Contemporary American Theater Festival

Start: Friday, July 10, 2026 6:00PM
End: Sunday, August 2, 2026 7:00PM

The Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) announces its 2026 season, featuring five new plays by award-winning playwrights that include four world premieres. The festival will also host more than 30 talktheater events adding context to the experience, including discussions, lectures, and opportunities to mingle with the artists and fellow theater lovers. CATF will run from July 10 through August 2 in three venues on the Shepherd University campus: Frank Center, Marinoff Theater, and Studio 112. As of 2026, CATF remains the only summer festival in the United States dedicated to producing new, fully staged American plays. The Smoker by Lisa D’Amour — a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her 2010 play Detroit — explores the possibility for community-building under unlikely circumstances. A cohort of under-employed, underinsured dreamers on a New York street corner have one thing in common: their need for a cigarette. As different as they are in their aspirations, vocations and avocations, they come to know each other’s joys, sorrows, disappointments, and hopes. “Eventually, we in the audience start to learn the things about each other that they’ve learned, and we become a part of that community too,” remarked McKowen. “It touches on the ways we move through society and our need to have social interaction and to connect to each other as humans.” Yussef El Guindi’s Refugee Rhapsody is a 2025 recipient of the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Citation of Excellence. El Guindi’s work frequently examines the collision of ethnicities, cultures, and politics that face immigrants, Arab Americans and Muslim Americans in particular. In Refugee Rhapsody, a chance meeting of a pair of young Arab Americans framed by their refugee experience and an impossibly rich patroness sets in motion a chain of events that leads to a violent crime. “As soon as I read it, I was really struck by the extraordinary writing in this play, as well as the fascinating parallels it draws between the immigrant experience today and the journey of the enslaved in this country,” commented McKowen. This play is produced as a rolling world premiere with Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre (PA) and Artists Repertory Theatre (OR). CATF’s production is in partnership with The Keegan Theatre in Washington, D.C. Best Line Wins: A Play Inspired by the Improvised Lives of Elaine May & Mike Nichols, by USA Today bestselling author and 2024-2025 Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellow Beth Kander, follows the story of Nichols & May, one of the most beloved comedy duos of all time. When they parted ways, Mike Nichols’s career took off while Elaine May struggled. Decades later, when Mike approaches Elaine with a new opportunity, she must wrestle with what matters more: succeeding on her own, or reuniting with the partner who knows her true worth. “This is the ideal play for an audience member who’s starting to come to CATF for the first time,” said McKowen. “It also tells the very important story of the struggles women face in Hollywood or in any artistic form that their male counterparts don’t necessarily experience.” Set in the complex intersection of creativity, competition, and gender disparity, this laugh-out-loud play examines the power of lifelong friendships, thorns and all. ¡VOS! by Christina Pumariega follows Annie as she returns to her estranged birthplace of Buenos Aires to undergo IVF treatments with the renowned Dr. Cossi — a journey toward motherhood that unexpectedly uncovers the lives of two women who vanished during Argentina’s Dirty War. Inspired by Las Madres, past, present, and hopeful, the play becomes an exhilarating search for home, family, and the Disappeared. Told by two Latina actors who whirl through characters and decades in a heart-pounding theatrical tour de force, ¡VOS! is the 2025 winner of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. “The events depicted in this play feel very relevant to things happening in our world today,” explained McKowen. “The journey of these women speaks to how society lives with itself.” ¡VOS! was developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and received its world premiere at Two River Theater. Aurin Squire — winner of the 2017 Helen Merrill Prize for Emerging Playwrights — makes his CATF debut with My Favorite Sociopath, a razor-sharp world premiere. In this biting comedy set at the dawning of the 24-hour news cycle era, three ambitious journalism students bond over their shared love of storytelling, only to see their friendship spiral into a dangerous game of ambition, seduction, and betrayal. In addition to the five mainstage productions, the 2026 festival includes numerous educational and community engagement activities as part of CATF’s talktheater series. The vibrant pairing of contemporary works and invigorating discourse fosters a unique and unforgettable experience.