Actors Theatre of Louisville is now in the middle of its world famous Humana Festival of New American Plays and St. Edward’s University alumnus Jessica Angima (Class of 2012) has a front row seat.

The 37th annual Humana Festival is a unique and groundbreaking original play festival that has launched many new works into the national spotlight.

Three plays produced at Humana have gone on to win Pulitzer prizes, eight have been adapted for television or film and five original Humana Festival plays have won off-Broadway’s highest honor, the OBIE.

This year’s festival proved to be brimming with talent with new works from established playwrights such as Sam Marks, Will Eno and Sarah Ruhl.

The real goal of the festival, however, is to highlight emerging artists. That is what is most appealing to Angima, a development intern at Actors Theatre for their 2012-2013 season.

“I am attracted and inspired by the Humana Festival’s commitment to producing enriching and groundbreaking new plays,” Angima said.  

Angima, a Theater Arts major at the university, was very familiar with the prestige of Actors Theatre and the Humana Festival.

“I look through old Humana anthologies and see plays that have been produced at Mary Moody Northen Theatre and throughout Austin,” Angima said. “It’s thrilling to be at the epicenter of where those productions were brought to life and to witness the premiere of new American classics.”

Although Lousville, KY may be more than 1000 miles away, Angima is not the only St. Edward’s alumnus working at Actors Theatre.  Kate Eminger (Class of 2008) is currently a directing intern for the company.

Eminger assistant directed Will Eno’s “Gnit,” a humorous adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s 17th century Norwegian Play “Peer Gynt.”

Other plays at this year’s festival include “The Delling Shore” by Sam Marks, a tense drama between peer writers and their families, “Cry Old Kingdom” by Jeff Augustin, the story of a Hatian artist’s escape to America and “Appropriate” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the tale of a family paralyzed by the death of its patriarch and shocked by the secrets uncovered.

On top of the full-length productions, Humana also holds an open ten-minute play contest that anyone in the country can enter, regardless of writing experience.  Three are chosen and produced at each year’s festival.

While there are many play festivals in the country, Angima believes this one is special.

“We are the only new play festival to fully produce these new plays. This process by production is really important to playwrights as part of the development of new work and is one of the key reasons that the Humana Festival continues to be so influential in the world of new play development,” Angima said.

The festival runs from Feb. 27 until Apr. 7, but do not worry if the festival seems out of reach now.  These new works are bound to show up on stages around the country soon.