The Humana Festival of New American Plays was an influential festival celebrating the contemporary American playwright. Produced annually at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, the festival showcased new theatrical works and drew producers, critics, playwrights, and theatre lovers from around the world. The festival was founded in 1976 by Jon Jory, then the Producing Director of Actors Theatre. Since 1979 The Humana Festival was sponsored by the Humana Foundation which is the philanthropic arm of Humana. The festival shut down permanently in 2022; the final festival took place in 2021.
History The Actors Theater of Louisville hosted the first Festival of New American Plays in March 1977. It was founded by the former artistic director of the Actors Theater, Jon Jory. The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn, one of the plays presented that year, went on to open on Broadway later that year and would win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1978. The 1978 festival line up included Marsha Norman's Getting Out, and in 1979, Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley. It was also the first year that the festival was sponsored by the Humana Festival.
Over the 400 plays (short pieces, ten-minute plays, one-acts, and full-lengths) the festival has produced, many have gone on to win several awards. Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies, Coburn's The Gin Game, and Henley's Crimes of the Heart have all won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Keely and Du by Jane Martin, Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo, and Omnium-Gatherum by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros and Theresa Rebeck have all been finalists for the prize.
Lucas Hnath's The Christians, Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Big Love by Charles Mee, Slavs! by Tony Kushner, My Left Breast by Susan Miller, Marisol by José Rivera and One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace have all won Obie Awards.
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 and One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace have won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and nine other plays produced at the festival have been finalists.
2 by Romulus Linney, Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies, Getting Out by Marsha Norman, and Jane Martin's Talking With…, Keely and Du, Jack and Jill, and Anton in Show Business have won the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, and Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies, Big Love by Charles Mee, After Ashley by Gina Gionfriddo, Great Falls by Lee Blessing, Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them by A.Rey Pamatmat, and Lucas Hnath's Death Tax and The Christians have won Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award Citations.
Jeff Augustin's and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb' s plays, Cry Old Kingdom and BOB: A Life in Five Acts respectively, have won the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Award, given by the National Theatre Conference to outstanding emerging playwrights.
The festival came to an end when the Humana Foundation withdrew its funding.
List of plays produced
Source:
2009 Ameriville by UNIVERSES (Steven Sapp; Mildred Ruiz-Sapp; Gamal Abdel Chasten; William Ruiz a.k.a.- NINJA) Slasher by Allison Moore Absalom by Zoe Kazan The Hard Weather Boating Party by Naomi Wallace Under Construction by Charles L. Mee, produced in association with the SITI Company Wild Blessings: A Celebration of Wendell Berry adapted for the stage by Marc Masterson and Adrien-Alice Hansel, original music by Malcolm Dalglish Brink! by Lydia R. Diamond, Kristoffer Diaz, Greg Kotis, Deborah Zoe Laufer, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb and Deborah Stein On the Porch One Crisp Spring Morning by Alex Dremann 3:59am: a drag race for two actors by Marco Ramirez Roanoke by Michael Lew, music and lyrics by Matt Schatz
2010 Let Bygones Be by Gamal Abdel Chasten HEIST! conceived and created by Sean Daniels and Deborah Stein, written by Deborah Stein Lobster Boy by Dan Dietz Ground by Lisa Dillman Fissures (lost and found) by Steve Epp, Cory Hinkle, Dominic Orlando, Dominique Serrand, Deborah Stein and Victoria Stewart Post Wave Spectacular by Diana Grisanti An Examination of the Whole Playwright/Actor Relationship Presented As Some Kind of Cop Show Parody by Greg Kotis Sirens by Deborah Zoe Laufer The Method Gun created by Rude Mechs, written by Kirk Lynn The Cherry Sisters Revisited by Dan O'Brien with original music by Michael Friedman Phoenix by Scott Organ.
2011 Mr. Smitten by Laura Eason Maple and Vine by Jordan Harrison Hygiene by Gregory Hischak Chicago, Sudan by Marc Bamuthi Joseph Elemeno Pea by Molly Smith Metzler BOB by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them by A. Rey Pamatmat The Edge of Our Bodies by Adam Rapp A Devil at Noon by Anne Washburn The End by Dan Dietz, Jennifer Haley, Allison Moore, A. Rey Pamatmat, and Marco Ramirez.
2012 Eat Your Heart Out by Courtney Baron How We Got On by Idris Goodwin Death Tax by Lucas Hnath Michael von Siebenburg Melts Through the Floorboards by Greg Kotis The Veri**on Play by Lisa Kron The Hour of Feeling by Mona Mansour Oh, Gastronomy! by Michael Golamco, Carson Kreitzer, Steve Moulds, Tanya Saracho, and Matt Schatz The Ten-Minute Plays: The Dungeons and the Dragons by Kyle John Schmidt Hero Dad by Laura Jacqmin The Ballad of 423 and 424 by Nicholas C. Pappas
2013 The Delling Shore by Sam Marks Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Cry Old Kingdom by Jeff Augustin Gnit by Will Eno O Guru Guru Guru, or why I don't want to go to yoga class with you by Mallery Avidon Sleep Rock Thy Brain by Rinne Groff, Lucas Hnath, and Anne Washburn The Ten-Minute Plays: Halfway by Emily Schwend 27 Ways I Didn't Say "Hi" to Laurence Fishburne by Jonathan Josephson Two Conversations Overheard on Airplanes by Sarah Ruhl
2014 Partners by Dorothy Fortenberry The Christians by Lucas Hnath The Grown-Up by Jordan Harrison brownsville song (b-side for tray) by Kimber Lee Steel Hammer created by SITI Company, music and lyrics by Julia Wolfe, original text by Kia Corthron, Will Power, Carl Hancock Rux and Regina Taylor Remix 38 by Jackie Sibblies Drury, Idris Goodwin, Basil Kreimendahl, Justin Kuritzkes and Amelia Roper The Ten-Minute Plays: Winter Games by Rachel Bonds Some Prepared Remarks (A History in Speech) by Jason Gray Platt Poor Shem by Gregory Hischak
2015 The Roommate by Jen Silverman Dot by Colman Domingo I Will Be Gone by Erin Courtney The Glory of the World by Charles L. Mee I Promised Myself to Live Faster, conceived and created by Pig Iron Theatre Company, text by Gregory S. Moss and Pig Iron Theatre Company That High Lonesome Sound, by Jeff Augustin, Diana Grisanti, Cory Hinkle, and Charise Castro The Ten-Minute Plays: Rules of Comedy by Patricia Cotter So Unnatural a Level by Gary Winter Joshua Consumed an Unfortunate Pear by Steve Yockey
2016 Residence by Laura Jacqmin For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday by Sarah Ruhl This Random World by Steven Dietz Wellesley Girl by Brendan Pelsue Cardboard Piano by Hansol Jung Wondrous Strange by Martyna Majok, Meg Miroshnik, Jiehae Park, and Jen Silverman The Ten-Minute Plays: Coffee Break by Tasha Gordon-Solmon This Quintessence of Dust by Cory Hinkle Trudy, Carolyn, Martha, and Regina Travel to Outer Space and Have a Pretty Terrible Time There by James Kennedy
See also List of attractions and events in the Louisville metropolitan area Performing arts in Louisville, Kentucky
References
External links
Humana Festival of New American Plays CD ROM