Miami University students in Theatre 292: World Stages, attended the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival over the weekend of March 31–April 1, 2017. Each spring, the Humana Festival debuts new innovative work in American professional regional theatre, frequently producing future Pulitzer prize winning dramatists. Students saw four different plays and learned about the Actor's Theatre of Louisville's Professional Training Internship program and listened to a lecture by Taylor Mac, a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter and performance artist. Supported by the Phanner-Swayze gift, the trip allows students to explore the diverse cultural contexts for making American theatre and combine their study of the history of theatre with imagining its future.

The plays the students watched included I Now Pronounce by Tasha Gordon-Solomon, We’re Gonna Be Okay by Basil Kreimendahl, Cry it Out by Molly Metzler and The Many Deaths of Nathan Stubblefield by Jeff Augustin, Sarah DeLappe, Claire Kiechel and Ramiz Monsef.