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ADDED PERFORMANCES

We have added four additional performances of WHITE PEOPLE by J.T. Rogers. This is great news! So check-out the new schedule on the CATF Web-site www.catf.org . I recommend that you make your ticket reservations now if you want to experience this powerful new play by J.T. Rogers.

“What is wrong with self-preservation? Where’s the sin there? Yes, I live in a community of people who look like me. I choose to live where my children will be privileged, where they’ll find opportunity. For thousands of years people all over the world have grouped with their own. But now we decide–What?–this is a bad thing? All of a sudden, we should throw comfort–protection–out the window? All of a sudden, I’m supposed to look around at the world and feel shame?”            Martin in WHITE PEOPLE

WHY YOU SHOULD SEE WHITE PEOPLE:

 The theater is a democracy. It pushes–expands our notion of who the “we” is. It creates a live, dynamic transaction between the performer and the audience. And this transaction is often controversial. I believe it is vital that our Theater Festival is a flash-pot in today’s turbulent world.The theater is a place where we can have a community dialogue about topics and issues that make us uncomfortable. I hope that our production of WHITE PEOPLE will prompt a fruitful dialogue about race and language in our culture.

“I mean, look around here. Everything’s different now. People are coming here on boat, foot, camel. Bringing their religion, food, talk…and I understand! I mean, the rest of the world is burning down. Even people like Dr. Singh are crawling over each other to get here. So I say good! Fine! But there’s just one thing everyone needs to remember: we were here first. You understand? Now that means something. All these people–black, brown, yellow–they need to see us, get behind us, and wait their turn. That’s what you call fair and that’s what you call just. Because me and Earl: We were here first.”     Mara Lynn in WHITE PEOPLE

Producing contemporary theater, especially in this moment, is a form of social activism. It is a statement of belief in the power of community, in the power of sharing the most private feelings in the most public of spaces–the theater. Contemporary theater is a messy business…it thrives on risks…This state of risk-taking can sometimes produce a collision of values between the audience and the risk-hungry artist.

I look forward to reading your comments. Lets’ talk…

Ed Herendeen

WHITE PEOPLE AT THE FESTIVAL

What does it mean to be a white American? What does it mean for any American to live in a country that is not the one you were promised? WHITE PEOPLE is a controversial and darkly funny play about the lives of three ordinary Americans placed under the spotlight: Martin a Brooklyn-born high powered attorney from a white-shoe law firm in St. Louis, MO; Mara Lynn, a  housewife and former homecoming queen in Fayetteville, NC; and Alan, a professor struggling to find his way in New York City. Through heart-wrenching confessions, they wrestle with guilt, prejudice, and the price they and their children must pay for their actions. WHITE PEOPLE, a new play by J.T. Rogers is a candid, brutally honest meditation on race and language in our culture.

J.T. Rogers (THE OVERWHELMING CATF 2008) returns to Shepherdstown with a sobering, unsettling but deeply rewarding look at a combustible issue many of us prefer to sidestep…WHITE PEOPLE will not be easy to sit through. It will raise questions as it challenges our assumptions about race. So…be a part of the conversation and join us in the intimate Performance Space in the Center For Contemporary Art at the 2010 CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL. I am looking forward to having a lively conversation with you about this controversial new work.

WHITE PEOPLE CAST:

Lee Sellarsplays Alan, a Manhattan professor who admires the determination of New York’s Dutch colonizers even as he acknowledges their persecution of Jews and Quakers. At the same time he is exhilarated, almost smitten, by Felicia, a black student.

Lee Sellars: Alan in WHITE PEOPLE

Margot White creates the role of Mara Lynn, a mother in Fayetteville, NC., who wrestles with memories of her cheerleader past; the faded athletic glories of her husband, Earl, now a delivery-truck driver; and the struggles of her young, epileptic son. Frustrated, she vents her wrath on an Indian physician. 

Margot White: Mara Lynn in WHITE PEOPLE

Kurt Zischke plays Martin, a driven St. Louis lawyer who bemoans what he sees as the decline of the English language and popular music. His disdain for his black secretary…and black culture in general…is pronounced.

Kurt Zischke: Martin in WHITE PEOPLE

Ticket Alert!    Several performances of WHITE PEOPLE are sold-out. Make your plans now to see this remarkable new work.

Ed Herendeen