LOUISVILLE — The 26th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville will be the first to feature plays chosen solely by the center's new artistic director.

        The playwrights in this year's festival, which runs from Wednesday through April 13, represent a diversity of ages and backgrounds. And diversity is the key to the plays chosen by Actors Theatre's Marc Masterson. There's a romance, several edgy comedies, a biographical work about Leonard Bernstein and an intimate look at racial issues.

        Adam Rapp and Jerome Hairston, whose full-length plays will be produced as part of the festival, were students of previous Humana Festival playwrights. Mr. Hairston took Eduardo Machado's playwriting classes at Columbia University. Mr. Rapp studied playwriting with Marsha Norman at The Juilliard School.

        Having a play staged at the Humana Festival, known worldwide for its development of new works, can launch a writer's career. It can mean more productions and even a movie adaptation, which was the case with Stephen Belber's play Tape.

        The Humana Festival draws critics and theater managers from across the country as well as talent scouts from Los Angeles.

        “One of the joys of the Humana Festival is to see a spectrum of generations, talent and voices — America is like that,” Mr. Masterson said. “There are many kinds of voices, and it's important for us to reflect that.”

        For Masterson, who just directed an ambitious, experimental production of “Macbeth,” it means wearing many hats while guiding the theater through the complex job of producing an event that lasts more than a month and is host to theatergoers from all over the country and abroad.

        The festival, which runs from Wednesday through April 13, requires a maximum amount of multitasking, but Masterson isn't complaining.

        “It's exhilarating. It's a great problem to have,” he said, adding, “I have an unbelievably talented staff, and I learned a long time ago that delegating is the key to survival.”

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