Eight Humana Festival plays have been adapted for film and television and two for radio.

Over 30 foreign countries are normally represented by audience members at the festival each year. Over 90 million Americans have seen additional productions of the many plays originated in the Humana Festival, not including film audiences who have seen Humana plays adapted for the screen.

Actors Theatre's New Play Program encompasses the Humana Festival of New American Plays, the National Ten-Minute Play Contest and ongoing contact with more than 200 playwrights.

The Humana Foundation first sponsored the new play festival in 1980. In 1982, the festival was renamed the Humana Festival of New American Plays in honor of the Louisville-based company's ongoing and generous support. Since its inception, The Humana Foundation has placed an emphasis on civic and cultural development in communities where Humana has a meaningful presence. In a long-standing and thriving partnership, The Humana Foundation supports Actors Theatre of Louisville and its remarkable Humana Festival of New American Plays, demonstrating a joint commitment to artistic exploration and appreciation at home, across the region and around the globe.

At this time the Actors Theatre of Louisville is also accepting submissions for the Festival.
Approximately 3,000 scripts are received annually for consideration in the New Play Program. Nearly 75,000 scripts have been submitted since1976.

Send Submissions or Synopses To:
New Play Program
Attn: Adrien-Alice Hansel
Actors Theatre of Louisville
316 West Main Street
Louisville, KY 40202-4218

Humana Festival Published Anthologies can be purchased online.

For more information about the festival visit http://www.actorstheatre.org/humana.htm