Second Time in Louisville and Presidential Lovers

Here I am in Louisville, Kentucky for my second visit to the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Last year was my first time here and I did so much, it feels as if I don't have the same amount of time now--yet I do. There seems to be more panels scheduled this year in addition to the eight new plays all crammed into three and a half days--even less since Sunday is not a full day of playgoing. Well, this blog is more about Louisville itself than the festival (which I will cover in my Back Stage blog). I'm amazed I was able do so much last time. I visited the Louisville Slugger Museum--where they make the baseball bats--the Muhammad Ali Center, which was interesting even though I'm not a sports fan, and I walked all the way to Bardstown Road because that was the only neighborhood that had used-book stores--and that was a looong walk of several miles from where my hotel, the Galt Hotel is located.

Louisville is right on the Ohio River and not a hopping town, like New Orleans. The downtown area feels like a ghost town with not many people on the street after 5 PM. There is a little club district with restautants and bars, but the area isn't exactly teeming. There are some points of local color and historic interest. Lewis and Clark set off from here and I want to explore the old district with its historic homes--including I think, Merriwether Lewis's house. There is a statue of him near the river and a more recently erected one of his slave York who was free during the exploration and admired by the Indians. Then he had to come back to Kentucky and return to being a slave. That would make an interesting play.

I had to change planes in Cincinnati, since the New York flight was late. I had run through the airport there and didn't get a good look at it. It did seem like Detroit, but at least better than Memphis. Once in Louisville, we didn't have a much time to rest before we were whisked off to the opening night reception and the first play which started at 11 PM (I will offer reviews in my Back Stage article). The opening play is called Heist! and is set in an actual art gallery-hotel called 21C. One interesting exhibit in the actual gallery was a group of portraits of seven women and one man, each of whom were associated with a president. Then I figured out there were all supposed to have slept with the chief executive. The man was a bachelor senator who shared quarters with James Buchanan and there were gossip and rumors about them being more than friends, though gay romances were an unknown thing at the time. The other portraits were Monica Lewinsky, Kay Summersby, Lucy Mercier, the young woman who had Grover Cleveland's baby and a slave named Venus who was associated with George Washington. I'd never heard of her. I wondered why the artist didn't include Sally Hemmings. Maybe that would have been too obvious. I explained the common thread to some fellow playgoers and one woman asked me, "How do you know that? Are you an historian?"

The play required a lot of walking around and I got back to the hotel at 1:15 AM. But Project Runway was on and I had to watch, so I didn't get to bed until very late. I'll cover that in a Runway blog, possibily combined with Amazing Race.