The following articles appeared in Actors Theatre's subscriber newsletter prior to the 2000 Humana Festival

BACK STORY – A DRAMATIC ANTHOLOGY
A Dramatic Anthology by Joan Ackermann, Courtney Baron, Neena Beber, Constance Congdon, Jon Klein, Shirley Lauro, Craig Lucas, Eduardo Machado, Donald Margulies, Jane Martin, Susan Miller, John Olive, Tanya Palmer, David Rambo, Edwin Sanchez, Adele Edling Shank, Mayo Simon and Val Smith

Based on a story by Joan Ackermann

Back Story is the title of a two-character play written by 18 playwrights and performed by 22 actors. The writers—all of whom have been previously produced at Actors Theatre—have taken their inspiration from a story written expressly for this project by Joan Ackermann. And audience members who attend this free production will receive a printed copy of Ackermann’s "Back Story" when they get their tickets. "Our hope is that people will read the short story before viewing the play," says Jon Jory, "because part of the fun of this dramatic experiment is to appreciate how the eighteen playwrights have expanded, interpolated, connected and illuminated episodes in the young lives of Ainsley and Ethan Belcher."

Set near the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, "Back Story" begins when Ethan is born in the worst blizzard of the century, while his two-year-old sister Ainsley nearly sacrifices a toe trying to clear a path for the baby’s arrival. That initial gesture of devotion blossoms into a tale of sibling rivalry and love that spans two decades, leaving off just as Ethan and Ainsley are braving the new world of their extended family. The Humana Festival production will be performed by Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Apprentice Company, with all the women playing Ainsley and all the men playing Ethan. Another production could feature just two actors (or anywhere between two and twenty-two, for that matter), but diversity is integral to the experiment here. Viewing the lives of Ainsley and Ethan from so many authorial perspectives and through so many performances offers audiences a novel way to think of "character" in the theatre—to imagine that image and self-image are so variable that they could combine to present a completely different picture of Ainsley and Ethan each time the characters enter the stage.