Third Time in Louisville

This is the third time I visited Louisville, Kentucky for the Humana Festival of New American Plays, and it’s the best one yet. Almost all of the plays are of high quality—I’ll be writing about them on the Back Stage website—and I reconnected with theatre professionals I’ve met before and made the acquaintance of new ones. Since I have been to the city twice before, I didn’t feel compelled to rush around and see everything. I did let my curiosity get the better of me and went out of my way once or twice. On the first night, guests were given a welcome reception at the home of one of the trustees. On the bus to the party, we went through Bardstown Road, one of those trendy little neighborhoods all cities seem to have. You know, the kind that have cute little shops selling used books and CDs and nowadays DVDs, etc. The first year I was here, I foolishly walked all the way from the downtown area to Bardstown which had to be at least five miles. (It looked much closer on the map.) Anyway, this time the bus is driving down Bardstown Road, and out of the corner of my eye, I see the Incredible Hulk and Wolverine adorning a storefront, with the sign outside reading “COMIC BOOKS ARE A GOOD SOURCE OF FIBER! HONEST!”

Immediately, I think I’ve got to come back here. I somehow missed this comic book store the last time I was here. In fact, Louisville did not rank high on the comic-book index (outside of NYC, I’d give Chicago and Philly high marks). Anyhoo, the only time I had to take the cab ride to the Bardstown area was the next morning—Friday. The rest of the time was eaten up with going to Humana plays. So I find a cab the next morning and located the store I had seen the night before. It was called Roll of the Die—since it also sold gaming stuff. Once again, cool title, so-so merchandise. Like too many comic places these days, they only had Bronze Age books and later. And that was overpriced. They did have a replica of the captain’s chair from Star Trek. I should have sat in it and asked for a picture—and here’s the reason for that:

In Roll of the Die, there were flyers advertising the Louisville Science Center’s hosting of the traveling Star Trek Exhibition, and it was just a few blocks from the theatre. How could I resist? (There was another place that sold comics in the area of Roll of the Die, but it was just too far away to walk and get back to the festival in time for my next curtain.)

The next available opening was Sat. after 6. Fortunately, the center was open till 9. So I went hoping to take some photos, but it turns out that was not allowed—copyrights of something. You could get your picture taken on the authentic captain’s chair and have it Photoshopped onto a replica of the bridge and also have yourself Photoshopped on the transporter platform, but they wanted $21 for a DVD of the photos and the same price for prints. It would have been fun to dress up this blog with the photo. But it ain’t worth a double sawbuck. So for the tens of you reading this, just look at my Facebook photo and imagine me sitting where William Shatner’s ass was. There were original props, costumes, histories of the Romulans, Vulcans, Klingons, etc., even a timeline for the entire history of the Star Trek future. But it was out of order! It went from left to right, going from the 24th century back to present, but the new Star Trek movie (2010) which take places right after the 20th century was at the beginning and should have been near the end. It was sorta fun and I’m glad I went. It reminded me of all the sci-fi conventions I used to go which were different from the comic conventions I go to now. I went to the sci-fi shows to meet the actors from Star Trek, Doctor Who, Blake’s Seven, etc. Now I just go for the comic books. If there are celebs at the current conventions, you are charged extra just for an autograph or taking their picture.

Then I returned to the theatre where they presented the Steinberg Award for the best new American play presented outside of NYC in the past year. The award is presented by the American Theatre Critics Association and I was on the committee of critics across the country to choose the winner and the two runners-up which receive each a citation. We read about 30 scripts and exchanged our views on them via email. The president of ATCA, Chris Rawson from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, introduced us from the audience, so that was gratifying. One of the winning playwrights, David Bar Katz, wrote a play about the creation of Superman called The History of Invulnerability, and we talked about comic books and my Jack Kirby collection. I also met people from Dayton, Ohio (a reporter who told me her son makes a living entering video contests on the Internet which he always wins—which is worth repeating), and Washington, DC (the theatre dept. head from the NEA), several playwrights, actors (Small World Dept.: it turns out one knew my college acting teacher), and directors. It’s always exciting to go to Humana because the audiences are all theatre people and you feel like you’re part of a big national community.

Project Runway Season 7: Episode 10: Irish Girl Speaks Up, plus Louisville Reflections

Irish girl Carrie spoke up to the judges this past week when Michael Kors compared the dress she was wearing to a dirty table-cloth and Nina Garcia declared it a full-on disaster. "I have to disagree with all a yiz," she firmly said in that delightful brogue. I wanted her to go on with "And yiz can kiss me arse, the lot of yiz. I'm goin' to the pub for a pint of ale and if yiz don't like it, yiz can stuff it." She was the highlight of the episode. But how did Jonathan her designer repay her? He picked Brandeis, the odd girl and Carrie got eliminated.

It's been a strange week. I'm late with this Runway recap/blog/rumination because I was in Louisville during the episode. It was broadcast on the first night of the Humana Festival and I watched the second half at about 1:30 AM after attending the opening night reception and seeing the first play which started at 11PM. I just now watched the first half on DVR back in NYC. I'm getting kinda tired of this season. There hasn't been anything really grabby. I've had enough of Seth Aaron's zippers and Mila's color blocking. There were a few twists--Seth Aaron escaped the curse of the cell phone by speaking with a loved one on camera via personal communication device and not being eliminated. Mila actually tried something not geometric, but the skirt was so tight her model Brandeis could barely walk in it.

I didn't think Emilio's winning print was that great and Jonathan's almost-losing pale jacket and skirt combo wasn't that awful. I guess the judges thought Anthony's was boring and better a "full-on disaster" than a yawn. Jonathan is in big trouble and will probably be the next to go. Emilio and Seth Aaron are probably safe, leaving Jay, Mia or Mila for the third slot. But something big is happening next week and I think it involves Mia because I recall hearing a rumor about her not showing up for fashion week.

The rest of Louisville was fun, but they packed so much into the three days I didn't do very much besides go to the theatre. At one point we had four shows on one day. After the first one I had about two hours to kill, so I took a cab to the historical district and bought a guide to the Victorian houses. One was a sort of double house with two separate entrances. A merchant built it for his two daughters who hated each other. There were separate porches so they could each sit on them without speaking to the other. Ironically, one of the houses is now the Kentucky Psychiatric Institute.

I only got to see a few additional domiciles when I realized I had better get back in time for the next show, so I walked back--about two miles. I passed a lot of hat and wig shops. Hats are big in Louisville because of the Kentucky Derby. All the ladies wear enormous chapeaus to the famous race. I took pictures which I will post later. Later that same day after the second show, I had lunch with the artistic director and some board members of the Actor's Express Theatre of Atlanta. It was fun to talk theatre with like-minded people. They asked me what was good in NYC and I asked about their season in Atlanta. It's so refreshing to see theatre outside of NYC and realize the whole country does have a theatre scene beyond Broadway.

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.

Random TV Encounters--Porn Again

Earlier this year when I was staying at the Galt Hotel in Louisville during the Humana Festival of New Plays, I was relaxing in my room in between shows. I flipped through the channels which I love to do when I'm in cities I've never been--you get to see all the local news and how low-rent it usually is. I landed on MTV and the program was a reality thing called I'm Addicted to Porn. It was part of a whole series of I'm Addicted to.... They profiled a series of real people whose lives were seriously affected by their involvement with pornography. There was a guy whose wife left him because he couldn't stop watching it on his computer. They went to therapy. The usual story.

But the most interesting segment involved this young porn star. She was in Vegas for a porn convention and she was nominated for the industry equivalent of the Oscar for most promising newcomer or something. The awards were to be presented at the climax--pardon the pun--of the convention. She was shown surrounded by male fans on the convention floor, all clammering for her picture and autograph. She later said to the camera, "Wow, I feel really great, like I'm worth something." Then she received a visit from this group called the Pink Cross whose mission is to get people out of porn. The rescue workers were three women, looked in their 40s, all of whom were very attractive, but you could tell they'd had work done and when they were younger were probably stunning. Each wore an armband with a pink cross. Our girl listened to their spiel and wasn't buying it. They said "You're so smart and pretty, you don't need this. You are worth so much more than this." She thanked them and they left saying "Well, if you ever change your mind, give us a call." The actress turned to camera and said she was happy in her work.

Later just before the awards, she confessed that she wanted to win badly because maybe then her parents wouldn't be ashamed of her. One limo ride later, she loses the big award. Back in her suite with champagne, money, and a life of sex and adoration by horny pathetic guys, she's in tears.

Earlier in the week, I'd seen a play called Slasher about a young girl who gets cast in a sleazy horror film and she's in control and not exploited because she set the terms of the contract. There were eerie echoes of the play in this reality TV show.