Discover Your Next
Theatre Experience

Step behind the curtain and discover the magic of Actors Theatre of Louisville, a National Historical landmark. Explore our three distinct performance spaces, learn fascinating theatrical history, and glimpse the creative process that brings productions to life. Our guided tours offer an exclusive backstage experience you don't want to miss.

Grow your craft. Deepen your process. Rehearse being brave.

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Actors Theatre’s Scene Study Class is a four-week, performance-based training series built for actors ready to sharpen their tools and show up for the work. Whether you’re returning to the stage or expanding your practice, this class offers a consistent space to rehearse, reflect, and connect.

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Led by industry professionals, each session invites you to dig into scenes with scene partners, receive supportive feedback, and build confidence through practice. With a focus on emotional safety, collaboration, and creative resilience, this class series centers the whole artist—not just the performance.

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What You’ll Gain:

• Hands-on, in-the-room performance work with experienced teaching artists
• Practical tools for collaboration and craft
• A values-led approach that prioritizes actor wellness
• A creative bridge between local artists and Actors Theatre
• A space to rehearse risk, ask questions, and grow in community

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Teaching Artists:

• Julia Estrada (she/her): Broadway performer (Hamilton), organizational psychology consultant, and co-founder of AlloImpact
• Devin McCarthy (they/them): TV/film actor and founder of The Oracle’s Daughter, a creative studio focused on storytelling and ritual

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Class Details:

• Dates: Tuesdays – July 22, July 29, August 5, August 12
• Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
• Location: Actors Theatre of Louisville
• Who: Adults, 18+

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Tuition:

• $200 for new students
  (Tuition covers the full four-week series.)

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Space is limited.

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This is an intimate, actor-centered experience designed for trust, focus, and growth.

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Join us—and keep the scene alive.

To register, please send an email to louisvillescenestudy@gmail.com

This dazzling Tony Award-winning musical traces the rise of the Dreamettes, a sensational trio inspired by 1960s Motown girl groups like The Supremes, who are on the verge of catching their big break. But can their friendship—and their music—survive as they navigate ambition, romance, and the precarious world of show business along the path to superstardom? Full of onstage joy, backstage drama, and powerhouse vocal performances, Dreamgirls is propelled by an electrifying score that blends R&B, gospel, pop, and the arrival of disco, capturing the sound of a transformative era in American music.

PAY WHAT YOU CAN performance Monday, September 22. Tickets will go on sale for this performance August 1.

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:

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“When Broadway history is being made, you can feel it. What you feel is a seismic emotional jolt that sends the audience, as one, right out of its wits… A show that strikes with the speed and heat of lightning.”

                                 —The New York Times

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“Dreamgirls is a musical full of sparkle…a fantastically entertaining ride on the showbiz rollercoaster…This is a tale of transformation: from naïve hopefuls into jaded superstars, from raw R&B into the disco era, from success to failure, and then back again.”

                                —The Guardian

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“The secret of Dreamgirls is the human voice and, by letting larynxes loose, it drives audiences wild.”

                                —Variety

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“Scintillating songs…crackling with energy and momentum from one song and dance number to the next.”

                                —The Hollywood Reporter

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“An electric megawatt of a musical…this is a show that commands multiple visits to fall in love with it over and over again.”

                                —London Theatre

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt hosted a cocktail hour nearly every day at the White House, welcoming folks from different backgrounds to sip martinis, laugh, and connect. Inspired by FDR’s love of stirring up drinks and lively conversation to unwind in challenging times, this immersive new play mixes humor and history to build on this tradition for our era, asking how the 32nd President’s triumphs and failures might illuminate our own civic health. As FDR invites us to ponder life, a complicated legacy, and the pursuit of community, strangers become friends—and perhaps, together, we can find ways to talk with our neighbors again.

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This project prioritizes exploring the creation of an accessible experience for the fullest human spectrum possible. Open Captioning, ASL Interpretation, Audio Description, and design of the physical space for wheelchair access are part of the show. (FDR used a wheelchair, after all.)

Take a journey through the underworld, a dark realm filled with glittering light and mystery where the dead are very much alive. In this fantastical adventure infused with astonishing puppetry, humor, music, and magical visual effects, two skeleton friends, a dodo and a boy, are drawn into the epic battle between existence and extinction as they fight to stay together. Experience this mesmerizing odyssey from the Obie Award-winning company Wakka Wakka, international leaders in stretching the boundaries of theatrical imagination.

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A hit from the 2025 Under the Radar Festival that’s been called “dazzling” (Theatermania) and “ceaselessly inventive” (The New York Times), Dead as a Dodo will amaze grown-ups and kids alike.

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:

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“From a formal perspective, it is among the most ceaselessly inventive theatre pieces I have seen in the past year….It immerses the audience in a fantastical universe—at one point, plunging underneath the fiery river Styx—thanks to outlandishly inventive puppetry, projections, lighting, and audio….The bigger story here is concerned with new beginnings, and it is told gorgeously.”

                    —The New York Times

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“[A] beautifully imagined, sweet-natured, kid-friendly show…by the extraordinary Wakka Wakka puppetry collective.”

                    —The New Yorker

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“Spectacular….Wakka Wakka, based in New York and Oslo, has been astounding audiences for years with innovative stories and mind-blowing puppetry. Dead as a Dodo will blow your mind too….[the show is] about exploring theatre magic and seeing what kinds of stories are possible to tell onstage….One eye-popping scene follows another, and the show’s 80 minutes fly by.”

                    —Theatermania

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“[The puppeteers’] artistry is nothing short of breathtaking, giving life to the lifeless with an astonishing depth of feeling. The chemistry between the ensemble is palpable, elevating the production into something both intimate and profound….Dead as a Dodo is an unpredictable, visually striking, and deeply resonant piece that lingers long after the final blackout—a haunting meditation on loss, resilience, and the echoes of the past.”

                    —Stage and Cinema

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“The world leader in visual theatrical imagination.”

                    —Broadway DNA, describing Wakka Wakka

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Scrooge is back in all of his humbug glory! His disdain for Christmas is no match for visits from enchanting ghosts, a lively ensemble of characters, and the music of the season. Honoring Dickens’ classic tale, this acclaimed adaptation embraces generosity, community, and second chances. Bring your friends and family to Actors Theatre of Louisville for a new production celebrating this beloved tradition.

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:

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“[Jadhwani’s] well-crafted adaptation combines the famous dialogue that audiences have become accustomed to and has weaved more intricate and lyrical phrases from the novel into the piece. Thus elevating the experience that the audience is given…there is no doubt that it will bring joy, merriment, and entertainment to all who experience it.”

                           —Broadway World (2024)

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“Suffused with good cheer.”

                           —The Minnesota Star Tribune (2024)

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“Chock full of delights for the eyes, ears, heart, and soul…it’s quite obvious that the world needs more of what this story espouses—goodness and beauty, kindness and compassion, gratitude and generosity, hope and joy, and unity. It’s a beautiful and necessary thing to be in that space for even a short time.”

                           —Cherry and Spoon (2024)

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“This new adaptation by Lavina Jadhwani…stays true to the original story, telling it succinctly and effectively, emphasizing Scrooge’s willing participation in his transformation.”

                           —Cherry and Spoon (2022)

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“Jadhwani’s adaptation is truly merry, the frightful apparitions startling, and the feeling of redemption and possibility feels both earned and inevitable.”

                           —Talkin’ Broadway (2024)

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“The depth of Lavina Jadhwani’s script, combining familiar dialogue with the more intricate and lyrical phrases of the novel, is a remarkable breath of fresh air which takes the story to new, beautiful, and more authentic heights.”

                           —Broadway World (2023)

Emma Woodhouse is clever, educated, and energetic…and in imminent danger of going mad with idleness. In a time when respectable ladies are expected to sit quietly at home, she desperately needs projects—and prides herself on matchmaking, much to the chagrin of her friend Mr. Knightley. But where Emma’s considerable energies focus, screwball comedy follows… A fresh feminist take on a treasured classic, this Emma breaks down convention, expectation, and even the fourth wall with vibrant comic flair—leading audiences “forward, onward, and upward!"

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Tickets on sale to the public 11/1/25

Actors Theatre of Louisville welcomes back New York-based company Fiasco Theater as they combine their joyful, actor-driven approach to Shakespeare with the ingenuity of The Saunders Collective—a family of multi-talented performers, singers, composers and producers. Featuring original music, this collaboration breathes magical new life into the classic madcap farce about two pairs of identical twins, separated in a shipwreck, whose day roaming the same city leads to mistaken identities, cascading misadventures, and gloriously silly comic confusion.
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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:

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“Fiasco is doing justice to Shakespeare in a wholly and excitingly contemporary way…Among its tools are careful compression, deep investigation of character, a pleasure in the gestalt of ensemble work, and a firm believe the that plays are meant to be, well, accessible fun.”

                     —The Washington Post

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“Fiasco’s priorities seem to spring from the mindset of actors who deeply love Shakespeare and long to communicate this material’s great gifts and joys…[the] ensemble members value textual clarity, enthusiastic storytelling, and energetic forward motion.”

                     —Vulture

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“A small troupe with an expansive imagination and an eagerness to wrestle with thorny classics, Fiasco has quickly become a force to reckon with in American theater.”

                     —The New York Times

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“The score is beautiful, with patterns and loops and cacophonies…the rapport between the Saunders brothers absolutely translates.”

                     —The New York Times (review of Newton’s Cradle, written by Kim Saunders & Heath Saunders; Heath & Trent Saunders performed)

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“The Saunders family taps a compelling vein within the genre of musical theater.”

                     —Theatermania (review of Newton’s Cradle)

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