This article, interviewing JLT Co-Founders Lorna Littleway and Kristi Papailler,
appeared in G3 Magazine in May 2008.

Please give me a history of the Juneteenth Legacy Theatre.
LL
Over eight years we have presented 101 works with 41 of those receiving first public
performances, and five receiving full productions by companies outside Kentucky. JLT’s primary constituency is artists who want to create and share, work about the African- American experience and its legacy and who want to get in on the ground level of a play becoming a “finished” work. We produce staged readings in the summer and fully mounted productions in the Fall and Spring. We’ve won praise from “The New York Times and have received peer awards from local arts, philanthropic and civic groups. Since 2003 we have presented guests artists like Ella Joyce (ROC), Sue Lawless and A. C. Smith. The word about what a great artistic workout the Jamboree is has spread and we started to get calls from other nationally recognized artists wanting to know when they can do the Jamboree!

For those who do not know, what does “Juneteenth” mean?
KP
“Juneteenth” refers to the date, June 19, 1865, when slaves in the western territories
learned through an announcement in Galveston Texas that they were free, 2 ½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This news sparked a major ten day celebration of which storytelling played a huge role.

What is happening this year?
KP
Though funding for this season has been scarce, we’ve produced and refined favorites
like “The Last Dust Track”, locally and “Juneteenth Cotton Club Review” in New York.
The 8th Aunnual Juneteenth Jamboree is this month and we’ve lined up 8 new works to entertain the masses. We‘re fortunate to be doing readings by and with Nora Cole, Imani and other stellar playwrights and artists. Imani and Lorna will lead workshops on the 2nd and 9th called “Creating your own one character play”.

You produce in New York?
LL
Yes, it’s home. I’m that rare species, a native New Yorker. It’s where everyone would
like to be, to work, at least once in their life. JLT has a sort of exchange program- with
artist from Louisville working on our shows in New York and vice versa. Racial
profiling, inferior schools, and under-employment are issues that impact African
Americans wherever we reside in the United States. Theater producers have to have two eyes simultaneously looking at the present and future. Geographic boundaries
increasingly are becoming artificial, I think.

How did you partner up with Actors Theatre?
LL
It was fate and good fortune. After three years of producing a festival of new works at a
local university, we learned we would have to find a new venue. Fortunately Jeff Rodgers and others from Actors heard about the need, liked the program and were interested in a relationship with the company. In short order, Actors put forth a plan of support, and they have been the festival’s host since 1999