The Contemporary American Theater Festival is an American annual professional theatre festival held at Shepherd University, located in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. According to the New York Times, it is one of "50 essential summer festivals". In 2016, Germany's World Guide identified the festival as one of the "Top 10 theatre festivals not to miss this summer". A representative of the Theatre Communications Group in its publication American Theatre stated that " forward focus has helped... change the American theatre conversation, bringing new voices and pressing topics to the stage..." The Festival specializes in premieres and second or third productions of new plays, currently producing six plays each summer in rotating repertory.
History
A 2010 NPR segment stated: "For 20 years, in the oldest town in West Virginia, new plays have had a home and a loyal audience. The Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University is a dream for the writers of those plays." The festival was started in 1991 "on a wing and a prayer and a $90,000 budget" by producing director Ed Herendeen. It was modeled after the Williamstown Theatre Festival, located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It has the goal of producing and developing new American theater, specifically plays that deal with contemporary issues and strive to challenge and entertain audiences. In addition to finding new scripts which could be either premieres or on a second/third production, the festival has also commissioned works since 1998. Through the summer of 2013, the festival has produced 100 plays, by 73 American playwrights, including 37 world premieres, 9 of which were commissioned. It had an operating budget for 2013 of $1 million. In 2017 the New York Times picked it as "one of the top festivals in theater... that we think you should see this spring and summer around the country". The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 caused officials to scrap the festival & defer to 2021.
Facilities
Housed on the university's campus, the CATF uses three performance spaces. The first is the 416 seat Frank Center for the Arts Stage, a conventional proscenium performance space without a curtain. The second is The Stanley C. and Shirley A. Marinoff Theater, a 180-seat flexible seating space, located in the recently completed Center For Contemporary Arts II. This space replaced the Studio Theater, an adapted space in Sara H Cree Hall. The third space is a smaller adapted black box space in Room 112 of Center For Contemporary Arts I. The CATF scene shop and costume shop are also located in the new CCA II.
