The Humana Festival: The History of New Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville (Theater in the Americas)

266 Pages·2008·3.37 MB·English

by  Assistant Professor Jeffrey Ullom

THE
The History of New Plays at
HUMANA
Actors Theatre of Louisville
FESTIVAL
Jeffrey Ullom
A Series from
Southern
Illinois
University
Press
robert a.
schanke
Series Editor
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Other Books in the Theater in the Americas Series
Unfriendly Witnesses: Gender, Theater, Entertaining the Nation: American Drama
and Film in the McCarthy Era in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
Milly S. Barranger Centuries
Tice L. Miller
The Theatre of Sabina Berman: The
Agony of Ecstasy and Other Plays Stage, Page, Scandals, and Vandals: William
Translated by Adam Versényi E. Burton and Nineteenth-Century
With an Essay by Jacqueline E. Bixler American Theatre
David L. Rinear
Messiah of the New Technique: John
Howard Lawson, Communism, and Contemporary Latina/o Theater: Wrighting
American Theatre, 1923–1937 Ethnicity
Jonathan L. Chambers Jon D. Rossini
Composing Ourselves: The Little Theatre Angels in the American Theater: Patrons,
Movement and the American Audience Patronage, and Philanthropy
Dorothy Chansky Edited and with an introduction by Robert
A. Schanke
Women in Turmoil: Six Plays by
Mercedes de Acosta “That Furious Lesbian”: The Story of
Edited and with an Introduction by Mercedes de Acosta
Robert A. Schanke Robert A. Schanke
Performing Loss: Rebuilding Community Caffe Cino: The Birthplace of Off-Off-
through Theater and Writing Broadway
Jodi Kanter Wendell C. Stone
Unfinished Show Business: Broadway Teaching Performance Studies
Musicals as Works-in-Process Edited by Nathan Stucky and
Bruce Kirle Cynthia Wimmer
With a Foreword by Richard Schechner
Staging America: Cornerstone and
Community-Based Theater Broadway’s Bravest Woman: Selected
Sonja Kuftinec Writings of Sophie Treadwell
Edited and with introductions by Jerry
Words at Play: Creative Writing and Dickey and Miriam López-Rodríguez
Dramaturgy
Felicia Hardison Londré Our Land Is Made of Courage and Glory:
Nationalist Performance of Nicaragua
and Guatemala
E. J. Westlake
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The
Humana
Festival
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THE
The History of New Plays at
HUMANA
Actors Theatre of Louisville
FESTIVAL
Jeffrey Ullom
Southern Illinois University Press
Carbondale
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Copyright © 2008 by the Board of Trustees,
Southern Illinois University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
11 10 09 08 4 3 2 1
Permission to use quotations from interviews was granted
by Lee Blessing; Christen McDonough Boone, Director of
Development, Actors Theatre of Louisville (A.T.L.); Julie
Crutcher; Michael Bigelow Dixon, former Literary Director/
Associate Artist, Guthrie Theater; Liz Engelman, Dramaturg;
David Jones; Trish Pugh Jones, Manager of Patron Relations;
Marilee Hebert Miller, former Associate Director, A.T.L.;
Jeff Rodgers, General Manager, A.T.L.; James Seacat, Com-
munications Director; Val Smith, former Associate Literary
Manager; Alexander Speer, former Executive Director, A.T.L.;
and Roanne Victor. These interviewees retain copyright of
their contributions to this volume.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ullom, Jeffrey, 1971–
The Humana Festival : the history of new plays at Actors
Theatre of Louisville / Jeffrey Ullom.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8093-2849-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8093-2849-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Actors Theatre of Louisville. 2. Humana Festival.
3. Theater—Kentucky—Louisville—History—20th century.
4. Theater—Kentucky—Louisville—History—21st century.
I. Title.
PN2277.L62A38 2008
792.09769'44—dc22 2007038541
Printed on recycled paper.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum re-
quirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ansi z39.48-1992. ∞
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To my wife, Megan, and to my parents
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Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1. The Founding of a Divided Theatre 7
2.The Education of Jon Jory 30
3. The Lucky Years, 1976–79 45
4.Becoming an Institution, 1980–82 64
5. From Product to Process, 1983–86 80
6.The Exploratory Years, 1987–93 99
7. Falling into a Rut, 1994–98 121
8.The Last Hurrah, 1999–2000 131
9.The Education of Marc Masterson, 2001–6 144
Conclusion: Looking Back and Looking Forward 162
Appendix: Humana Festival Production History 169
Notes 183
Works Cited 219
Index 241
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