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:
Actor Megan Hill
Playwright Victoria Stewart
Actors Emily Gunyou Halaas and Nathan Keepers
Writer/Director Dominique Serrand and actor Casey Greig
Nathan Keepers
Playwrights Deborah Stein and Dominic Orlando and Victoria Stewart
Casey working out some blocking.
Playwrights Victoria Stewart and Cory Hinkle working on rewrites.
The company examines costume designs by Sonya Berlovitz
Emily
Megan
Dramaturg Amy Wegener looks at her notes.
Cory, with pages of the script.
Megan
And Nathan.