Actors Theatre of Louisville adds a new-works festival, expanding its post-Humana approach to premieres

A new festival slot joins the 2025–26 lineup

Actors Theatre of Louisville has added a new-works festival to its 2025–26 season schedule, positioning it as a multi-day event built around original stage pieces and regional participation. The festival, titled the Storytelling (r)Evolution Festival, is set for April 2026 and is planned across the company’s Main Street complex, using multiple performance spaces.

The festival is presented in collaboration with the Louisville Fringe Festival and is structured to include performances curated with that partner alongside a project developed by Actors Theatre. Publicly posted information about the event places it in early-to-mid April 2026, with programming spread across two weekends.

How submissions are designed to work

Festival guidelines indicate the program is designed for original works and that prior production history does not automatically disqualify a piece. Participating artists and companies are expected to manage core production responsibilities—casting, rehearsals, technical preparation, and delivery—within the festival framework. A submission deadline is set for October 15, 2025.

The published criteria emphasize new work that aims to broaden theatrical form and audience relationship, as well as work that is meaningfully tied to Kentucky or surrounding regions. The festival’s policies also specify that work glorifying hate speech is not accepted, while allowing portrayals of hateful characters when not praised or promoted.

Context: a continuing recalibration after the Humana Festival era

The addition of a new-works festival arrives after a major shift in Louisville’s theater landscape. The Humana Festival of New American Plays—long associated with Actors Theatre and known for premiering contemporary work—ended after its final festival in 2021, with subsequent plans framed around changing how new plays are supported and shared. At the time, the theater outlined a move toward alternative models intended to remain focused on commissioning and presenting new work while adapting funding and sustainability realities.

Where it fits within the season calendar

The 2025–26 season includes a mix of repertory titles, collaborations, and event-based programming. Alongside the April 2026 festival, the calendar lists a spring engagement of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors (March 4–15, 2026) in collaboration with Fiasco Theater and The Saunders Collective, and a seasonal presentation of A Christmas Carol (December 4–21, 2025). The season also includes recurring cabaret-style programming under The After Show Show banner.

• Festival: Storytelling (r)Evolution Festival (April 2026)
• Submission deadline: October 15, 2025
• Venue footprint: Multiple stages within Actors Theatre’s Main Street complex
• Partner: Louisville Fringe Festival

Actors Theatre’s current festival strategy signals a shift toward a curated, locally connected pipeline for new stage works, placing development and presentation within a broader season architecture rather than a single legacy-branded event.