CATF: The Plays Are The Thing

Every year, the media swoops down on little towns like Telluride, Colorado or Park City, Utah, as filmmakers, both famed and unheard of, showcase their works, testing the waters as it were to see if their movies have the "legs" to go mainstream.

It never occurred to me that there might be a Sundance or Telluride film festival "equivalent" for stage drama. But there is.

Its called the Contemporary American Theater Festival, and it's going on right now in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, now through July 28th, 2013.

According to the CATF press materials, the festival is in its 23rd season and "will mark the milestone of 100 plays produced in its history; the opening of the 180-seat Stanley C. and Shirley A. Marinoff Theater; and feature three world premieres, including two plays commissioned by the Theater Festival. The five full-play repertory includes new scripts from Liz Duffy Adams, Jon Kern, Jane Martin, Sam Shepard, and Mark St. Germain."

And there's more than just the plays. Festival goers can enjoy free lectures, stage readings, panel discussions, a film series and an art exhibition, as well as the opportunity to purchase tickets to lunches with artists and breakfast with the Theater Festival's producing director, Ed Herendeen.

Myself and my theater companion, fiancée, and fellow Broadwayworld reviewer, Tina Saratsiotis, were on hand for the opening of the festival, the evening of July 5th, taking in Liz Duffy Adams' "A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World," a reference to a sermon by the fire-and-brimstone 17th-18th century Puritan minister Cotton Mather, most well known for his role in the infamous Salem witch trials.

Set in the year 1702, 10 years after the Salem witch trials came to a merciful end, "A Discourse" takes place in a forlorn and remote inn, run by Mercy Lewis (Cassie Beck), one of the so-called "afflicted" girls whose testimony sent many of her neighbors to the gallows. She is visited by fellow accuser Abigail Williams (Susannah Hoffman) who has been on a long journey, one of distance, faith and self-discovery.

While Abigail is tormented by guilt for her actions, Mercy is anything but, fervent in her desire to return to those days when her voice counted and she wielded power. Joey Collins plays Reverend Peck, an officious fear-monger who would have been at home sentencing the good people of Salem to their deaths; Rod Brogan is the oafish Judah who has designs on Rebekkah (Becky Byers), an echo of Abigail when she claimed to see demons, and Gerardo Rodriguez is John Fox, who may be the Devil himself.

The quality of the production was excellent on all levels, from lighting and sound to setting and costume, turning a the Frank Center Stage on the Shepherdstown University campus into a little cabin in the woods, from dark of night to early morning. Rodriguez was particularly dynamic in his performance, reminding both myself and my companion of a young Gabriel Byrne. (To learn more about the production and for reviews of the five plays, look for BWW reviewer Jack Gohn's insights).

The other plays in the series include "Modern Terrorism or They Who Want to Kill Us and How We Learn to Love Them," by John Kern, a black comedy about a trio of inept terrorists plotting an attack on America; and "H2O" by Jane Martin, follows the story of an actor chosen to star as Hamlet on Broadway and sent to New York City to find his Ophelia, hence "H-2-O."

Famed playwright Sam Shepard's "Heartless" is also in the mix, a look at what happens when a woman's lover comes to visit her, her sister, mother and family nurse. Mark St. Germain's "Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah," brings together literary titans Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald for an evening of discourse at the Los Angeles resort villa, the Garden of Allah.

Matinee and evening performances are held Wednesday through Sunday throughout the Festival. Single ticket prices are $57; four-show and five-show subscription discount packages are available, ranging from $100-$235. To learn more, call 1-800-999-CATF (2283) or visit www.catf.org/boxoffice.