Back from the Humana Festival of New American Plays

Got back from Louisville on Monday after catching a 7:05am flight that left me feeling like that wretched refuse Emma Lazarus wrote about. Anyway, one highlight was the cocktail party (I should say parties) on Thursday night when I arrived. Now, I must confess that what I've written below was actually part of an email I wrote to my good friend Stephen Van Gorden, but I thought y'all would like to read a bit about it.

"...It was basically 9 shows, 2 receptions, 1 cocktail party and 1 breakfast in 3 days...plus lots of that fine Kentucky spirit, y'all...

Actually, I'll tell you something. The reason I went down on Thursday is that there's always a fancy-schmancy reception for the critics and guests on the evening before the weekend gets underway, and everyone more or less advised me that it was way too much fun (plus there's free food and free booze) to miss. Well, they were all right. What Actors Theatre of Louisville does is ask their trustees to open their homes, and so we're talking about the creme de la creme of Kentucky Derby Society (initial caps intentional, y'all). And this year, there were, I guess, 4 or 5 different parties, so we all just went to wherever we were assigned to go. So, I walk into this palatial villa (for lack of a better word) and the first person I meet is a member of the press who is there to cover all of us! She's about 90 if she's a day, with gorgeous snow white hair combed back and sort of blown out, the most exquisite and penetrating blue eyes, and simply the thickest, most utterly impenetrable Southern drawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwl I have ever heard in my life. She's from Mississippi originally, so that explains that, but I would be remiss if I didn't confess to you that half of me was expecting Sally Cato to suggest a fox hunt and the other half was expecting to find Mother Burnside sitting outside by the fireside (the outdoor fireplace sits on a bluff).

Anyway, so here I am, feeling like I had the words "Yankee" and "Jew" emblazoned on my forehead. That was when a friend of mine appeared with the Maker's Mark and all was very well with the world."

And why not?

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