Steven Dietz and Yankee Tavern

I had a great conversation last week with Steven Dietz regarding our upcoming production of his new play YANKEE TAVERN. I am thrilled that Steven is returning to Shepherdstown. He premiered THE NINA VARIATIONS at CATF in 1996. He is a playwright that I truly connect with. His thirty plus plays have been widely produced in the United States and around the world. I recommend reading LONELY PLANET, PRIVATE EYES, FICTION, HALCYON DAYS and THE NINA VARIATIONS. He has an original voice and he knows the power of a good story.

Steven first told me about YANKEE TAVERN when I saw him last February in Denver at The Colorado New Play Summit. He sent me an early draft and we did a Stage Reading of it at CATF last July. The reading went really well and I am looking forward to producing it this summer.

YANKEE TAVERN is about a young man who seeks to debunk many of the wilder conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks—and then finds himself caught up in one of those very theories.

In a recent interview Dietz says “Conspiracies are catnip to a playwright—there’s a level of obsession and outlandishness to the personalities involved and there’s always just enough of the “truth” to ground the actions. And in the case of 9/11, the discussions (however feasible or off the grid) are endless. I couldn’t resist the story.”

Great stories beg to be told. And true artists are compelled to tell them. Steven Dietz is one of our best storytellers . . . he has an independent spirit and a distinctive voice. I am compelled to produce this dramatic thriller on our stage this summer. Dietz is a writer who is not afraid to go to the edges of society to tell stories that no one else will tell.

Playwrights are the theater’s storytellers, they broaden our minds, they engage, provoke, inspire and ultimately—they connect us.

—Ed Herendeen