For many years I enthusiastically attended the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville. The last festival was in 2019; between the worldwide pandemic, changing priorities for corporate sponsorship and new artistic leadership, Actors Theatre has chosen not to resurrect the annual celebration that brought directors, producers, actors and critics together every year for more than four decades since 1979.
The Contemporary American Theater Festival, hosted on the campus of Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, actually began presenting freshly minted plays in 1991. Today it continues to be in the spotlight annually with professional productions of new works during the month of July. Some are commissioned by CATF; others have debuted elsewhere in recent years and need to be seen again. According to National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, the festival is a home for “brand new plays in West Virginia’s oldest town.” It’s a charming, historic and scenic destination. This summer, from July 5 to 28, four thought-provoking plays have been presented in three different venues on the campus of Shepherd University and one in the Shepherdstown’s charming Opera House. I had the opportunity to see these fresh new works from July 18 to 20.
I can’t say anyone told me the overarching theme for 2024 has been family. But I have to imagine that as CATF’s artistic director, Peggy McKowen, put this season together, she had in mind the importance of family. Over the next few days I’ll be posting comments about each production — one about a young, nonbinary filmmaker and his parents, another showing us a pair of lovers who seek to understand one another’s pasts, a third a memoir about a Holocaust survivor and his indomitable spirit, and one that explores the community of Black people living with HIV/AIDS.
I’ll soon be posting comments about each of these shows on my Facebook page, Rick Pender’s Theater Stages & Scenes. I hope you’ll read about them, and maybe even plan your own trip to West Virginia next year! More information at https://catf.org/