Actors Theatre of Louisville Presents CRY OLD KINGDOM as part of the 37th Humana Festival of New American Plays

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein have announced the world premiere of Jeff Augustin's Cry Old Kingdom as part of 37th Humana Festival of New American Plays. The play will be directed by Tom Dugdale and runs in the Bingham Theatre. Cry Old Kingdom begins previews March 8, opens March 10 and runs through April 7. Tickets are on sale now to the public and can be purchased at The Actors Theatre Box Office by calling 502-584-1205 or online at ActorsTheatre.org. The Humana Festival of New American Plays is made possible by a generous grant from the Humana Foundation.

Haiti, 1964. Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier's repressive regime has forced once-successful artist Edwin into hiding, turning him into a walking ghost. When Edwin finds a young man building a boat to escape to America, and persuades him to pose for a painting, he finally feels alive again. But with cries for revolution resounding through the nation and the regime's death squads on the prowl, no one's life is safe. Sometimes trying to dreamandsurvive forces impossible choices.

Jeff Augustin is making his professional playwriting debut with Cry Old Kingdom. He was the winner of the 2011 Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award and the Kennedy Center Playwright Observer at the Sundance Theatre Lab. Augustin is currently a M.F.A. Playwriting Candidate at University of California, San Diego and graduated from Boston College with a B.A. in Theatre Art.

Tom Dugdale was the recipient of the 2012 Princess Grace Award in Theater with La Jolla Playhouse, where he serves as Associate Producer of the inaugural Without Walls Festival. His directing credits include Thistle at La MaMa in New York, Making Love Over There at Theatre Asylum in Los Angeles and Death of a Salesman and Diary of a Madman at The Hungarian Theatre in Cluj, Romania. DugDale Holds an M.F.A. in Directing from University of California, San Diego and a B.A. in Theater and Music from Dartmouth College.

The cast, all making their Actors Theatre debuts, includes: Jonathan Majors (Henri Marx) who has worked with Shakespeare & Company and Virginia Stage Company, Andy Lucien (Edwin) who was most recently seen during the Off-Broadway run of The Last Seder and Natalie Paul (Judith) whose credits include an off-Broadway production of 365 Days/365 Playsand has also appeared on NBC's SMASH.

The production team includes Daniel Zimmerman (Scenic Designer) who recently desighned Romeo and Juliet at Actors Theatre. Lorraine Venburg (Costume Designer) most recently designed costumes for The Whipping Man at Actors Theatre. Russell H. Champa (Co-lighting Designer) will be designing for Actors for the first time and his Broadway credits include In The Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) and Julia Sweeney's God Said, "Ha!". Dani Clifford (Co-lighting Designer) is returning to Actors after working on several shows including ReEntry and Cruising the Divide. We also welcome back Benjamin Marcum (Sound Designer) who has been designing sound at Actors Theatre of Louisville for 11 years.

This year's Humana Festival of New American Plays showcases six full-length plays: The Delling Shore by Sam Marks; Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; Cry Old Kingdom by Jeff Augustin; Gnit by Will Eno; O Guru Guru Guru, or why I don't want to go to yoga class with you by Mallery Avidon; Sleep Rock Thy Brain, a play by Rinne Groff, Lucas Hnath and Anne Washburn commissioned by Actors Theatre and featuring the Acting Apprentice Company; and an evening of three ten-minute plays by Jonathan Josephson, Sarah Ruhl and Emily Schwend.

Actors Theatre celebrates the 37th Humana Festival with underwriter the Humana Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Humana, Inc. Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

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