The festival opens with Residence, a new play by Laura Jacqmin, March 2-April 10, 2016, at Bingham Theatre. The show is described as such: "New mom Maggie returns to her medical sales job, checking into an extended-stay hotel in Arizona as she pursues the commission that will get her out of debt and back on track. When she befriends two hotel employees intent on making her visit a five-star experience, they discover that their lives are all on similarly shaky ground. A funny and sharply observed play about hanging on when you’re at the end of your rope, and the times when letting go might be the most responsible thing to do." Hal Brooks directs.
Next up is Sarah Ruhl's For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday March 8-April 10 at Pamela Brown Auditorium. The show was inspired by Ruhl's mother, who played Peter Pan three times. The show is described as such: "When she was a girl, Ann played Peter Pan at the children’s theatre in Iowa, and her father paused his doctor’s rounds to bring her flowers. Now, she and her four siblings gather to say goodbye to their dying father, stirring up childhood memories. They argue about politics, tell jokes, and wonder what it might mean to grow up. Ruhl’s play is a love letter to a large family contending with the inexorable march of time and the allure of Neverland." Actors Theatre of Lousiville artistic director Les Waters will direct.
Steven Dietz's This Random World premieres March 11-April 10 at Bingham Theatre. The show is described as such: "We want to believe that serendipity brings us together, but is that just a myth? Mining the comedy of missed connections, This Random World asks the serious question of how often we travel parallel paths through the world without noticing. From an ailing woman who plans one final trip, to her daughter planning one great escape and her son falling prey to a prank gone wrong, this funny, intimate, and heartbreaking play explores the lives that may be happening just out of reach of our own." Dietz's works The Spot, Private Eyes and God's Country have been featured in previous Humana Festivals. Meredith McDonough will direct.
Following will be Wellesley Girl, a new play by Brendan Pelsue, March 18-April 10 at Pamela Brown Auditorium. The show is described as such: "It’s 2465. American politics haven’t changed much. Except that 'America' is now only a handful of New England towns in a walled-in citadel. When an unidentified army encamps at the border, Congress struggles to move beyond personal agendas and petty bickering over procedure to decide the nation’s fate. With canny humor and wicked intelligence, Wellesley Girl exposes an unsettling truth: sometimes all you can do is flip a coin and hope that history proves you right." Wellesley Girl will be directed by Lee Sunday Evans.
Hansol Jung's Cardboard Piano will play March 25-April 10 at Victor Joy Theatre. The show is described as such: "On the eve of the millennium in Northern Uganda, the daughter of an American missionary and a local teenage girl steal into a candlelit church to exchange vows in a secret wedding ceremony. But when an escalating civil war encroaches on their fragile union, they cannot escape its reach. Confronting the cost of intolerance, this powerful drama examines violence and the struggle to rebuild in its wake, as well as the human capacity for love and forgiveness." Leigh Silverman will direct.
Premiering last will be Martyna Majok, Meg Miroshnik, Jiehae Park and Jen Silverman's Wondrous Strange March 25-April 10 at Bingham Theatre. The show, now under development, is described as such: "What haunts us? What traces will we in turn leave behind? Writing for this season’s Acting Apprentice Company, four imaginative playwrights use Kentucky’s rich ghost lore as the springboard for a wide-ranging exploration of the supernatural and uncanny, and what our stories about ghosts—chilling, poignant, or unexpectedly funny—reveal about us." Marti Lyons will direct.
Tickets for the Humana Festival go on sale Nov. 18. For more information, click here.
