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HISTORY
"One of the finest acting companies in America"
– The Irish Times
The non-profit organization began when a pair of theatre companies,
Actors, Inc. and Theatre Louisville, merged under the title Actors Theatre
of Louisville. Housed in a tiny loft, formally the Gypsy Tea Room at
617 South Fourth Street, the company's founding directors were Richard
Block and Ewel Cornett. Quickly outgrowing its 100-seat domicile, the
fledgling troupe moved to an abandoned Illinois Central Railroad Station
at Seventh Street and the Ohio River. Louisville architect Jasper D.
Ward converted the building into a 350-seat theatre, preserving most
of the station's interior structure.
In March 1969, Jon Jory was appointed the theatre's new producing director.
Jory's October 1969 Louisville directing debut with Dylan Thomas' Under
Milk Wood marked a renaissance for the organization. Alexander Speer,
former executive director whose tenure of forty years began in 1965, became
Jory's partner.
Due to demolition of the station to make way for a connector highway,
the company's final production at the station was Arthur Miller's Death
of a Salesman in May 1972. As final performances were presented,
sentimental audiences recalled how the station had been a good home
- a place where Actors Theatre had grown from several hundred season
subscribers to over 9,000, and where over 65 productions had been staged.
 The
theatre established a new complex in the old Bank of Louisville building
and the adjacent Myers-Thompson Display Building on downtown's Main
Street between Third and Fourth Streets. Erected in 1837 and designated
a National Historic Landmark, the bank was designed by prominent 19th-century
architect James H. Dakin and is one of the best examples of small-scale
Greek Revival architecture in the country. The Chicago-based firm Harry
Weese and Associates melded the two diverse structures and constructed
at the rear of the two buildings the 637-seat Pamela Brown Auditorium,
with a thrust stage, which opened in October 1972. The 159-seat Victor
Jory Theatre, a three-quarter arena performance space, opened in April
1973.
In 1976, Jory started the internationally celebrated Humana Festival
of New American Plays, the preeminent annual showcase of new theatrical
work, underwritten since 1979 by The Humana Foundation, that draws theatre-lovers,
critics, producers and playwrights from around the world. The theatre
has produced over 300 Humana Festival plays (full-lengths, one-acts,
monologues, T(ext) shirt and car plays) representing the work of more
than 200 playwrights. Over three-fourths of the Humana Festival plays
have been published in 25 Actors Theatre anthologies as well as individual
acting editions, making them part of the permanent canon of American
dramatic literature. The theatre's distinguished New Play Program also
includes a national Ten-Minute Play Contest, started in 1989, that evolved
from the National One-Act Contest (1979-1989). Parallel to the growth
of the New Play Program, attention was warranted for the forgotten play
form, the one-act. Shorts became the theatre's festival of premiere
one-act plays and in the five seasons, 1980-1985, the Shorts Festival
introduced nearly 100 new short plays to American audiences. Now these
mini-plays are part of the Humana Festival.
The Humana Festival has premiered the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays
Dinner with Friends (Donald Margulies), Crimes of the Heart
(Beth Henley) and The Gin Game (D.L. Coburn) and Pulitzer finalists
Keely and Du (Jane Martin) and Omnium-Gatherum (Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros and Theresa Rebeck) as well as Getting Out (Marsha
Norman), Agnes of God (John Pielmeier), Lone Star (James
McLure), In the Eye of the Hurricane (Eduardo Machado), Courtship
(Horton Foote), Extremities (William Mastrosimone), My Sister
in this House (Wendy Kesselman), Tales of the Lost Formicans
(Constance Congdon), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (John Patrick
Shanley), Marisol (José Rivera), One Flea Spare
(Naomi Wallace), Slavs! (Tony Kushner), The Batting Cage (Joan
Ackermann) and Y2K (Arthur Kopit).
 Actors
Theatre's achievements and dedication to the production of new plays
have resulted in the theatre receiving the three most prestigious awards
given to regional theatres. In March 1979, Jory and the theatre won
the Margo Jones Award, presented for the encouragement of new playwrights.
In May 1979, the theatre received the Shubert Foundation's James N.
Vaughan Memorial Award for Exceptional Achievement and Contribution
to the Development of Professional Theatre. And in June of 1980, Actors
Theatre became the second theatre to receive the Special Tony Award
as an outstanding non-profit resident theatre. Actors Theatre evolved
as a major international company in the fall of 1980, when it launched
an overseas tour to Yugoslavia, Ireland and Israel. Since then, the
international touring program has included more than 1,500 invitational
performances in over 29 cities in 15 foreign countries.
The Brown-Forman Classics in Context Festival (1985-1997), an ingenious
multidisciplinary arts and cultural event, underwritten by Brown-Forman
Corporation, elucidated dramatic literature's masterworks for today's
audiences by examining the social, political and aesthetic influences
surrounding the creation of the plays through lectures, panel discussions,
exhibits, film and video.
Past Classics Festivals included the work of Molière, Luigi Pirandello,
John Steinbeck, Ferenc Molnár, Thornton Wilder, and modern American
director Anne Bogart, as well as Restoration Comedy of Manners, Commedia
Dell'Arte, the Moscow Art Theatre, theatre of the Weimar Republic, and
theatre during the Romantic era, the Victorian period and the Roaring
Twenties.
The biennial Bingham Signature Shakespeare was launched in May 1989.
The Mary and Barry Bingham Sr. Fund makes it possible for the theatre
to produce Shakespeare without compromise. Avant-garde solo and small
ensemble performances were part of the theatre's repertoire from 1993
to 1997 as part of the unique Flying Solo & Friends Festival.
 In
the fall of 1994, a $12.5 million expansion and renovation project included
the new 318-seat Bingham Theatre, a flexible arena theatre, and, to
revolutionize their staging technology, the Pamela Brown Auditorium
and Victor Jory Theatre stages were enlarged and enhanced. Improvements
were also made to patron amenities such as expanded lobbies, ticket
sales areas, restroom facilities and seating in the theatre's restaurant.
A nine-level parking garage became part of the complex. Harry Weese
and Associates and Theatre Projects Consultants handled the project,
impressively blending historic Main Street architecture of yesteryear
with modern, state-of-the-art facilities. In 1998, restoration of the
theatre's main Sara Shallenberger Brown Lobby refurbished the original
colors and gold leaf accents of the decor and allowed new lighting arrangements.
Actors Theatre has become the cornerstone of the revitalization of Louisville's
Main Street. As the centerpiece of the city's urban cultural district,
Actors Theatre has significant economic impact on a vital downtown life.
The theatre offers an apprentice/intern training program designed to
help recent college graduates make the transition from academic to professional
theatre. This competitive program results in excellent employment placement
for its talented participants.
Three active volunteer support groups assist the theatre - Actors Associates,
a service-oriented organization founded in 1966; the Generation One
Board, a league of young professionals, established in 1991, which works
primarily to build a new generation of audiences; and a large usher
corps, that assists with patron services at performances. In all, over
900 individuals provide volunteer service for the theatre.
After 30 years and 1,300 productions, producing director
Jon Jory retired from Actors Theatre in September 2000 to assume a teaching
position in the School of Drama at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Poised to lead Actors Theatre into a new era of artistic achievement,
Marc Masterson is appointed the company's new Artistic Director in the
summer of 2000. He forms the foundation for a vision of the future of
Actors Theatre, which he describes as "a place where artists thrive
and continually enrich us, where our work elevates the role of the theatre
in contemporary society by redefining the way that an arts organization
relates to its community, and where pluralistic values inherent in our
art form become a celebration of the diversity and richness of our culture."
In 2002, Masterson establishes an Education Department
consisting of a variety of public outreach programs including classroom
workshops, artists in the schools, increased weekday student matinees,
backstage tours and professional development for teachers and community
center leaders.
In 2006, Jennifer Bielstein joins the Actors Theatre leadership team as Managing Director, replacing the retired Executive Director Alexander Speer.
Acclaimed for its artistic programming and business acumen, Actors Theatre
presents nearly 600 performances of about 30 productions during its
year-round season composed of a diverse array of contemporary and classical
fare. It boasts one of the largest per capita subscription audiences
in the country and logs an annual attendance of over 200,000.
The theatre's other community outreach offerings include free apprentice
showcase productions; public seminars and workshops; pre-and post-performance
discussions; facility tours; a student subscription plan; discounted
season tickets plans for students, senior citizens, people with disabilities
and educators; audio described performances for low vision patrons and
performances interpreted in American Sign Language. Works by distinguished
local and regional visual artists are showcased during the season in
a free gallery located throughout the theatre's lobbies.
Located on the lower level of the theatre complex, Intermezzo Café
and Cabaret serves dinner before performances, drinks at intermission
and dessert following the show.
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