ThinkTheater ThinkFIVE
From the Producing Director: Ed Herendeen


We are the Contemporary American Theater Festival. We are the theater of today, the theater of the Now. We are producing FIVE new American plays in rotating repertory that are present – and in the Now. This is who we are, what we are and how we will be remembered by future generations. We are responsible for helping to create the destiny of the American theater. We are paying attention to our world. We are listening to contemporary writers who are attuned to our world and whose stories help us to define these tumultuous times.

“My art is just about paying attention – about the extremely dangerous possibility that You might be art.” —Bob Rauschenberg


Lydia Diamond, Richard Dresser, Greg Kotis, Neil LaBute and J.T. Rogers are five contemporary writers who are paying attention, five playwrights who are listening to America and telling her stories. FIVE fresh, intuitive, haunting and entertaining voices who will ignite our passion and inspire the best in us. These perceptive artists are our emotional guides and their plays will help us to become more self-aware by mirroring our behavior. Their plays will resonate with you long after you leave the Festival.

I am personally inviting you and your friends to share our passion for new work produced without a safety net of tradition in the oldest town in West Virginia – doing the newest plays in America. Experience the thrill and excitement of live repertory theater. Participate in the entire Festival: meet the theater’s primary artists – the playwrights; attend the Under-The-Tent lecture series; post show talk-backs; stage readings; art exhibits and enjoy shopping and dining in our historic small town. See it all! Spend the weekend. Do a day trip. It is just a short drive from the Washington, DC/Baltimore metro area. Come to Shepherdstown, WV where the future spends the summer.

About the 2008 Repertory

Selecting the annual repertory of new American plays is the most important part of my job as producing director. It is a unique responsibility. The process includes reading manuscripts, attending “pitch” meetings with literary agents and playwrights, as well as attending stage readings and workshops of developing work. It is a yearlong process beginning in the spring and continuing into the fall. By November I usually have a short list of twelve or more projects that I am compelled to produce. The final selection occurs in late November and early December.

In selecting the new work that makes up the 2008 repertory I was looking for plays that attempt to capture a portrait of the contemporary American landscape. I was seeking innovative and risk-taking playwrights whose stories express the strength, and the vision, the beauty, the rage and the hope of our nation.

I have chosen FIVE playwrights who I believe give the voice and energy to the NOW.

The 2008 repertory is a snapshot of today’s theater. We have harnessed the imagination of five playwrights who are actively engaged with today’s world. Their work punctures the complacency of popular culture and commercial media. These plays are immediate, relevant and in the moment. They are stimulating, provocative new works that will create an opportunity for a living conversation about our world. I am proud to introduce you to this robust repertory.

In The Overwhelming J. T. Rogers has written a play that is both a brilliantly crafted piece of writing and a tense, suspenseful exploration of one of the great human tragedies of our time- the Rwandan genocide. This is a gripping, deeply provocative work that challenges us to examine our moral responsibilities as a member of the human race. Man’s cruelty to man knows no bounds and the lesson that we learn at the heart of Rwanda’s darkness is how awful life can be for all of those who know power only through hatred. I look forward to receiving your input once you have experienced this important, relevant new work.

Explosive family secrets come to life in Lydia Diamond’s heart-felt new play Stick Fly. The dialogue here is as sharp as a razors edge. Stick Fly exposes a complicated family in disarray. This is a story about fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, race, class and privilege. I am thrilled to introduce you to this powerful emerging writer. This is a voice you’ve been waiting to hear. A voice that is brutally honest and brutally funny. This is a play about trying to connect, and a play about the undeniable effects of class.

Richard Dresser returns to Shepherdstown with the final play in his trilogy, The Pursuit of Happiness. I am proud to complete his trilogy with the world premiere of A View of the Harbor, a comedy about class, corruption, and legacy. Dresser explores the awesome power of family and the futility of trying to escape it.

Daniel, the patriarch is a force of nature; Nick, the son, has grown up in the enormous shadow that his father has cast; Kathryn, the daughter is crippled by her own attempts to do the right thing; and Paige, the girlfriend has grown up with new money and is unburdened by generations of wealth and expectations. Dresser’s characters struggle to achieve happiness on their own terms.

Rick calls CATF his “artistic home” and I am pleased to welcome him back to the Festival.

Tony Award winning Greg Kotis’ new play Pig Farm is the dirtiest play of the season. On a struggling pig farm, Tom and Tina fight to hold onto everything they own - fifteen thousand restless pigs. This is a comedy about hard-times and heroism in the American heartland. A supercharged, messy comedy that attacks political paranoia and exposes how the food we eat gets to our table. Greg Kotis writes: “We sometimes ruin our lives and our world without knowing it, pursuing dreams that are entirely reasonable… boys want to be men and men want to live free.”

I don’t want to mislead you…Pig Farm is a farce… a filthy farce. It gives new meaning to the cliché “food for thought.” It is a comedy about pork… the other white meat.

And finally Wrecks by the dark prince of the American stage – Neil LaBute. Yes we have added a fifth play this season! LaBute is a playwright I have long admired. He writes with a rapid-fire acid tongue. He has been compared to David Mamet and Sam Shepard because of his ability to write plays that mix sympathy and savagery, pathos and power.

Wrecks is a love story. Can someone honestly love a person they have deceived for thirty years? This is a story about a grieving widower, adoring father and a successful businessman. It is a provocative, sharp, compelling piece of theater. I am looking forward to producing this shockingly disturbing new play.

We are the Contemporary American Theater Festival and we are growing! We are producing FIVE new plays in rotating repertory July 9th – August 3rd 2008. FIVE plays. FIVE playwrights. FIVE theatrical experiences.

Ed Herendeen


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