Humana Festival 2011: 'Maple and Vine'

Katha and Ryu, an interracial New York City couple, become disenchanted with their modern lives and choose to join a community of 1950s re-enactors in “Maple and Vine,” which runs March 4 through April 3, 2011, in Actors Theatre’s Humana Festival of New American Plays. “Maple and Vine” is the second full-length play to debut at this year’s Humana Festival. 

"Maple and Vine" is playwright Jordan Harrison’s fourth Humana Festival outing. His previous Humana Festival plays were “Fit for Feet,” “Kid-Simple” and “Act a Lady.” Anne Kauffman, who directed “Act a Lady” at Actors Theatre, is also the director for “Maple and Vine.”

Harrison’s play was inspired by interviews that New York-based theater group The Civilians conducted with people who belong to anachronistic societies, such as Civil War re-enactors. It explores why someone might choose a lifestyle with fewer technological advances and more apparent restrictions.

Katha, for example, is a book editor who becomes a housewife in the new community, and plastic surgeon Ryu, a Japanese-American, must take a factory job and cope with overt racism. The play asks: "Can making such sacrifices actually lead to a richer life?"

“Maple and Vine” was commissioned by Actors Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre and was developed at the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School New Works Festival (June 2010), and at Playwrights Horizons (November 2010).

Harrison, a graduate of the Brown University master's of fine arts degree program, is a resident playwright at New Dramatists.

The nationally renowned Humana Festival of New American Plays is in its 35th year at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky’s official state theater. It drew audiences of nearly 40,000 last year to see what’s coming next in American theater. The festival is underwritten by the Humana Foundation.

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