Perspectives / Fred Major Veteran company member Fred Major has appeared in dozens of Humana Festival plays since 1983. My first Humana play was Oldtimers Game by Lee Blessing in 1982. Actually, that was also my first performance at Actors. I came for the following season and have appeared in all the Humanas since then bar two. One year in Minneapolis and one in Australia. It’s an exciting time to be here. The creative energy in the building is enormous. You hurry to work with the best actors, playwrights and directors in the country – sometimes the world. I think we all tend to think of the season in terms of before and after Humana. It seems to me that Jon often used the festival to stretch his actors; to ask us to do work that is beyond what we think are our capabilities. And to go for it in front of a knowledgeable audience is exhilarating to say the least. The stakes are higher. Not only do we perform for large numbers of professionals, we also have an obligation to showcase a writer. Shakespeare is not going to live or die from what I do to him, but I’m not always sure that’s true for our Humana writers. Personally, I’ve had great successes and great failures and the only constant has been that they are all memorable. I have to thank the Humana Festival for enriching the life of the theatre while enriching my life as well.