CATF is doing new plays… when it’s cold! Learn about the brand new Fall Reading Series with Producing Artistic Director Peggy McKowen and Managing Director Jeff Griffin.
Why staged readings in the off season? Are these plays going to be in the 2023 season? Listen to find out!
For a full list of dates and times for the readings, please visit our website: catf.org
Week 1 (Oct 21-22) - Marinoff Theater
Spiritus/Virgil's Dance by Dael Orlandersmith
Our Shrinking, Shrinking World by Richard Dresser
Week 2 (Oct 29) - Old Opera House in Charles Town, WV
MAD by Sarah Bierstock
Week 3 (Nov 4-5) - Marinoff Theater
Your Name Means Dream by José Rivera
Lavender Men by Roger Q. Mason
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Gaby Tokach: We have an announcement to make. Okay. Well, technically we've made it online and through email, but we're gonna make it here too.
Trent Kugler: Uh, okay. But before we get too far into this, welcome back to CATF UNMUTED. I'm Trent Kugler, the production manager at CATF, and sitting across from me, I have Gaby Tokach, our PR Manager.
Gaby Tokach: Thank you Trent, for keeping me on the straight and narrow. Um, on the off chance that you have missed this information, Peggy McKowen who was the associate artistic director, is now the producing artistic director of CATF.
That happened when Founder Ed Herendeen retired in the fall of 2021. And Jeff Griffin is the newest member of the CATF team. He is our managing director. Um, and Trent, would you like to tell us what we are getting into today?
Trent Kugler: Well, and again, in case you missed it, CATF is gonna be hosting our first ever reading series with readings of five new plays in Shepherdstown and Charles Town in late October and early November.
And as a part of that, we have a podcast exclusive for you. We were able to get Peggy and Jeff to sit down and talk about the reading series. And while this episode is shorter than normal, it'll give you some good insight into our goals and hopes for the reading series moving forward.
Gaby Tokach: Alrighty. Sit back, relax and get ready for the Peggy and Jeff show.
Jeff Griffin: Hi Peggy.
Peggy McKowen: Hi Jeff.
Jeff Griffin: So I am delighted to talk about this festival. It is the first time we're doing a reading festival in, either a long time or ever. And so I wanted to ask you, why are we doing this fall festival?
Peggy McKowen: Well, actually I have several reasons why I'm interested in doing a fall reading series. One of them is that I think it's really important that we start sharing our stories outside of the month of July and finding ways to engage with our audience and our community in other parts of the year. So this is a really great way to bring our audience and community together.
But also it's really fun to have a series like this where we could begin the process of developing some plays. So hearing them out loud will help us decide if we wanna produce them this summer, and it gives us an opportunity to spend more time working on them if they do become plays for this summer.
Jeff Griffin: We have an impressive list here that you've come up with of authors Dael Orlandersmith, Richard Dresser, Sarah Bierstock, Jose Rivera, Roger Q. Mason. Um, some of these people have worked here in the past, can you talk about our relationship with them?
Peggy McKowen: Yes. It's always good, I think, in the selection of the season or this reading series to try and bring folks that are really well known to CATF, part of the family of CATF. And then it's nice to introduce people to CATF and have that combination of new people and um, family people. And so in this group, Dale Orlandersmith was with us when we did Antonio's Song, and she co-wrote that within Antonio Suarez . And so she's been here before and she's uh, very popular playwright who really loves this community as well. She really enjoyed it when she was.
And then Rick Dresser is like a CATF Superstar. We probably produced more of his plays than any other playwright, but he has not been here for many years. So, it's nice to welcome him back to the fold.
And then, the other playwrights are all new to CATF and we're just beginning relationships with them. So this is a good way to hear some of their work and then potentially hear other pieces of work that they might have or get other pieces submitted and start to build a relationship. So, and of course Jose Rivera, you know, he was the first Puerto Rican writer that was nominated for, an Oscar and is a really exceptional and prolific playwright, and it's just exciting to begin a relationship with him.
Jeff Griffin: What about these particular plays do you think is good for this festival at this time? Why? Why did these ones come out and speak to you?
Peggy McKowen: Well, a couple of them are actually comedies, which very seldom is the case at CATF. But I felt that in this particular time in our world that having some pieces within the season that enabled people to laugh and to enjoy each other.
Is important to sort of our healing time right now and important as the festival begins to transition. And so it just seemed important to me in that selection to look for those pieces. And so two of these, I think people will laugh and I think they'll have a good time. And I do believe that these pieces also still have a little bite and still have a little darker side, which makes the comedy even more interesting.
So. Part of what we're gonna see in this reading series. The other thing is that, there are some pieces in this series that are unusual selections for CATF. I wanted to try some things out that would be a little different maybe from the usual fare and see how people responded to them and how we respond to them.
And um, at the same time, it's also really important for us to continue to provide plays that create that opportunity to have dialogue and to discuss things that are difficult topics. And so Dael's piece particularly I think is a play that will inspire a lot of conversation and conversation about things within our lives that we don't easily talk about.
Jeff Griffin: Now it is a reading series. It's bare bones, music stands, chairs, which we do during, during the season but what do you think about a reading series in the process of development of new work? How is this gonna help us shape, next summer or the future seasons?
Peggy McKowen: Mm-hmm.
Well, I think a couple things are important to me about introducing this reading series. One is, I feel like our mission, which is to produce and develop new American theater has been much heavier toward the producing side. And I do think that the idea of developing something over a longer period of time is something that CATF can do, and I think it's an opportunity for us to do this.
So by hearing these plays in the fall, if we would decide that play should be on the season. That play has to go. Then we have already started working on it months and months in advance of the season, and it gives the playwright and potentially the director the opportunity to really go back into the script and have time for rewrites.
It also begins to introduce us to actors that might be right for these roles, and it, it just creates this opportunity to try something. To perhaps fail and learn from that and then come back and make it better again. And then when we see it on the season, we really see something that feels more complete and, as if there has been great thought and time that has created this work.
Jeff Griffin: And this is the first time we're doing this in the fall, but you think this will be an annual event? Yeah.
Peggy McKowen: Oh Lord, I hope so. Let's do it. I really do hope so. I hope that we can create an annual series here that will really bring both our audience and other artists to the festival to just see and hear a new play. You know, I think it's important that we hear new plays as often as we can. Let's just build that community, you know, new plays for everybody.
Jeff Griffin: You've been talking about, um, community a lot and referencing that. What about this series can help us, expand our reach to the community? And what kind of communities are you, do you wanna reach?
Peggy McKowen: Well, when I think of community, I think about it as a sort of ripple effect experience.
So there is our immediate community here within Shepherdstown that is part of CATF all the time. But you know, there's the entire eastern panhandle, there is the state, there is the region, and within all of that, geographically there are different communities that we wanna reach as well, and one of the things that we're doing is that we are trying to produce one of the plays at the Old Opera House in Charles Town, so that we can begin to welcome the Charles Town citizens and residents to see the work of CATF and get more involved.
In addition to that, locally we're trying to reach out to high schools. To bring them to see some student matinees. We're working with the Shepherd University students so that we can get these young people engaged in the work, another community that's important for us to get into the theater. And then in addition to that, I hope that people will come out to see the representation of these playwrights.
We have voices of a Black woman, a Black man. A Latine man and, other women speaking through these plays. And so I hope that all of these things will start to gather all different communities to create the larger community that is all of CATF.
I feel like it is the beginning of the new and the future of CATF. I think it is a way for us to begin reaching audiences.
We don't always have an opportunity to reach in July, and I really hope that you can get behind the idea of being a part of building new work right here in our community in West Virginia. So please come and check out the reading series. The first one starts October 21st, the next weekend, which is October 28th and the following weekend, which is November 4th and 5th.
So please come. I look forward to seeing you in the theater with us as we develop new plays
Gaby Tokach: So Peggy got really excited and didn't mention the names of the plays. Uh So Trent and I will share that with you. The lineup for the fall reading series starts out with
Trent Kugler: Spiritus or Virgil's Dance by Dale Orlandersmith, who you've, seen her work at CATF before with Antonio's song
Gaby Tokach: Our shrinking, shrinking world by Richard Dresser, who has also been at CATF, and in fact, he is the most produced playwright at the festival.
Trent Kugler: We'll also be presenting MAD by Sarah Bierstock.
Gaby Tokach: Your Name Means Dream by Jose Rivera.
Trent Kugler: And finally, Lavender Men by Roger Q. Mason.
Gaby Tokach: We are doing all of these staged readings at the Marinoff Theater with the very important exception of Mad which we will actually be doing at the Old Opera House in Charles Town, West Virginia. Uh, the Old Opera House or the OOH is a wonderful group of people that do a lot of great work in the community, and we are very excited to be partnering with them on this project.
Trent Kugler: All right, that's it for now, but don't forget that all of the episodes about Whitelisted, The Fifth Domain, Babel, and Ushuaia Blue are in your feed right now.
So you can go ahead and give those a listen. You can also check out CATF's website.
Gaby Tokach: CATF.org
Trent Kugler: You can find us on facebook
Gaby Tokach: @CATFatSU
Trent Kugler: or you can connect with us on Instagram and YouTube
Gaby Tokach: @thinktheater
and remember, we do theater with an -er. And make sure you hit that subscribe button. We have some other episodes in the works that you will not wanna miss out on.
Trent Kugler: Thanks again for listening. We hope to see you in Shepherdstown and Charles Town coming up here in the fall. And don't forget, if it's not a new play, it's not CATF.