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June 15, 2026 • Playbill

Casting has been revealed for the Contemporary American Theater Festival, which will run July 10-August 2 on the Shepherd University campus. The festival will stage five new plays by acclaimed playwrights with a company of performers and creative team members whose work spans leading theatre communities across the country.

The productions continue CATF’s long-standing commitment to developing and showcasing new American work… [featuring] Pulitzer Prize finalist Lisa D’Amour’s The Smoker and USA Today bestselling author Beth Kander’s Best Line Wins. MORE»

July 10, 2026 • WTOP

The Contemporary American Theater Festival opens its 2026 season with five new plays by acclaimed playwrights, including four world premieres… This year’s season also underscores CATF’s unique place in the theater world. The festival is now the last remaining U.S. summer theater festival devoted exclusively to producing new, fully staged American plays, making it a critical incubator for new voices and stories on the national stage.

Now in its 36th season, CATF’s summer lineup features five contemporary plays… presented in repertory at Shepherd University. ‘If we don’t have new work, we don’t build the canon of work that people see on the theater stages across the country and even across the world,’ said festival artistic director Peggy McKowen. MORE»

July 15, 2026 • Broadway World

Of all the gems this year’s Contemporary American Theater Festival has on offer, by far the most polished is Beth Kander’s loving portrait of one of America’s great comic geniuses, Elaine May. ‘Best Line Wins,’ centering on May and her on-again, off-again partnership with fellow comedian (and, later, Hollywood director) Mike Nichols, is an absolute gem.

Anyone with comedic aspirations who comes to this show will have a non-stop 90-minute class on what’s funny, how it’s funny, and how to get the most out of any comic premise under the sun… Ms. Kander has set herself a high bar indeed, writing at a level to match one of the early Sketch Comedy era’s most famous duos, and she absolutely nails it. MORE»

July 18, 2026 • DC Theater Arts

In Aurin Squire’s ‘My Favorite Sociopath,’ the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) takes a sharp, witty, cynical look at how sketchy ethics and the lure of the sensational lead to the demise of journalism and the rise of fake news. The show is laugh-out-loud funny in the bargain… ‘My Favorite Sociopath’ carries out the serious work of vaccination in a delightfully entertaining way.

In Céline Rosenthal’s direction, the characters’ lines to each other and to the audience flow seamlessly, with the rapid-fire delivery and quick uptakes that are part of great journalism stories… Her direction creates stage pictures that not only use the playing area fully and effectively but also foster credible spatial relationships among the characters. MORE»

July 29, 2025 • American Theatre Magazine

The Contemporary American Theater Festival is now the only U.S. gathering of its kind that fully stages all its offerings—and that matters more now.

“I get the impression that you’re excited,” Peggy McKowen told the crowd at the top of her curtain speech at the July 11 opening night of this year’s annual Contemporary American Theater Festival. In one sense, she was reporting a simple fact: There was indeed a palpable pre-show buzz in the 376-seat Frank Center Theater on the campus of Shepherd University, where CATF has been staging new plays each summer since 1991. MORE»

March 11, 2026 • WRNR (YouTube)

Host Rob Mario and co-hosts Bill Stubblefield and Maria Lorensen talk with CATF’s Artistic Director Peggy McKowen about CATF, the five plays coming to the Festival, and what CATF means to the Eastern Panhandle. MORE»

Exciting lineup on tap for theater festival in Shepherdstown, W.Va.

July 13, 2025 • Washington Blade

As a queer Latino freelance costume designer, Christopher Vergara’s work has taken him from Broadway to a multitude of regional outposts and companies worldwide. Over the last decade, he’s lent his prodigious talents to theater, opera, TV, and film, and beyond.

Currently the native New Yorker is costuming playwright Mark St. Germain’s new two-hander “Magdalene,” now making its world premiere at the annual Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) at Shepherd University in historic, queer-friendly Shepherdstown, W.Va. (just a 90-minute drive from D.C.). MORE»

The Rousuck’s Review: The Contemporary American Theater Festival

July 24, 2025 • WYPR

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom in the studio to review one of our region’s current theater productions.

This week, she gives us an inside look into plays on stage at the Contemporary American Theater Festival. The festival runs through August 3 at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. MORE»

Review: SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE… a Touching, Comedic Take on Mental Health

July 18, 2025 • BroadwayWorld.com

When someone we love suddenly finds themselves in great distress, and a therapist offers one quick, seemingly simple, chemical solution, should we take it?

And what if it turns out that solution is ten times worse than the distress your loved one was experiencing in the first place? What if the odds of crippling consequences, which seemed so remote at first, suddenly loom large and threaten to swallow you whole? MORE»

‘Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather?’ at CATF

July 15, 2025 • DC Theater Arts

Theatre Review: ‘Kevin Kling: Unraveled’ at the Contemporary American Theater Festival

July 19, 2025 • MD Theatre Guide

“…moving production…a tour de force…”

“Kevin Kling: Unraveled” might just as well be titled “Kevin Kling: Unrivaled” as a more accurate reflection of the remarkably resilient Mr. Kling. His ability to thrive through adversity powers the stories in this moving production based on the life and times of the playwright and performer. MORE»

‘Magdalene’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival

July 15, 2025 • DC Theater Arts

It doesn’t take much to be intrigued by the works of Mark St. Germain. His Becoming Dr. Ruth was acclaimed at Theater J several years ago, while The Happiest Man on Earth and Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah both hit their strides at previous Contemporary American Theater Festivals. His Magdalene tackles history as remembered, perceived, and experienced by two biblical figures, Apostle Peter and Mary Magdalene. Germain provides backstory, reflection, and possible intention to these iconic figures as they explore and evolve to become totally different characters from who we expect them to be.. MORE»