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HUMANA 2005 FESTIVAL LINE UP
HAZARD COUNTY by Allison Moore. In repertory February 27-April 3.
How much truth is necessary for a news segment or a love affair? Ruth is a young widowed mother who has lost everything and Blake is a television producer who wants to tell her story to a national audience. Interspersed with recollections of Bo, Luke and Daisy Duke-and with a taste for genuine moonshine-the slyly subversive Hazard County takes a deep look at the small-town South.
Contains strong language and adult situations.
This production is presented in association with the National New Play Network.
A NERVOUS SMILE
by John Belluso. In repertory March 4-April 2.
Three parents do the unthinkable: abandon their children with cerebral palsy in order to escape the bruising reality of caring for them. As they deal with the consequences of their actions, they face down the fear and disgust they feel for the children they also fiercely love. These choices are explored with insight and compassion, while giving voice to the resilient if hidden personality of a girl with cerebral palsy. Contains strong language.
This play was originally commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville and The Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project.
THE SHAKER CHAIR
by Adam Bock.
The Shakers built for utility, not comfort. Marion navigates the constrictions and possibilities of middle age: her friend has become an activist and is pushing her to do the same, her sister clings to the familiarity of her marriage and Marion grapples with her responsibilities to the world beyond the comfortable edges of her living room.
This play was originally commissioned by Playwrights Horizons.
MOOT THE MESSANGER
by Kia Corthron in repertory March 12- April 3.
A complex and fiercely intelligent indictment of the current state of the American news media. Briar, an ambitious journalism student, lands a job as an embedded reporter in Iraq. Her encounters with soldiers, international journalists and a working-class girl she knew from home force her to grapple with the fact that while her role is to report the truth, the truth is no longer being reported in the American media. Contains strong language.
This play was originally commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville.
PURE CONFIDENCE
by Carlyle Brown. In repertory March 17-April 9.
The powerful tale of Simon Cato-a slave with the imagination to pursue the unfathomable: freedom. Based on historical accounts of African American jockeys, the play examines these early riders-unusual assets to their masters-while conveying yet another untold story: a complex view of the essentially capitalistic impulse underlying the "peculiar institution" of slavery.
This play was originally commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville
and Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
MEMORY HOUSE
by Kathleen Tolan. In repertory March 22-April 3.
One winter night, a woman bakes a pie as a girl tries to finish her college essay. Unfolding in real time, this play is about two people who are forced to grapple with the past as they face an uncertain future. A funny and moving story about the complexity of living in the world today. Contains strong language.
This play was originally commissioned by Trinity Repertory Company.
TEN-MINUTE PLAYS TAKING PLACE APRIL 2-3
DREAM OF JEANNIE BY THE DOOR
by David Valdes Greenwood
Gary and Bonnie have a date at the altar, Wilma has a date with her favorite slot machine, and everyone is hoping to get lucky. A quirky critique of casinos, good-luck charms and the dangers of aiming for a jackpot that will never pay out quite
the way you imagine.
GOODY F***ING TWO SHOES
by Jennifer Maisel
The drama club. The new girl. The lead in the school play. High school politics get dirty.
JOANNES, PYOTR & MARGE
by Jeffrey Essmann
Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Marge-the three pillars of Romanticism-share a birthday and an ability to wax rhapsodic on music, Velveeta cheese, and the struggle to recognize the beauty right in front of you.
LONG DREAM IN SUMMER
by Said Sayrafiezadeh
A mother tries to save her son from the brutalities of war in this evocative study of the power, even in its earliest days, of America’s favorite past-time.
Contain strong language.
UNCLE SAM'S SATIRIC SPECTACULAR On Democracy and Other Fictions
Featuring Patriotism Acts and Blue Songs from a Red State
by Greg Allen, Sheila Callaghan, Bridget Carpenter, Eric Coble, Richard Dresser, Michael Friedman and Hilly Hicks.
A return to the humorous forms of the wholly American grab-bag of entertainments,
using Vaudeville’s jumble of serious, silly and oddball acts as a way to
approach current issues. Actors Theatre has commissioned six playwrights and a
composer/lyricist to create an evening of satire, drawing on the conventions of
these earlier forms.
Performed by the twenty-two members of Actors’ Apprentice Company,
the bill of this contemporary vaudeville includes mind-readers, sibling acts, a ventriloquist, an escape artist, a well-trained vegan and feat after feat of despair-defying satire. Absurd, high-energy and as smart as it is entertaining, Uncle Sam’s Satiric Spectacular proves that despite the odds (and it gets pretty odd), America’s determined to go on with the show.
Contains strong language. This play was originally commissioned by Actors Theatre
of Louisville.
DREAM OF JEANNIE BY THE DOOR by David Valdes Greenwood Gary and Bonnie have a date at the altar, Wilma has a date with her favorite slot machine, and everyone is hoping to get lucky. A quirky critique of casinos, good-luck charms and the dangers of aiming for a jackpot that will never pay out quite the way you imagine.
GOODY F***ING TWO SHOES by Jennifer Maisel The drama club. The new girl. The lead in the school play. High school politics get dirty.
JOANNES, PYOTR & MARGE by Jeffrey Essmann Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Marge-the three pillars of Romanticism-share a birthday and an ability to wax rhapsodic on music, Velveeta cheese, and the struggle to recognize the beauty right in front of you.
LONG DREAM IN SUMMER by Said Sayrafiezadeh A mother tries to save her son from the brutalities of war in this evocative study of the power, even in its earliest days, of America’s favorite past-time. Contain strong language.
UNCLE SAM'S SATIRIC SPECTACULAR On Democracy and Other Fictions Featuring Patriotism Acts and Blue Songs from a Red State by Greg Allen, Sheila Callaghan, Bridget Carpenter, Eric Coble, Richard Dresser, Michael Friedman and Hilly Hicks.
A return to the humorous forms of the wholly American grab-bag of entertainments, using Vaudeville’s jumble of serious, silly and oddball acts as a way to approach current issues. Actors Theatre has commissioned six playwrights and a composer/lyricist to create an evening of satire, drawing on the conventions of these earlier forms.
Performed by the twenty-two members of Actors’ Apprentice Company, the bill of this contemporary vaudeville includes mind-readers, sibling acts, a ventriloquist, an escape artist, a well-trained vegan and feat after feat of despair-defying satire. Absurd, high-energy and as smart as it is entertaining, Uncle Sam’s Satiric Spectacular proves that despite the odds (and it gets pretty odd), America’s determined to go on with the show.
Contains strong language. This play was originally commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville.