Our Team

Peggy McKowen’s (she/her) association with CATF began in 2006, when she designed the costumes for Mr. Marmalade and Jazzland. As her time with the festival continued, she designed costumes for: Antonio’s Song: I was dreaming of a son, The Welcome Guest, The Wedding Gift, Not Medea, Everything You Touch, 1001, H2O, and Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah; and scenery for From Prague, Wrecks, and Gidion’s Knot.

In 2007, Peggy joined the full-time staff as the Associate Producing Director. Since then, she has produced new works by: Johnna Adams, Christina Anderson, Lee Blessing, Angelica Chéri, Kara Lee Corthron, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Lydia R. Diamond, Steven Dietz, Richard Dresser, Charles Fuller, Keith Glover, Allison Gregory, Barbara Hammond, Chisa Hutchinson, Dael Orlandersmith, J.T. Rogers, Antonio Edwards Suarez, Lucy Thurber, Michael Weller, Beau Willimon, Bess Wohl, and others.  She was instrumental in expanding the festival’s season from four to five, and from five to six plays. She was a driving force behind transferring CATF’s Uncanny Valley by Thomas Gibbons to 59E59 Theaters in New York, CATF’s first Off-Broadway production.

Peggy is dedicated to creating an anti-racist and anti-oppressive (ARAO) culture at CATF. She was instrumental in creating the institution’s ARAO committee and monthly ARAO discussion groups. She is developing a strategic and ongoing ARAO plan with Sarah Bellamy, CATF’s equity, diversity, and inclusion consultant, while engaging both staff and trustees in the journey.

Peggy strengthened CATF’s educational and outreach programming. She created new initiatives to increase and sustain the attendance of young audience members including Hostel YOUTH! for high school students and CATF/U for college students, and also reimagined the festival’s internship experience for emerging professionals. She enhanced and leads talktheater, the organization’s humanities series that encourages audience members to actively discuss the themes of the plays in a variety of events including lectures, panel discussions, and deliberative dialogues.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Peggy led the Contemporary American Theater Festival’s quick switch to digital programming. She envisioned CATF art in new ways for patrons and artists.  She created both the CATFUNMUTED and playcastplus series that included online engagement between audiences and artists, interviews with designers and directors, audio dramas, and community celebrations.

Peggy was the featured artist in the exhibition High Drama: Costumes from the Contemporary American Theater Festival at the Museum of Fine Arts, Washington County, Maryland, which also toured to four cities throughout West Virginia. In 2018, Peggy was named West Virginia Artist of the Year at the Governor’s Arts Awards and in 2019, she was recognized by WV Living Magazine as one of the Wonder Women of the Year. Shepherdstown’s Insurance Outfitters awarded Peggy the 2018 Culture and the Arts Guide Award for her dedication to the local arts community. She is a member of United Scenic Artists 829.

Prior to joining the festival, Peggy was the resident designer for the Obie-award-winning Jean Cocteau Repertory in NY and the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble. Her regional theater work has been seen at Arkansas Repertory Theatre; Barrington Stage; Milwaukee Repertory Theater; Tennessee Repertory Theatre; Texas, Dallas, and Houston Shakespeare Festivals; and Perseverance Theater. International theater work includes the B.A.T. Studio Theatre (Berlin, Germany); the Teatro Alfa Real (Sao Paulo, Brazil); and the E.T.A. Hoffmann Theatre (Bamberg, Germany). Peggy designed the first full-length English-speaking production of The Tempest in Beijing, China and the first Mandarin translation of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying for the Seven Stages Production Company in Beijing.

Peggy holds an MFA from the University of Texas (Austin), and has taught theater and humanities at Shepherd University, Dickinson College, Dickinson College/London/Rome, and West Virginia University, where she was Chair of the Division of Theatre and Dance for five years and received the Outstanding Creative/Scholarship and Teaching Award several times throughout her tenure. Peggy played a significant role in creating Shepherd University’s theater major – a B.A. in Contemporary Theater Studies, in collaboration with the Department of Contemporary Art and Theater. She is often a respondent for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival for arts administration, design, and play performance.

Peggy has been a member of the Rotary Club of Shepherdstown, is currently a member of the Shepherdstown Centennial Lions Club, and connects CATF in an active partnership with the Eastern Panhandle Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. Peggy served on the Arts Advisory Council for Hagerstown Community College and the Board of the Shepherdstown Visitors Center. She directed the Antietam Remembrance walk, an inter-state event between West Virginia and Maryland. From 2011 to 2019, she also directed and produced Rumsey Radio Hour, the annual fundraiser for the Shepherdstown Library. She currently serves on the board for the National New Play Network.

In recognition of her work as both theater designer and administrator, Peggy has been featured in Live Design and Wonderful West Virginia magazines. Her production work has been captured in American Theater magazine, The New York Public Library Videotape for the Theater on Film and Tape Archive, The New York Times, Back Stage, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The Theater Experience and Theatre: The Lively Art. Peggy is also the co-editor of the anthology, Plays by Women from the Contemporary American Theater Festival, a collection of plays by women that had their first production at the festival.

Trent Kugler spent his first summer at CATF in 2006 as Technical Director for the Frank Center Theater, and went on to build his professional career as the Assistant Technical Director at Studio Theater in Washington, D.C. working on shows including Helen Hayes nominated productions such as Adding Machine: A Musical (2009); The Solid Gold Cadillac (2010); Grey Gardens (2009); The History Boys (2009); Souvenir, A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins (2008); Reefer Madness: The Musical (2008). During his time in DC, Trent was awarded the League of Washington Theatres’ Off Stage Award in 2008.

Trent began working full time with the festival in 2020 after spending the previous 10 years working seasonally with CATF and serving as Technical Director for the departments of art, theater, and music at Shepherd University. He continues to serve at Shepherd as an adjunct instructor of technical theater. Trent obtained his BFA in Theater Design/Technology from Otterbein University. His interest in robotics and building small electronic contraptions resulted in his first published paper by USITT and a Tech Expo “Best in Show” award for his work A Realistic and Interactive LED Candle in 2015.

Amy Wratchford is a seasoned arts leader with over two decades of experience in nonprofit theater.  In 2021, Amy founded The Wratchford Group, an arts management consulting company with the vision to transform nonprofit arts organizations creating a stable, thriving, empowering, and equitable industry. Amy specializes in interim executive leadership, financial stabilization plans, Board governance, organizational analysis, and executive coaching. Interim leadership and advisory clients include Virginia Repertory Theatre, Barter Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Synetic Theatre, the Old Globe, and the Historic Masonic Theatre.  Beyond the arts, Amy also advises local nonprofits, including the Arrow Project, LIFEWorks, and New Directions Center.

Amy’s personal mission is to help create a more joyful, wholehearted, courageous world through the power of her example.  She spent over ten years as Managing Director of the American Shakespeare Center. As the company’s chief administrative and financial officer, Amy oversaw finance, marketing, development, and other business management functions for ASC. In her first three years, Amy led the company to eliminate $1M in debt and back accounts payable. During her tenure, ASC’s budget grew from $2.4M in 2010 to $4.2M in 2020 (pre-COVID). She was instrumental in ASC’s successful SafeStart Season, becoming one of only a handful of theaters to safely produce for live audiences during the summer of 2020. During this time, she not only successfully garnered almost $2M in COVID relief funding but, also assisted numerous arts organizations in their SVOG and ERTC application processes.

Before joining ASC, Amy served as Managing Director of Synchronicity Theatre in Atlanta. Previously, she worked for 13 years in a number of capacities in theater in New York City including producer, director, and actor. Amy regularly serves on grant panels, including the National Endowment for the Arts and Virginia Commission for the Arts, as well as adjudicating panels, including EdTA China’s 2019 National Young Thespian Festival in Shanghai, as well as state, regional, and national community theater festivals.

She was an elected member of the Staunton City School Board (2018-2022; Vice Chair 2019-2022) and serves as Treasurer for both the Board of the Community Action Partnership of Staunton, Augusta, and Waynesboro (CAPSAW) and the Staunton High School Band Boosters.  Amy has previously served on the advisory boards for both the Shenandoah LGBTQ Center and the Shenandoah Valley Governor’s School. She routinely lectures on finance, budgeting, and nonprofit governance for graduate, undergraduate, and high school programs. Amy holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in Acting from the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University and a master of fine arts degree in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College.

When not supporting all manner of performing arts, Amy enjoys reading, crocheting, baking, hiking, and riding her motorcycle through the back roads of the Shenandoah Valley.

As an alum of CATF’s internship program, Mayme (she/her) joined the Festival’s staff in 2024. She served as the Company Management Intern in 2006, helped patrons as the seasonal Group Sales and Ad Sales Manager in 2023, and is now with the company year-round to support Festival operations and the talented staff who work hard to make the magic of CATF happen year after year.

Olivia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre, with a minor in strategic social media. Following college, she went on to work for a production company and then, later on, working in higher education as an academic advisor on a grant program. She is thrilled to join the CATF team and relishes the chance to support art in the state of West Virginia, where she was born and raised. In 2024, Olivia also became part owner of Filmed by Bike, a film festival based in Portland, Oregon. She now serves as Festival Director and is passionate about promoting storytelling and creativity within the outdoor and athletic community.

Heidi Fortune Picker, Director of Development, joined CATF in February 2026 with more than two decades of experience in nonprofit development and arts administration. Prior to CATF, she spent ten years as Director of Engagement at 1st Stage Theatre in Tysons, Virginia, building the organization’s development program from the ground up and cultivating lasting relationships with donors, audiences, and community partners. Heidi approaches fundraising as relationship work first, bringing genuine curiosity and a long view to every donor partnership.

As an artist and teaching artist, she brings to her work a practitioner’s conviction about why new work matters. Her longstanding involvement with Ford’s Theatre Education programs and others has deepened both her love of the art form and her ability to communicate its value to the people who help sustain it. She holds an M.A. in Arts Administration from Winthrop University and a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from Webster University Conservatory of Theater Arts.