Podcasts about new american plays

COMMUNAL TABLE: Have you ever had to share a table in a café with the wrong people? On one summer afternoon in June, the day of the summer solstice, three characters end up at the same café table. Minna enjoys eavesdropping, but this time is different — this guy is getting so many things wrong, she may just need to interrupt. Gary loves meeting new people, but it looks like his latest flirtation is getting sabotaged. Allie has come here for some peace but she's unlikely to find any here. Written by Jenny Lyn Bader Directed by Jonathan Cook Performed by Elizabeth D. Moore as "Allie", Shelby Lauren Smith as "Minna", & Mickey Lay as "Gary". Intro/Outro music: JK/47 About the writer: Jenny Lyn Bader is a playwright living in New York City. Her plays include Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library (Luna Stage) ("powerful and timely!"—Voice of America), Equally Divine (Theatre at the 14th St. Y), In Flight (Turn to Flesh Productions), and None of the Above (New Georges). One-acts include Worldness (Humana Festival of New American Plays), Miss America (NY Int'l Fringe Festival/”Best of Fringe” selection), Anniversary Season (Mona Bismarck Center, Paris), and My First Time (Voting Writes). A Harvard graduate, she has received the “Best Documentary One-Woman Show” Award (United Solo Fest); Athena Playwriting Fellowship; and the O'Neill Center's Edith Oliver Award for a playwright who has, in the spirit of the late New Yorker critic, “a caustic wit that deflates the ego but does not unduly damage the human spirit.” For This Is Not a Theatre Company, she wrote Tree Confessions (w/ Kathleen Chalfant), which has streamed on five continents; International Local: 7 (Subway Plays app); co-authored Café Play (Cornelia St. Café) and Play in Your Bathtub 2.0, and wrote Guru of Touch (Edinburgh Festival Fringe). Her work has been published by Dramatists Play Service, Smith + Kraus, Applause, Vintage, W.W. Norton, The Lincoln Center Theater Review, Plays International + Europe, and The New York Times, where she served as a frequent contributor to the "Week in Review.” She has written commissioned scripts for Laura Ziskin Productions/WB Network, NBC Studios/NBC, and HBO, where she developed a pilot with Billy Crystal. A Harvard graduate, she has been a frequent contributor to the NY Times "Week in Review" and a Lark playwriting fellow, nominated by Wendy Wasserstein. She belongs to the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, the League of Professional Theatre Women, and Honor Roll. Gather by the Ghost Light merch available at Home | Gather by the Ghost Light (bigcartel.com) If you would like to further support this podcast, please visit Gather by the Ghost Light is increasing public knowledge of emerging writers and actors (buymeacoffee.com) If you are associated with a theatre and would like to perform this play, please send an email to info@gatherbytheghostlight.com to get connected with the playwright. If you enjoy this podcast, please please please leave a rating on your preferred podcast app! Gather by the Ghost Light Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the Writers Guild of America strike began in early May of 2023, screenwriter, playwright and essayist Dorothy was in the middle of promoting an Apple TV+ mini-series titled “Extrapolations,” on which she'd worked as executive producer and writer. As a result, she had to cancel all appearances relating to the show, which was especially disappointing to her given that it was the first major scripted TV show about climate change. Instead, she braved the blistering heat of summer in Burbank, CA and started walking the picket lines.Dorothy's TV producing and writing credits also include the acclaimed Hulu series “The Handmaid's Tale” and “The 100” for the CW network. Her work on “The Handmaid's Tale” earned her not only multiple Emmy nominations but also a Producers Guild Award as well as a Writers Guild Award. Her plays have been performed all over the country, including at the sadly now-defunct Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, KY; IAMA Theatre in Los Angeles; and the Red Fern Theatre Company in New York City.Here she describes how in 15 years streaming channels went from being a writer's playground to an ever more precarious means to earn a basic living. She also explains why the current strike is crucial not only for Writers Guild members but also any worker whose profession is in danger of ever becoming just another gig. 

Theater director Sean Daniels has outstanding credits to his name. He co-founded the company Dad's Garage, which is now a cornerstone of Atlanta's theatrical scene, and then went on to lead Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Massachusetts. He also spent four years as associate artistic director at Actors Theatre of Louisville where he oversaw the sadly now-defunct Humana Festival of New American Plays and directed many of its world premieres over five years.The credit that brings him the greatest pride, however, is just a tad more recent, however: person in long-term recovery. For almost two decades as he charted his remarkable artistic path, he was also increasingly hobbled by his addiction to alcohol, and as is so common for people with substance-abuse disorders, it took him several tries before he was finally able to manage his disease. Sean detailed his painful, absurd and often surprisingly hilarious journey to sobriety in his play “The White Chip,” which enjoyed a successful Off-Broadway run in 2019.Now, over a decade into his sobriety, he has added a new credit to his resume: advocate. After a widely lauded stint as artistic director of Arizona Theatre Company, Sean recently became the associate director of Florida Studio Theatre. At FST not only will he head the theater's new-play-development program, but he will also work as the inaugural director of his brainchild, The Recovery Project. The Recovery Project is an initiative working to heal the stigma of addiction and recovery through the development of new plays, theatre-education programs and outreach.In this interview, Sean explains why those working in the performing arts are especially vulnerable to substance-abuse disorders and details how he hopes his advocacy will establish new support systems to catch struggling artists long before they fall as far as he once did.https://www.floridastudiotheatre.org/

Louisville Native Meg Fister is a producer and director of development for QUINN'S HOUSE PRODUCTIONS. She also serves as a producer on NBC's reboot of QUANTUM LEAP. Listen in on Meg as she sits down with Stu to talk everything from her journey in this industry, her move to Los Angeles (and the biggest myths concerning the city of lights), and what it takes to make a marriage and childrearing work in the hectic world of film and television.  Louisville Film Society  https://www.louisvillefilmsociety.org/ LFS - An Editing Master Class with Doug Abel https://www.louisvillefilmsociety.org/upcoming-events/editing-with-doug-abel Quantum Leap Trailer  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iavhTGFDqUE The Humana Festival of New American Plays  https://www.actorstheatre.org/humana-festival/  

As the Producing Director at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Jon Jory directed over 125 plays and produced over 1,000 during his 32-year tenure. He conceived the internationally lauded Humana Festival of New American Plays, the SHORTS Festival, and the Brown-Forman Classics-in-Context Festival. He was also the Artistic Founding Director of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, and he has been inducted in New York's Theatre Hall of Fame. Mr. Jory has directed professionally in nine nations, and in the United States has directed productions at many regional theatres including Washington's Arena Stage, San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre, Hartford Stage, the McCarter in Princeton, Guthrie Theatre, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has received the National Theatre Conference Award and ATA Distinguished Career Award. For his commitment to new plays, he has received the Margo Jones Award twice, the Shubert Foundation's James N. Vaughan Memorial Award for Exceptional Achievement and Contribution to the Development of Professional Theatre, Carnegie Mellon's Commitment to Playwriting Award, and the Special Tony Award for Achievement in Regional Theatre. He currently teaches acting and directing at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.

Jamie Pachino is currently the Co-Executive Producer on The Right Stuff for Disney+. She always thought that she’d be an actor for her career, but she fell in love with writing plays and scripts along the way. Her work has been produced in four countries, honored with numerous awards, and she’s written for major studios like DreamWorks, Disney, Lionsgate and more. Jamie shares how she did it and the lessons she learned along the way. It’s an inspiring story of someone who followed her passion into a career of her dreams, and the script on that career is not even close to finished!Meet the GuestJamie Pachino is an award winning playwright, screenwriter and TV writer. Her plays have been seen in four countries, published and named the winner of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays production grant, the Laurie Foundation Theatre Visionary Award, Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work, and the Francesca Primus Prize by the American Theatre Critics Association, among many others. Jamie’s plays have been produced, developed and read at Steppenwolf, Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, LCT3 (Lincoln Center), American Conservatory Theatre, Roundabout, Geva, San Jose Rep, Pasadena Playhouse, Northlight, Florida Stage, A Contemporary Theatre, and the Women’s Playwright Conference in Athens, Greece, among many others. Jamie has written on the staffs of TV series for Amazon (SNEAKY PETE, CHARLOTTE WALSH LIKES TO WIN), AMC (HALT AND CATCH FIRE), NBC (CHICAGO PD, THE BRAVE), TNT (FRANKLIN & BASH) and USA (FAIRLY LEGAL). She has written features for DreamWorks, Disney, Lionsgate, Walden Media, Vanguard Films and others, and teleplays for Amazon, the Hallmark Hall of Fame, Lifetime, Up, and the Hallmark Channel. She is currently writing on the staff of THE RIGHT STUFF for Disney+, a pilot for Bad Robot Productions, and her screenplay MASTERPIECE has been optioned. Jamie has served on the faculties of Northwestern University (her alma mater), University of California Irvine, National Louis University, Columbia College and The Chicago Academy of the Arts. She is a proud member of the WGA, The Playwrights Center, and the International Center for Women Playwrights, and is represented by Kaplan Stahler Agency, APA (theatre), Harden Curtis (London), and Cartel Entertainment. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Lindsay Jones and their two children. LinksMore at www.jamiepachino.com.

Colman Domingo is a Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, and Drama League Award nominated actor, director, writer and producer. Colman has recently received his Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Ursinus College. He is a Juilliard School Creative Associate and on faculty of the Yale School of Drama. He has starred in some of the most profound films in recent years such as Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk, Steven Spielbergs' Lincoln, Lee Daniel's The Butler, Ava DuVernay's Selma and Nate Parker's Birth of a Nation. He stars in the upcoming films, Jordan Peele's Candyman, Janicza Bravo's Zola and George Wolfe's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. He stars on AMC's Fear the Walking Dead and guest stars on HBO's Euphoria.   **He recurred on Steven Soderbergh's The Knick. His plays and musicals include Dot (Samuel French), Wild with Happy (Dramatist Play Service) and A Boy and His Soul (Oberon Books), the Tony Award nominated Broadway musical Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and Geffen Playhouse history making musical Light's Out: Nat King Cole. ***His work has been produced by The Public Theater, Vineyard, La Jolly Playhouse, Humana Festival of New American Plays, New York Stage and Film, A.C.T, The Tricycle Theater in London, Brisbane Powerhouse in Australia, among others. He is the recipient of a Lucille Lortel, Obie, Audelco and GLAAD Award for his work. His production company, Edith Productions, has a first look deal with AMC for which he is developing television, film, theater and animation projects. ***He is currently writing a new musical for The Young Vic in London and hosting his digital series, Bottomless Brunch at Colman's which is now in its second season on AMC.com

James Kennedy is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist based in New York City. As a playwright, composer, and director, his work has been produced and presented by Actors Theatre of Louisville/The Humana Festival of New American Plays, The Washington National Opera/The Kennedy Center, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Superhero Clubhouse, among others. In addition to his freelance work, he is currently the composer-in-residence with Playing for Others in Charlotte, NC and has spent six summers as the Artistic Associate for Education and Outreach at The Orchard Project.

Stage Manager Supply Co Podcast Episode 8 // James Kennedy ✨This week I chat with James Kennedy about his career as a playwright, composer, and director in New York. Hot topics include: discerning your vocations, James’s creative process, how mentorship and personal relationships intertwine, and of course, working with Stage Managers! The Okra Project: https://www.theokraproject.comJames’s Website: https://www.jameshkennedy.comJames’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamesholod✨ l i n k s ✨The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter--And How to Make the Most of Them Now: https://amzn.to/32DrIsz (Claire Book Rec)Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://www.actorstheatre.orgHumana Festival of New American Plays: https://www.actorstheatre.org/humana-festival/Washington National Opera: https://www.kennedy-center.org/wno/home/The Kennedy Center https://www.kennedy-center.orgWilliamstown Theatre Festival https://wtfestival.orgMuseum of Fine Arts Boston https://www.mfa.orgSuperhero Clubhouse http://www.superheroclubhouse.orgPlaying for Others https://playingforothers.orgThe Orchard Project http://secure.orchardproject.comThe Lark Play: https://www.larktheatre.orgHartford Stage: https://www.hartfordstage.org✨ c r e d i t s ✨Music by Mark Generous - Pure Chamomile - https://thmatc.co/?l=7E4C5D3B

This week we're joined in the studio by Robert Barry Fleming, the newest Executive Artistic Director at Actors Theatre of Louisville. We chat about his robust career in theater and film and Fleming shares his commitment to making Actors an accessible and welcoming space for all people to enjoy. He also reveals what theatergoers can expect from the 44th Humana Festival of New American Plays, which opened this month and runs through April 12th. Donate to support this and future episodes of Strange Fruit.

It's October, it finally feels like fall, and it's time for everything creepy, scary, spooky, and things that go bump in the night.  And if you are local, it means it's time to book your theater tickets for Dracula which is performed every fall season by the Actor's Theater of Louisville. Actor's Theater is one of the top regional theater in the nation.  It's won Tony Awards and many notable performers have graced it's stage including Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Kevin Bacon, and Kathy Bates to name just a few.  It's Humana Festival of New American Plays which takes place every Spring is internationally known and Newsweek once called it, "a miniature Cannes film festival for theater".  Crowd favorites like Dracula and A Christmas Carol makes this theater company beloved in the city.   Today's guest, Hannah Rae Montgomery, is Actor's Theater's dramaturg.  Don't know what a dramaturg is?  Neither did we until we talked with Hannah Rae.  A dramaturg is basically a literary editor on the staff of a theater who interpret and research texts for their productions.  She tells us what is new and fresh about the roles for women in this year's Dracula, why people come to see it year after year, and how Bram Stoker's book differs from the play adaptation.  It's close to Halloween and time to talk literature's favorite vampire.   You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.  

Literary Manager (and fellow Iowa alumn) Jenni Page-White joins us on this episode to share her experiences as both a dramaturg and literary manager. This is a great episode for our listeners who are interested in dramaturgy and have been thinking about literary management as a profession! Jenni gives us some thoughtful insight into the world. We hope you'll enjoy it! Jenni Page-White is the literary manager at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she curates and develops new work for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Her dramaturgy credits at Actors Theatre include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Angels in America (Parts One and Two), and the world premieres of We've Come to Believe, by Kara Lee Corthron, Emily Feldman, and Matthew Paul Olmos; Dave Harris's Everybody Black; Mara Nelson-Greenberg's Do You Feel Anger?; Susan Soon He Stanton's we, the invisibles ; Basil Kreimendahl's We're Gonna Be Okay; Tasha Gordon-Solmon's I Now Pronounce; Brendan Pelsue's Wellesley Girl; and Steven Dietz's This Random World. Prior to working at Actors Theatre, she was the literary associate at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she helped select and develop new plays for First Look and coordinated post-show discussion programming. As a freelance dramaturg, she has worked with WildWind Performance Lab, American Theater Company, Sideshow Theatre Company and LiveWire Chicago Theatre, and she has evaluated work for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Playwrights' Center, the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, and The New Harmony Project. She is the co-editor, with Amy Wegener, of several volumes of Humana Festival play anthologies. She holds a B.F.A. from the University of Oklahoma and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. To learn more about Jenni and her work at Actors Theater of Louisville, visit the website: https://www.actorstheatre.org/bios/jenni-page-white/ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it on our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/beckettsbabies/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/beckettsbabies/support

Literary Manager (and fellow Iowa alumn) Jenni Page-White joins us on this episode to share her experiences as both a dramaturg and literary manager. This is a great episode for our listeners who are interested in dramaturgy and have been thinking about literary management as a profession! Jenni gives us some thoughtful insight into the world. We hope you'll enjoy it! Jenni Page-White is the literary manager at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she curates and develops new work for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Her dramaturgy credits at Actors Theatre include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Angels in America (Parts One and Two), and the world premieres of We’ve Come to Believe by Kara Lee Corthron, Emily Feldman, and Matthew Paul Olmos; Dave Harris’s Everybody Black; Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s Do You Feel Anger?; Susan Soon He Stanton’s we, the invisibles; Basil Kreimendahl’s We’re Gonna Be Okay; Tasha Gordon-Solmon’s I Now Pronounce; Brendan Pelsue’s Wellesley Girl; and Steven Dietz’s This Random World. Prior to working at Actors Theatre, she was the literary associate at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she helped select and develop new plays for First Look and coordinated post-show discussion programming. As a freelance dramaturg, she has worked with WildWind Performance Lab, American Theater Company, Sideshow Theatre Company, and LiveWire Chicago Theatre, and she has evaluated work for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Playwrights’ Center, the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and The New Harmony Project. She is the co-editor, with Amy Wegener, of several volumes of Humana Festival play anthologies. She holds a B.F.A. from the University of Oklahoma and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. To learn more about Jenni and her work at Actors Theater of Louisville, visit the website: https://www.actorstheatre.org/bios/jenni-page-white/ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it on our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com

On today’s episode of Rewrite Radio: working in the television and movie industry, Abigail Disney and Dorothy Fortenberry are involved in making some of the most significant media today. In this wide-ranging conversation with Jennifer Holberg, co-director of the CCFW, they discuss the ethical imperatives that shape--and should shape--the stories we tell on-screen. Abigail Disney is an award-winning filmmaker, philanthropist, and the CEO and president of Fork Films, which has supported more than 50 films and series that focus on social issues. Disney received her bachelor’s degree from Yale, her master’s from Stanford, and her doctorate from Columbia. An active supporter of peacebuilding, Disney is passionate about advancing women’s roles in the public sphere. In fact, in 2008 she turned to documentaries--inspired by the story of a group of women who used nonviolence to bring an end to Liberia’s long civil war--with the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell, named best documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival. Disney’s directorial debut, The Armor of Light, premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. Dorothy Fortenberry is a producer and writer on Hulu’s Emmy Award-winning series The Handmaid’s Tale. Prior to that, she spent three years on the writing staff for the CW series The 100. In 2017, IAMA Theatre Company produced the world premiere production of Fortenberry's play Species Native to California, a modern re-telling of The Cherry Orchard. Her play Partners had its world premiere at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Fortenberry's essays on subjects including faith, fear, and the politics of country music have appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Real Simple, and Pacific Standard. Dorothy is a recipient of the Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, and she has an MFA in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama. You can find more information about the Center and its signature event, the Festival of Faith and Writing, online at ccfw.calvin.edu and festival.calvin.edu and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

James Kennedy is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist based in New York City. As a playwright, composer, and director, his work has been produced and presented by Actors Theatre of Louisville/The Humana Festival of New American Plays, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Superhero Clubhouse, among others. He is the composer-in-residence with Playing for Others in Charlotte, NC, and will premiere his first opera at The Kennedy Center with the Washington National Opera in January, 2019. He is a proud alum of Emerson College. jameshkennedy.com

Jack Heifner is best known for his play Vanities, which ran for five years in New York and became one of the longest running plays in off-Broadway history. He is also the author of Patio/Porch, Natural Disasters, Running on Empty, Bargains, Boys’ Play, Home Fires, Heartbreak, Comfort and Joy, The Lemon Cookie, Dwarf Tossing and over thirty other plays produced in New York, Los Angeles and theaters around the world. Mr. Heifner has written the book to six musicals, including Leader of the Pack on Broadway and Vanities—A New Musical, which opened in New York in 2009. He has also written for television and film. Mr. Heifner was born in Corsicana, Texas and lives in New York City. Since 1997 he has been playwright-in-residence at SFA where he teaches play, screen and television writing one semester each academic year. He is the director of The Festival of New American Plays at SFA featuring works by major American playwrights. http://www.theatre.sfasu.edu

Connecting people and telling stories fuel Marc Masterson as the artistic director of Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL). Masterson works hard to keep the arts represented in the area communities. He helped develop ATL’s first education department and continues to be a supportive proponent for arts education. Actors Theatre of Louisville is also home to the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Masterson joined Actors Theatre of Louisville in August of 2000, after an impressive 20 years as producing director at Pittsburg City Theatre. Accepting his position in Louisville meant a much larger theatre and budget, as well as a much larger audience. Masterson holds a B.F.A. from Carnegie Melon University and an M.F.A. from the University of Pittsburg. He has directed more than 100 professional productions and was the founder and chairman of the Greater Pittsburg Art Alliance.

Paid Actor and host, Trena Bolden Fields, welcomes Kristoffer Diaz to the show.  Kristoffer Diaz is a playwright and educator living and working in Brooklyn. Full-length titles include The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Welcome to Arroyo’s, The Upstairs Concierge, and The Unfortunates. Awards: 2011 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award; finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; winner, 2011 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play; winner, 2011 OBIE Award, Best New American Play; and the inaugural Gail Merrifield Papp Fellowship from The Public Theater (2011). His work has been produced, commissioned, and developed at The Public Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Geffen Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, The Goodman, Second Stage, Victory Gardens, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Theater Company, The Atlantic, InterAct, Mixed Blood, The Orchard Project, Hip-Hop Theater Festival, The Lark, Summer Play Festival, Donmar Warehouse, and South Coast Repertory, among many others. He has written short work for the 24 Hour Musicals and the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway. Kristoffer was one of the creators of Brink!, the apprentice anthology show at the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays. He is a playwright-in-residence at Teatro Vista; a resident playwright at New Dramatists; a co-founder of the Unit Collective (Minneapolis); the creator of the #freescenes project; and a recipient of the Jerome Fellowship, the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant and the Van Lier Fellowship (New Dramatists). Kristoffer holds a BA from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, an MFA from NYU’s Department of Dramatic Writing, and an MFA from Brooklyn College’s Performing Arts Management program.

On our audio diary series The Big Break, two of our emerging performers take us inside rehearsals for upcoming productions while a third says farewell to Louisville. Over at the Louisville Ballet, trainee Claire Horrocks discusses the gravity of the understudy role in rehearsal, while at Actors Theatre of Louisville, apprentice Samantha Beach sits in on rehearsals for the five productions opening soon in the Humana Festival of New American Plays.

This week on The Big Break, our audio diarists take us inside the rehearsal process for a brand-new play and out into the schools for ballet demonstrations. Actors Theatre of Louisville apprentice Samantha Beach works with playwright Lucas Hnath on "Night, Night," his act of "Sleep Rock Thy Brain," the high-flying apprentice showcase opening in the Humana Festival of New American Plays this month. The ballet company takes the week off, but not the trainees, so Claire Horrocks takes us into the schools with the trainee demonstration program.

This week on The Big Break, Actors Theatre of Louisville apprentice Samantha Beach reflects on tech week for "Sleep Rock Thy Brain," the apprentice play that opened last weekend in the Humana Festival of New American Plays. (The music in this week's episode is from "Sleep Rock Thy Brain," composed and performed by Scott Anthony, the show's composer and sound designer.) Over at the Louisville Ballet, trainee Claire Horrocks, who also teaches at the ballet school, describes the joyful madness that is a spring showcase, a true community effort at the Louisville Ballet School.

Preview video of Great Falls by Lee Blessing, part of the 32nd annual Humana Festival of New American Plays onstage now thru Mar 30. More information about the Humana Festival online at http://www.actorstheatre.org/humana.htm

A Look at Marc Bamuthi Joseph, playwright/performer for "the break/s," part of the 32nd annual Humana Festival of New American Plays on stage now through Mar 30. More information about the Humana Festival online at http://www.actorstheatre.org/humana.htm