Six plays, including works by Basil Kreimendahl and Sarah DeLappe, will get their world premieres at Actors Theatre of Louisville鈥榮 41st annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, which kicks off March 1.
The festival runs through April 9 at the Kentucky theatre. This year鈥榮 playwrights also include Jeff Augustin, Jorge Ignacio Corti帽as, Tasha Gordon-Solmon, Claire Kiechel, Chelsea Marcantel, Molly Smith Metzler, and Ramiz Monsef.
Many plays from the Humana Festival have gotten major productions and awards. Three have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama: The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn, Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley, and Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies.
Here is the 2017 lineup, presented in the order they will be produced. Plot summaries were suppled by the ATL.
I Now Pronounce
By Tasha Gordon-Solmon, directed by Stephen Brackett
March 1鈥揂pril 9 in the Bingham Theatre
鈥淎fter Adam and Nicole鈥檚 wedding culminates in an awkwardly timed fatality, the reception spins into an increasingly strange evening that leaves the bride and groom questioning just what it is they鈥檙e celebrating. But there鈥檚 no stopping the festivities: the flower girls are running amuck, the bridal party members are more preoccupied with their own flailing relationships, and everyone needs to stop ordering the blue drinks. Comedies end in marriage. Tragedies end in death. This play begins with both.鈥�
I Now Pronounce was developed at the Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival in June 2016.
We鈥檙e Gonna Be Okay
By Basil Kreimendahl, directed by Lisa Peterson
March 7鈥揂pril 9 in the Pamela Brown Auditorium
鈥淒uring the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, two average American families build a slapdash bomb shelter on their shared property line. With nuclear warfare looming, they wonder: is it the end? The end of baseball...and table manners...and macram茅? But as they fret about the fall of civilization, they start to worry that something more personal is at stake. A slyly hilarious, compassionate look at anxiety in America, We鈥檙e Gonna Be Okay is about finding the courage to face who we are鈥攁nd who we want to be.鈥�
We鈥檙e Gonna Be Okay was developed with support from the Playwrights鈥� Center鈥檚 Jerome Fellowship Program, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Cry it Out
By Molly Smith Metzler, directed by Davis McCallum
Commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville
March 10鈥揂pril 9 in the Bingham Theatre
鈥淐ooped up on maternity leave and starved for conversation, Jessie invites her funny and forthright neighbor Lina, also a new mom, for coffee on the patio between their duplexes. Despite their vastly different finances, they become fast friends during naptimes鈥攚hile someone watches from the mansion on the cliff overlooking Jessie鈥檚 yard. This comedy with dark edges takes an honest look at the absurdities of being home with a baby, the dilemma of returning to work, and how class impacts parenthood and friendship.鈥�
Recent Alien Abductions
By Jorge Ignacio Corti帽as, directed by Les Waters
March 17鈥揂pril 9 in the Pamela Brown Auditorium
鈥溍乴varo is searching for a lost episode of The X-Files that he swears has been mysteriously altered since its original broadcast, but nobody believes him. Could the missing episode be proof of a larger conspiracy? Years later, when a friend arrives in Puerto Rico hoping to preserve 脕lvaro鈥檚 stories, she must face the family from whom he vanished long ago. A darkly compelling tale about the danger of having no one to trust鈥攁nd how families, and nations, keep circling the places that haunt them.鈥�
Recent Alien Abductions was commissioned by Playwrights Horizons with funds provided by The New York State Council on the Arts.
Airness
By Chelsea Marcantel, directed by Meredith McDonough
March 24鈥揂pril 9 in the Victor Jory Theatre
鈥淲hen Nina enters her first air guitar competition, she thinks winning will be easy. But as she befriends a group of charismatic nerds all committed to becoming the next champion, she discovers that there鈥檚 more to this art form than playing pretend; it鈥檚 about finding yourself in your favorite songs, and performing with raw joy. Will Nina be able to let go and set herself free onstage? Following her mission to shred or be shredded, Airness is an exuberant reminder that everything we need to rock is already inside us.鈥�
The Many Deaths of Nathan Stubblefield
By Jeff Augustin, Sarah DeLappe, Claire Kiechel, and Ramiz Monsef; directed by Eric Hoff
Performed by the actors of the 2016-2017 Professional Training Company and commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville
March 24鈥揂pril 9 in the Bingham Theatre
鈥淭he mysterious demise of a Kentucky inventor鈥攁nd other stories of visionaries from the Bluegrass State鈥攊nspire a play that explores the nature of innovation and the myths we tell about it. Writing for the twenty actors in this season鈥檚 Professional Training Company, four playwrights boldly celebrate unsung dreamers, unlikely breakthroughs, and the beauty (and occasional hilarity) of failure.鈥�
Tickets to the festival are on sale now. For more information, visit . The theatre complex is at 316 West Main Street, Louisville, Kentucky, and the phone number is (502) 584-1205.
