Michael K. Brooks has been the Humana Festival Coordinator for five years.

Back when Mike Brooks worked in Actors Theatre’s telemarketing department, the Humana Festival was always "the tough sell," he says. "Calling somebody on the phone and trying to sell them something that is not quantifiable is hard. You’re selling an experience. You don’t know what you’re going to get."

Brooks realizes that risk factor is part of the reason so few theatres in the nation produce a high volume of new work by new playwrights. "When so many of us are facing the kind of financial challenges that we are, it’s an especially tough sell. That’s why it’s important that we do it. Because not everyone can."

By the time the 2006 Humana Festival opens, preparations for 2007 will already be underway, including scheduling, budget, accommodations and transportation logistics. It takes at least 300 individuals to keep the festival going, including volunteers and interns. He’s tried documenting all the tasks that comprise his job for future coordinators to refer to. "It’s between 60 and 70 pages now and it just keeps sprawling."

His goal is to create an atmosphere where special guests don’t have to think about anything but the plays. "A lot of it is poring over schedules and putting myself in my guests’ shoes. From the second they come in the door or hit the tarmac, what do they need, what do they want and how can we help them to get the greatest possible experience out of these plays?"

There are two special event weekends that Brooks coordinates. The first is Theatre Professionals Weekend, which typically draws more than 100 artistic directors, literary managers and dramaturgs from across the nation. "These are the people whose life and business are plays. We see the same people year after year. It’s fun. It’s like your family and friends coming back for a reunion."

The second, Special Visitors Weekend, draws 100 or so members of the national and international press, plus another 200-300 individuals representing film and television producers looking for writers, literary agents, commercial stage producers and funding organizations such as the National Endowment of the Arts or the Theatre Communications Group. "The theatre becomes a kind of Olympic Village. Socializing, both formal and informal—all of the schmoozing and the ‘let’s have lunch when we get back to the city’—has a comparable effect on new play development and the work we do," he says. "There are more business cards handed out than at most trade shows I think. Who knows how many co-productions were born in the bar at Actors Theatre?"

He’s excited about the direction Marc Masterson has taken with the festival, Brooks says. "I feel like he’s just getting started. There are seeds planted five years ago that are just bearing fruit. It’s snowballing. Now that it’s in motion, I think it’s going to gain speed and strength."

— Raven J. Railey