The Humana Festival of New American Plays is the center of the nation's playwriting universe (The Miami Herald). It is an event whose impact has enlivened and enriched stages in the United States and around the world (The Irish Times). This year's plays have been selected from more than 500 script submissions for production and these plays feature some of the most talented and adventurous playwrights writing for the American stage today. Includes After Ashley by Gina Gionfriddo, The Ruby Sunrise by Rinne Groff, Sans-Culottes in the Promised Land by Kristen Greenridge, Kid-Simple, a radio play in the flesh by Jordan Harrison, At the Vanishing Point by Naomi Iizuka, and Tallgrass Gothic by Melanie Marnich.

This collection includes every play performed at the 2007 Humana Festival of New American Plays.

Far from the glittering lights of Broadway, in a city known more for its horse racing than its artistic endeavors, an annual festival in Louisville, Kentucky, has transformed the landscape of the American theater. The Actors Theatre of Louisville—the Tony Award–winning state theater of Kentucky—in 1976 successfully created what became the nation's most respected new-play festival, the Humana Festival of New American Plays. The Humana Festival: The History of New Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville examines the success of the festival and theater’s Pulitzer Prize–winning productions that for decades have reflected new-play trends in regional theaters and on Broadway—the result of the calculated decisions, dogged determination, and good luck of its producing director, Jon Jory. The volume details how Actors Theatre of Louisville was established, why the Humana Festival became successful in a short time, and how the event’s success has been maintained by the Louisville venue that has drawn theater critics from around the world for more than thirty years. Author Jeffrey Ullom charts the theater’s early struggles to survive, the battles between troupe leaders, and the desperate measures to secure financial support from the Louisville community. He examines how Jory established and expanded the festival to garner extraordinary local support, attract international attention, and entice preeminent American playwrights to premier their works in the Kentucky city. In The Humana Festival, Ullom provides a broad view of new-play development within artistic, administrative, and financial contexts. He analyzes the relationship between Broadway and regional theaters, outlining how the Humana Festival has changed the process of new-play development and even Broadway’s approach to discovering new work, and also highlights the struggles facing regional theaters across the country as they strive to balance artistic ingenuity and economic viability. Offering a rare look at the annual event, The Humana Festival provides the first insider’s view of the extraordinary efforts that produced the nation’s most successful new-play festival.

A collection of all ten scripts from the 2006 Humana Festival of New American Plays.

Provides a comprehensive guide to American dramatic literature, from its origins in the early days of the nation to American classics such as Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and Thornton Wilder's Our Town to the groundbreaking works of today's best writers.

Features a comprehensive guide to American dramatic literature, from its origins in the early days of the nation to the groundbreaking works of today's best writers.

The latest in Smith and Kraus' highly-acclaimed series, this comprehensive anthology is a rich and varied collection of the work of some of America's most promising new playwrights. Contains:BFF by Anna Ziegler. An Off Broadway success about two teenaged girls. One has a tragic end, the other keeps her memory alive by becoming her.DARK PLAY OR STORIES FOR BOYS by Carlos Murillo. A smash at Louisville's Humana Festival, this provocative play focuses on a teenaged computer whiz who invents an alter ego in order to lure another boy into his fantasy world.INTELLECTUALS by Scott Sickles. This hilarious comedy is about a psychologist who decides to take a ?sabbatical? from her marriage to pursue her untapped potential as a lesbian.LIVING ROOM IN AFRICA by Bathsheba Doran. This intense drama is about a couple who have moved to a small village in Africa to set up a museum there with money donated from the west, only to learn that they are living in an area devasted by AIDS.NO CHILD by Nilaja Sun. This acclaimed long-running Off Broadway hit subsequently toured all over the U.S. and abroad. In it, Ms. Sun played a beleaguered substitute teacher in the inner city high school from hell, hired to work with this problem school's most incorrigible students to present a play. She played all the roles, from herself to students to parents to other teachers to the principal to a veteran, much-beloved janitor in this insightful look at life in a hellish high school.THE PAIN AND THE ITCH by Bruce Norris. This terrific dark comedy achieved Off Broadway acclaim and went on the London, where it was equally sensationally received. It's a hilarious social satire about liberal hypocrisy, focusing on an American family who want it all: moral superiority and a wide-screen TV.VICTORIA MARTIN: MATH TEAM QUEEN by Kathryn Walat. Victoria wants to be Most Popular, but she also wants to be known for her brains. She becomes the first girl ever on her high school's math team - which scrambles the team's all-male dynamic.For over thirty years Lawrence Harbison was in charge of new play acquisition for Samuel French, Inc., during which time he was responsible for the first publication of such luminaries as Jane Martin, Don Nigro, Tina Howe, Theresa Rebeck, Jose Rivera, William Mastrosimone, Charles Fuller and Ken Ludwig, among many others; and the acquisition of musicals such as SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN, PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES, A?MY NAME IS ALICE and THREE GUYS NAKED FROM THE WAIST DOWN. He has for many years written a weekly column on his adventures in the theatre for two Manhattan Newspapers, the Chelsea Clinton News and The Westsider. He is a member of the NYC press corps and is an Outer Critics Circle Member. He has served many times over the years as a judge and commentator for various national play contests and lectures regularly at colleges and universities.