Last October, Actors Theatre announced the departure of artistic director Les Waters, who had been with the organization for six years.
During his time in Louisville, Waters brought new energy to the long-running Humana Festival of New American Plays.
His decision to double Actors’ commissioning program resulted in Humana Festival-debuted plays having runs all across the country, such as Lucas Hnath’s “The Christians,” Sarah Ruhl’s “For Peter Pan on Her 70th birthday,” and Charles Mee’s “The Glory of the World.”
But it’s been a year since the theater announced Waters’ departure — so where are they on finding a replacement?
Elizabeth Greenfield is the public relations and communications manager at Actors Theatre. She said shortly after the initial announcement was made that a search committee was formed of both internal and external stakeholders.
“And an external search firm was also brought on to lead us through,” Greenfield said. “The search is underway and we have not publicly announced what that schedule has been, but I do know we’re on-schedule. It’s moving along with check-in points with the committee.”
However, Actors Theatre is also in the midst of a well-received 2018/19 season; they kicked it off in September with “Dracula,” just wrapped “The Curious Case of the Dog In the Nighttime,” and recently opened “A Doll’s House: Part 2.”
Actors' holiday productions of “A Christmas Carol” and “Santaland Diaries” are upcoming.
Waters had a hand in this season’s selections.
“He had been involved in programming what we are presenting, so in a way, we are still carrying out his vision,” Greenfield said.