Actors Theatre of Louisville is thrilled to announce the lineup of the 36th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. This year's Festival will feature 10 world premieres that celebrate 14 vital voices in American theatre today. Described by Gordon Cox at Variety as "one of the most prominent showcases of fully staged new plays in the U.S." the Festival is a driving force of new play development in America and attracts a national and international audience of nearly 40,000 theatre professionals and enthusiasts each year. This season, the Humana Festival runs February 26 through April 1, 2012.
Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein states,"I am incredibly proud of our artistic team and the selections in the 2012 Humana Festival. The plays that we announce today will join a prestigious catalogue of work we have launched into the American theatre repertoire. The Humana Festival remains a standout event in the American theatre, drawing local, national and international attention and attracting arts professionals and theatre enthusiasts from across the country. Last year's Humana Festival boasted more than 100 performances and attracted visitors from 44 states and 9 countries. We are extremely grateful to the Humana Foundation, whose commitment to support the Festival's mission is unmatched.'
This year's Festival showcases seven full-length plays, including a play by five writers commissioned by Actors Theatre and featuring the Acting Apprentice Company, and an evening of three ten-minute plays (yet to be announced). The productions will run in rotating repertory in Actors Theatre's 633-seat Pamela Brown Auditorium, 318-seat Bingham Theatre and 159-seat Victor Jory Theatre.
"We are tremendously excited to support an array of remarkable voices in this festival lineup that brings together a diverse collection of aesthetics, cultural perspectives and original stories," remarked Amy Wegener, Actors Theatre's Literary Director."This constellation of amazing playwrights includes a mix of men and women, experiences that range from the suburban Midwest to the Middle East, veterans of Broadway and writers who'll see their work produced on this scale for the first time. The Humana Festival's commitment to production as a vital stage of new play development, with the writer's imagination as our compass, allows the creative teams to fully engage with the possibilities of the plays' rich theatrical worlds-and for audiences to share in that discovery."
Idris Goodwin, who will make his Humana Festival debut, said, "How We Got On launches my most recent theatrical endeavor: to pay homage to Hip Hop in the Midwest, the culture that shaped me as a writer. What greater affirmation than to participate in this country's most essential new play festival.'
'I'm tremendously grateful and thrilled that my odd play about a vampire with second thoughts will premiere at the Humana Festival," said playwright Greg Kotis on having his play selected. "I've had the honor to participate in the Festival twice before, first as a co-author of BRINK! (an anthology show written for and performed by Actor Theatre's Acting Apprentice Company), and then as a performer in and an author of one of the ten-minute plays. The Humana Festival continues to be one of the essential events of our national theatre season, and I'm very happy to be a part of it once again.'
Mona Mansour said, "I am thrilled to be invited to be in this year's festival, where so many plays I admire were launched. And I am equally thrilled to be there with Mark Wing-Davey, who directed the very first reading of The Hour of Feeling at the Public Theater."
This year's festival program will feature (in chronological order):
Seven full-length world premieres, including
The Veri**on Play by Lisa Kron
How We Got On by Idris Goodwin
The Hour of Feeling by Mona Mansour
Eat Your Heart Out by Courtney Baron
Death Tax by Lucas Hnath
Michael von Siebenburg Melts Through the Floorboards by Greg Kotis
Oh, Gastronomy! by Michael Golamco, Carson Kreitzer, Steve Moulds, Tanya Saracho and Matt Schatz, performed by the Actors Theatre Acting Apprentice Company.
An evening of three Ten-Minute Plays (to be announced)
The 2012 Humana Festival schedule also features special industry weekend packages, networking opportunities, discussions and soiree events, making Louisville the place to be in American theatre this spring. For more information on individual plays, see below.
Actors Theatre celebrates the 36th Annual Humana Festival with 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.
Editor: The involvement of The Humana Foundation in the Humana Festival of New American Plays is very important to us. We would greatly appreciate inclusion of its participation in your coverage. The Humana Festival represents the largest and longest-running active partnership between a corporation and a theatre in the United States.
Primary Stages will host the Fifth Annual New York One-Minute Play Festival, the proceeds from which will benefit the Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA).
Casting has been announced for the Fifth Annual New York One-Minute Play Festival, hosted by Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters. The New York One-Minute Play Festival will take place Sunday, October 16 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. at Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street), the Off-Broadway home of Primary Stages. Seating is extremely limited.
She&Her Productions presents Urinetown, by music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis: Oct 7- 22: 8 pm Fri-Sat, Mon; 2 pm Sunday.
She&Her Productions presents Urinetown, by music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis: Oct 7- 22: 8 pm Fri-Sat, Mon; 2 pm Sunday.
Casting has been announced for the Fifth Annual New York One-Minute Play Festival, hosted by Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters. The New York One-Minute Play Festival will take place Sunday, October 16 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. at Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street), the Off-Broadway home of Primary Stages. Seating is extremely limited.
American Theater Company (ATC) announced today an addition to the 2011-12 Season: the World Premiere of Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar, featuring ensemble member Usman Ally. Disgraced is produced by special arrangement with The Araca Group (Broadway's Urinetown, A View From The Bridge and co-producers of Wicked).
Primary Stages will host the Fifth Annual New York One-Minute Play Festival, the proceeds from which will benefit the Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA).
Hollmann and Kotis return to FringeNYC this year with YEAST NATION. In YEAST NATION, the world's first family, a colony of salt-eating yeasts, float in the brine of the primordial soup under the rule of a tyrannical baritone. When resources deplete and fear pervades, the faith of a single-celled dreamer starts an evolutionary chain reaction that changes the course of existence forever.
Get a behind the scenes look at YEAST NATION below!
2011-12 Season: Sometimes a theatre season defies easy identification. The shows are special, they are highly charged, but they don't necessarily share a common theme. When that happens, as it does in Theatre Tulsa's 89th season, you have Eclectricity! Experience this power in an eclectic mix of productions, surging with that spark that makes live theatre special!
The Village Gate's Old Fashioned Piano Party will be celebrating the upcoming Fringe NYC show Yeast Nation - The Triumph of Life written by Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman(Urinetown) this Sunday, July 24th @ 9pm. Stars Harriet Harris (Thoroughly Modern Millie, 'Frasier'), Manu Narayan (Bombay Dreams, suburbia) and more will be previewing songs from the show, which will be running August 13-25, 2011.
The Village Gate's Old Fashioned Piano Party will be celebrating the upcoming Fringe NYC show Yeast Nation - The Triumph of Life written by Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman(Urinetown) this Sunday, July 24th @ 9pm. Stars Harriet Harris (Thoroughly Modern Millie, 'Frasier'), Manu Narayan (Bombay Dreams, suburbia) and more will be previewing songs from the show, which will be running August 13-25, 2011.
New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, will conclude its 27th Season with the Tony Award-winning musical Passing Strange. Directed by Kate Warner, with music direction by Todd C. Gordon, and choreography by Kelli Edwards, Passing Strange begins performances on May 1 and runs through May 22, 2011.
As a super-special Spring extension of BroadwayWorld's SOUND OFF column, every day until the Tony Awards on June 12 we will be presenting a spectacular new entry in the SPOTLIGHT ON THE 2011 TONY AWARDS series featuring a particularly entertaining, interesting, relevant and exciting Tony Awards-related clip from the last sixty-three years of the ceremonies (and subsequent seasons on Broadway) with a rundown and commentary on the sights, sounds and showmanship on display in each carefully chosen selection - all, of course, coming in anticipation of Broadway's biggest night, which will be broadcast on CBS this year, as always. Once again this year, BroadwayWorld is the official home of the 2011 Tony Awards and we will also be featuring exclusive interviews, articles, photos, video content, interactive features and more in the coming days and weeks leading up to the event so be sure to check back daily for your theatre fix!
Urinetown could very well be the worst title for a musical. Yet, this 2002 Tony award winner for best director, best original score, and best book of a musical has been entertaining audiences in Utah and abroad for several years now. What makes this musical with a distasteful title so enchanting?
Urinetown could very well be the worst title for a musical. Yet, this 2002 Tony award winner for best director, best original score, and best book of a musical has been entertaining audiences in Utah and abroad for several years now. What makes this musical with a distasteful title so enchanting?
