Humana Festival of New American Plays
Humana Festival of New American Plays is an internationally renowned festival that celebrates the contemporary American playwright. Produced annually in Louisville, Kentucky by Actors Theatre of Louisville, this festival showcases new theatrical works and draws producers, critics, playwrights, and theatre lovers from around the world.  The festival was founded in 1976 by Jon Jory, who was Producing Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville from 1969 to 2000. Since 1979 The Humana Festival has been sponsored by the Humana Foundation which is the philanthropic arm of Humana.
The Humana Festival was shut down permanently in 2022 after holding its final festival in 2021.
== History ==
The Actor's Theater of Louisville hosted the first Festival of New American Plays in March 1977. It was founded by the former artistic director of the Actor's Theater, Jon Jory. The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn, one of the plays presented that year, went on to open on Broadway later that year and would win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1978. The 1978 festival line up included Marsha Norman's Getting Out, and in 1979, Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley. It was also the first year that the festival was sponsored by the Humana Festival.
Over the 400 plays (short pieces, ten-minute plays, one-acts, and full-lengths) the festival has produced, many have gone on to win several awards. Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies, The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn, and, Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley have all won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Keely and Du by Jane Martin, Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo, and Omnium-Gatherum by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros and Theresa Rebeck have all been finalists for the prize.
Lucas Hnath's The Christians, Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Big Love by Charles Mee, Slavs! by Tony Kushner, My Left Breast by Susan Miller, Marisol by José Rivera and One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace have all won Obie Awards.
How to Say Goodbye by Mary Gallagher, My Sister in this House by Wendy Kesselman, A Narrow Bed by Ellen McLaughlin, My Left Breast by Susan Miller and One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace have won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and nine other plays produced at the festival have been finalists.
2 by Romulus Linney, Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies, Getting Out by Marsha Norman, and Jane Martin's Talking With…, Keely and Du, Jack and Jill, and Anton in Show Business have won the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, and Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies, Big Love by Charles Mee, After Ashley by Gina Gionfriddo, Great Falls by Lee Blessing, Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them by A.Rey Pamatmat, and Lucas Hnath's Death Tax and The Christians have won Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award Citations.
Jeff Augustin's and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’ s plays, Cry Old Kingdom and BOB: A Life in Five Acts respectively, have won the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Award, given by the National Theatre Conference to outstanding emerging playwrights.
== List of plays produced ==
Source:2016
Residence by Laura Jacqmin
For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday by Sarah Ruhl
This Random World by Steven Dietz
Wellesley Girl by Brendan Pelsue
Cardboard Piano by Hansol Jung
Wondrous Strange by Martyna Majok, Meg Miroshnik, Jiehae Park, and Jen Silverman
The Ten-Minute Plays:Coffee Break by Tasha Gordon-Solmon
This Quintessence of Dust by Cory Hinkle
Trudy, Carolyn, Martha, and Regina Travel to Outer Space and Have a Pretty Terrible Time There by James Kennedy
2015
The Roommate by Jen Silverman
Dot by Colman Domingo
I Will Be Gone by Erin Courtney
The Glory of the World by Charles L. Mee
I Promised Myself to Live Faster, conceived and created by Pig Iron Theatre Company, text by Gregory S. Moss and Pig Iron Theatre Company
That High Lonesome Sound, by Jeff Augustin, Diana Grisanti, Cory Hinkle, and Charise Castro
The Ten-Minute Plays:Rules of Comedy by Patricia Cotter
So Unnatural a Level by Gary Winter
Joshua Consumed an Unfortunate Pear by Steve Yockey
2014
Partners by Dorothy Fortenberry
The Christians by Lucas Hnath
The Grown-Up by Jordan Harrison
brownsville song (b-side for tray) by Kimber Lee
Steel Hammer created by SITI Company, music and lyrics by Julia Wolfe, original text by Kia Corthron, Will Power, Carl Hancock Rux and Regina Taylor
Remix 38 by Jackie Sibblies Drury, Idris Goodwin, Basil Kreimendahl, Justin Kuritzkes and Amelia Roper
The Ten-Minute Plays:Winter Games by Rachel Bonds
Some Prepared Remarks (A History in Speech) by Jason Gray Platt
Poor Shem by Gregory Hischak
2013
The Delling Shore by Sam Marks
Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Cry Old Kingdom by Jeff Augustin
Gnit  by Will Eno
O Guru Guru Guru, or why I don't want to go to yoga class with you by Mallery Avidon
 Sleep Rock Thy Brain by Rinne Groff, Lucas Hnath, and Anne Washburn
The Ten-Minute Plays:Halfway by Emily Schwend
27 Ways I Didn't Say Hi to Laurence Fishburne by Jonathan Josephson
Two Conversations Overheard on Airplanes by Sarah Ruhl
2012
Eat Your Heart Out by Courtney Baron
How We Got On by Idris Goodwin
Death Tax by Lucas Hnath
Michael von Siebenburg Melts Through the Floorboards by Greg Kotis
The Veri**on Play by Lisa Kron
The Hour of Feeling by Mona Mansour
Oh, Gastronomy! by Michael Golamco, Carson Kreitzer, Steve Moulds, Tanya Saracho, and Matt Schatz
The Ten-Minute Plays:The Dungeons and the Dragons by Kyle John Schmidt
Hero Dad by Laura Jacqmin
The Ballad of 423 and 424 by Nicholas C. Pappas
2011
Mr. Smitten by Laura Eason
Maple and Vine by Jordan Harrison
Hygiene by Gregory Hischak
Chicago, Sudan by Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Elemeno Pea by Molly Smith Metzler
BOB by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them by A. Rey Pamatmat
The Edge of Our Bodies by Adam Rapp
A Devil at Noon by Anne Washburn
The End by Dan Dietz, Jennifer Haley, Allison Moore, A. Rey Pamatmat, and Marco Ramirez.
2010
Let Bygones Be by Gamal Abdel Chasten
HEIST! conceived and created by Sean Daniels and Deborah Stein, written by Deborah Stein
Lobster Boy by Dan Dietz
Ground by Lisa Dillman
Fissures (lost and found) by Steve Epp, Cory Hinkle, Dominic Orlando, Dominique Serrand, Deborah Stein and Victoria Stewart
Post Wave Spectacular by Diana Grisanti
An Examination of the Whole Playwright/Actor Relationship Presented As Some Kind of Cop Show Parody by Greg Kotis
Sirens by Deborah Zoe Laufer
The Method Gun created by Rude Mechs, written by Kirk Lynn
The Cherry Sisters Revisited by Dan O'Brien with original music by Michael Friedman
Phoenix by Scott Organ.
2009
Ameriville by UNIVERSES (Steven Sapp; Mildred Ruiz-Sapp; Gamal Abdel Chasten; William Ruiz a.k.a.- NINJA)
Slasher by Allison Moore
Absalom by Zoe Kazan
The Hard Weather Boating Party by Naomi Wallace
Under Construction by Charles L. Mee, produced in association with the SITI Company
Wild Blessings: A Celebration of Wendell Berry adapted for the stage by Marc Masterson and Adrien-Alice Hansel, original music by Malcolm Dalglish
Brink! by Lydia R. Diamond, Kristoffer Diaz, Greg Kotis, Deborah Zoe Laufer, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb and Deborah Stein
On the Porch One Crisp Spring Morning by Alex Dremann
3:59am: a drag race for two actors by Marco Ramirez
Roanoke by Michael Lew, music and lyrics by Matt Schatz
List of attractions and events in the Louisville metropolitan area
Performing arts in Louisville, Kentucky

== External links ==
Official website
Humana Festival of New American Plays CD ROM