For playwright Lisa Loomer, Side Effects May Include…, now playing as part of the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF), is a deeply personal project. In 2019, just as the COVID epidemic was about to begin, Loomer’s son developed a little known, but devastating, condition, akathisia. In 2021, Loomer wrote a lengthy article about her son’s experience with the condition and the infuriating struggle she had with the medical system in trying to get help for him. The play hews closely to the story she wrote.

Some background: Akathisia is clinically defined as “a neuropsychiatric syndrome and movement disorder that makes it difficult to sit or remain still due to an inner restlessness… A person with akathisia experiences an intense sensation of unease or an inner restlessness. This results in a compulsion to move… In most cases, the movement is repetitive. This uncontrollable need to move can cause extreme distress.”

“Extreme distress” hardly does justice to the experience of Gabriel, the play’s young man having to deal with akathisia. “Living in a scream” is how one character describes it. In her article, Loomer speaks of akathisia sufferers as feeling “like having your blood replaced with battery acid” or “like being burned alive in a locked coffin … like being violently tortured from the inside out.” It often leads to suicidal ideation, with which Gabriel contends in the play.

Gabriel’s mother (Liza Fernandez) says, from the beginning, that the play is Gabriel’s story. Much of the play, however, centers on his mother, who tells the story, often breaking the fourth wall to directly address the audience about events and what lies behind them. Except for a brief video, Gabriel (Micah Myers), who everyone talks about, does not himself appear on stage throughout most of the play.

Actress 1 (Sophie Zmorrod), Actress 2 (Susan Lynskey), and Male Actor 1 (Jimmy Kieffer) portray a wide variety of people with whom Gabriel’s mother interacts: her husband, a friend, and a bewildering array of doctors and other medical providers who frequently misdiagnose Gabriel, offer competing treatment ideas, and with one exception, fail to help him or make matters worse. Gabriel’s mother speaks of the situation being “Kafkaesque,” and the situation is one in which that frequently overused term fits all too well.

The actors playing multiple roles distinguish their various characters through a style of speaking, a minor costume change, or a tweak of hair design. When they are playing someone close to the mother — Kieffer as her husband, Lynskey as her best friend, Zmorrod as Gabriel’s girlfriend — they create believable and often sympathetic characters. When they portray doctors and others in the medical system, they provide brief sketches of often woefully dense cogs in an impersonal machine. Director Meredith McDonough maintains the clarity of the action through all the many changes and interactions.

Fernandez gives a stunning performance as the frightened, angry, loving, persistent parent who wants to fix her son, but finds only obstacles in the system. Helping her son in desperate circumstances upends her life and changes her relationships. In her determination to understand what is happening to Gabriel, she learns that akathisia can be triggered not only by antipsychotic medications but by widely prescribed medications for garden variety depression and anxiety, which Gabriel had been given.

Loomer invites the audience to consider a number of important questions. What is normal, and who gets to define it? When you can’t fix a problem for someone you love, how do you accompany them through what they’re experiencing? When is suffering drastic enough to justify suicide? It turns out that genetic testing could identify people who are particularly susceptible to developing akathisia. Why isn’t that something that the medical system and pharmaceutical industry require, as a matter of truly informed consent, before prescribing any medication whose side effects can include akathisia in such people? Fully informed consent, with respect to all side effects, is what Loomer and the play demand for all medications.

Loomer and Fernandez find moments to break the tension with humor. On one occasion, roughly midway through the play, Fernandez asks the audience to get up and stretch, explaining that it’s no longer possible to mount a two-act play in American theater.

Chelsea Warren’s set centers a screen for Mona Kasra’s projections, which form an important part of the storytelling. The remainder of the set consists of functional wooden frameworks on either side of the main playing area.

Gabriel insists that “I am not this injury. I will not let this injury define my life.” That is something with which I am sure Kevin Kling, in his current CATF play, and the generation of great disability activists who made the Americans with Disabilities Act a reality, would readily agree. Side Effects May Include… makes the point vividly.

Running Time: 90 minutes with no intermission.

Side Effects May Include… plays through August 3, 2025, presented by the Contemporary American Theater Festival performing at Studio 112, 92 West Campus Drive, on the campus of Shepherd University, Shepherdstown WV, in repertory with four other CATF plays. Times, dates, and ticketing information may be found on the CATF website or by calling the CATF box office at 681-240-2283.

Side Effects May Include…
By Lisa Loomer
Directed by Meredith McDonough

CAST
His Mother: Liza Fernandez*
Actress 1: Sophie Zmorrod*
Actress 2: Susan Lynskey*
Male Actor 1: Jimmy Keiffer*
Male Actor 2: Micah Meyers*

PRODUCTION TEAM
Scenic Design: Chelsea M. Warren**
Associate Scenic Design: Ruidi Yang
Costume Design: Kathleen Geldard**
Lighting Design: Mary Louise Geiger**
Sound Design: Christian Fredrickson**
Projections Design: Mona Kasra**
Production Stage Manager: Lindsay Eberly*
Assistant Stage Manager: Allie Blaylock
Casting: Pat McCorkle LTD.
Dramaturg: Tom Bryant
Vocal Coach: Kiristen Trump

*Actors’ Equity Association
**United Scenic Artists
***Stage Directors and Choreographers Society

SEE ALSO:
Contemporary American Theater Festival announces full 2025 lineup (news story, March 31, 2025)

The post ‘Side Effects May Include…’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

I must admit I have never seen anything like Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular. Leave it to the Contemporary American Theater Festival to push the envelope into all kinds of theatrical configurations and domains. The descriptions don’t do justice to the fresh new realm of theater expression that writer Lisa Sanaye Dring, in collaboration with the Rogue Artists Ensemble, pulls together. (Rogue Artists Ensemble is “a collective of multi-disciplinary artists who create Hyper-theater, an innovative hybrid of theater traditions, puppetry, mask work, dance, music, and modern technology.”)

Aubrey Deeker plays Clay as the Narrator, Master of Ceremonies, a wiry, seasoned stuntman force of nature who must be seen to be believed. Clay commandeers the set when showcasing historical snippets of stunts — fascinating — as well as describing live-action events on the set and video. Clay sometimes functions through his alternate self, a life-size, beautifully jointed mannequin that communicates through a powerful voice box, Vadar-sounding echo chamber.

Glenn Morizio’s Felix is a fresh newcomer to the stunt scene, never having set foot on a set, but with excellent skills he’s been perfecting on his own. The two are a master class demonstrating impeccable precision, especially when engaged with sharp, unforgiving knives, daggers, and all kinds of sword weaponry. Felix is graceful with strong martial arts skills. Both performers are well supported by the Ensemble (Kelly Autry, Ambria Campbell, Joanna Carpenter, Nic Coccaro, Triever Sherwood, and Maggie Wratchford). They are a thrill to watch.

The creators dig deep to show the characters’ will and psyche as they function in this thrill-seeking work. Even more than an adrenaline rush, the characters are compelled to push to the max and beyond to fulfill their sense of self. Getting the stunt just right becomes the ultimate concern while safety coordinators rush around desperately trying to keep everyone unharmed, no small feat. Felix is determined to perform the legendary highest fall no matter how many times he’s been warned that the death-defying feat is usually not a “happy fall,” one that a performer walks away from. It’s like his life depends on attempting it, no matter what.

The Ensemble demonstrates the art of falling, not just a pratfall on the floor, but actual tumbles down a flight of stairs. How they perform these real-life head-over-heels rolls down steps show after show is beyond me. There’s no sleight of hand, just real tumbles down an angled staircase. It was remarkable and surely didn’t inspire anyone to try it at home.

Sound designers slam you back to the 1980s with a soundtrack filled with Boy George, Funkadelics, and the ’80s anthem Madonna’s “Vogue,” which starts and closes the show. Projections and audiovisuals are off the charts. Fabulous scenic design by Se Hyun Oh embeds an entire dressing room into the middle portion of the set, while costumes by Andrew Jordan go from spaghetti westerns to ninjas to the ultimate ’80s party strut complete with colorful sparkles and an array of disco glitter balls that fall from the ceiling on cue.

Director Ralph B. Peña keeps up a fun, circus-like pace, especially during the historical passages where video, narration, and acrobatics blend seamlessly. As Clay and Felix find their way to each other, the lights dim, and the sound settles for the haltingly tender moments. Their moves are carefully choreographed, but in an unscripted moment, when they accidentally touch, you could almost feel the current that jolted them both in surprise. The love story is threatened by Clay’s self-protective tendency to disassociate from his feelings as rendered by his alter-ego mannequin. Just as he denies feeling physical pain, his wooden self shields his emotional vulnerability.

While Felix is younger and much less inhibited, he’s also physically and emotionally wounded but refuses to succumb to the prevalent social stigma of the time. At one point, he reveals that we are all broken, a sentiment that can easily apply to all. For the characters to get past their own psychological barriers and share their affection and love is as much a feat as their stunt accomplishments.

The program description says it all:

Based on true life events and told through live stunts, video, puppetry, and cinematic illusions, this story is a fun, raucous tribute to the resiliency of the LGBTQIA+ community. Illuminating issues of identity in the film industry, this play highlights the importance — and danger — of being true to one’s self.

And, I would add, you‘ll have a good voguing time along the way.

Running Time: One hour and 40 minutes with no intermission.

Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular plays through August 3, 2025, presented by the Contemporary American Theater Festival performing at the Frank Center Theater, 260 University Drive on the campus of Shepherd University, Shepherdstown WV, in repertory with four other CATF plays. Times, dates, and ticketing information may be found on the CATF website or by calling the CATF box office at 681-240-2283.

Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular
By Lisa Sanaye Dring with Rogue Artists Ensemble
Directed by Ralph B. Peña

CAST
Glenn Morizio* as Felix
Aubrey Deeker* as Clay/Clay Puppet/Host

Ensemble:
Kelly Autry*
Ambria Campbell
Joanna Carpenter*
Nic Coccaro
Triever Sherwood
Maggie Wratchford

PRODUCTION TEAM
Scenic Design: Se Hyun Oh**
Costume Design: Andrew Jordan
Lighting Design: Jiyoun Chang**
Sound Design: Fabian Obispo**
Projection Design: Stefania Bulbarella**
Associate Projections Design: Eli Garmon
Stage Manager: Taeuk Kang*
Assistant Stage Manager: Esther Chilson
Casting: Pat McCorkle LTD.
Fight Director: Aaron D. Anderson***
Associate Fight Director: Cara Rawlings
Stunt Specialist: Frank Alfano
Intimacy Director: David Anzuelo***
Dramaturgs: Harris Kiernan, Amrita Ramanan

*Actors’ Equity Association
**United Scenic Artists
***Stage Directors and Choreographers Society

SEE ALSO:
Contemporary American Theater Festival announces full 2025 lineup (news story, March 31, 2025)

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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.

Peter’s entrance to Mary’s humble dwelling is loud with incessant knocking then pounding on her door. She finally lets him enter to stop the ruckus with an if-looks-could-kill “how dare you” demeanor. She had been summarily dismissed from the cadre of Jesus’ followers, and now Peter has the audacity to approach her for resolution and solace of some kind? Mary isn’t having it, and the two of them are off to the races recalling their encounters with Jesus and what the interactions meant along the way.

First of all, Mary (finally) has a voice, and she vehemently dispels the whole prostitute thing. From her description, one can see how convenient it could be to slap a label on someone when it could possibly even have been a different person or a conflation of other “Marys” that stuck with and defined her over time. The two recount miracle after miracle, describing what happened, but from their separate points of view. The versions sound totally different when they’re filled in with the backstory of who said and saw what, as they consider fascinating aspects of religion versus faith.

Peter retorts that he is the ultimate right-hand man with Jesus, who specifically proclaimed him as the “Rock” on which Christ will build his church, the Christian Kingdom. Mary punctures Peter’s inflated sense of himself, reminding him of his lethargy in the Garden of Gethsemane and Peter’s own persistent denial of Christ when needed most. “Rock” nothing, maybe more like blockhead, she implies. Oh yes, it is on, baby.

The bantering comes to a head when Peter reveals his urgency to see her. He’s seeking her alliance in dealing with Paul (previously known as Saul), who has proclaimed himself an apostle and is preaching the gospel to mega-numbers of followers for Christ. Mary again has the upper hand in noting that Paul’s more inclusive ministry includes women. She also reinforces the special closeness she had with Jesus along the journey and recounts her stance directly beneath the cross looking up at the horror of the crucifixion.

The casting works beautifully with Julian Elijah Martinez’s solid rendition of Peter, worn from the struggles of staying alive while adjusting to an evolving take on the Gospel that underpins his life. Sam Morales’ Mary is valiant in finally having her say in a culture that denies and shuns her humanity. Director Elena Araoz keeps the text flowing with dramatic appeal and wonderment of “What if…?” Germain’s closing moments imbue Mary with mystical powers that imply her own miraculous connections to an energy source. Enhanced by Nathan Leigh’s sound and Harold F. Burgess II’s lighting, the scene indicates that despite being unseen and unheard, she and women across the world through millennia of ancient and modern times have and will always be a force to be reckoned with.

Running Time: 90 minutes with no intermission.

Magdalene plays through August 3, 2025, presented by the Contemporary American Theater Festival performing at the Marinoff Theater, 62 West Campus Drive, on the campus of Shepherd University, Shepherdstown WV, in repertory with four other CATF plays. Times, dates, and ticketing information may be found on the CATF website or by calling the CATF box office at 681-240-2283.

Magdalene
Written by Mark St. Germain
Directed by Elena Araoz

CAST
Sam Morales* as Mary
Julian Elijah Martinez* as Peter

PRODUCTION TEAM
Scenic Design: David M. Barber**
Costume Design: Christopher Vergara**
Lighting Design: Harold F. Burgess II**
Sound Design: Nathan Leigh**
Stage Manager: Lori M. Doyle*
Casting: Pat McCorkle LTD.
Fight Director: Cara Rawlings

*Actors’ Equity Association
**United Scenic Artists

SEE ALSO:
Contemporary American Theater Festival announces full 2025 lineup (news story, March 31, 2025)

The post ‘Magdalene’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

By Andrea Moya

“Where are you from?”

With this question, Cody LeRoy Wilson engages the audience. He is standing on what appears to be the back porch of his family’s farm in Plum Run, West Virginia — complete with a screen door, whitewashed wooden walls, and an antique chair — as if these 100 or so people just happened to stop by one summer afternoon. After a smattering of answers (responses ranging from DMV locals to visitors from as far as Florida), he endeavors to answer that question for himself.

“Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather?” is written and performed by Wilson and directed by Victor Malana Maog. The play is having its world premiere at this year’s Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Wilson has the distinction of being the first West Virginia–born playwright to have a play premiere at CATF. Prior to that, the play was workshopped during Pan Asian Repertory’s NuWorks Festival 2023 in New York City. This autobiographical one-man show tells the story of Wilson’s blended family, his experience as an Asian American growing up in West Virginia, and explores themes of identity, race, and family legacy.

The second question Wilson attempts to answer is how did he, clearly not your typical redneck, end up growing up in a holler in rural West Virginia? As Wilson explains, his mother was adopted as a baby during the Vietnam War by Wilson’s grandfather, an American soldier. This dual heritage is both a source of pride and tension as Wilson attempts to reconcile his two identities. During the first part of the show, Wilson focuses on his childhood and adolescence, discovering that he is different from most of the other kids at Plum Run, learning about the Vietnam War from a racist teacher in high school, trying to find out information about his grandfather’s experiences in Vietnam and about his mother’s family.

The titular grandfathers are men Wilson never got the opportunity to meet, but whose influence in his life looms large. The second half of the play explores the possibility that these men’s paths potentially crossed in Vietnam and what that means for Wilson as a descendant of soldiers on different sides of the same war. At a particularly poignant moment, Wilson reflects on how he hates the Vietnam War for its cost in human lives, the fear and discrimination it has led to within the Asian American community, while also recognizing that he wouldn’t exist without it.

As a performer, Wilson commands the stage, seamlessly mixing humor and charm with moments of heartbreak and inner turmoil as he struggles with questions about his family’s past with no clear answers. Through the use of strategically placed props, he embodies younger versions of himself as well as other characters, weaving their voices and mannerisms into his storytelling.

Throughout the show, the lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger and sound design by Christian Fredrickson create distinct beats in the story, shifting the mood and setting as Wilson’s narrative travels from his family’s home (distinguished by soft warm light, bluegrass music, the rustling of leaves) to the jungles of Vietnam (dim lighting, ambient sounds of insects and birds). Additionally, the shadows of tree branches, family photos, and images from the Vietnam War are projected onto windows and pieces of wall suspended over the stage (scenic design by Chelsea M. Warren, projection design by Mona Kasra). Under Malana Maog’s direction, all these elements come together to elevate Wilson’s performance and give the play an almost cinematic quality, particularly during an action sequence towards the end.

For audience members who have the lived experience of straddling more than one identity, of experiencing generational trauma that creates more questions than it answers, or who have explored their own family’s stories to better understand themselves, this play has the potential to hit close to home. The question that opens the show may appear on the surface to be straightforward, but by the end of the show, it’s clear that for many of us, it’s actually quite a loaded question.

Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather? plays through August 3, 2025, presented by the Contemporary American Theater Festival performing at Studio 112, 92 West Campus Drive, on the campus of Shepherd University, Shepherdstown WV, in repertory with four other CATF plays. Times, dates, and ticketing information may be found on the CATF website or by calling the CATF box office at 681-240-2283.

Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather?
By Cody Leroy Wilson
Directed by Victor Malana Maog

CAST
Cody: Cody Leroy Wilson*

PRODUCTION TEAM
Scenic Design: Chelsea M. Warren**
Associate Scenic Design: Ruidi Yang
Costume Design: Phuong Nguyen**
Lighting Design: Mary Louise Geiger**
Sound Design: Christian Fredrickson**
Projections Design: Mona Kasra**
Stage Manager: Jasmin Holton*

*Actors’ Equity Association
**United Scenic Artists
***Stage Directors and Choreographers Society

Andrea Moya (they/them) is DC Theater Art’s new West Virginia correspondent. They are a graduate of New York University and previously worked as a food and travel writer. They are based out of the Eastern Panhandle and cover shows in Northern Virginia and Maryland.

SEE ALSO:
Contemporary American Theater Festival announces full 2025 lineup (news story, March 31, 2025)

The post ‘Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather?’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Storyteller Kevin Kling gives a riveting performance of his own writing in Kevin Kling: Unraveled at the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF). Telling stories from his own life, he then takes the audience with him as he reflects on their meaning.

His stories are by turns funny and sad and frightening and hopeful. There’s Kling, as a very small young child, trying to escape from a medical facility that scares him. He has an unexpected moment of glory in Little League. He flies with his father in an experimental aircraft. Hit by lightning in a Minnesota thunderstorm, he learns that getting hit by lightning is something of a family tradition. He has a tender junior high school crush on the lovely girl sitting in front of him. Visiting Czechoslovakia with a theater company in the waning days of Soviet control, he meets with dissidents, performing his own play that had been banned from the tour, then learns a surprising fact about why it had been banned and by whom.

Kling is a person with a disability, the result of a congenital condition in one arm and the effects of a motorcycle accident on the other. The crash, the effects of painkillers during his hospitalization, and the multiple surgeries that followed, is one of the central stories of the latter part of the show. How having a disability affects his life, the way he looks at the world, and how people look at him is one of the show’s major themes.

He earned a hearty laugh from the audience with wordplay, musing on how the sounds of the word “catechism” made him think of a combination of “cata” (from “catacombs”) and the “ism” from “hypnotism.” At other times, he delivers what it is fair to call poetic prose as he talks about what means most to him. He seamlessly integrates the words and thoughts of other writers, from Rumi to David Bowie to Shakespeare (e.g., you don’t want to deal with issues in your life by becoming Richard III).

Musician Rob Witmer ably assists Kling, playing keyboard, accordion, and recorder to accompany or interact with Kling’s stories. Witmer also joins Kling in a few of the sequences, such as being Kling’s less than supportive Little League coach or joining Kling in a rendition of David Bowie’s “Heroes” near the end of the show.

David M. Barber’s scenic design centers on a large, almost-symmetrical line drawing of a sphere, with physical lines emanating from its center out into the ceiling of the house. Other items on the set — a family photo, a portrait of Richard III, a toy wiener dog — serve as reference points during parts of Kling’s stories. The floorboards — in shades of brown and tan accented by blue — meet on diagonals. The set not only is visually arresting but, in a nonliteral way, frames Kling’s theme of connection in people’s lives.

In delivering his stories, Kling not only illustrates the importance of connection but forms a connection with the audience in an emotionally compelling way. There’s a sense in which the use of the word “unraveled” in the show’s title is not quite on point. What Kling has to say is much less about how people may come undone than it is about how Kling, and by extension all of us, can use stories to become fully integrated as who we are. Telling stories is at the heart of how our species makes meanings in the events of our lives, and it would be hard for anyone to do it better than Kling.

Running Time: 80 minutes with no intermission.

Kevin Kling: Unraveled plays through August 3, 2025, presented by the Contemporary American Theater Festival performing at the Marinoff Theater, 62 West Campus Drive, on the campus of Shepherd University, Shepherdstown WV, in repertory with four other CATF plays. Times, dates, and ticketing information may be found on the CATF website or by calling the CATF box office at 681-240-2283.

Kevin Kling: Unraveled
A World Premiere
By Kevin Kling
Directed by Steven Dietz

CAST
Self: Kevin Kling*
Musician: Robertson Witmer

PRODUCTION TEAM
Scenic Design: David M. Barber**
Costume Design: Peggy McKowen**
Lighting Design: Harold F. Burgess II**
Sound Design: Robertson Witmer**
Stage Manager: Deb Acquavella*
Dramaturg: Allison Backus

*Actors’ Equity Association
**United Scenic Artists
***Stage Directors and Choreographers Society

SEE ALSO:
Contemporary American Theater Festival announces full 2025 lineup (news story, March 31, 2025)

The post ‘Kevin Kling: Unraveled’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

The Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) announces its 2025 season, featuring five world premiere plays by trailblazing playwrights. CATF is also hosting more than 40 special events led by artists and industry experts, including lectures and post-show conversations that delve into the topics explored in the plays. CATF will run from July 11 through August 3 in three venues on the Shepherd University campus: Frank Center, Marinoff Theater, and Studio 112.

“The plays on CATF’s 2025 season question who we are as people, and how we fit into our communities,” stated CATF Artistic Director Peggy McKowen. “The journey to find belonging is about understanding the things that make us unique, but also the things that make us similar. There is an element of faith in all these plays — not necessarily religious, but a sense of faith that we place in people and situations that help us grow.”

In Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather?, West Virginia-born playwright Cody LeRoy Wilson tells the unlikely journey of his blended family from Vietnam to Plum Run, W. Va. As the main character, Cody is loving and compassionate when he speaks about his predominantly white family and community, while he also searches for his Vietnamese community. This powerful story proves that who you are is a choice of your own making. Presented this summer in its world premiere, the play had a development production in 2023 at the NuWorks Festival at Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York City, where Wilson is currently based. McKowen said, “It’s a privilege to be a national theater but to also be able to present work about and for the West Virginia community, by artists from our community.”

Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular by Lisa Sanaye Dring follows two queer stuntmen in Hollywood, bringing the intoxication of film trickery and its toll on the body and psyche to life through puppetry, video, cinematic illusions, and live stunts. Based on true stories and direct testimonies, Happy Fall is a tribute to the resilience of the LGBTQIA+ community. “I fell deeply in love with the story of these two men, finding myself moved by their efforts to make their relationship work and saddened by the challenges they faced,” shared McKowen. “It’s an epic, spectacular production, which will be a fun and unique experience for our audience.” Happy Fall is produced in partnership with Los Angeles LGBT Center and Rogue Artists Ensemble.

Playwright, storyteller, and frequent NPR commentator Kevin Kling tells his own story of finding his way as a disabled artist in Kevin Kling: Unraveled. Kling’s work is infused with an innate sense of humor and reflects the life challenges he has surmounted, including a congenital birth disorder and partial paralysis from a near-fatal motorcycle accident. McKowen found herself moved by Kling’s generosity in sharing his experiences, and how at peace and joyous he is. This world premiere is produced in partnership with Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Massachusetts.

Magdalene is CATF’s fourth fully staged production by Mark St. Germain, following The Happiest Man on Earth (2024), Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah (2013), and Forgiving Typhoid Mary (1994). St. Germain first shared Magdalene with McKowen at the 2024 festival, and now CATF presents its world premiere. The play is set 18 years after the crucifixion, when Peter reconnects with the banished Mary Magdalene. As they recall different versions of Jesus, His miracles, and His vision for the faith, questions emerge. Magdalene breathes life into characters from the Western Christian faith, helping us understand them as human beings.

Side Effects May Include… by Lisa Loomer leads us on a nightmarish, Kafkaesque trip into the world of psychiatry as a mother tries to help her son on his journey to wellness. The play explores the side effects of some commonly prescribed pills and questions our trust in the medical system. Loomer’s relationship with CATF started in 1991, when her play Accelerando was programmed as part of the Festival’s very first season. CATF is excited to premiere Lisa’s new play this summer, following the opening of her stage musical, Real Women Have Curves, on Broadway in April 2025.

In addition to the five mainstage productions, the 2025 festival includes numerous education and community engagement activities as part of CATF’s talktheater series, which provides opportunities to discuss issues raised in the plays. The vibrant pairing of contemporary works and invigorating discourse fosters a unique and unforgettable experience. This season’s talktheater offerings include:

• Backstage Tours: take a peek behind the curtain and learn what goes into the mounting of a production at CATF.
• Breakfast with Peggy: get to know CATF’s Artistic Director, Peggy McKowen. Peggy shares her extensive experience producing new plays, her rich history with CATF, and her plans for CATF’s future.
• Brunch & Art: meet and chat with members of CATF’s Acting Company. The actors will share their professional journey and their insights on this year’s productions.
• In Context & Lectures: deep dives where resident artists share their creative process, and industry experts explore the constructs and context of the plays.
• Post-Show Discussions: add another layer to your new play experience and join other passionate theatergoers and CATF creatives to respond to, discuss, and unpack the plays.
• Public Changeovers: get a step-by-step walkthrough of how the scenic elements transform from one show to another.

TICKET INFORMATION
Individual tickets to the CATF 2025 season range from $40-$70. Packages of three or five mainstage performances range from $174-$300. Tickets can be purchased online at catf.org or by calling the box office at 681-240-2283 starting on March 28.

ABOUT THE PLAYS

Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather?
By Cody LeRoy Wilson
World Premiere

Cody tells the unlikely journey of his blended family from Vietnam to Plum Run, West Virginia. In this compelling tale, he examines what it means to be Asian American, to love one family while embracing the unknown, and ultimately to question his own identity. This powerful story proves that who you are is a choice of your own making.

Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular
By Lisa Sanaye Dring
World Premiere, in Partnership with Rogue Artists Ensemble and the Los Angeles LGBT Center

Two queer Hollywood stuntmen navigate the dangers of exposing their love. Based on true life events and told through live stunts, video, puppetry, and cinematic illusions, this story is a fun, raucous tribute to the resiliency of the LGBTQIA+ community. Illuminating issues of identity in the film industry, this play highlights the importance — and danger — of being true to one’s self.

Kevin Kling: Unraveled
By Kevin Kling
World Premiere, in Partnership with Merrimack Repertory Theatre

Kevin Kling is a weaver of stories. He is constantly looking for patterns, connections, and unexpected intersections that connect us to one another and to the world. With abundant humor and offbeat insights, with an ode to love and a nod to the gods, Kling unravels the threads that have led him to an unexpected destination. There’s the trip you plan… and the trip you take.

Magdalene
By Mark St. Germain
World Premiere

Eighteen years after the crucifixion, Peter reconnects with the banished Mary Magdalene. After casting her out, he now seeks her advice and counsel. Questions erupt as they recall different versions of Jesus, His miracles, and His vision for the faith. Whose memories are closest to the truth? Whose secrets are revealed? Whose stories will stand the test of time?

Side Effects May Include…
By Lisa Loomer
World Premiere

What happens when the trust we place in our medical system actually makes us sicker? After a series of diagnoses, a mother leads us through her son’s search for wellness, a Kafkaesque journey through the world of psychiatry. Written with humor and fury, the story explores the side effects of fighting through illness with the ones we love. In these crazy times, it asks us to question… are we medicating life itself?

ABOUT THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL

Named as one of the top theater festivals in the world by publications such as The New York Times, American Theater, and World Guide, the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) shapes the future of American theater. Each summer, the Festival produces bold, new plays, allowing audiences to experience all of the productions in the season in as little as two days. The plays produced at CATF spotlight daring and diverse stories, in a truly fearless fashion.

Since its founding in 1991, the Festival has produced over 153 new plays, including 67 world premieres and 11 commissions. Plays produced at CATF have gone on to have robust lives, including regional productions, Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and film adaptations.

The post Contemporary American Theater Festival announces full 2025 lineup appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

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.

The post Contemporary American Theater Festival announces summer 2025 season appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

In her fourth season as artistic director of the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, Peggy McKowen is overseeing a diverse array of new play productions — from the story of a Holocaust survivor to that of an autistic teenager with synesthesia to a Black family struggling through the 1980s AIDS crisis. As the 2024 season kicked off, the West Virginia native spoke with me about the CATF’s current offerings, the evolution of the new-play festival founded at Shepherd University in 1991, her own evolution as artistic director, and the overall health of the American theater. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Deryl: You’ve got three mainstage shows this summer. They seem to explore a range of human identities and perspectives, as well as the challenges that come with them. There’s a nonbinary, autistic teenager; a Black couple living with HIV/AIDS; a lesbian couple dealing with secrets from the past; and a Holocaust survivor. Is there a theme or idea that connects them all?

Peggy: We have three plays [Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting, Enough to Let the Light In, The Happiest Man on Earth] and an offering in two parts [What Will Happen to All That Beauty?]. When I was putting the season together, I didn’t consciously think “This theme goes with this or that and this is the message.” But as the season unfolded, through the process of putting it together, I recognized that with diverse voices and diverse representation on stage, there is a thread about finding your way in the world, connecting to the people you love, and about how you share that love. I think that speaks within all of the plays, and how we continue to love one another even in the face of challenging and sometimes horrific things. That to me is the essence of what connects the dots in these plays. I didn’t go looking for that, and I didn’t consciously realize that until I saw them coming to life.

Are there elements of these plays that speak directly to the cultural or political moment we are in?

I think it is the fact that we can have different experiences, and we can suffer in different ways, and still have community. That we can share concepts of kindness, respect, and love. We need to remember what it means to be in community and to have collective care for one another. It’s that essential value of how we relate to one another that these plays exemplify and that we need to reconnect with.

How do you approach the selection of plays for your season?

I receive scripts from literary agents and also from directors and playwrights recommending scripts, so I get a lot. But I’ve really worked hard to visit new-play festivals to see who’s doing new work. I really like to hear a new play. The other thing I’m interested in is building relationships with people who are making and producing new plays. I like to go and meet people doing new work and championing new plays, and I get additional scripts through those connections. I’m really trying to broaden the way in which I receive new scripts and the people from whom I receive them. Then I sit down and read and reflect, and what sticks with me gets on my short list. Then I work with the team here to see what we can produce, what goes together in terms of logistics, variety, and audience. I’m looking for work that meshes in a way that can create a total experience. We want audiences to have a total festival experience here, to see all of our plays, and have a complete immersion in the world of new plays. It’s just a different kind of theatrical experience in and of itself.

How much does geographic locality influence your choice of plays or productions?

I’m not sure that it does. The reason why is that I can’t pick a season anticipating what an audience will think or how they will respond, because I don’t know. I don’t know that I think about geography or location influencing our selection of plays. What I do think about is how is this art serving the communities in which I live — Shepherdstown, West Virginia, the Mid-Atlantic region, and the industry. I do think about it in that regard, but it doesn’t necessarily influence our topics or themes. Rather, I ask, what is the experience of them [the season of plays] all together, and how are we serving our different communities?

The Contemporary American Theater Festival [CATF] was founded 33 years ago, and you’ve been associated with it for almost two decades. Have you seen an evolution in the Festival’s mission or vision over these years?

When I came to the Festival, we were producing four plays in two theater spaces. Since then, we’ve expanded to as many as six plays in six spaces, and we’ve built buildings and theaters in partnership with the university [Shepherd University]. We’ve certainly grown and expanded our audience and the pool of artists and people we’re working with. I think about CATF as “growing up.” We started as a scrappy little theater trying to do new work and to provide space for new work, for an exciting exploration of new plays. Now, we’ve grown to a place where we want to be a home for the development of new plays and to welcome audiences and artists to be part of growing the next canon of American theater. It’s a significant evolution, both physically, and also in how we’re perceived by the industry and by artists making new plays. I also think it’s time for us to do a better job in serving [local] Appalachian artists. As one of the leading cultural institutions in this state [West Virginia], we have a responsibility to serve this state both in how we welcome artists into this community and how we represent this state to the rest of the country.

You took over as CATF’s artistic director in 2021, although you began working with the Festival as a costume designer as far back as 2006. What has your own evolution been like, moving from costume design to producing, and eventually, running the Festival?

I started by designing two shows that Ed [Herendeen, founding CATF artistic director] directed. At the time, Ed was interested in creating a different kind of leadership model, and he wanted an associate producing director to help him curate and manage the administrative parts of the Festival. There weren’t many people on staff at that time. I was then the chair of the Division of Theater and Dance at West Virginia University. I was already in an administrative position while still designing for the [university] theater, and I thought, “I’m sort of ready to try this in the professional theater.” So, I was excited for a new opportunity. That was the year [CATF] did My Name Is Rachel Corrie, which was very challenging because of the strong reactions to that play. [The play deals with an American student activist who was killed by Israeli Defense Force soldiers in the Gaza Strip in 2003.] I very quickly learned what it meant to be an administrator for an artistic organization, and also how to craft the sort of vision I wanted for the institution. Ed was very willing to give me the space to grow like that. So, my evolution has been significant. But I feel I was well-prepared to step into the position of artistic director and capable of realizing the vision I’ve had.

And what is that?

I’ve always felt that theater should be a community-centered experience, because theater is the most, and in some ways the only, truly collaborative artistic experience. You really have to have a community to do theater. So, really keeping that in the center is important. Everybody in the process is an artist, from actors to designers to administrators, etcetera. They’re all committed, and they all want to collaborate to make the work the best it can be. That’s a complete artistic team. I’ve always wanted to cultivate a team of people who think like that and work like that, who keep the focus on serving the art and not just serving individual artists. When we create a piece together, it has a life of its own, and that art is experienced by an audience in so many different ways. My vision is more about the kind of experience I want artists and audiences to have together, and the ways in which we reach out to the community through artistic experiences. One dream of mine is that CATF will have programming at every level of the local school curriculum — elementary, middle school, high school — creating art as a way of being in community together. My vision is about how we as artists serve both the art and the community.

You took over as artistic director of CATF right after the pandemic, which closed the theaters. Many never reopened. How did CATF deal with the pandemic, and how has it affected your work now?

One of the really big challenges coming out of the pandemic is that we had made a commitment to produce a season we had not been able to produce because of the pandemic. That season was big — six plays in rotation in three theaters. It was the hardest season I had ever experienced. People were rusty because they hadn’t been working, and we were all under great stress because we had to constantly be in masks. The self-awareness about how we were working together added another layer to the experience. Then, inviting the audience into an experience where they also had to be masked and self-aware. In some ways, it was detrimental to that sense of community we wanted to foster. It was hard for people to manage the stress, the workload demands of a season that large with the scope we had. But coming out of that season, I made the decision to try to figure out a different work model. We couldn’t just jump back into what we had been in. So, I worked hard to find a new calendar, a new schedule that would reduce stress and focus more on work-life balance. Some stress in the theater will never go away, of course, but that additional stress can. So I’ve really been working on how to reimagine the Festival so that it still fulfills its essential mission and core values, while giving more time for the artists to really do their work and for the audience to reflect on that work, and to create the sense of a destination experience. That’s a big shift for us.

You do hear a lot about how professional theaters are struggling. Many people never returned after the pandemic. Since you visit a lot of theaters in your job as a festival director, what is your impression of the health of professional theater in America?

For us, a couple of things are very clear. We do not have the size of audience that we had pre-pandemic. We were on a really upward trajectory before the pandemic. We had over $700,000 in ticket sales prior to the pandemic. Now, we’re in the realm of $500,000. In this particular restructuring model, we’re not offering six shows [as CATF did pre-pandemic]. Partly, it’s a response to not seeing the numbers that we saw at the height of our attendance. But last year, we had more ticket sales than the year before. So, we’re seeing an uptick. We’re moving back toward that extraordinary attendance level. I recently had a couple [of audience members] tell me they hadn’t been here for five years, and now they’re back. So, we are seeing the return of our audience. I’m encouraged that we’re also seeing new audiences and new faces. That’s both reassuring and hopeful. We seem to be reaching a broader group of people or people who hadn’t experienced the Festival prior to the pandemic and are now exploring and experimenting. I do feel that audiences can still be a bit hesitant. It used to be that CATF’s biggest weekend was our opening weekend. Now, it’s not. Some audience members may be wondering if the shows will happen, or will get postponed. There’s more impulse buying, people not planning in advance. I think we’re moving away from the trend of seeing opening weekend being our biggest weekend to other weekends being the biggest, and that’s all right.

Within the industry itself, there was a lot of talk before the pandemic as to whether the old [season-ticket] subscriber model was working. People were becoming more spontaneous in their [ticket] buying, and I think that is still very true. Theaters have been trying to figure out how to navigate from a subscription-based model to other ways [of selling tickets]. Now, you see all sorts of ticketing packages. I also think theaters are struggling because of financial pressures with the ability to reimagine themselves. It’s very risky to do something different, something new, and reconfigure yourself. It’s a tightrope walk between the ways we want to do some things differently and having the funding to do what we want to do. That’s a big challenge. I do think theaters need to embrace the big question of why we’re doing the work we are doing. That will have an impact over the next five to ten years, over what theater becomes and what the relationship with the audience becomes. We probably have to do some soul-searching about why we’re here and how we make theater and how we’re serving our audience. There’s a lot of reflection and research coming forward about the essential purposes of theater and how we communicate those things to our audiences, and how we grow in our understanding of the audiences that we serve.

I think there’s an interesting parallel with the history of regional theater. When the regional theater movement started, its intention was to provide Broadway and New York theater experiences to local communities, because many people couldn’t get to Broadway or New York or a major urban center. I think that inherent understanding has dissipated over time, but now we’re coming back to it. There’s this sense that “Maybe we’re really here to serve our community, and how do we do that?”

Is there any message you want to send out about your current season?

Very practically, for this season, I want to send out a message to the HIV/AIDS community, the neurodivergent community, the different advocacy communities, that we have [ticket] discounts for them. We want to welcome them here, so that we can get everyone together in the theater. Theater is one of the few places [in American society] where people can come together in community to have a profound experience.

The Contemporary American Theater Festival, now playing through July 28, 2004,
at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia

Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting
A world premiere by Harmon dot aut

What Will Happen to All That Beauty?
By Donja R. Love

Enough to Let the Light In
By Paloma Nozicka

The Happiest Man on Earth
By Mark St. Germain

For more information and the full schedule of special events, visit catf.org. 

TICKET INFORMATION
Individual tickets to the CATF 2024 July season range from $40-$70. Packages of three or five mainstage performances range from $174-$300. Tickets can be purchased online at catf.org or by calling the box office at 681-240-2283.

SEE ALSO:

‘What Will Happen to All That Beauty?’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival (review by Bob Ashby, July 8, 2024)

‘The Happiest Man on Earth’ in rep at Contemporary American Theater Festival (review by Bob Ashby, July 7, 2024)

Contemporary American Theater Festival announces 2024 season (news story, May 27, 2024)

About the Wendi Winters Memorial Series: DC Theater Arts has partnered with the Wendi Winters Memorial Foundation to honor the life and work of Wendi Winters, the DC Theater Arts writer who died in the Capital Gazette shooting in Annapolis, Maryland, on June 28, 2018. To honor Wendi’s legacy, the Wendi Winters Memorial Foundation has funded the Wendi Winters Memorial Series, monthly articles to be produced by DC Theater Arts to bring attention to theater companies and theater practitioners in our region who engage in exemplary work that makes our community a better place. The centerpiece of these articles is a series we are calling “The Companies We Keep,” articles offering an in-depth look at one local theater company each month. In these times of division and conflict, DC Theater Arts chooses to celebrate those who do good.

For more information on DC Theater Arts’ Wendi Winters Memorial Series, check out this article graciously published by our friends at District Fray Magazine. 

The post On community and collective care: An interview with Peggy McKowen appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Donja R. Love bookends their intergenerational saga of a Black family contending with the effects of HIV, What Will Happen to All That Beauty?, with two passionate sermons. Opening the show, Rev. Emmanuel Bridges Sr. (Jerome Preston Bates) addresses the dynamic between beauty and sacrifice. Closing the show, his grandson, Manny Bridges (Jude Tibeau), preaches as eloquently of how beauty arises from embracing the fullness of one’s being. They are among the most stirring moments of the play, being produced as part of the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

Much of what comes in between focuses on the suffering inflicted by AIDS on Black people and their community. Love seeks representation not only for Black people who have died due to AIDS-related complications, he said in a program note, but also for the “softness, beauty, and love [of] my community.”

In the first part of this two-part play, set in 1986–87, J.R. Bridges (also played by Tibeau), Emmanuel Bridges’ son, and J.R.’s wife Maxine (Toni L. Martin) are happily expecting a baby. Both are bisexual and in a somewhat open relationship. J.R. tests positive for HIV and begins to grow sicker. Maxine, deeply worried, maintains an at least surface cheerfulness and optimism for most of Part 1, self-medicating with alcohol as matters become more dire.

Having lived through the height of the 1980s AIDS crisis, I remember too well the panic of the era. Doctors (like the play’s Dr. Steinberg, played by Steve McDonagh) gave HIV-positive people a grab bag of medicines in a desperate attempt to slow the progress of the disease. They didn’t work. People were afraid to come near or touch HIV-positive people or anyone associated with them. (Maxine loses her job to this panic.) Politicians proposed keeping HIV-positive people out of the country, or even putting them in internment camps. HIV-positive men were denied transportation by some airlines. I had four friends die of the disease, and I saw the effect that had on those around them. The play ably recreates the fearful feeling of that time, something perhaps especially important for younger audience members who did not experience it firsthand.

J.R. joins a support group for Black poz people led by Abdul (Danté Jeanfelix), who becomes a close friend. Both were rejected by their families as they came out. The support group is an alternative to Gay Men’s Health Crisis (the well-known group founded by, among others, playwright Larry Kramer), the focus of which they perceive as being too much on affluent white gay men.

While exposition at times slows Part 1, this portion of the play contains three indelible moments. In one, J.R. and Abdul, both naked, make love. This is a stunning example of how essential nudity can be to the meaning of a scene: two men, both poz, both sick, have a night to live once more in their bodies, bringing not simply pleasure but consolation, some of the “softness” Love values.

In the second, J.R. records a VHS tape of a message to his unborn son, telling him of his love and softly singing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” music that repeats meaningfully later in the show. In the third, Maxine, having carried so long the weight of a pregnancy and her husband’s illness, explodes in a paroxysm of grief and (I imagine) post-partum depression. Emmanuel appears to offer a home to her newborn boy.

The tighter Part 2, set 30 years later, features a group of HIV-positive people living in a ramshackle house in Jackson, Mississippi, including Manny, his severely ill partner Elijah (Jeanfelix), Reggie (Keith Lee Grant), an older man given to colorfully flamboyant outfits, and the younger Eve (MJ Rawls) and Terrell (John Floyd). Love chose the locale well: according to a 2017 New York Times story by Linda Villarosa, 40 percent of the gay and bisexual men in Jackson, most of them Black, were living with HIV, the highest rate of any city in the country.

Maxine arrives to serve as a caretaker for Elijah. Her kindness leads to another glorious moment. Aided by Matthew Webb’s perfect lighting, Maxine tenderly bathes the painfully ill Elijah, another superb choice of the use of nudity to make real the overwhelming emotional impact of the scene.

Having been raised as the son of Emmanuel and his wife, Manny does not know who his biological parents were. Without providing a spoiler, it is fair to say that a major reveal concerning the complex family relationships involved becomes the funniest moment of the show, losing none of its dramatic impact in the process. This leads first to conflict and then to a both literal and figurative dance of reconciliation among major characters. The suffering and sacrifice are real, but ultimately beauty cannot be denied.

Directing such a sprawling saga is no easy task, and director Malika Oyetimein keeps the flow of the play on track and gives all the characters the time they need to breathe and grow. The quality of the acting is high throughout. Particularly as Manny in Part 2, Tibeau creates a wonderfully complex character who, far from flawless, finds a kind of vocation in caring for others. Martin’s Maxine is the central character in Part 1 and a key character in Part 2, embodying the beauty of sacrifice and love that is at the play’s thematic center. She has two lovely pietá moments, with J.R. and then with Elijah, that are deeply touching. While the script does not develop some of the smaller characters in as much depth, they are important to represent the variety of people in the HIV-positive Black community and those with whom they interact, and the actors make distinct impressions in their roles.

The dominant feature of Britton W. Mauk’s set is an open framework of wooden slats —symbolizing, one might speculate, the brokenness of lives during the AIDS crisis — spaced to show a cyc, often lit in blue. It is a universal setting, not specific to any time or place. The lighting design appeared to be somewhat darker and more subtle in Part 2 than Part 1, and it effectively set the tone for the play’s culminating events. One slightly discordant note in the physical production was that in the 30-year interval between Part 1 and Part 2, Emmanuel and Maxine did not appear to have aged a day.

In this era of small-cast 90-minute one-acts, it is both ambitious and refreshing for a playwright to create, and a theater to mount, a longer, more detailed examination of the lives of a larger group of people over decades. CATF’s production makes that ambition pay off in a highly satisfying way, illuminating the lives of its characters and community with compassion and beauty.

Running Times: Part 1 approximately 110 minutes; Part 2 approximately 90 minutes. Neither part includes an intermission.

What Will Happen to All That Beauty? plays through July 28, 2024, presented by the Contemporary American Theater Festival performing at the Frank Center, 260 University Drive, on the campus of Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV, in repertory with three other CATF plays. See the CATF website for performance dates and times. Purchase tickets ($40–$70) at catf.org/buy-tickets or through the box office, boxoffice@catf.org or 681-240-2283. Note that Part 1 and Part 2 of the play are ticketed separately.

What Will Happen to All That Beauty?
By Donja R. Love
Directed by Malika Oyetimein

DCTA REVIEWS OF THE 2024 CATF:
‘Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival (review by Deryl Davis, July 16, 2024)
‘Enough to Let the Light In’ in rep at Contemporary American Theater Festival (review by Deryl Davis, July 15, 2024)
What Will Happen to All That Beauty?’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival (review by Bob Ashby, July 8, 2024)
The Happiest Man on Earth’ in rep at Contemporary American Theater Festival (review by Bob Ashby, July 7, 2024)

The post ‘What Will Happen to All That Beauty?’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

It is common to think of the Holocaust in aggregate terms: the six million people murdered, the 4,000 shoes on exhibit at DC’s Holocaust Memorial Museum. The power of Mark St. Germain’s The Happiest Man on Earth, playing as part of the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and expertly directed by Ron Lagomarsino, lies in its granular focus on one man’s experiences.

Based on a memoir of the same name by Eddie Jaku (who published it in 2020 when he was 100 years old), the play takes its protagonist from his youth in Nazi Germany, through Kristallnacht, imprisonment at Buchenwald, multiple escapes and arrests, being sent to Auschwitz twice, a death march as the Nazis evacuate prisoners from the camps as the war nears its end, and finally rescue by Allied troops. Jaku comes close to death too many times to count.

Kenneth Tigar’s performance as Jaku is a master class in what it means for an actor to inhabit a character. Tigar’s Jaku does not simply tell the story of his harrowing experiences. In his voice and body, he shows the audience what it feels like to live the experiences. What is it like to be packed into a boxcar on the way to Auschwitz as you see other prisoners die on the way? What is it like to stare into Joseph Mengele’s eyes and see boredom as Mengele routinely sends thousands of people to their deaths? What is it like to be in a line to the gas chambers — three separate times — and then be pulled out of line because a guard recognizes your tattooed number as that of an “economically indispensable Jew”? What is it like to hide, curled up in a drainpipe, freezing, sick, and near starvation, during the death march?

From Tigar’s performance, you will come as close as a comfortable audience member can to knowing what those experiences feel like. Tigar’s physicality in the role is as gripping and varied as his vocal range, giving emotional meaning to the events in his journey. Details matter in such a performance, and I took special note of Tigar’s hands. At times they would be shaky, in moments of fear or bewilderment. At other times, his clear, strong, specific gestures with his right index finger would command the stage.

In the small playing space of the Shepherdstown Opera House, James Noone’s simple but versatile wooden set can represent Jaku’s home, a train or truck, part of a concentration camp, or a postwar refugee center. Harold F. Burgess II’s lighting design is a marvel, whether making subtle changes in color and intensity to accompany a given moment in Jaku’s story or making a more dramatic statement when a sudden development — like Jaku’s first arrest — occurs. In combination with Brendan Aanes’ sound design, the sound and look of Jaku’s train ride to Auschwitz was particularly evocative, calling to mind the train scenes in Claude Lanzmann’s epic film Shoah.

So how, given the horrors of his time in Nazi Germany, does Jaku come to call himself the happiest man on earth? Even having survived, fallen in love, and married, Jaku talks of being depressed and experiencing the effects of what we would now call PTSD, dealing with his feelings by burying himself in work. Change came when he held his first child, which, he said, “healed his heart.” He relies on his father’s motto: “Family first. Family second, and last. And everyone is family.” His powerful life force, which gave him the resilience to survive, turns to creating a bountiful life for himself and his descendants in Australia, living a life of goodness.

In an interview in the CATF program, St. Germain commented that he wants to write about people who have a positive impact on the world. When you’re in the company of someone like Eddie, he said, you’re in good company. Watching The Happiest Man on Earth, you will be in the best of company, brilliantly portrayed.

Running Time: 90 minutes, without intermission.

The Happiest Man on Earth plays through July 28, 2024, presented by the Contemporary American Theater Festival performing at the Shepherdstown Opera House, 131 West German Street, Shepherdstown, WV, in repertory with four other CATF plays. See the CATF website for performance dates and times. Purchase tickets ($40–$70) at catf.org/buy-tickets or through the box office, boxoffice@catf.org or 681-240-2283.

The Happiest Man on Earth
By Mark St. Germain
Directed by Ron Lagomarsino
Kenneth Tigar as Eddie

DCTA REVIEWS OF THE 2024 CATF:
‘Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival (review by Deryl Davis, July 16, 2024)
‘Enough to Let the Light In’ in rep at Contemporary American Theater Festival (review by Deryl Davis, July 15, 2024)
What Will Happen to All That Beauty?’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival (review by Bob Ashby, July 8, 2024)
The Happiest Man on Earth’ in rep at Contemporary American Theater Festival (review by Bob Ashby, July 7, 2024)

The post ‘The Happiest Man on Earth’ in rep at Contemporary American Theater Festival appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

At a well-attended reception on April 8 in the beautiful main hall of DC’s National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) announced its 2024 season. Presenting quality professional productions of new American plays in top-notch facilities at Shepherd University in nearby Shepherdstown, West Virginia, each July, CATF is a highlight of the often-quiet summer period in the theater calendar.

Given present-day theater economics, many newer plays are 90-minute, small-cast one-acts. So it is particularly gratifying that one of CATF’s 2024 offerings is Donja R. Love’s What Will Happen to All that Beauty? A two-part epic story of the effects of HIV/AIDS on a Black family during the 1980s and afterward (with a supper interval between the two parts), the play’s eight-actor cast explores questions of legacy, family, and healing against the background of the AIDs crisis.

During the reception, Love spoke of the imperatives of dealing with a crisis like AIDS in the 1980s, in words that apply to more recent crises as well. “Visibility is survival,” he said, “community is survival.” Two of the actors who will appear in the show presented a brief scene, in which a caregiver (Felicia Curry) tries to persuade an HIV-positive man (Jude Tibeau) to take his medications.

The CATF season includes three other, highly varied, plays. The Happiest Man on Earth, by Mark St. Germain, is based on the memoir of a Holocaust survivor who endures unimaginably harrowing experiences yet finds light even in the darkest circumstances.

The intriguingly titled Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting, by Harmon dot aut, tells the story of a nonbinary filmmaker, an autistic teenager with synesthesia, in the context of their life at home and with their parents. Enough to Let the Light In, by Paloma Nozicka, focuses on girlfriends who find their lives and relationship changed dramatically over the course of an evening as buried secrets begin to emerge.

Musicians from the Appalachian Chamber Music Festival (ACMF) played several pieces during the reception, notably “Shine You No More (Last Leaf)” by Rune Tonsgaard Sorensen. ACMF will have a concert and workshop season in Shepherdstown and other nearby locations in August. During the CATF season, CATF and ACMF are collaborating on a multidisciplinary presentation, A Mother’s Voice. Created by Musici Ireland to honor the women who endured the mother and baby homes (the so-called Magdalene Laundries) in 20th-century Ireland, the production features elements of an immersive exhibit, original music by Irish composers, and the voices of three of the mothers.

Shepherdstown is roughly a one-hour, 40-minute, drive from Washington DC. A delightful college town in its own right, Shepherdstown is also close to other places of interest including Harper’s Ferry, the Antietam National Battlefield, and the C&O Canal National Historical Park. Having attended CATF productions for several years, I can say from personal experience that the excellence of the productions makes the trip well worthwhile, particularly given that audiences will get to see new, exciting work that isn’t being performed anywhere else in the area.

The 2024 CATF season extends from July 5 to 28. For information about production dates and ticketing, go to catf.org. Tickets (regular, $70; senior, $60; Sunday evening, $40) are available online. ACMF’s season of workshops and concerts extends from August 3 to 18. For further information, visit appalachianchamber.org.

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There are two very compelling reasons for you to see Redeemed, the stellar new play by Chisa Hutchinson now enjoying its world premiere at the Contemporary American Theater Festival. The first is Hutchinson herself, who has proven to be one of modern theater’s preeminent wordsmiths. The other is Doug Harris, whose performance as incarcerated hate-crime killer Trevor Barlow is a master class in acting.

Hutchinson has packed a lot into this compact, 90-minute two-hander. The setting is the visitation room of a jail where Trevor, a young white man, is incarcerated after beating a young Asian man to death many years prior. In the visitation room, Trevor is visited by Claire Yiang, the sister of the man he killed. Their conversations flow in a stream of natural, intelligent, spellbinding dialogue as a psychological chess game ensues between them. The basic premise is that Trevor will be up for parole soon and he is hoping that he can convince Claire to put in a good word for him, thereby improving his odds of early release. Oh, and he claims that the ghost of Claire’s deceased brother has been visiting him in jail.

The script succinctly hones in on complex issues of racism, forgiveness, and otherness. Humor keeps it from being too pedantic. The character of Claire, in particular, is gifted with quick wit and clever zingers that she hurls mercilessly at Trevor as she bores into his psyche to uncover his real motive for inviting her to see him. “You expect the person who has lost the most to your white supremacy to help you capitalize on it?” she asks after pointing out that white people have a much higher chance of being granted parole than other races.

Elizabeth Sun does an admirable job in the role of Claire. This is Sun’s first professional acting job, and she doesn’t reach the stellar level of Harris’ performance or Hutchinson’s writing. Her performance feels too large at times, too performative for the pure and nuanced dialogue Hutchinson supplied her with. But she engages with the language in a way that brings it to life and continuously ups the ante in her relationship with Trevor.

Harris, in contrast, hit all the marks in his portrayal of Trevor. His character goes through a series of personality shifts to which Harris brings a delightful physicality, with chameleon-like facial expressions. As the play went on, one could almost suss out the inner, unspoken motivations behind his character’s words.

Director Marcus D. Harvey wisely keeps the action simple, giving us nowhere to look but directly into the faces of the two performers as they work through a series of mind games, gradually one-upping each other in a battle of words and wills. David. M. Barber’s scenic design is a no-frills visitation room. All the better for spotlighting the simple beauty of this compact play. A single table and two chairs rotate throughout the performance spinning periodically on a revolving stage, offering the in-the-round audience a variety of angles from which to see the intense faces of the two actors.

For the second year in a row, a Chisa Hutchinson play is my favorite at CATF. Just like last year’s Whitelisted, Redeemed contains an element of the supernatural (the ghostly visitations from Claire’s brother), which is rare and hard to pull off in theater. The combination of supernatural suggestions, well-elucidated social commentary, and thought-provoking humor makes Redeemed a must-see play in this year’s Contemporary American Theater Festival.

Running Time: 90 minutes with no intermission.

Redeemed plays through July 27, 2023, presented by the Contemporary American Theater Festival performing at the Marinoff Theatre, 62 West Campus Drive, Shepherdstown, WV, in repertory with four other CATF plays. See the CATF website (catf.org/2023-schedule) for performance dates and times. Purchase tickets ($70 regular, $60 senior) at catf.org/buy-tickets or through the box office, boxoffice@catf.org or 681-240-2283.

COVID Safety: There is a mask-required performance on July 27 at 2 pm; otherwise, masks are optional.

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