Perspectives / Erik LaRay Harvey Erik LaRay Harvey played Tax in Kia Corthron's play Moot the Messenger in the 2005 Humana Festival. Erik LaRay Harvey left a great off-Broadway show to take a part—and a pay cut—in the 2005 Humana Festival production of Moot the Messenger. "A friend of mine is a playwright and he suggested I do it," Erik says. "It’s a great forum for playwrights so they know more about the Humana Festival than actors. I always wanted to work with Kia Corthron and Marion McClinton." When he arrived, he felt like he was at a theatre retreat—artists grouped together in residence towers and practically living in the theatre. "It’s a fast schedule so you’re in rehearsals constantly. Everyone’s in rehearsals constantly," he says. "You get swept up in this fever. You don’t mind the work hours. The green room was packed constantly with actors from all over the country. Everyone’s giving of their time and their full commitment to the festival." And few give more than the apprentices and interns that work around the clock to keep the festival going. "Thank God for the apprentices," Erik says. "I don’t think Humana would survive without the apprentices. They have to do the changeovers so quickly and so often." He cites the transition between Hazard County and A Nervous Smile in 2005 when the Bingham Theatre was transformed from piles of sandy dirt crammed with televisions and a broken-down car to a pristine white Upper West Side apartment in Manhattan. For an actor, the festival is an opportunity to learn—about others and their work, and about yourself. "It was a good, healthy, nurturing theatre community. You don’t get the opportunity to experience that very often. I’ve experienced it once and it was here at the Humana Festival. When we weren’t performing, we were watching other shows. In New York, you don’t get to do that so often because ticket prices are so high. And you get to talk to all these people personally. It informs me for future projects." Moot the Messenger was one of the more controversial shows last year, in part because of its strong political message. There was a lot of interest from the media, Erik says. "I had no idea people were coming from around the world. They were coming from Europe and California. I got to talk to so many people about Moot the Messenger because it was a political play. We had some audiences that would boo us and some would applaud. It was such a wide range night after night." But the controversy didn’t bother him. On the contrary, it was exactly why the project interested him as an artist. "That’s why I left an off-Broadway play to do it. Nobody else was saying these ideas. Whether you agree or not, somebody finally said it. It was something that fed my soul. A lot of those plays did invoke a strong reaction: The Shaker Chair, Hazard County. Being in New York, I get tired of rehashing the same ideas. Please, somebody give me a new thought. That’s what the Humana Festival does. That’s the way you keep theatre alive." — Raven J. Railey