I missed the 40th annual new plays festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville last year—just like I missed the 39 before it. So I made time this spring for the 41st edition of what’s officially known as the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Louisville’s not that far away, after all, it’s never short of bourbon, and the event itself can boast some remarkable stats. For instance: three fest-produced plays have won Pulitzer Prizes (The Gin Game, Crimes of the Heart, and Dinner With Friends), while three more were finalists for it. Playwrights from old master Marsha Norman (Getting Out, 1978) to hot millennials Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Appropriate, 2013) and Lucas Hnath (The Christians, 2014) have had their work shown there.
