Humana Festival Update - Day 3
posted by brad at 10:15 PM
Today was a gorgeous day in Louisville (or as the locals say "lewavul"). Here's what happened on our third and final day at the festival.
Day #3:
Because we were having a great brunch at this wildly fun and highly recommended place called Lynn's Paradise Cafe, we unfortunately missed our first play - The Open Road Anthology, which featured all of the Actors Theatre Apprentices. Next up was "The As If Body Loop," which everyone enjoyed and which received the strongest reaction from the audience (2/3 standing o) that I witnessed all weekend. Once again, great performances all around.
At 3:30 we experienced Craig Wright's new play - The Unseen. I thought the two main actors were utterly brilliant, but was less impressed with the supporting role. The only acting that somewhat disappointed me all weekend. As far as the script, I thought the writing was quite beautiful and intelligent and gave us a lot to think about. I look forward to seeing someone in LA pick it up for production.
Dinner at PROOF, which included a tutorial and tasting/flight of Kentucky's finest bourbons. Wow. Still enjoying it, 7 hours later. I had a Bison burger to wash it down. Tasty. We then attended the final performance of the festival, When Something Wonderful Ends, a one woman show about Barbie dolls, America's poor history and relations with Iran, and America's addiction to oil. Interesting and well performed, but I feel like this show/script suffered from the same symptom as most others this weekend... not enough emotional connection in the text. Not enough for the audience to truly feel and care about. A great performance again, nonetheless.
After the show, the Furious group headed back to the PROOF bar (in the hotel where some of our clan is staying) for an end of the weekend drink and chance to chat about all that we've seen and experienced. PROOF bar turned out to be THE destination for all of the actors and playwrights from the festival to celebrate/close out their festival as well. It was a great opportunity for us to meet and make connections with a lot of incredibly talented artists, especially those from LA who we might have the good fortune to employ in the future. The drinks and conversation flowed and another set of unexpected introductions happened when a local I met asked me where we were having breakfast in the morning before we leave. After telling her I didn't know, she suggested Lynn's Paradise Cafe. I told her we'd just been earlier today and she said, "Well, since I'm 'Lynn', I'm obligated to ask you to come again." So, I introduced her to the whole group, which she loved and they loved, and we gave her our reservation for tomorrow's final meal in Lewavul before we hop on the gulfstream and head back home.
I'm a little bummed that I wasn't "blown away" by at least one play, but it was great to feel the energy the festival generates for New American Plays and the career support for playwrights. This trip has been ridiculously fun and I look forward to returning to the festival with some other company and board members next year.
I look forward to the day when Furious can help (in any way) a writer be featured at Humana. For now, it's back home to LA where I'll try and be useful by jumping into the final prep for the world premiere of "An Impending Rupture of the Belly."
That's it for the Furious report of the 31st annual Humana New American Play Festival.
Thanks for reading and Be Furious.
Day #3:
Because we were having a great brunch at this wildly fun and highly recommended place called Lynn's Paradise Cafe, we unfortunately missed our first play - The Open Road Anthology, which featured all of the Actors Theatre Apprentices. Next up was "The As If Body Loop," which everyone enjoyed and which received the strongest reaction from the audience (2/3 standing o) that I witnessed all weekend. Once again, great performances all around.
At 3:30 we experienced Craig Wright's new play - The Unseen. I thought the two main actors were utterly brilliant, but was less impressed with the supporting role. The only acting that somewhat disappointed me all weekend. As far as the script, I thought the writing was quite beautiful and intelligent and gave us a lot to think about. I look forward to seeing someone in LA pick it up for production.
Dinner at PROOF, which included a tutorial and tasting/flight of Kentucky's finest bourbons. Wow. Still enjoying it, 7 hours later. I had a Bison burger to wash it down. Tasty. We then attended the final performance of the festival, When Something Wonderful Ends, a one woman show about Barbie dolls, America's poor history and relations with Iran, and America's addiction to oil. Interesting and well performed, but I feel like this show/script suffered from the same symptom as most others this weekend... not enough emotional connection in the text. Not enough for the audience to truly feel and care about. A great performance again, nonetheless.
After the show, the Furious group headed back to the PROOF bar (in the hotel where some of our clan is staying) for an end of the weekend drink and chance to chat about all that we've seen and experienced. PROOF bar turned out to be THE destination for all of the actors and playwrights from the festival to celebrate/close out their festival as well. It was a great opportunity for us to meet and make connections with a lot of incredibly talented artists, especially those from LA who we might have the good fortune to employ in the future. The drinks and conversation flowed and another set of unexpected introductions happened when a local I met asked me where we were having breakfast in the morning before we leave. After telling her I didn't know, she suggested Lynn's Paradise Cafe. I told her we'd just been earlier today and she said, "Well, since I'm 'Lynn', I'm obligated to ask you to come again." So, I introduced her to the whole group, which she loved and they loved, and we gave her our reservation for tomorrow's final meal in Lewavul before we hop on the gulfstream and head back home.
I'm a little bummed that I wasn't "blown away" by at least one play, but it was great to feel the energy the festival generates for New American Plays and the career support for playwrights. This trip has been ridiculously fun and I look forward to returning to the festival with some other company and board members next year.
I look forward to the day when Furious can help (in any way) a writer be featured at Humana. For now, it's back home to LA where I'll try and be useful by jumping into the final prep for the world premiere of "An Impending Rupture of the Belly."
That's it for the Furious report of the 31st annual Humana New American Play Festival.
Thanks for reading and Be Furious.
posted by brad at 10:15 PM
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