Perspectives / Marsha Norman Marsha Norman is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for 'night, Mother, the Tony Award for her musical, The Secret Garden, and has had five of her plays produced in the Humana Festival. The following originally appeared in Humana Festival: 25 Years of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville. I haven’t actually made the count, but it seems safe to say that more American playwrights have gotten their start in Louisville than any other theatre in the country. After Jon Jory directed my first play, Getting Out, in the 2nd Humana Festival, I had this greedy little wish that he would just close the doors and do a Moscow Art thing – devote himself and Actors to the writers he had found already – i.e. not let anyone else in. It would all be so perfect, I thought. We’d each write a play a year, and each play would get better and better. And the actors would get better and better because they had people writing roles just for them, and we would have a company, a family, and everybody would live happily ever after. I realize this was pretty childish, but just for the record, I wasn’t the only one who wished it. Maybe if we’d all actually been living in Moscow, it might have worked out that way. But it wasn’t what Jon wanted, and after we stopped complaining and feeling rejected, we began to see what Jon was up to. Going on the hunch that there were a lot more playwrights than anyone knew, Jon set out to discover them, to give them a start, and then turn them loose. I haven’t actually made the count, but it seems safe to say that more American playwrights have gotten their start in Louisville than any other theatre in the country. More than the O’Neill, more than the Minneapolis Playwrights’ Center, more than Seattle or The Long Wharf, or anybody. For you can’t just count the playwrights you know. You also have to include the names of those who’ve just had one play at Humana so far, but will soon become a household word. To make this case, my assignment was to list the playwrights whose careers began at Humana. In the first five years alone, there were Beth Henley, James McLure, John Pielmeier, Shirley Lauro, Wendy Kesselman, William Mastrosimone, Jane Martin, Mary Gallagher and Lee Blessing. And myself, of course, but I’m not talking about me. Beth Henley brought Crimes of the Heart to Actors in 1978. It starred Kathy Bates, Susan Kingsley, and Lee Ann Fahey, and then went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and become an American classic. Beth lives in California now, but has found an artistic home at the Roundabout Theatre in New York, where her most recent play, Lucky Spot, was seen in the 1999 season. Jim McLure first came to Louisville that same year, with his first play called Lone Star. Still one of the all-time favorites among Louisville insiders, Lone Star traveled to New York with its companion piece, Laundry and Bourbon, and launched Jim’s career. Like Beth, Jim lives and works in California now, where he is completing work on a play about Janis Joplin. Jim teaches from time to time at the University of Montana and can whistle better than any other living human. John Pielmeier began his career at Humana with Agnes of God, which had a New York run and went on to become a film starring Jane Fonda. He came back to Humana in 1982 with Courage, a play about J.M. Barrie, and appeared again in 1990 with Frog. John’s newest play starred Judy Ivey on Broadway in the 1999 season. Shirley Lauro’s first plays, The Coal Diamond and Nothing Immediate, were presented in the 1979 Humana Festival. Shirley came back with A Piece of My Heart in 1990. Her other work includes I Don’t Know Where You’re Coming Etc., and the profoundly disturbing Open Admissions. Shirley now serves on the steering committee of The Dramatists Guild. Jane Martin has had more plays done at Humana than any other playwright. Her first work, Twirler, appeared in 1979, followed by Talking With in 1981, Vital Signs in 1989, Cementville in 1990, Keely and Du in 1992, Middle-Aged White Guys in 1994, Jack and Jill in 1995, Mr. Bundy in 1997, Stuffed Shirts in 1998, and Anton in Show Business in 1999. Keely and Du was nominated for both the Pulitzer and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prizes in 1992. Wendy Kesselman came to Louisville in 1980 with a play called My Sister in This House, about a gruesome murder and the two French girls who did it. Since then, Wendy has written Becca, a Musical; The Juniper Tree; I Love You, I Love You Not; and most recently, The Diary of Anne Frank, which played on Broadway in 1998-99. Wendy has also written Emma, a children’s book, and has a significant career as a singer and composer. William Mastrosimone’s career began in Louisville with Extremities in 1980, which became a film starring Farrah Fawcett. He returned to Louisville with A Tantalizing in 1982, The Undoing in 1983, and Like Totally Weird in 1997. His other work includes Bang, Bang, You’re Dead and Shivaree. Mary Gallagher’s career began at Actors Theatre with the one-act Chocolate Cake in 1980 and continued with How To Say Goodbye in 1984. Since then, she has taught screenwriting and fiction, and continues to write for the theatre, including De Donde? produced at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in 1998. Lee Blessing’s first Humana play was Oldtimers Game in 1981. Independence followed in 1984, War of the Roses (Retitled: Riches) in 1984 and Down the Road in 1990. His play A Walk in the Woods opened on Broadway in 1988, and was nominated for the Pulitzer and the Tony that same year. The Signature Theatre devoted its 1992 season to Lee’s work, which included the premiere of Patient A. His new play Chesapeake premiered last year at New York Stage and Film. But this is just the beginning. The Humana Festival has launched the careers of at least fifteen other major playwrights who have gone on to life on the national stage. John Patrick Shanley made his first appearance at Humana with Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. He is now at work turning his film Moonstruck into a musical for Broadway. Connie Congdon went from her play No Mercy at Humana in 1985, to Artist in Residence at Hartford. Her play Tales of the Lost Formicans has won many awards and been produced all over the country. Kevin Kling began at Humana with Lloyd’s Prayer and is one of the most powerful actor/playwrights on the American stage. Jon Klein, Joan Ackermann, Richard Strand, John Olive, and Naomi Iizuka all had plays done in Louisville at the beginning of their careers. Richard Dresser has given Humana audiences work as diverse as Below the Belt and What Are You Afraid Of? José Rivera’s lyrical plays, Marisol and Cloud Tectonics, began at Humana. Regina Taylor is known to Louisville audiences as the author of Various Small Fires and Between the Lines. In the 2000 season alone, Regina is scheduled to have five major national productions of her new work. And most recently, the Humana Festival launched the career of Naomi Wallace, whose play One Flea Spare premiered in 1995, then went on to win her the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and international acclaim. Naomi came back to Humana in 1997 with The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Manifesto in 1999, and Standard Time in 2000. There is actually not an end to this list. New writers such as Alex Cunningham and Stephen Belber are appearing in Louisville every year. Clearly, there is something in the water at Humana. Having a play done there bestows on playwrights a kind of status that means a great deal, both in the careers of the writers and the life of the plays. Perhaps it’s some secret handshake that comes from the other artists working in the festival, perhaps it’s some nod from Jon himself, I can’t say. But I know I felt it at the beginning of my career. Jon was right not to close the doors at Humana. The playwrights who have walked through them are quite simply the writers who have created the contemporary American theatre as we know it today. Bravo, Jon. Bravo.