Actors Theatre of Louisville

Actors Theatre of Louisville
Address 316 West Main St.
Louisville, Kentucky
United States
Coordinates 38°15′23.01″N 85°45′19.86″W / 38.2563917°N 85.7555167°W / 38.2563917; -85.7555167Coordinates: 38°15′23.01″N 85°45′19.86″W / 38.2563917°N 85.7555167°W / 38.2563917; -85.7555167
Type Regional theater
Opened 1964
Website
actorstheatre.org

Actors Theatre of Louisville is a non-profit performing arts theater located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky.

Actors Theatre was founded in 1964 following the merging of two local companies, Actors', Inc and Theatre Louisville, operated by Louisville natives Ewel Cornett and Richard Block. Designated as the "State Theater of Kentucky" in 1974, the theater has emerged as one of America's most consistently innovative professional theater companies, with an annual attendance of 150,000.

The theater presents almost 400 performances annually and delivers a broad range of programming, including classics and contemporary work through the Brown-Forman Series, holiday plays, a series of free theatrical events produced by the Apprentice/Intern Company, and the Humana Festival of New American Plays—the premier new play festival in the nation, which has introduced nearly 450 plays into the American theatre repertoire over the past 39 years. In addition, the theater provides more than 17,000 arts experiences each year to students across the region through its education department, and boasts one of the nation's most prestigious continuing pre-professional resident training companies, the Apprentice/Intern Company, now approaching its 44th year.

The theater has been the recipient of some of the most prestigious awards bestowed on a regional theatre, including a 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. The theater has toured to 29 cities and 15 countries worldwide, totaling more than 1,400 appearances internationally. Currently, there are more than 50 published books of plays and criticism from the theater in circulation—including anthologies of Humana Festival plays, volumes of ten-minute plays and monologues, and essays, scripts and lectures from the Brown-Forman Classics in Context Festival. Numerous plays first produced at the theater have also been published as individual acting editions, and have been printed in many other anthologies, magazines and journals—making an enduring contribution to American dramatic.

Humana Festival of New American Plays

The Humana Festival is an internationally acclaimed event that has introduced nearly 450 plays into the American and international theatre's general repertoire, including three Pulitzer Prize winners—The Gin Game by D. L. Coburn, Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley and Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies—as well as Marsha Norman's Getting Out, John Pielmeier's Agnes of God, Charles Mee's Big Love, Naomi Iizuka's Polaroid Stories and At the Vanishing Point, Jane Martin's Anton in Show Business, Rinne Groff's The Ruby Sunrise, Theresa Rebeck's The Scene, Gina Gionfriddo's After Ashley and Becky Shaw, UNIVERSES' Ameriville, Rude Mechs' The Method Gun, Jordan Harrison's Maple and Vine, Will Eno's Gnit, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Appropriate, and Lucas Hnath's Death Tax and The Christians. More than 380 Humana Festival plays have been published in anthologies and individual acting editions, making Actors Theatre a visible and vital force in the development of new plays.

The Humana Festival is the premier event of its kind in the nation, drawing theater lovers, journalists, and film and stage producers from around the world. About 36,000 patrons attend the five weeks of plays and associated events, which includes a dedicated weekend for college students, which annually attracts students from more than 40 colleges and universities. The Festival culminates in two Industry Weekends which bring together a collection of amazing new plays with one-of-a-kind panels, cocktail parties, discussions and networking events. It is the perfect opportunity to see new work, make new connections, and support the creation of new American theater.

Leadership

In May 1969, Jon Jory, the son of stage and screen star Victor Jory was appointed the theater's new producing director. His appointment marked a renaissance for the theater and throughout his tenure, he proved himself to be a visionary artistic leader and innovative producer. During this three decades in Louisville he produced more than 1,300 plays, increased Actors Theatre's budget from $244,000 to $8.3 million. His Louisville debut was in October 1969 with Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood. Former Executive Director, Alexander Speer, whose tenure of forty years began in 1965, became Jory's partner and led the theater's administration and operations until his retirement in the spring of 2006.

Marc Masterson was appointed the company's new Artistic Director in the summer of 2000. He'd previously served as producing director of City Theatre in Pittsburgh for 19 years. During his tenure at Actors Theatre, Masterson produced more than 200 plays and expanded and deepened the theater's commitment to arts education through the establishment of an Education Department consisting of public outreach programs including classroom workshops, artists in the schools, increased weekday student matinées, backstage tours and professional development for teachers and community center leaders. Masterson left Actors Theatre in 2011 to become artistic director at South Coast Repertory in California.

Following an extensive national search, Obie Award-winning director Les Waters was named artistic director on November 29, 2011, and assumed full-time duties at the theater in January, 2012. Waters appointment was declared the year's "most promising out of town development" by The New York Times. A strong proponent of contemporary work and imaginative adaptations of classic materials, Waters is widely regarded as one of the most important directors working in America today.

Buildings

The original home of Actors Theatre was an open loft—the former Egyptian Tea Room—above the Taylor Trunk Company on Fourth Street in downtown Louisville. In 1965, the theater relocated to the former site of the Illinois Central Railway Station on Seventh Street and River Road. The space was transformed by Architect Jasper Ward into a 350-seat theater. In the fall of 1969, the city announced that the train station was to be demolished to make way for a connector highway. In October 1972, the theater relocated to the newly renovated Old Bank of Louisville building on Main Street, where it remains to this day. The building that became Actors Theatre was a merging of two buildings: the 1837 James H. Dakin-designed Old Bank of Louisville (which is a National Historic Landmark) and the Myers-Thompson Display Building.[1] In 2004 the theater acquired a production studio at 9th and Magnolia Streets in the Old Louisville neighborhood.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Putting Down Roots: The Actors Theatre of Louisville Builds a Stage to Call Home". National Endowment for the Arts. February 2, 2007. Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved May 28, 2008.

Further reading

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