Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein have announced the cast and creative team for Actors Theatre's 2012-2013 season opener Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. This high-octane and energetic contemporary retelling of one of the greatest love stories ever told features a dynamic cast of thirteen, a stellar team of designers and is directed by Louisville native and Drama Desk nominee Tony Speciale. Romeo and Juliet plays only 30 performances in the Pamela Brown Auditorium at Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the Brown-Forman Series.
Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein are pleased to announce the cast and creative team for Actors Theatre's 2012-2013 season opener Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein are have announced that Actors Theatre will present the world premiere of Will Eno's Gnit, directed by Waters, as part of the 37th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. Performed in the Pamela Brown Auditorium,Gnit begins previews March 15 & 16, opens March 17, 2013 and runs through April 7, 2013. This announcement completes the lineup for the 2012-2013 Brown-Forman Series.
Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein today announced that award-winning playwright and director Adam Rapp will direct Sam Shepard's True West in Actors Theatre's 2012-13 Season.True West will run in the Bingham Theatre aspart of the Brown-Forman Series, November 13-December 9, 2012. Press opening is slated for November 16, 2012.
Jennifer Bielstein joined Actors Theatre of Louisville as Managing Director in the fall of 2006. Jennifer serves on the boards of the National Corporate Theatre Fund, Greater Louisville, Inc., is Vice President of the League of Resident Theatres and is Chair of the Arts and Cultural Attractions Council. Jennifer received the honor of being voted Today's Woman magazine's Most Admired Woman in the Arts and was acknowledged in both Louisville Magazine's 15 Metro People to Watch and Business First's 40 under 40. She is a member of the 2008 Leadership Louisville class and recently served as a review panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. Ms. Bielstein moved from Chicago, Ill., where she served as the Executive Director of Writers' Theatre. During her time in Chicago Ms. Bielstein also worked for Steppenwolf Theatre Company, About Face Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Apple Tree Theatre and Lincoln Park Zoo, where she helped to create and launch the successful Jammin' at the Zoo series in 1994. Jennifer served as an officer of the Board of the League of Chicago Theatres representing 200 area theatres, and as chair of the League's Marketing Committee she spearheaded the development of Theatre Thursdays, a city-wide program to introduce new audiences to theatre. She was also on the boards of the Glencoe Chamber of Commerce, About Face Theatre and the Producers Association of Chicago-Area Theatres. Jennifer has her B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her MBA from Bellarmine University.
Today, Actors Theatre of Louisville's Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein announce the appointment of Meredith McDonough as the Theatre's Associate Artistic Director.
Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein have announced the Actors Theatre's 49th season lineup. The 2012-2013 Brown-Forman Series, Waters' inaugural season at the helm, runs the gamut thematically from forbidden love and sibling rivalry to familial dysfunction and adolescent innocence in an exhilarating program sure to entertain, engage and delight audiences.
Actors Theatre of Louisville's Artistic Director, Les Waters and Managing Director, Jennifer Bielstein announce the complete schedule of panel discussions during the 36th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, running now through April 15, 2012. The Festival, which annually has a lineup of up to ten new world premieres will host four dynamic panel discussions that will feature national-known playwrights, theatre professionals, artists and local business leaders listed below. All panel discussions are FREE and open to the public. Tickets are required and can be reserved by calling the Actors Theatre Box Office at 502-584-1205 or in-person at 316 West Main Street, Louisville, 40202. Visit http://actorstheatre.org/ for more information.
Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein have announced the line-up of events that comprise the annual College Days Weekend as part of the 36th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. This year, College Days Weekend is slated for March 16 - 18, as part of the Humana Festival of New American Plays that runs February 26 -April 1, 2012.
Actors Theatre of Louisville Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein today announced the three ten-minute plays chosen to premiere during the 36th Humana Festival of New American Plays (February 26 - April 15, 2012). This year's ten-minute plays are:The Ballad of 423 and 424 by Nicholas C. Pappas, Hero Dad by Laura Jacqmin and The Dungeons and the Dragons by Kyle John Schmidt.
Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein have announced the line-up of events that comprise the annual College Days Weekend as part of the 36th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. This year, College Days Weekend is slated for March 16 - 18, as part of the Humana Festival of New American Plays that runs February 26 -April 1, 2012.
Actors Theatre of Louisville Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein today announced the three ten-minute plays chosen to premiere during the 36th Humana Festival of New American Plays (February 26 - April 15, 2012). This year's ten-minute plays are:The Ballad of 423 and 424 by Nicholas C. Pappas, Hero Dad by Laura Jacqmin and The Dungeons and the Dragons by Kyle John Schmidt.
Actors Theatre of Louisville's Artistic Director, Les Waters and Managing Director, Jennifer Bielstein unveiled the completion of a new artist housing community located in the heart of downtown Louisville.
This morning it was announced that, after an extensive national search, Obie Award-winner Les Waters has been chosen to lead the renowned Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Obie Award-winning director Les Waters today has been named as the new artistic director at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Waters, who for the past eight years has been the associate artistic director at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, will begin transition to his new post effective January 9, 2012 and assume full-time duties at Actors Theatre in late March.
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.
Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein is pleased to present The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in a lively new adaptation by Laura Eason and directed by Jeremy B. Cohen, playing in the Pamela Brown Auditorium at Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the Brown-Forman Series, previewing October 4 & 5, then opening October 6 and running through October 29. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased online at ActorsTheatre.org or by calling 502-584-1205.
National Corporate Theatre Fund (NCTF) held its Annual Chairman's Awards Gala and benefit last night (Monday, May 2) at the St. Regis New York hotel, raising more than $320,000 for new American theatre. This year, NCTF Chairman James S Turley, Chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young, honored Oscar and Tony Award-winner Joel Grey (on Broadway this season in Anything Goes and director of Broadway's The Normal Heart), recipient of the Theater Artist Award, presented to Mr. Grey by Anything Goes director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall; Charles Dillingham (Managing Director, Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles), recipient of the Theater Professional Award, presented by Benjamin Moore (Managing Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre) and Richard Thomas (Race on Broadway and The Public's Timon of Athens); and BNY Mellon, recipient of the Corporate Leadership Award, presented by Tony Award-winning stage and film actress Anika Noni Rose. All net proceeds of the event will be distributed as the NCTF/BNY MELLON FUND FOR NEW AMERICAN THEATRE.
Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein are pleased to announce Actors Theatre's 48th season lineup. 'The 2011-2012 upcoming Brown-Forman series is an exciting multi-faceted program which includes the staging of two classic novels; a heartwarming and honest exploration of the personal impact of war; a three-time Tony Award-nominated play about love, longing, and science, and the regional premiere of an Off-Broadway hit. Plus, an exciting line up of new plays in the 36th Annual Humana Festival and the return of three holiday favorites', said Masterson on his final season selection as Artistic Director of Actors Theatre. 'Actors Theatre has a fantastic team of staff with whom I have worked with for many years and in whose experience and incredible expertise I have confidence to successfully realize my final season.'
