Perspectives / Val Day Val Day is an agent at the Willliam Morris Agency in New York. Val Day hears in every day from her clients: "Did you submit this to Humana?" "They want to be at the Humana Festival. It’s where they feel the most taken care of," she says. "They feel it’s all about them and how can we take what you’ve written and make the best of it. How can we plant the seed and grow the flowers." As an agent for the William Morris Agency, Val has attended three festivals so far. But her memories about it extend much further back. Before Val was an agent, she worked as a director in a theatre in Florida. "Humana Festival was and is something of a legend. The plays that were there were always the plays I wanted to read. Plays that started at Humana often ended up being done regionally. It was hot. Everybody knew about it." In recent years, the agent has watched the impact the festival has had on many of her clients, including Rinne Goff, Jordan Harrison and Adam Bock. "The Ruby Sunrise was co-produced with Trinity Rep," she says. "It was a great thing for Rinne because it guaranteed two productions. It moved to the Public Theater and has showed up in several Top 10 lists in Time Out New York, New York magazine, Entertainment Weekly. Now Dramatists Play Service is going to publish it." And Jordan Harrison’s Kid-Simple (Humana 2004) has had at least five regional productions and is slated for the Edinburgh Festival next year and is being licensed by Playscripts. "I represent a lot of emerging writers and no one wants to take a chance on new writers," she says. "Once Humana takes that chance, the others are ready to step up to the plate." And first productions are an important part of the writing process, she emphasizes. "Some plays need to be staged so the writer can figure out how to finish it. A staged reading is not the same as actually staging a play." Her first year at Humana she was surprised how many of her New York contacts she met for the first time. "As an agent in New York I spend 50 percent of my day on the phone talking to producers. Humana was an opportunity to actually match the faces to the voices. It was kind of funny that I had to go to Kentucky to meet people I live in the same city with. The networking potential for the festival is something that’s been incredibly productive for me and my clients. This is an opportunity to put the phone down and make eye contact with people. These people come from great distances to Kentucky to see new plays, to be immersed in a group of people who love the theatre. It’s really energizing." And she feels the festival restores a sense of community that’s missing in a lot of the major commercial markets like New York. "The theatre has become a little more like the movies: show up, funnel in, don’t talk to anyone, see the play, go home. The interactive experience, which is what theatre sprang from and means to be, to sit and talk to people at intermission, is alive and well at Humana. The discussions are heated and passionate and very intelligent and knowledgeable. You don’t see that going to your average production of a play. "Everyone is trying to figure out what the theme that year is—it seems to be a favorite pastime when partaking of the Woodford Reserve," she recalls. "My first festival was also an introduction to Woodford Reserve, which along with the mandatory name tags creates a ripe atmosphere for meeting and greeting." She applauds the staff and volunteers who organize the immense festival for its professionalism and vision. "I’ve never been to any event that’s as streamlined and slick and well maintained. It’s incredibly diverse: a lot of female playwrights, plenty of diversity. I don’t see it as much elsewhere. The theatrical landscape is still pretty white, it’s still pretty male. Humana is one of the great exceptions to the norm." "It can’t get edgy enough for me. I want to see more experimental, more form changing, more daring plays. I think it is already—there’s always one show that’s pretty daring. I always want more." — Raven J. Railey