At a “sneak peek” event in its home in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, on March 26, the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) announced its summer program of five new plays, all world premieres.
No less important than the announcement of the plays themselves was CATF’s statement about how the Festival intends to respond to the time in which we are living, when free expression is under unprecedented threat. “Fearless stories matter,” CATF proclaimed. “We choose to uplift our values of creating fearless art, telling diverse stories, serving our communities, and welcoming an inclusive family to our new play experience,” notwithstanding “censorship and oppression.”
CATF’s season, running from July 11 to August 3, 2025, is highly varied. Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather?, by Cody LeRoy Wilson, is a first-person story of a Vietnamese American exploring his family’s history and his own identity. Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular, by Lisa Sanaye Dring, uses a combination of stunts, video, puppetry, and cinematic illusion to tell the story of two queer Hollywood stuntmen in love.
Mark St. Germain, whose Holocaust monologue, The Happiest Man on Earth, was a highlight of last year’s CATF season, offers Magdalene, imagining Peter reconnecting with Mary Magdalene, exploring their different recollections of Jesus 18 years after the crucifixion. Another sort of faith features in Lisa Loomer’s Side Effects May Include…, the side effects in question being those of over-reliance on psychiatric medications.
Storytelling takes center stage in Kevin Kling: Unraveled. Kling appeared by video to talk about his background as a person with a disability and the storytelling, theater, and music hybrid (with musician Rob Whitmer) he has constructed for the show.
CATF has been performing its high-quality professional productions for three decades in Shepherdstown, a culturally lively town a one-and-a-half drive from Washington, DC. More information and tickets for the upcoming season are available online at catf.org or by phone at 681-240-2283.
