McKowen

SHEPHERDSTOWN — On Tuesday night, the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) held its first Talk Tuesday of the summer, a screening of a film by Mark St. Germain, at Shepherd University.

While in the past Talk Tuesday events have only been held during the month of the festival, July, this change is one of several being introduced this year, to help the festival connect on a deeper level with audience members.

“One of the things that I was hoping and trying to do for this season, is to really create an overall experience for the artists and audience, that would be even more fulfilling and even more collaborative. I want it to develop a greater sense of community around the work,” said CATF Artistic Director Peggy McKowen on Monday. “We did some of that last year, but I don’t believe we did that as fully as we could, and so I’m trying to do a better job of that this year.”

McKowen herself will be connecting with audience members even further this year, by hosting free “Know Before You Go” Zoom conversations throughout the month of July. These conversations will allow audience members to learn information about this year’s festival, whether that be about the performances or about something as simple as where to park.

Know Before You Go will be only one of three series of events for which McKowen will serve as featured speaker throughout the month of July. “Breakfast With Peggy” will be returning to Bistro 112 again this year, allowing McKowen to share with attendees information about her extensive experience producing new plays, her history with CATF and her plans for CATF’s future. “Beauty Supper” will be a catered dinner hosted by McKowen for the first time this year at the Frank Center, in between some of the performances of the first and second parts of Donja Love’s two-part play, “What Will Happen To All That Beauty?”

“Trying to help the audience feel like they are a part of the experience in a really personal and valued way is one of the reasons why we added the Know Before You Go and it’s one of the reasons why we’re having that supper interval in the show,” McKowen said. “We want to find all of the ways that we can personally engage the audience in the experience of the festival.”

Another change to this year’s festival will be the number of plays being performed. In previous years, CATF has put on five or six plays a season. However, since “What Will Happen to All That Beauty” is a two-part play, McKowen said the decision to produce four plays this summer made the most sense for the festival.

“It takes up sort of a second slot in our calendar. That’s why we are looking at it as three plays, along with one offering in two parts,” McKowen said. “It’s probably the first time we’ve done it quite like this.”

“What Will Happen to All That Beauty,” which was previously workshopped at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, focuses on a family’s experience during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Brooklyn. It will be joined by a world premiere of Harmon Dot Aut’s play, “Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting,” about a nonbinary teenager with autism and synesthesia growing up in Kansas. Paloma Nozicka’s spooky play about a lesbian woman with a haunted past, “Enough to Let the Light In,” will be produced this season, after being read in CATF’s Fall Reading Series last October. “The Happiest Man on Earth,” based on the true story of a Holocaust survivor, was written by a familiar face to CATF audiences — Mark St. Germain’s previous play, “Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah,” was produced by CATF in 2013.

To purchase tickets to CATF’s plays and events this season, visit https://catf.org/.