Actors Theatre of Louisville to Premiere Work by Local High School Students in 'New Voices' Festival
By: BWW News Desk Feb. 11, 2016
Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein have announced the lineup for the 2016 New Voices Young Playwrights Festival, an evening of new ten-minute plays written by local high school students. The New Voices Festival runs from April 25 - 26 at 7 p.m. in the Bingham Theatre. Performances are free but ticket reservations are required. To reserve a ticket, visit ActorsTheatre.org or call the Box Office at 502.584.1205.
Inspired by the Humana Festival of New American Plays, the New Voices Young Playwrights Festival presents brand-new ten-minute plays written by local high school students. Each playwright has the opportunity to collaborate with peer writers, a dramaturg, a director, and the 2015-2016 Apprentice/Intern Company. Through playwright workshops, dramaturgy discussions, production meetings and rehearsals, the New Voices playwrights play an active and integral role in shaping their productions. The entire process culminates in an evening of fully-produced theatre, complete with costumes, sets, props, sound and lights.
The eight plays chosen for the festival this year were selected from 33 schools in seven counties and from a record-breaking 870 submissions, written independently and through the New Voices Playwriting Residencies. The eight playwrights represent eight schools in Kentucky and Southern Indiana.
The selections for this year's 11th Annual New Voices Young Playwrights Festival include:
Opus: An Exploration of Meta-Narratives through Freudian Analysis
by Gilman Bagga (St. Francis High School)
The LIE Mission
by Maria Cora (Floyd Central High School)
Zero to One Hundred (Real Quick)
by Drew Etheridge (Jeffersonville High School)
Misunderstandings
by Michaela French (Atherton High School)
The Big Daddy Pop-Tart Booster
by Jacob Hack (Kentucky School for the Blind)
Image of Beauty
by Kay Nilest (Assumption High School)
The Devil in Little Debbie
by Zoe Peterson (Ballard High School)
The Problem
by Joel Pizano (Fern Creek Traditional High School)
The 2015-2016 Actors Theatre Acting Apprentice Company: Austin Blunk, Lisa Bol, Michael T. Brown, Glenna Brucken, Michael Fell, Tracey Green, Mbali Guliwe, Alejandro Hernandez, Hannah Karpenko, Yaron Lotan, Esaú Mora, Ari Shapiro, Jayson Speters, Adenike Thomas, Walls Trimble, Sara Turner, Kyle Whalen, Addison Williams, Park Williams, and Amelia Windom.
IF YOU GO:
New Voices Young Playwrights Festival
An Evening of New Ten-Minute Plays
Written by Local High School Students
At Actors Theatre of Louisville, 316 W. Main Street, Louisville, KY 40202 - Bingham Theatre
April 25 and 26 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are FREE but reservation is required. Limit of four per person.
For ticket reservation, call the Box Office at 502.584.1205 or visit ActorsTheatre.org.
As the home of the Humana Festival of New American Plays, Actors Theatre of Louisville is world-renowned for developing new work by playwrights with varying styles, interests, opinions and innovative approaches to making plays. Actors Education shares this energy and passion for playmaking by venturing into classrooms and teaching the art and craft of playwriting in fun, collaborative and differentiated ways.
By harnessing the wildly creative resources under its roof, the education department at Actors Theatre of Louisville aims to create outstanding artistic and learning experiences, where young people of all backgrounds, from elementary school to college, are invited to see plays and make plays.
Since its inception in 2003, our New Voices Playwriting Residency has introduced thousands of students from around our region to the basics of playwriting. Over the course of nine sessions, character development, conflict, dramatic structure and stakes are explored, as every student completes a ten-minute play. The Residency has inspired an annual New Voices Play Contest, a New Voices Young Playwrights Festival-fully produced by Actors Education and the Apprentice/Intern Company-and a published New Voices anthology of student-written work.
Now in its 44th year, the Apprentice/Intern Company is one of the nation's oldest continuing pre-professional resident training companies. The A/I Company is comprised of two distinct parts whose members work together on productions and projects throughout the season.
Each year, over 2000 young artists audition for only 20 spots in the Acting Apprentice Company. This one-of-a-kind bridge program is designed to transition recent college graduates into professional careers by teaching the practical skills necessary to be competitive in major markets, as well as methods for creating their own work. The Acting Apprentice Company performs its own five-show season, apart from Actors Theatre's mainstage season, which culminates in a specially commissioned work in the Humana Festival of New American Plays.
Members of the Professional Intern Company work directly with department managers and staff, receiving hands-on training in administrative, technical, and/or artistic leadership.
Internships are vital positions as they take leadership roles in the development and production of A/I Company projects throughout the season and are directly involved in regular season productions.
Now in its 52nd 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 500 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 40 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 44th 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 more than 140,000. 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.
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