RE: 2009 FESTIVAL

As I reflect on the 2009 Contemporary American Theater Festival I recall this cool quote from Red Skelton:

“When I get through with any show, last thing I do, I take a look at that bare stage when I’m leaving the theater. I don’t hear any applause. I don’t hear any laughter. And I say to myself, ‘Tomorrow, I must start again. One hour ago I was a big man. I was important out there. Now it’s empty. It’s all gone.’ Young people don’t realize that each time they walk out on the stage, they’re new. For those who do realize it, the act never gets old.”

The theater is an art form that is not permanent. It must be reinvented with each production…or with each season. So I find it difficult to look back after a season has closed. The stage is empty…awaiting to be reinvented…Hindsight in the theater is rare. We are already focusing more clearly on the present to help secure our place in the future. My eyes are focused on the 2010 Theater Festival…our 20th Anniversary Season!

The 2009 Festival is now history. Shepherdstown WV was transformed by the wonderful artists who created the 2009 Repertory. Art was in the air throughout the historic village of Shepherstown. Our patrons experienced Five new American plays in rotating repertory. They met the playwrights, discussed the work at early morning breakfasts,  post show talk-backs and late night conversations in a Shepherdstown pub. Our town was the perfect place to abandon responsibility and awaken creativity. It was an artistic celebration of ideas and contemporary storytelling. The 2009 Repertory tackled real ideas with a verve and style that I have not encountered anywhere else.

I love my work. I take so much joy in it, and I try not to look back on what I haven’t done, but instead on what I will do next season. I give you my word that the 2010 Repertory will be full of philosophy, spirituality, psychology, politics, drama and comedy. I am looking for new works that are engaged with life…work that is an intrinsic part of human existence.

Last summer we presented a first draft of the future of the American theater…thank you for helping us write it…we are partners in creativity.

Ed Herendeen