"One of the finest acting companies in America"
      – The Irish Times

The nonprofit organization began when a pair of theatre companies, Actors, Incorporated 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 by Donald Margulies, Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley and The Gin Game by D. L. Coburn and Pulitzer finalists Omnium-Gatherum by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros and Theresa Rebeck and Keely and Du by Jane Martin.

Other well-known Humana Festival premieres include Tape by Stephen Belber, Tales of the Lost Formicans by Constance Congdon, After Ashley by Gina Gionfriddo, Lloyd's Prayer by Kevin Kling, Bone-the-Fish (Road to Nirvana) by Arthur Kopit, Slavs! by Tony Kushner, A Piece of My Heart by Shirley Lauro, 2 by Romulus Linney, When the Sea Drowns in Sand (Havana is Waiting) by Eduardo Machado, Execution of Justice by Emily Mann, Anton in Show Business by Jane Martin, Extremities by William Mastrosimone, Big Love by Charles Mee, Agnes of God by John Pielmeier, God's Man in Texas by David Rambo, Marisol by José Rivera and One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace.

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 Development 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.