ArtCraft

As WFPL's arts and humanities reporter, Erin Keane reports on the issues, trends, people and events that impact Louisville's arts landscape.

Every artist also develops a craft—those deliberate and perfected techniques and methods used to write a novel, shoot a film, create a sculpture or become a character on stage. 

On ArtCraft, you'll find reviews of plays, books and arts experiences, as well as the latest news and commentary on Louisville's arts landscape and a thoughtful exploration of how and why a particular piece of art works (or doesn't). 

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Arts and Humanities
12:13 pm
Mon March 11, 2013

New Fiction Show Launching on WFPL

We're launching a new show this summer: Unbound is a literary journal for the ears, where we hope you'll discover your next favorite author. In each half-hour episode, two authors will each read a short story on a theme. Our authors are memorable voices writing excellent, engaging, thrilling and heartbreaking stories and novels -- exciting writers creating a buzz on the literary scene. 

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Arts and Humanities
7:00 am
Thu March 7, 2013

'War Horse' Joining Slate of All-New Broadway Series Season

Credit Brinkhoff/Mögenburg
Andrew Veenstra (Albert) with Christopher Mai, Derek Stratton, Rob Laqui (Joey the horse) in "War Horse."

The acclaimed Broadway drama “War Horse” is coming to the Kentucky Center in November. The Broadway in Louisville series announced their next season today, which includes the popular musical “The Book of Mormon.” All of the shows scheduled for next season are new to Louisville.

Rounding out the season are musical adaptations of two early-Nineties films, “Ghost” and “Sister Act,” and “The Addams Family,” which opens the season in October.

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Arts and Humanities
7:00 am
Thu March 7, 2013

The Big Break: Demos and Drafts

This week on The Big Break, our audio diarists take us inside the rehearsal process for a brand-new play and out into the schools for ballet demonstrations. Actors Theatre of Louisville apprentice Samantha Beach works with playwright Lucas Hnath on "Night, Night," his act of "Sleep Rock Thy Brain," the high-flying apprentice showcase opening in the Humana Festival of New American Plays this month. The ballet company takes the week off, but not the trainees, so Claire Horrocks takes us into the schools with the trainee demonstration program. 

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Arts and Humanities
4:00 pm
Wed March 6, 2013

Exploring the American Family Tragedy: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Credit Alan Simons / Actors Theatre of Louisville
David Rosenblatt as Rhys and Jordan Baker as Toni in "Appropriate" by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

The second play to make its world premiere in this year's Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville is “Appropriate,” a family drama about adult siblings who reunite to sort through their deceased father’s estate.

Disturbing secrets are revealed and the siblings clash over clutter, debt and family history. Directed by Gary Griffin of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, "Appropriate" opens Thursday and runs through April 7. 

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Arts and Humanities
4:46 pm
Tue March 5, 2013

Louisville Orchestra Players Have New Three-Year Contract

Credit Louisville Orchestra

The Louisville Orchestra announced a new multi-year labor agreement with its musicians today.

The one-year bridge agreement that ended the orchestra's 11-month labor dispute last April called for a 30-week season for 57 players. The agreement also required an orchestra consultant who would make binding employment recommendations for the musicians and management policies, as well as ensure a multi-year agreement.

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Arts and Humanities
5:38 pm
Mon March 4, 2013

An Interview with Humana Festival Playwright Sam Marks

Credit Alan Simons / Actors Theatre of Louisville
Bruce McKenzie and Jim Frangione as Frank and Thomas, feuding novelists in Sam Marks' The Delling Shore.

Actors Theatre of Louisville’s annual Humana Festival of New American Plays is underway, and the first production to open is Sam Marks' “The Delling Shore.”

Directed by associate artistic director Meredith McDonough, "The Delling Shore" is a dark comedy about two feuding middle-aged novelists and their daughters who reunite for a disastrous weekend in the country.

WFPL’s Erin Keane spoke with playwright Sam Marks about fatherhood, success, and his play’s journey from draft to the Humana Festival.

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Arts and Humanities
4:46 pm
Mon March 4, 2013

Frank Bill Follows Acclaimed Debut With a 'Donnybrook' of a Novel

Jarhead Earl is the best fighter in southeastern Kentucky. He’s also broke with two babies to feed. His ticket out of poverty is winning an annual high-stakes underground bare-knuckle fight tournament held in the wilds of Southern Indiana. But he’s not the only one headed for the ring in Frank Bill's first novel, "Donnybrook," which continues the exploration he began in his acclaimed story debut, "Crimes in Southern Indiana," of a violent Midwestern Gothic people and landscape.

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Arts and Humanities
12:00 pm
Mon March 4, 2013

Forecastle Festival Line-Up: Black Keys, Flaming Lips, Alabama Shakes, Jim James

Credit Forecastle Festival

The Black Keys, Avett Brothers and the String Cheese Incident lead the 2013 Forecastle Festival line-up, which also includes Jim James, the Alabama Shakes, the return of the Flaming Lips and more.

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Arts and Humanities
6:39 am
Mon March 4, 2013

Review | Savage Wit in 'The Delling Shore'

Credit Alan Simons / Actors Theatre of Louisville
Jim Frangione and Catherine Combs in Sam Marks' "The Delling Shore," 2013 Humana Festival of New American Plays.

The first production in the 37th Humana Festival of New American Plays opened Friday at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Directed by associate artistic director Meredith McDonough, Sam Marks' "The Delling Shore" is dark comedy about two feuding middle-aged novelists and their daughters who reunite for a disastrous weekend in the country.

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Arts and Humanities
3:40 pm
Fri March 1, 2013

Helen Starr: Ballet Gives You a Body Language

Helen Starr

As a soloist with the Royal Ballet and a principal dancer with the London Ballet Festival, Helen Starr danced many of the lead roles in classical ballets. But she didn’t dance the role of Juliet to Sergei Prokofiev’s score until 1985 when her husband Alun Jones, then artistic director, choreographed his version of the ballet in Louisville.

Now retired from the company, Jones and Starr return every five or six years to stage the version of Shakespeare’s tragic love story that they created together. They open another production this weekend in the Kentucky Center's Whitney Hall.

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