The Actors Theatre News

With less than three weeks left in the year, Actors Theatre is halfway toward its end-of-the-year fund-raising goal to keep the 26-year-old theater company open and operating.

Theater Latte Da announced today casting for the area premiere of Beautiful Thing by Jonathan Harvey, which it will present at the The Lab Theater February 24 - March 18, 2012.

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.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company, along with GAP Producer M. Graham Smith and GAP Associate Producer Deborah Taylor, announces the four plays chosen as finalists by a committee of local directors for the seventh annual Global Age Project (GAP), the company's new works initiative that promotes the creation of forward-looking theater: The Hummingbirds by Garret Jon Groenveld; In a Word by Lauren Yee; Rasheeda Speaking by Joel Drake Johnson; and Ashes, Ashes by Kevin Christopher Snipes.

It's the holidays, so what better time for friends and "family" of Actors Theatre to come together for a A Christmas Carol in Concert: A Special Fundraising Event to benefit Actors Theatre, at 1 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 24 on the Herberger Theater Center Main Stage.

Theater Wit's annual holiday classic The Santaland Diaries, based on David Sedaris's true, hilarious holiday tale, returns for its eighth consecutive outing in 2011 featuring a newly-enhanced set and once again starring Mitchell Fain who always plays to rave reviews and sold out houses.

Midwest New Musicals kicks off Words and Music, its new concert reading series of original musicals with TABLE TURNS by Sheilah Rae and Michele Brourman on Monday, November 21, at 8 PM at the Light Opera Works Second Stage, 1420 Maple (at Lake) in Evanston.

Lindsay Fraser presents Execution of Justice by Emily Mann. The show is directed by Joss Bennathan, and designed by James Turner.

HOLIDAY STUCCO will feature new one-act plays by members of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group including playwrights Nikole Beckwith, Chris Craigin Day, Deen, Sevan Kaloustian Green, Aaron Wigdor Levy, Mona Mansour, Don Nguyen, Jerome Parker, Stalla Fawn Ragsdale, Akin Salawu, and Pia Wilson. Every winter holiday is up for grabs in this seasonal spectacular!

Donors from Arizona and across the nation have come together to help Actors Theatre reach the first of three critical deadlines that will enable the company to continue moving forward through the end of the year.

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.

Midwest New Musicals kicks off Words and Music, its new concert reading series of original musicals with TABLE TURNS by Sheilah Rae and Michele Brourman on Monday, November 21, at 8 PM at the Light Opera Works Second Stage, 1420 Maple (at Lake) in Evanston.

THE PEARL THEATRE COMPANY (J.R. Sullivan, Artistic Director) released today that Obie Award winner and Pearl company member Sean McNall will portray the doomed king in Shakespeare's poetic and powerful RICHARD II.

The Open Fist Theatre Company and The Aquila Morong Studio are thrilled to announce their co-production, CRIMES OF THE HEART, written by Beth Henley and directed by John Hindman.

More than 165 donors from eight states responded to Actors Theatre's public plea to help keep its doors open by donating $38,290 during the first three days of its three-stage fund-raising effort.

The Open Fist Theatre Company and The Aquila Morong Studio are thrilled to announce their co-production, CRIMES OF THE HEART, written by Beth Henley and directed by John Hindman.

Rebecca Creskoff, Meredith Forlenza, Brock Harris, Sarah Steele, C.J. Wilson and Harry Zittel will be featured in the LCT3 world premiere production of ALL-AMERICAN, a new play by Julia Brownell, directed by Evan Cabnet.

The Actors Theatre and Unicorn Theatre join forces again, this time to stage Yasmina Reza's hit, God of Carnage in partnership with UMKC Theatre.

New Theatre (THE NEW) continues it's 'family' theme season with the National New Play Network's Rolling World Premiere of Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, running Now through October 30, 2011. This timely and controversial work examines the lives of two all but abandoned teens having to create a makeshift family and its values while getting through the pangs of growing up. New Theatre joins the prestigious Humana Festival of New Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, where it had its first production and the Actor's Express in Atlanta, GA to present the National New Play Network's Rolling World Premiere of Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them.

After last season's highly successful and critically acclaimed co-production of Conor McPherson's The Seafarer, Unicorn Theatre and Kansas City Actors Theatre join forces again to produce the 2009 Tony Award Winner for Best Play, God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton.