The Humana Festival of New American Plays has always focused on writers, and this year, a couple of those writers have their roots in Kentucky.
Next weekend, the Louisville festival, in its 33rd year, will welcome back Prospect native Naomi Wallace with her new play, The Hard Weather Boating Party, based on research she did in Louisville's Rubbertown district. Later this month, Humana will bring the words of a Kentucky poet to life on stage with Wild Blessings: A Celebration of Wendell Berry.
"It's part of an ongoing interest in reflecting the world that we live in," says Marc Masterson, artistic director of the festival, which began March 1, and of Actors Theatre of Louisville, where the event is held. "Naomi Wallace and Wendell Berry are writing about the world that we live in."
In addition to Berry and Wallace, this year's festival features some familiar names and some new ones. Charles L. Mee and Anne Bogart's Saratoga International Theatre Institute returns to present Under Construction, a play about America's penchant for reinvention. There's also a look at post-Katrina New Orleans in Ameriville, by the multi-disciplinary ensemble Universes; a literary tale in Zoe Kazan's Absalom; and what Masterson calls a "fun, over-the-top" play in Allison Moore's Slasher.
Masterson says it is a coincidence that two titles with distinctly Kentucky ties ended up on his schedule. He says there's no marketing angle to doing that, but "the friendships we make working on these plays do help to spread the word."
Like Naomi Iizuka's At the Vanishing Point in 2004, Hard Weather Boating Party led Wallace to do research in Louisville, specifically about an area that suffers greatly from the chemical emissions of industries surrounding it.
"My father was an environmentalist, and he had taught us about respecting the land and respecting creatures," Wallace says. "I had been interested in neighborhoods endangered by corporations. These are neighborhoods that are at greater risk, just because of their proximity to polluters."
Wallace did her research in Louisville over two summers, she says, but the play, which runs March 14 to April 4, is not a documentary and does not present dialogue from her interviews. Rather, it presents a story based on and inspired by her research. She waves off the idea it's a documentary play and dispels any notion that it's a downer evening of environmental drama.
"There are some really funny moments," she says, describing the action of three guys in a Motel 6 plotting a crime.
Masterson likens the Wendell Berry show, which runs March 26 to April 26, to the plays Spoon River Anthology, based on Edgar Lee Masters' poetry, and Under Milk Wood, based on Dylan Thomas' work.
The director was inspired to bring Berry's words to the stage while reading the Henry County author's works during rehearsals for a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. An actor noticed what Masterson was reading and suggested that Berry's works were right for the stage.
Masterson agreed. He and co-writer Adrian-Alice Hansel endeavored to read most of Berry's works and ultimately "decided to focus on his poetry, and the theatrical nature of his poetry," Masterson says.
"We've been out to visit him a few times, and he's been here for rehearsals and will come back for more and for opening night," Masterson says. "We're really honored that he's let us do this."
Despite the ailing economy, Masterson says sales of Humana Festival tickets are good thus far, and he hopes to continue a trend of building the local audience for the festival, which attracts theater professionals, critics and cultural tourists from around the world.
"I feel like our success is important to this community," Masterson says. "So it's gratifying that more people here want to see what we are doing."
