By David Lillard
Each July in Jefferson County, the curtain rises on a growing variety of arts, entertainment, and cultural offerings. From the Contemporary American Theater Festival’s five-play repertory to Shepherd University’s quiet historical walks featuring characters in historic dress, from the 10th annual Goose Route Dance Festival to the Over the Mountain summer art show, there’s a lot to see and hear. Plus, there’s a new art gallery in Charles Town, one celebrating its three-year anniversary in Shepherdstown, and a new art school in Shepherdstown. The month ends with an …

By Debora Harding
This year’s CATF play “Farragut North” by Beau Willimon inspired a nostalgic glance backwards. The play’s protagonist, 25-year-old Stephen Bellamy, serves as national press secretary to a governor running for president. He becomes snagged in a quagmire that shatters his political idealism and puts his professional survival at risk.
Beginning when I was 18, I cut my teeth on the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns of Gary Hart and Tom Daschle’s first Senate race, so I knew a lot of Stephen Bellamys.
So I went to the theater to see …

As rehearsals began in mid-June for the 2009 Contemporary American Theater Festival, each writer shared thoughts with Nelson Pressley about the work coming to Shepherdstown and the working lives that brought them here.

What’s the best way to categorize this year’s crop of playwrights at the Contemporary American Theater Festival? The five faces are largely new: one returning writer from 1996 and four rookies (including an esteemed 65 year old). Their themes are topical: one brutal dissection of marriage and four dramas that feel torn from the headlines. The demographics are, well, retro: one black woman and four white men.

A simple way to sort this year’s slate, which runs from July 8 through August 2, would be between the bluntly political works in the Frank Center—Beau Willimon’s campaign drama “Farragut North” and Steven Dietz’s 9/11 conspiracy thriller “Yankee Tavern”—and the romantically oriented duo in the Studio, Michael Weller’s marital slugfest “Fifty Words” and Eisa Davis’s era-hopping “The History of Light.” [...]