Acting Up in Louisville

When you think culture, think Kentucky. Louisville - with its theater, music, and galleries - makes an award-winning stop. The curtain rises on first-class entertainment in this terrific getaway city.

At Actors Theatre, three stages host outstanding plays, and you can have a delightful―and timely―dinner beforehand in their Intermezzo Café.
 316 West Main Street; www.actorstheatre.org or (502) 584-1205.

The Humana Festival of New American Plays begins in March each year and runs through April. Six full-length plays, three 10-minute plays, and a dramatic anthology are spread over a five-week span. Discount play packages are affordable. You’ll receive tickets to a weekend’s worth of plays and an evening reception as well as discounts at area hotels.

Three other fabulous theaters occupy this busy downtown. The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, celebrating its 26th anniversary this year, hosts ballet, Broadway plays, opera, orchestra, and children’s theater performances.
 501 West Main Street; www.kentuckycenter.org or (502) 562-0100.

The W.L. Lyons Brown Theatre makes an elegant venue for some of the best artists. Hal Holbrook perfected his Mark Twain here; Art Garfunkel has added his still-pure tenor as well. 315 West Broadway; www.kentuckycenter.org or (502) 562-0191. Its Art Deco facade a landmark on Fourth Street, the Louisville Palace often hosts Broadway plays.
 625 South Fourth Street; www.louisvillepalace.com or (502) 583-4555.

If you’re interested in quiet contemplation with the arts, then try The Speed Art Museum. Kentucky’s first public art museum features more than 12,000 pieces in the permanent collection and boasts many artifacts fashioned by Bluegrass State artists.
 2035 South Third Street; www.speedmuseum.org or (502) 634-2700.

Another museum, the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, offers the best artisan-made gifts in town. I bought a hand-carved wooden box for my daughter, earrings for my sister-in-law, and a hand-dyed silk scarf for myself and still had lunch money left over. And did I mention that this place has a few precious handwoven scarves and throws from the beloved-but-now-defunct Churchill Weavers?
 715 West Main Street; www.kentuckyarts.orgactin or (502) 589-0102.