The plays include Let Bygones Be by Gamal Abdel Chasten, Lobster Boy by Dan Dietz, Post Wave Spectacular by Diana Grisanti and An Examination of the Whole Playwright/Actor Relationship Presented As Some Kind of Cop Show Parody by Greg Kotis.
Dietz's play is the winner of Actors Theatre's Heideman Award. The Heideman Award winner was chosen as part of the National Ten-Minute Play Contest.
Actors Theatre press notes describe Chasten's Let Bygones Be as a "nostalgic story about progress and its price." Poetry, bluegrass, folk and zydeco combine to tell a story set “against an American landscape of endless highway and abandoned railroad tracks.” Chasten has performed at Actors Theatre in Rhythmicity and UNIVERSES’ Slanguage, in addition to writing and performing there in UNIVERSES’ Ameriville. Other writing credits include The Last Word and God Took Away His Poem.
Dietz’s Lobster Boy follows a boy’s powerful quest to cure his younger brother of the inability to feel pain. Dietz’s plays include tempOdyssey, Tilt Angel, America misfit and The Sandreckoner. Lobster Boy marks his fourth production at Actors Theatre, and his second time being honored with the Heideman Award.
Grisanti’s Post Wave Spectacular is set at a tea party, to which three women have invited their unrequited love’s latest conquest. Grisanti is a Louisville native and former Actors Theatre literary intern. Her plays include Sunday Ballooning and Gathering Note, which were both performed by Actors Theatre’s 2006-2007 Apprentice Company, and an adaptation of 1,001 Nights that was commissioned and produced by Walden Theatre. Kotis’ An Examination of the Whole Playwright/Actor Relationship Presented As Some Kind of Cop Show Parody comedically explores the conflict between a playwright, who has written a terrible play, and the play’s actors. Kotis received an Obie Award and two Tony Awards for the musical Urinetown, for which he wrote the book and lyrics. Other credits include Pig Farm, The Truth About Santa, Eat Taste, and book and lyrics for Yeast Nation.
Actors Theatre of Louisville is located at 316 West Main Street, Louisville. For tickets call (502) 584-1265 or visit actorstheatre.org.
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The National Ten-Minute Play Contest is co-sponsored by Actors Theatre and Miami’s City Theatre. The Heideman Award has been given annually since 1979 and is made possible by a sustaining grant from the late Ted Heideman of Louisville.
