I am in Kentucky, for my first experience of the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s annual Humana Festival.
The sum of my connections to the Humana, now in its 36th year, are this:
• My fine new friend Lou Harry, whom I met on my last cross-country theater jaunt (an NEA fellowship last summer in Los Angeles) convinced me to go.
• The director of that L.A. program, and of the USC Annenberg program in Arts Journalism, Sasha Anawalt, will be a panelist in an future-of-the-arts-type discussion this morning.
• Les Waters, the brand new director of Actors Theatre of Louisville and of Humana, has, as the other kind of “director,” helmed several shows in recent seasons at the Yale Repertory Theatre, including Sarah Ruhl’s versions of Eurydice and Three Sisters.
• Lisa Kron, who’s performed and taught fairly regularly at Yale (and also done show at Hartford Stage) is debuting a new play at Humana this year.
• Bob Krakower, who was a student of my father’s in the Drama Department at Tufts University back in the 1970s, was big deal in the growth of Humana in its early years. He even penned one of its signature “10 Minute Plays” that got published.
• Jon Jory, Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Lousville for decades, also founded th Long Wharf Theatre. He lasted only a couple of years in New Haven before being ousted by the Long Wharf board; the Long Wharf was handed to Arvin Brown, who did not do badly with it, but it’s a major “What if?” in my mind: Could Humana have happened in New Haven instead? Could it have lasted?
That’s it—my entire juxtification for being here in Louisville, Kentucky. I’ll be posting frequently over the weekend as much as Humanally possible.