Welcome to the 19th Season of the Contemporary American Theater Festival
Welcome Remarks to the 2009 Contemporary American Theater Festival Company. Monday June 8TH. Shepherdstown West Virginia:
In these wildly uncertain times, we are so pleased and proud to continue to provide an artistic haven for new American theater. Now more than ever, we must create an environment in which artists can work rigorously and deeply, be challenged to risk, and risk again.
And where better than here, at this extraordinary university, within a community of some of the best artists in the American theater, in the company of a generous and supportive Board of Trustees who understands, appreciates and, best of all, participates in the process of developing new work?
This summer you have the opportunity to work with such acclaimed writers as Eisa Davis, Steven Dietz, Victor Lodato, Michael Weller, and Beau Willimon.
Tonight . . . I am asking you to help me to re-invent the Contemporary American Theater Festival.
Tonight . . . I am asking you to help me to re-create the Theater Festival.
The South African writer Antjie Krog described meeting a nomadic desert poet in Senegal who described the role of poets in his culture. The job of the poet, he explained to her, is to remember where the water holes are. The survival of the whole group depends on a few water holes scattered around the desert. When his people forget where the water is, the poet can lead them to it.
This is a great metaphor for the role of the artist in any culture. The water is the history, the memory, the juice, and the elixir of shared experience. I want all of us to keep this notion in mind as we begin our work this summer.
Eisa Davis, Steven Dietz, Victor Lodato, Michael Weller and Beau Willimon know where the water holes are…AND… they need all of us to help our audience to find them.
Leonard Bernstein, the composer and conductor, suggested that a musician’s response to violence should be to “make the music more intense.” This is what I want us to do. I want to make the work more intense. Not just loud but eloquent, expressive, magnetic, and powerful.
We can not perform on weak knees at this Theater Festival…no matter what our job is. We must “create dangerously.”
I want our work to be strong, emboldened, wild, persuasive, and relevant!
To do this . . . we will need courage and a love of our art form.
When was the last time that you truly “created dangerously?
When was the last time that you took a big risk?
I want FIVE powerful, theatrical productions.
I want brave writing, inventive designs, and radiant acting that will galvanize and profoundly transform our audiences’ expectations about how broad the spectrum of life can be beyond daily survival. Art is more necessary and powerful today—than ever. Art can unite and connect the strands of the universe. When we are in-touch with art, borders vanish and the world opens up. Art can expand the definitions of what it means to be human.
So can we agree to hold ourselves to higher standards and make more rigorous demands on ourselves this summer? Art demands action, discipline and commitment.
Imagine starting a professional non-profit theater . . . Imagine producing a theater repertory dedicated to new work . . . Imagine the challenges of producing contemporary theater during these difficult economic times . . .
In 1991 the Contemporary American Theater Festival was one of five start-up Equity theaters in the country. At the end of the 1991 season we were one of two new theaters to announce a second season. The other three had closed after their first year.
That any theater company comes together at all, ever, is a miracle. It’s been said by many, that in order to take on a career in the professional theater, your need to do it must supersede virtually every other desire you could possibly have. To make it you must make sacrifices: of your time, of your financial security, of your personal life, and many times of every last shred of your peace of mind. You must be tough. Your self esteem had better be bulletproof, and not simply in terms of the numerous professional rejections and the struggle you will invariably face. You also need to know who you are and like who you are 24/7.
The world is indeed better off because there are those people who live to write, act, direct, stage manage, design for the stage, work tech crews—and perhaps the most daunting prospect of all . . . start and build their own theater companies.
So why are we here tonight? We are here because we are united by our passion for new work. We are united by newness. We are united by this quote from the American playwright Steven Dietz:
“The theater is not about nostalgia. The theater is not a museum. Plays don’t hang on walls, oblivious to time. The theater is a rehearsal of the present moment.”
Great stories beg to be told. And true artists are compelled to tell them. Playwrights are the theater’s storytellers. Eisa Davis, Steven Dietz, Victor Lodato, Michael Weller and Beau Willimon’s plays will broaden your minds, engage, provoke, inspire and ultimately connect us.
The Contemporary American Theater Festival believes in the power of story. We are producing five new plays by artists with original voices who embody an independent spirit and a distinctive story.
Tomorrow we will begin the rehearsal process for our 2009 season. You are joining an artistic community that celebrates the creative impulse of the American playwright. You and I will engage our audience in an on-going dialogue of ideas by creating a repertory that inspires discussion, touches hearts, and open minds.
On behalf of Eisa Davis, Steven Dietz, Victor Lodato, Michael Weller and Beau Willimon:
WELCOME TO SHEPHERDSTOWN! The oldest town in West Virginia doing the newest plays in America.
WELCOME TO THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL AT SHEPHERD UNIVERSITY.
We are a playwright inspired theater. We believe that the stage has a unique responsibility in presenting “living” issues that are immediate, present, and compelling.
We only produce plays that we feel in our guts must be witnessed, heard, experienced.
We believe in these plays.
We believe in the audience.
We believe in inspiration.
We believe in craft.
We believe in dramatic tension and suspense.
We believe in character, conflict, action, and ideas.
We believe that the first duty of any play is to interest, engage, and delight its spectators.
We believe all good plays are about human nature and the questions in our hearts.
Can I count on you to take big risks and CREATE DANGEROUSLY?
Let’s go to work . . . Work hard . . . Play hard . . .
Have a great summer!
—Ed Herendeen