SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.VA.: Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF), presented at Shepherd University, has announced its 2018 season titled “Feed Your Head.” The festival, including five world premieres, will run in repertory July 6-29.
“This year, our passion for provocative and inspiring theatre continues,” said artistic director Ed Herendeen in a statement. “We are inviting our audiences to ‘feed their head’ with these intriguing and dynamic plays.”
The summer season will include Bekah Brunstetter’s The Cake, about a baker forced to reexamine her beliefs when she is asked to bake a wedding cake for two brides.
Also in the lineup will be the world premiere of Angelica Chéri’s Berta, Berta, about a man whose final wish after committing an unforgivable crime is to make amends with his long lost lover.
Next will be the world premiere of Memoirs of a Forgotten Man by D. W. Gregory, a political thriller about entanglements among a Soviet journalist, a psychologist, and a government censor who are all victims and collaborators in Stalin’s campaign to rewrite public memory.
The lineup will also feature the world premiere of C.A. Johnson’s Thirst, a dystopian drama about a family in a dangerous conflict with their local political leader, Well-Man, after their son returns home without the water rations.
Also included will be the world premiere of Michael Weller’s A Late Morning (in America) with Ronald Reagan. The play, created in conjunction with actor Tim Matheson and director Sam Weisman, is a one-man show about Reagan’s life in retirement. Matheson will star.
The repertory season will also include the world premiere of Amy E. Witting’s The House on the Hill, about two estranged cousins who reconnect to face their shared tragedy when a new baby is welcomed into the family.
Founded in 1991, the Contemporary American Theater Festival produces provocative new plays and world premiere productions in rotating repertory each summer.
