June 27, 2013
Actors Theatre of Louisville will round out its 34th Humana Festival of New American Plays (February 21 – March 28) with a bill including one full-length play and two ten-minute plays written by Theatre and Dance students, faculty and alumni.
Featured Plays:
Lobster Boy (winner of the Heideman Award)
by Dan Dietz, M.F.A. '99
A boy hatches a plan to cure his younger brother, who was born without the capacity for pain, in this haunting play about the things we just can't feel.
Dan Dietz's plays include tempOdyssey, Tilt Angel, Americamisfit and The Sandreckoner. Lobster Boy marks his fourth production at Actors Theatre, and his second time being honored with the Heideman Award. Regional Theatre: Shadowgrass (Guthrie Theater). Off-Broadway: tempOdyssey (2005 Summer Play Festival). Other Theatre: Productions at Curious Theatre Company, New Jersey Repertory Company, Phoenix Theatre, Salvage Vanguard Theater, The Studio Theatre, Theater Schmeater, and Tiyatro-Z (Istanbul, Turkey). Additional credits: Mr. Dietz has been a National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights recipient, a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere recipient, a Josephine Bay Paul Fellow and a James A. Michener Fellow, and has been nominated for the Weissberger Award and the American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg Award. Mr. Dietz currently teaches playwriting at Florida State University.
Post Wave Spectacular
by Diana Grisanti, M.F.A. in Playwriting candidate
Three plucky women, united by one man's addictive charms, invite his latest conquest to tea. When the party becomes an intervention, this sudden sisterhood takes a turn.
Diana Grisanti, a Louisville native and former Actors Theatre literary intern, is a first-year James A. Michener Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin and graduate of the University of Iowa. Ms. Grisanti's plays Sunday Ballooning and Gathering Note were produced by Actors Theatre's 2006 – 2007 Apprentice Company. Her adaptation of 1,001 Nights was commissioned and produced by Walden Theatre. Currently, Ms. Grisanti is writing a musical about Kentucky basketball with composer/lyricist Matt Schatz. As a dramaturg, she has worked on new plays by Sherry Kramer, Alice Tuan, Carlos Murillo and W. David Hancock. For the two years prior to relocating to Austin, Ms. Grisanti lived in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she worked as a teacher and translator.
The Method Gun
created by Rude Mechs
written by Kirk Lynn M.F.A., 2004, Playwriting Faculty
The Method Gun explores the life and techniques of Stella Burden, actor-training guru of the 60s and 70s, whose sudden emigration to South America still haunts her most fervent followers. Ms. Burden's training technique, The Approach (often referred to as “the most dangerous acting technique in the world”), fused Western acting methods with risk-based rituals in order to give even the smallest role a touch of sex, death and violence.
Kirk Lynn is a Founder and one of six Co-Producing Artistic Directors of Rude Mechs. With Rude Mechs, Mr. Lynn has written and adapted more than a dozen plays including Lipstick Traces, Requiem for Tesla and I've Never Been So Happy, winner of a National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development Award, set to premiere in Fall 2010. Mr. Lynn also adapted The Wrestling Patient, a finalist for a NEA New Play Production Award, for 40 Magnolias in Boston. He wrote Major Bang for The Foundry Theatre in New York, with whom he is working on a new commission about “value” and its myriad meanings in America. Mr. Lynn received his M.F.A. from the Michener Center for Writers and currently teaches at The University of Texas at Austin.
Now in its 46th season, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the State Theatre of Kentucky, has emerged as one of America's most consistently innovative professional theatre companies. For over 30 years, it has been a major force in revitalizing American playwriting. Its annual Humana Festival of New American Plays is recognized as the premier event of its kind and draws producers, journalists, critics, playwrights and theatre lovers from around the world for a marathon of new works. Over 350 plays from Actors Theatre have been published, making them available to producers and readers, and creating a significant addition to the nation's dramatic literature. Actors Theatre's programming includes a broad range of classical and contemporary work, presenting over 500 performances each season. The company performs annually to nearly 200,000 people and is the recipient of the most prestigious awards bestowed on a regional theatre: a special Tony Award for Distinguished Achievement, the James N. Vaughan Memorial Award for Exceptional Achievement and Contribution to the Development of Professional Theatre, and the Margo Jones Award for the Encouragement of New Plays. Actors Theatre's international appearances include performances in over 29 cities in 15 foreign countries. Currently, there are 40 books of plays and criticism from Actors Theatre in publication and circulation.
For more information please visit, www.ActorsTheatre.org.