James

Okay. Here we are, 2011 coming to a close – we had a great year and season, with record-setting attendance, the groundbreaking for the new theater here on Shepherd University’s campus (to open in 2013), former CATF plays hitting the big screen and Broadway, Ed joining the Theatre Communications Group (TCG) board, etc., etc.  But what are your most striking memories of the past year? Shotguns? Finicky fans?

 Peggy

Wow! I heard this question and I stopped to think about a striking memory and everything was truly a blur.  Perhaps oddly enough, some of my most memorable moments came from our additional programming.  I thought watching Dr. Aaron Anderson, or resident fight genius, work with our audience in a stage combat session was just priceless. Listening to our audiences argue and debate the merits of WE ARE HERE in a talk-back was enlightening to me.  At a Lunch & Art session, one of the artists brought his parents to participate in the conversation and listening to them talk with pride about the work of their child and his involvement with CATF was simply rewarding to hear.  I guess what I realize now is that it is truly the exchange we have with our audiences that reaches through the plays to a deeper, more powerful relationship.

Ed

The past year has seen protest, unrest, and upheaval around the globe.  Here at home we are all painfully aware of the political stagnation and divide, as well as the continued economic uncertainties.  Through it all, life and art went on – it was not only at CATF that there was record attendance, but around the world – at the Epidaurus Theater, Barcelona Festival, France, etc.  An article in The New York Times in August – which featured conversations with a number of artistic directors – hypothesized that “perhaps people turn to art in difficult times.”  If so, this impulse—this reaction—continues to be interesting to me and I’m hopeful CATF is feeding and responding to that need in some way.

Personally, one of my fondest memories from 2011 was the opportunity to direct the world premiere of FROM PRAGUE by Kyle Bradstreet.  It was exciting to have the “living playwright” in rehearsal and work with the cast and him on developing the script during those four crucial weeks leading up to its performance run.  Plus, of course, talking to Sam Shepard about AGES OF THE MOON – he gave me excellent insights into his script which helped tremendously. And working with props designer Sean McArdle – who has worked on several of Sam’s plays now – on the fan provided a great special effect. The RACE rehearsals sizzled – the cast was fantastic and it was a joy to work with them on the tempo and rhythm of a David Mamet play.  Also, I am so proud of THE INSURGENTS – it’s always a risk to commission a new play; as they are produced without the safety net of tradition. Lucy Thurber was a joy to work with.  Commissioning a work is truly collaborative process – from the donor (our friend Katha Kissman) taking the lead, to the creative team, the director Lear, the actors – and I am thrilled about our partnership with this important and original voice. You don’t have to look deeply into the year’s news headlines – “we are the 99%”, “class warfare” – to see how prescient Lucy was with this play.

James

Peggy, I’m sure for many of our CATF friends and patrons – beyond June and July – they don’t know what we do with the rest of our year here. Once the final performance comes to a close and our incredible production team strikes the sets, we go from a company of over 90 theater artists to just the three of us, and our terrific board, left standing.  How have we been passing the time since? Obviously sleep was priority number one in August – then what?

 Peggy

I think many people have some inkling of the process to take down the scenery, put the costumes away and say goodbye to all the artists, but I often wonder if people truly understand the level of administrative detail that closing a season involves. We have $800,000 worth of receipts, payroll stubs, deposits slips, etc. to be accounted for, filed, and prepped for an extensive annual audit.  Just think of what you do to prepare your household taxes!   Analyzing the previous season for financial trends as we prepare the upcoming season budget is always fascinating and informative by providing a tangible sense of what occurred the previous season.   Manuals, handbooks and policies all need finalized before the close of each fiscal year. The “paper closing” seems endless sometimes.

 And then, while the ending of one season is consuming us, the beginning of the next must simultaneously happen.  What do we want to improve on next year?  How can we provide more opportunities for our audience to really participate with us?  What plays will we do?  How do we raise the money to do that play?  When is the grant deadline? Who will the artists be?  What does the marketing look like?  Each question takes more than a minute to answer, often requiring weeks of the team’s collaborative work to come up with the 2012 solution.

 James

Ed, without giving too much away, what are your first reactions to the plays you’ve been reading (and now have selected) for the 2012 season?  

Ed

I am overwhelmed by the 75+ manuscripts I have read this fall. The work is full of pain and joy; drama and conflict; and social issues and personal moral and ethical character choices. The economy, housing crisis, violence, evil acts done by real human beings, dysfunctional families – all dominated my reading.  Comedies were mostly absent – while dramas and political and psychological thrillers were common.  Plus, I read a lot of historical plays set in the civil rights period, Nazi Germany, the War of 1812.  Every fall, I feel like I am given a front row perspective on the pulse of the country and world through the lens of our contemporary writers. I think the 2012 season of plays will provide a diverse snapshot on the issues and ideas dominating our world and thinking right now.  

James

Peggy, you and I have the unique perspective of watching Ed build, practically from scratch, the annual repertory of plays.  What’s the process like? 

Peggy

It’s like riding the biggest, fastest roller coaster ever while knowing that Ed Herendeen is driving the lead car.  You jump in the car thinking, I’ve been on a roller coaster before—what’s the big deal?  As we climb, Ed talks you through his ideas about the season and then suddenly there are three new, fabulous plays to consider. He absolutely loves them and you’re whisked away in a rush of passion and intensity and you think, ‘we will never discover more exciting  plays’.  On the next upward climb we discover that the rights aren’t available or it won’t fit with the parameters of the casting pool and the climb seems to keep going forever.  The following morning, Ed is back in the lead talking about another new play and you think, ‘this is it!  How could we do better?’  But as we read the play aloud to each other we discover that the play doesn’t live up to its “selling pitch” and so the climb continues.  Finally, at a certain point the ride just has to end…so CATF slows down — Ed has found work that fits into our budget, the casting matrix, and venues and we are ready to produce a (well vetted, read, discussed, debated, and reread) selection of plays.  And then, before you know it, we’re right back at it preparing for another year, as if it the ride had never really stopped.

[The 2012 season will take place July 6 - 29. Look for the full season announcement in late February.  Want to be a part of the process?  Consider a tax-deductible contribution by visiting www.catf.org/donate.]

Most importantly I work with our artists to ensure that they have the best collaboratively artistic experience possible.  And occasionally, I assume the role of artist.  This year I’m designing the scenery for From Prague by Kyle Bradstreet and the costumes for our 2011 Commission, The Insurgents by Lucy Thurber.

Yep, I wear those artistic hats while I’m game-planning for the Festival-at-large. On the one hand I’m telling the designer in me to CREATE while on the other hand the festival producer in me is thinking this is only one set design in the context of a five show repertory. Ironically as an administrator I’m telling other artists to DREAM first and then later  resolve with the Festival team and collaborative process “the fit” of a show into the “whole” of the repertory. I feel a bit like Mrs. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde.

Fortunately, I work with a great Producer who says to me when I’m wearing my designer hat, “I love it when you talk art…just create, dream…” And, that’s what I’ve tried to do this week – TAKE TIME TO DREAM about the world of From Prague.

From the script by Kyle Bradstreet:

Set:

A ruined, crumbling church. As if God were only a memory.  It is December, and a light snow has recently fallen about the stage.

“She wore a white and grey scarf. Transparent. Looked like snow on a sad day.”

“Me on the floor, her on the sofa wrapped in the translucent snow.”

“You know what I mean by shuffling, right? Dragging my feet like this so you leave a trail in the snow. Evidence that you were there, goddam it.  You feel immortal for a bit, looking at that path behind you.”

So I ask myself what do my memories of trails in the snow look like?  What does snow look like during joyous or painful moments as I remember?  What does it look like in the light of a growing dawn?  And, the people that make up those moments, how do they color my snowy world? And how do I create this world – a world of memories that seduce the audience from the moment they arrive at the theater?

Yes, you’re right…From Prague may have snow in it…but what kind?

This gives you a taste of where my thoughts are going.  Next week I’ll put those images into textures, colors, shapes…and what I think will be a huge element, scale. More as I continue to dream; as I bounce back and forth between shows and as I juggle the activity between the two sides of my brain.  Yeah, I know…wish me luck.

What dya’ say we go on an adventure?

(pause, another approach)

How about…let’s just take a trek to Shepherdstown, the oldest town in West Virginia doin the newest plays in America?

It’s closer than you think…AND… It’s worth the trip!

So…what dya’ say?

Do you wanna be engaged?

Do you wanna be entertained?

Do you wanna be inspired, transformed and transported by the power of a good story?

(pause)

Where else can you see and experience FIVE new plays in rotating repertory in a beautiful, rural, historic American town? Where else can you meet other theater lovers like yourself and form an instant kinship and bond over art and ideas? Where else can you have total access to the makers of the art and engage in a living conversation? Where else can you dine, relax, walk and talk-theater?

(pause)

There is no place like the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Our 21st Odyssey continues with a rotating repertory of FIVE new American plays by:SAM SHEPARD. DAVID MAMET. TRACY THORNE. KYLE BRADSTREET.  LUCY THURBER.

So…What dya’ say we go on an odyssey…an adventure…and discover new American theater?

(pause, very simply this time)

How ’bout let’s just drop everything and go to the THEATER FESTIVAL?

Wanna join our artistic community…in July? Do you wanna share our journey to create the future?

Come on…What dya’ say?

BE AMAZED!– BE CHALLENGED!– BE ENTERTAINED!– BE INSPIRED!

Be present for the future of the American theater.

BE HERE NOW! The future spends the summer in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

So…What dya’ say?

Ed Herendeen, Producing Director

In every Festival Season you will find love and loss, paradox and mystery. But you won’t ever see mindless, escapist entertainment–because CATF doesn’t distract audiences with status-quo work. In an age of commercialism, we’re something of a miracle: serious artists producing challenging new works for the American stage.

I can’t promise you that every play, lecture, talk-back or performance will enlighten you, or cure even one tiny neurosis. I can promise you that each Repertory will contain some of the most radically intimate and socially conscious writing being performed today. The Contemporary American Theater Festival is a annual reminder that everyone has a story to tell and a voice to tell it. Those who attend the Festival and the playwrights and theater artists who create it are joined in an uncommonly close way. We are an artistic community. Every summer we come together to celebrate the glory and the heartache of being human.

I personally invite you and your friends to join me on our 21st ODYSSEY beginning on July 8th 2011. We will announce the 2011 Repertory later today.

Ed Herendeen, Producing Director

Lisa joins an elite group of former CATF Board Presidents.  Ron Jones, Andy Michael, Mary Helen Strauch, Lynn Shirley, and Stephen Skinner have provided the Theater Festival with their leadership, advice and dedicated support. Each of these extraordinary individuals has been instrumental in guiding and nourishing the creative work of the American playwright. I am forever grateful to these past presidents. They have embraced my vision to create a home for the future of the American theater.

Serving on an arts board is, especially in this moment, a form of social activism. It is a statement of belief in the power of community. The Contemporary American Theater Festival is supported by an outstanding Board of Trustees. They are a generous collection of individuals who are deeply committed to the Festival’s mission and core values. They give so much of themselves in service to our theater and to our community. They believe in the power of contemporary theater. They believe in the power of story. They believe in the power of sharing the most private of feelings in the most public of spaces–the theater. Together we breathe the same air–actor with actor, actor with audience, audience with audience–as we confront pain and difference, conflict and joy in the safe environment of the stage. Our Board shares a passionate belief that we can only grow as a society if we find the strength to confront and consider ideas and issues that may make us uncomfortable. Our trustees believe that a community without art has no voice, no memory, no aspiration — a community without art is no community at all.

I am always inspired when I walk into our board room and see the dedicated faces of our trustees. They have made room in their lives for our work. With so many things competing for their time, our trustees continue to commit their resources (intellectual as well as financial) as they freely choose to dedicate their valuable energy to our artists and our work. Our community is made better because of their support fot the Contemporary American Theater Festival. 

On behalf of the entire Theater Festival artistic community, I want to personnally thank Lisa Younis for her dedication and service as our Board President. I wish her all the best and look forward to seeing her, and her husband John, in our audience in the years to come.

I also welcome our next Board President — Jenny Ewing Allen. Jenny will continue to guide the Festival into the future. She will help to create and nurture an environment for a strong supportive relationship between the board members, the artists, and the festival staff as we continue our mutual creative journey.

–Ed Herendeen, Producing Director

Where else can you spend two days seeing and experiencing five new plays in a beautiful, rural, historic American town?

Where else can you meet other theater lovers and form a kinship and bond over art and culture?

Where else can you have total access to the makers of art and engage in a living conversation?

Where in America can you join a community of art travelers from across the nation and world and form relationships with people like yourself…who feel competent and free to question our contemporary world?

Where else can you shop, dine, relax, walk and talk-theater…talk  about real life issues, concerns and fears by listening to live theatrical stories?

Every July our audience takes to the road and joins a community of thrill seekers…truth seekers…beauty seekers…knowledge seekers…interesting and engaging human beings who form kinship’s with other human beings. This is an annual community made up of friends, traveling companions and strangers who all share a common (spiritual) bond. Many of you have been attending the Festival for years! I think that is REMARKABLE! You reunite in Shepherdstown with the same folks each season. You make the annual CATF TREK. You are a part of the CATF ODYSSEY…a unique theater adventure to be shared with friends…old friends…new friends etc…

Our loyal fans know what I am talking about when I describe the CATF TREK and the close bonds that a shared Festival experience brings. New relationships are quickly developed, as strangers become friends in the supportive environment of the Festival. We provide an opportunity for “random encounters” every summer. The random Festival encounter is perfect, cosmic, generating reunions and the warm glow of artistic and intellectual curiosity.

The Contemporary American Theater Festival is sort-of a secret society of people checking out great contemporary theater while escaping from everyday life to encounter a sense of belonging. Each person defines the festival experience a little differently. Sure the plays, the programming, the artists are the main attraction. But the audience is YOU. The audience is US!

I believe that our audience feels a special connection, brotherhood and kinship that you just can’t replicate at other theater venues…because we offer an entire experience that is about more than just seeing a play. Our geography…our location…our destination is truly unique.

How do you define your Festival experience? Please share with me a story about a “random CATF encounter”. Please share a personal CATF story. Tell me a remarkable CATF experience. I look forward to hearing from you on this Blog or via facebook etc…I want to hear from you.

Ed Herendeen, Producing Director

People spend more than fifty percent of their waking adult life working, so we might as well do what we love: Producing and developing new American theater in Shepherdstown, WV.

“An artist has to keep one ear to the ground and one to the heart.”–Bruce Springsteen

We have created an experience unlike any other theater. Each and every CATF Season is unique and different and stands alone and apart from other seasons. We treat our fans and artists to a different experience each and every season. No two Festival Seasons are the same…because we are pioneers in new play development. We differentiate ourselves from our competition by providing a total Festival experience. We have a reputation for nurturing a shared common experience. The Festival creates an instant kinship with our artists and our audience base. How do we do this?

We encourage independent behavior in our artists.

We innovate and don’t follow.

We stand-out.

We create our own landscape.

Our work is memorable.

Our work is remarkable.

We are willing to experiment.

We create a profound and ever evolving relationship between the audience and the work.

Our diverse group of playwrights provides a powerful combination of established and emerging voices: A mix of unique backgrounds unencumbered by conventional wisdom. This proves to be an extraordinary combination of innovative writing and provocative ideas. Our work, our plays, our Festival is authentic. And this authenticity endears us to our artists and fans. We will continue to keep a certain intimacy between ourselves and our patrons. We will continue to facilitate the culture of openness and availability that we have cultivated over the past two decades by enhancing the live theater experience. We will bring the Festival audience together in a vibrant community of conversation. Our Festival offers “all access.” Our patrons are participants…not just spectators. They assist us in our creative work: the development of new American plays. The CATF audience expects to be part of the Festival’s unique collective experience.

Ed Herendeen, Producing Director

Our Odyssey continues…

For two decades the Contemporary American Theater Festival has invited brave artists and adventurous audience members to join us on an extraordinary odyssey to discover and create the future of the American Theater. It has been an exhilarating voyage in search of new American plays. Over the years we have explored and produced new works by some of the best playwrights in America, as well as discovering a new generation of emerging writers. Our quest for innovative new plays and new ideas has earned us a reputation as one of America’s most important producers of new work. Our long strange trip has been an artistic endeavor of collaboration between the artists, the work and our followers. This eventful journey began on a wing and prayer AND a burning passion to make art. Our passion, creative spirit, imagination and industrious commitment to discover truth and beauty in our turbulent world–guides us on our next odyssey.

I am looking forward to sharing with you my thoughts on our upcoming 2011 Theater Festival. I also look forward to hearing from you. Please send me your comments, reactions, impressions and testimonials from our 2010 Season. Let’s start a digital conversation. Let’s TALK THEATER!

Ed Herendeen, Producing Director

                    “A gas-masked figure tossing moon pies. A stuffed dachshund named Sarah Palin. A tap-dancing vagina. Those are just a few of the hallucinatory images that swim out of THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW, the most memorable, if not the most satisfying, production at the 2010 Contemporary American Theater Festival. —THE WASHINGTON POST  Wednesday, July 14, 2010

                   “If you long for the curious likes of Samuel Beckett’s WAITING FOR GODOT, or Tom Stoppard’s ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, you’re in for a treat…you’ll get an eye-popping evening with CATF’s world premiere offering of THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW.”—THE HERALD MAIL July 13, 2010

                    “The 20th Anniversary of CATF appears to be the finest yet of the five play summer series.”—Bob Anthony, allartsreview4u.com

                    “INANA…Michele Lowe has written a well made thing. It’s a pleasure to watch a play go beyond what is expected.”—THE MONSTERRAT REVIEW

Yes people are talking…more later… I am looking forward to your comments.

Ed Herendeen

Here’s a quote from the American Playwright Thornton Wilder:

                    “I regard the theater as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share  with another the sense of what it is to be a human being. The supremacy of the theater derives from the fact that it is always “now” on the stage.” 

Our previews begin next week and we open the 2010 REPERTORY on Friday July 9th. I’ll see you at the Festival.

Ed Herendeen