How to make a play

Editorial
Editor's note: For artists in the conventional theater universe, there is no more important new play festival than Actors Theatre of Louisville's annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. And, every year, it seems, a distinctly Minnesotan playwright is represented there, from Carlyle Brown to Allison Moore to Melanie Marnich. This year not one but four playwrights descend upon this much-talked-about festival, and they're not alone. Dominic Orlando, Victoria Stewart, Cory Hinkle, and Deborah Stein (award-winning playwrights with strong ties to the Playwrights Center as well as members of the Workhaus Collective) have teamed with Dominique Serrand and Steve Epp of Theatre de la Jeune Lune to create Fissures (lost and found), a lyrical production starring local favorites Nathan Keepers, Casey Greig, and Emily Gunyou Halaas. (For what it's worth, Deborah Stein is also the playwright for the apprentice company's site-specific production Heist.) The Louisville Courier-Journal calls it "a starkly beautiful meditation." But this is the weekend when critics from all over the country (read: New York critics, most importantly) descend on the festival to pronounce their opinion on what the Humana Fest has christened as the new plays to see this year. In anticipation of this big weekend, check out these cool shots of the creation of Fissures from local photographer Richard Fleischman: FissuresIntro.jpg Actor Megan Hill IMG_3784.jpg Playwright Victoria Stewart IMG_4523.jpg Actors Emily Gunyou Halaas and Nathan Keepers DominiqueCasey.jpg Writer/Director Dominique Serrand and actor Casey Greig IMG_3733.jpg Nathan Keepers IMG_4353.jpg Playwrights Deborah Stein and Dominic Orlando and Victoria Stewart IMG_4961.jpg Casey working out some blocking. IMG_3897.jpg Playwrights Victoria Stewart and Cory Hinkle working on rewrites. IMG_4096.jpg The company examines costume designs by Sonya Berlovitz IMG_5132.jpg Emily IMG_4841.jpg Megan IMG_5114.jpg Dramaturg Amy Wegener looks at her notes. IMG_4357.jpg Cory, with pages of the script. IMG_4518.jpg Megan IMG_3613.jpg And Nathan.
Richard Fleischman
Originally a stage actor from Louisville, KY, Richard Fleischman is a Minneapolis-based photographer who shoots for a variety of national and local clients including Time Magazine, ESPN the Magazine and Target Corp. Richard's work can be found at www.fleischmanphoto.com and www.MPLSheadshots.com.