Return to Humana

Howdy again!  Long post alert!  I'm back, after a nice long weekend in Louisville, KY, for the Humana Fest of New American Plays.  We were supposed to go to the festival last year, but got tornado-ed out by Delta.  My co-worker and I have been waiting to have fried green tomatoes for TWO YEARS!  I will cut to the chase and say that our food dreams were dashed within minutes...

Last year, my co-worker and I sat at the airport for hours before finally being sent home.  It was really a pain in the patootie, and I do have to credit Delta for taking responsibility and allowing us a refund.  This year, when we got to the airport, I admit I was nervous until we actually got onto the plane - I had heard there was heavy rain in Kentucky and some weather reports were also talking about flooding, so I was afraid we wouldn't get out of LGA again, but happily, we did.  It was a gray and forbidding day, but we finally arrived in Louisville (the descent into the airport was a bit bumpy, but otherwise, it was a good flight).  

Arriving safely at our hotel, we immediately walked into a lobby of construction.  My, it was noisy and loud in that lobby.  I was glad that our rooms were on the fifteenth floor, away from the noise and dust, but it was still annoying.  As was a group attending a conference at the hotel - Lads to Leaders and Leaderettes.  I don't even know where to begin, but I will mainly say that this conference seemed to be parents just setting their annoying children free to run around the hotel and scream to their hearts content.  Some kids were just riding up and down the elevators, others were watching movies on their devices with no headsets, and still others were running around as if the lobby were a track meet.  I was quite displeased throughout the weekend that no one seemed to want to curb these children and tell them that leaders (and leaderettes, whatever the hell that means) behave themselves at all times.  Perhaps a strongly worded letter to the hotel...

I had made a reservation at our favorite restaurant for almost the moment we arrived - all we could talk about was having some fried green tomatoes.  I guess I should've realized that nothing stays the same.  We went to our favorite restaurant all right, but fried green tomatoes are no longer on the appetizer menu.  WAIT, WHAT?!?!  My co-worker and I were peppering the poor server about this terrible decision; he said the kitchen said it wasn't worth the time and effort to have them as a dish on the menu.  But as I looked at other menu items, I saw that fried green tomatoes were still a component of other dishes, so why couldn't we have some?!?!  Our server went and asked the chef and so we got a tiny side order of itty bitty fried green tomatoes.  Delicious, but not nearly enough.  I will say that my pulled pork tacos were quite tasty, as was my sweet tea, but that didn't push away my immense disappointment.  I had read about another restaurant in town that serves a fried green tomato po' boy, so we decided to check that restaurant out another day.  Oh, the best laid plans...

After our lunch, we went back to the hotel to change for a work event at the Green Building, a completely sustainable building on the other side of town.  It was a lovely space and our event went well, if sparsely attended.  Apparently, Easter/Passover weekend is not the best time to hold events in Louisville.  Who knew?!  But the conversation was lively, the catered food was delicious and the staff at the Green Building were terrific.  I would hold another event there in a heartbeat.  After the meeting was over, my handsome co-worker and I had a debrief in the hotel's new restaurant, Porch.  Porch is quite a lovely space and we went back again later in the weekend.  Since I had eaten so much of the catered food, I only had some corn muffins and they were yummy!  Plus, I had some leftover to go with the leftover catered food I was carting back to my hotel room...

Friday was the first day of theater-going.  But our first event wasn't until the evening, so I took my time getting my day started.  I ordered a delicious egg sandwich from room service and enjoyed a leisurely morning.  At lunch time, I went over to Actors Theatre to pick up my weekend's tickets, then I just took a walk around town.  I walked over to a pier overlooking the Ohio River and enjoyed the brisk air over the water.  I then walked down the main drag and bought some souvenirs, enjoyed some ice cream, toured a new indoor market and had a generally lovely (though gray outside) day.  I was a little miffed when I went back to the hotel for a break and my room hadn't been cleaned yet and the lobby was filled with screaming children.  So I went back out to Panera Bread and had a little caffeine and nosh.  I hate going to chain restaurants when I'm travelling, but it was close to the hotel and I could use up my birthday freebies, so I forgave myself.  My handsome co-worker and I met up at Panera and had a nice chat before going back to the hotel to get ready for our first play.

photo credit: Bill Bymer

First up was Do You Feel Anger?, by Mara Nelson-Greenberg.  It was in the small theater-in-the-round, which is my favorite space to see a show at Humana.  The opening of the show is a little off-putting: it's highly stylized and it took me a few minutes to get into the full-on satirical performance style and writing style, but once I did, I really enjoyed myself.  The play centers on an 'empathy coach,' who comes to work with a company sorely needing some empathy.  Of course, the men in the company don't feel they need any training for anything, and the strongly-driven point that corporate life is different for men and women is broadly and pointedly presented.  As the empathy coach's empathy began to erode for the other female character, the scenes did have a humor and a sameness, so I began to wonder what did it all mean and why did it matter?  Then the final scene, which was a dreamlike fugue featuring a character we had only heard referenced but didn't see ourselves, was quite a revelation.  It was ambiguous and interesting and led me somewhere I didn't expect.  I still rather wish there had been more layers to the earlier story-telling, but I was quite satisfied with the experience of watching this play on the whole.  I also recognized quite a few of the behaviors explored, whether heightened or satirized or not.  So this was a very good start to our weekend's playwatching.  Well, except for the grammatical error that kept getting repeated throughout the play.  That did set my teeth on edge.  But other than that...

We had a little break, so we walked down to Original Impellizzeri’s Pizza, which is down the street from Actors Theatre.  We got the thin crust margherita pizza and it was quite tasty.  The crust was crispy and vaguely garlicky and the tomatoes were nice and fresh.  I maybe could've used a touch more mozzarella, but that's just me.  We were in the restaurant as the women's college basketball semifinals were going on and Louisville was playing.  I will just say that the fans in the restaurant were quite vocal and were quite devastated when Louisville lost in the final seconds.  I felt badly for them.  The place was really quiet after that.  Which, actually, was nice for us, since we were getting ready for an 11pm curtain...

Our 11pm show was the annual acting apprentice piece.  This year's was called You Across From Me.  Every time I go to Humana, this apprentice piece is a mixed bag, since the writers are commissioned to not only write about a particular theme, but also on particular actors.  I will say that this iteration was one of the more successful that I've seen.  There were twelve little vignettes written for twenty young actors, and I did find a few of the vignettes to be very sharp, especially those written by Dipika Guha (her three part "A Date with the Family" was particularly smart) and Jaclyn Backhaus.  It was an enjoyable enough 90 minutes, though we were keen to get back to the hotel for a little shuteye before a big Saturday of theater.  Oh, and we also had pie at a tiny reception before the show.  Pie is good.  😄

In the morning, after a quick stop at Starbucks, we went to our first Saturday event, a panel discussion called "Lessons from Inclusive Theater: Making Work Accessible to the Disability Community."  The discussion was led by Actors Theatre's Inclusion Consultant Talleri McRae.  She was a terrific moderator, leading the panelists well, yet giving them room to express themselves.  We heard from two playwrights, two actors and two educators, talking about opportunities for disabled performers and what theaters and other arts organizations might do to make things more accessible for everyone.  It was a terrific conversation and one that could easily have lasted another two hours, but we all had to cut it short to go see more plays.

photo credit: Bill Brymer

Our next play was we, the invisibles by Susan Soon He Stanton.  What starts off as a rather light comedy of manners, set in a boutique hotel, rapidly turns into something more meaningful as the character of Susan, ostensibly standing in for the playwright, becomes obsessed with the case of Dominique Strass-Kahn, who was alleged to have assaulted a hotel maid.  Susan decides she wants to hear the stories of her boutique hotel co-workers, the often overlooked and 'invisible' people who are treated poorly to keep the guests happy.  The acting ensemble of we, the invisibles is nothing short of stupendous.  They all play multiple characters, of multiple countries of origin, and multiple accents, and the fact that they keep them all straight and made each character a fully realized, three-dimensional human is amazing.  I thought the play was smart, funny, empathetic and very true.  The last scene was so lovely, I'll be thinking on it for a long time.  

After the play, my handsome co-worker and I went across the street to the restaurant that supposedly serves a fried green tomato po' boy.  But they were closed.  DRATS.  We figured we'd go back another time.  Since we had a limited amount of break time, we just ran over to Porch, the restaurant in our hotel, for a quick snack.  They were still serving brunch, so I got an order of the lump crab hush puppies and hash browns.  A dumb pairing, I know, but you have to carb load on a day when you're seeing three plays and a panel discussion.  The hush puppies were AMAZING, so light and airy, with just enough crabmeat to make them a little sweet, alongside the corn.  And the hash browns were just as I like them, shredded.  Yum.  A dumb pairing but so delicious and just enough to get me through the afternoon. 

Our next play was Evocation to Visible Appearance by Mark Schultz.  I will only say that I did not enjoy this piece in the extreme, nor did it make itself known to me in any way.  It made me quite angry, in fact, though my co-worker thought I was perhaps overreacting.  Probably.  But after it was over, I demanded to go out for a drink, so we went to the lovely bar in the Galt House hotel, Al J's at the Conservatory.  Light, airy and kind of funky, this bar was the perfect place to decompress.  My cocktail, the smokey sour, was tremendous and put me in a much better mood, as did the sugar cookie I had purchased at the market the day before.  The smokey sour had mezcal, tequila, sweet and sour mix, and lots of fresh lemon.  Delicious.  This will definitely go on my list of top cocktails for 2018.

photo credit: Jonathan Roberts

Our last play of the day was God Said This, by Leah Nanako Winkler.  This play recently won the Yale Drama Prize and will be at Primary Stages next season, so it's maybe the most high-profile of the Humana line-up.  I enjoyed it quite a bit - it's a moving story about a family, illness, redemption, and sacrifice.  It's quite human, very moving and terrifically acted.  A fractured family comes together around the gravely-ill mother, trying to finish her last round of chemo.  The father is a recovering alcoholic, one daughter is a born-again Christian and the other has been estranged from her family for seven years.  It sounds a bit 'been there, done that,' but it's all done with great humanity and wonderful acting.  I thought the father's monologues, as if he's speaking at an AA meeting, were very well done, and set the tone for the play.  The physical production, and the direction, were very good, too.  I was happy to be back in a good place after the earlier play.  

Sunday was Easter, so I made a special Easter brunch reservation at Proof on Main.  It's one of our favorite restaurants in Louisville.  It's just quirky and fun, with modern art all over the walls and random red plastic penguins making appearances at tables.  The restaurant is inside the 21C Museum Hotel, so there's art everywhere.  More on that later.  The three-course prix fixe brunch menu had several tasty treats on it, but I first settled on the Late for Work cocktail, which had cynar (an artichoke liqueur), grapefruit, lemon, simple syrup and ginger ale.  Boy, was that potent!  It was sweet and bitter and had a slightly vegetal after-taste.  It actually went really well with the meal I had - for my first course, I had the orange carrot bread, which had a yummy orange ginger glaze on it, and was served with chantilly cream and candied pistachios.  OK, this was seriously delicious.  It was like having dessert for the first course.  It was tender and sweet and the nuts were crunchy and sweet.  Delicious.  And I'm glad my drink was slightly bitter, to counterbalance the sweetness.  For my entree, I had the Proof Benedict, which was poached eggs over a cornmeal biscuit, with country ham and a 'redeye' hollandaise sauce. And arugula on the side.  SHUT UP, this was amazing.  I now want to have redeye hollandaise sauce on everything I ever eat again.  This was definitely the best eggs benedict I've ever had, thank you very much.  The dessert course was a little anticlimactic and, frankly, too much sweetness, so I barely touched my mini pecan pie, bourbon chocolate ganache square and jellied fruit thing.  I mean, they were yummy, don't get me wrong, but I had been sugared out.  It was a terrific brunch, though.  

photo credit: Dana Rogers

After we finished eating, we still had time before our matinee, so we wandered through the 21C Museum Hotel lobby and museum.  There was a lot of amazing art, which I'll talk about later, because it was so fascinating, we actually went BACK after our show.  So I'll go on to the last show of our weekend, Marginal Loss, by Deborah Stein.  Set in the days immediately after 9/11, the play takes place in a New Jersey warehouse, which is where a financial firm (who had been housed in an upper floor of the World Trade Center) is temporarily operating until they figure out how many employees survived the terrorist attacks, and what they need to do before the stock market opens.  I have to admit, I have an aversion to 9/11 plays, it's an involuntary response.  I mean, I guess I've never seen this particular story play out before, about how the financial firms got their mojo back and started making money again, so there's that.  But would this story resonate without the 9/11 backdrop?  I'm not sure.  I was reminded of something a panelist said at the disability and inclusion seminar - she said plays that are just about disability are dull.  Plays that are about people, and disability is a part of people, those stories are what's interesting.  So, extrapolating that, I'm thinking that a play that uses 9/11 as a hook and that's its only distinguishing characteristic...hm.  Maybe it's just me and my aversion to 9/11 plays.

After the play, our Humana experience was over.  We went back to the 21C Museum Hotel to check out their exhibit more closely.  They're currently presenting Dress Up, Speak Up: Costume and Confrontation.  The description on their website says "...the figures populating Dress Up, Speak Up occupy fluid space and time, evoking past and present, fact and fiction, memory and desire, to illuminate the complexity of contemporary identity."  My handsome co-worker and I found the exhibit fascinating - there were so many beautiful things to look at, and also so many provocative and startling things as well.  Some of the artists represented were Ebony G Patterson, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Firelei Báez, Stephanie Syjuco, and Kudzanai Chiurai.  I was especially taken with Patterson's work and Chiurai's work.  I wish I had taken more photos throughout the exhibit because I found so much of the work to be incredibly powerful.  But I'm glad to have so many artists to learn more about.

We started wandering along Main Street and I noticed another museum across the street from the 21C Museum Hotel: the KMAC Museum.  They were also exhibiting interesting modern art, mostly by the artists Amanda Ross-Ho and Nathan Hayden.  We were both taken by the mural painted by Hayden in the museum's lobby.  The woman at the information desk told us that Hayden painted the mural freehand, which was amazing to imagine!  She also told us there was a video of his painting it on the second floor, so we made sure to check it out.  His exhibition was called "What was Magic of Numbers, Hypnotic and Wonders, and Amanda Ross-Ho's was called "Contents and Index."  I will admit that the meaning of a lot of modern art simply escapes me, and I was confused by several of the pieces exhibited, but I also saw a lot of whimsy and interesting shapes and forms.  We could only wander through the first two floors because they were closing early (it was Easter Sunday, after all), but I enjoyed experiencing more new work.  

After we left the museum, we just sort of looked at architecture and took our time heading over to our dinner location, Dish on Market.  They have a pretty eclectic menu and it was hard to choose what to get.  Well, it was hard to choose what to get to eat.  What to order as my cocktail was not hard: I got the KY Mule.  Yum.  It was bourbon and ginger beer with lime.  Did I say yum?  Yum.  I finally opted to get the pulled pork flatbread, with barbecue sauce (mmmmmmmm, barbecue sauce) and fried onions.  This was terrifically tasty and just what I needed for the end of a long theater weekend.  Because, of course, the place that featured fried green tomato po' boys was closed for Easter Sunday.  I don't know why the universe was keeping me from my dream food, but oh well.  We had a good time, eating and watching theater, anyway.  Hopefully, I can get the scheduling right for next year and eat/see even more!