Our Team

Peggy McKowen’s (she/her) association with CATF began in 2006, when she designed the costumes for Mr. Marmalade and Jazzland. As her time with the festival continued, she designed costumes for: Antonio’s Song: I was dreaming of a son, The Welcome Guest, The Wedding Gift, Not Medea, Everything You Touch, 1001, H2O, and Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah; and scenery for From Prague, Wrecks, and Gidion’s Knot.

In 2007, Peggy joined the full-time staff as the Associate Producing Director. Since then, she has produced new works by: Johnna Adams, Christina Anderson, Lee Blessing, Angelica Chéri, Kara Lee Corthron, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Lydia R. Diamond, Steven Dietz, Richard Dresser, Charles Fuller, Keith Glover, Allison Gregory, Barbara Hammond, Chisa Hutchinson, Dael Orlandersmith, J.T. Rogers, Antonio Edwards Suarez, Lucy Thurber, Michael Weller, Beau Willimon, Bess Wohl, and others.  She was instrumental in expanding the festival’s season from four to five, and from five to six plays. She was a driving force behind transferring CATF’s Uncanny Valley by Thomas Gibbons to 59E59 Theaters in New York, CATF’s first Off-Broadway production.

Peggy is dedicated to creating an anti-racist and anti-oppressive (ARAO) culture at CATF. She was instrumental in creating the institution’s ARAO committee and monthly ARAO discussion groups. She is developing a strategic and ongoing ARAO plan with Sarah Bellamy, CATF’s equity, diversity, and inclusion consultant, while engaging both staff and trustees in the journey.

Peggy strengthened CATF’s educational and outreach programming. She created new initiatives to increase and sustain the attendance of young audience members including Hostel YOUTH! for high school students and CATF/U for college students, and also reimagined the festival’s internship experience for emerging professionals. She enhanced and leads talktheater, the organization’s humanities series that encourages audience members to actively discuss the themes of the plays in a variety of events including lectures, panel discussions, and deliberative dialogues.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Peggy led the Contemporary American Theater Festival’s quick switch to digital programming. She envisioned CATF art in new ways for patrons and artists.  She created both the CATFUNMUTED and playcastplus series that included online engagement between audiences and artists, interviews with designers and directors, audio dramas, and community celebrations.

Peggy was the featured artist in the exhibition High Drama: Costumes from the Contemporary American Theater Festival at the Museum of Fine Arts, Washington County, Maryland, which also toured to four cities throughout West Virginia. In 2018, Peggy was named West Virginia Artist of the Year at the Governor’s Arts Awards and in 2019, she was recognized by WV Living Magazine as one of the Wonder Women of the Year. Shepherdstown’s Insurance Outfitters awarded Peggy the 2018 Culture and the Arts Guide Award for her dedication to the local arts community. She is a member of United Scenic Artists 829.

Prior to joining the festival, Peggy was the resident designer for the Obie-award-winning Jean Cocteau Repertory in NY and the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble. Her regional theater work has been seen at Arkansas Repertory Theatre; Barrington Stage; Milwaukee Repertory Theater; Tennessee Repertory Theatre; Texas, Dallas, and Houston Shakespeare Festivals; and Perseverance Theater. International theater work includes the B.A.T. Studio Theatre (Berlin, Germany); the Teatro Alfa Real (Sao Paulo, Brazil); and the E.T.A. Hoffmann Theatre (Bamberg, Germany). Peggy designed the first full-length English-speaking production of The Tempest in Beijing, China and the first Mandarin translation of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying for the Seven Stages Production Company in Beijing.

Peggy holds an MFA from the University of Texas (Austin), and has taught theater and humanities at Shepherd University, Dickinson College, Dickinson College/London/Rome, and West Virginia University, where she was Chair of the Division of Theatre and Dance for five years and received the Outstanding Creative/Scholarship and Teaching Award several times throughout her tenure. Peggy played a significant role in creating Shepherd University’s theater major – a B.A. in Contemporary Theater Studies, in collaboration with the Department of Contemporary Art and Theater. She is often a respondent for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival for arts administration, design, and play performance.

Peggy has been a member of the Rotary Club of Shepherdstown, is currently a member of the Shepherdstown Centennial Lions Club, and connects CATF in an active partnership with the Eastern Panhandle Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. Peggy served on the Arts Advisory Council for Hagerstown Community College and the Board of the Shepherdstown Visitors Center. She directed the Antietam Remembrance walk, an inter-state event between West Virginia and Maryland. From 2011 to 2019, she also directed and produced Rumsey Radio Hour, the annual fundraiser for the Shepherdstown Library. She currently serves on the board for the National New Play Network.

In recognition of her work as both theater designer and administrator, Peggy has been featured in Live Design and Wonderful West Virginia magazines. Her production work has been captured in American Theater magazine, The New York Public Library Videotape for the Theater on Film and Tape Archive, The New York Times, Back Stage, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The Theater Experience and Theatre: The Lively Art. Peggy is also the co-editor of the anthology, Plays by Women from the Contemporary American Theater Festival, a collection of plays by women that had their first production at the festival.

Amy Wratchford is a seasoned arts leader with over two decades of experience in nonprofit theater.  In 2021, Amy founded The Wratchford Group, an arts management consulting company with the vision to transform nonprofit arts organizations creating a stable, thriving, empowering, and equitable industry. Amy specializes in interim executive leadership, financial stabilization plans, Board governance, organizational analysis, and executive coaching. Interim leadership and advisory clients include Virginia Repertory Theatre, Barter Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Synetic Theatre, the Old Globe, and the Historic Masonic Theatre.  Beyond the arts, Amy also advises local nonprofits, including the Arrow Project, LIFEWorks, and New Directions Center.

Amy’s personal mission is to help create a more joyful, wholehearted, courageous world through the power of her example.  She spent over ten years as Managing Director of the American Shakespeare Center. As the company’s chief administrative and financial officer, Amy oversaw finance, marketing, development, and other business management functions for ASC. In her first three years, Amy led the company to eliminate $1M in debt and back accounts payable. During her tenure, ASC’s budget grew from $2.4M in 2010 to $4.2M in 2020 (pre-COVID). She was instrumental in ASC’s successful SafeStart Season, becoming one of only a handful of theaters to safely produce for live audiences during the summer of 2020. During this time, she not only successfully garnered almost $2M in COVID relief funding but, also assisted numerous arts organizations in their SVOG and ERTC application processes.

Before joining ASC, Amy served as Managing Director of Synchronicity Theatre in Atlanta. Previously, she worked for 13 years in a number of capacities in theater in New York City including producer, director, and actor. Amy regularly serves on grant panels, including the National Endowment for the Arts and Virginia Commission for the Arts, as well as adjudicating panels, including EdTA China’s 2019 National Young Thespian Festival in Shanghai, as well as state, regional, and national community theater festivals.

She was an elected member of the Staunton City School Board (2018-2022; Vice Chair 2019-2022) and serves as Treasurer for both the Board of the Community Action Partnership of Staunton, Augusta, and Waynesboro (CAPSAW) and the Staunton High School Band Boosters.  Amy has previously served on the advisory boards for both the Shenandoah LGBTQ Center and the Shenandoah Valley Governor’s School. She routinely lectures on finance, budgeting, and nonprofit governance for graduate, undergraduate, and high school programs. Amy holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in Acting from the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University and a master of fine arts degree in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College.

When not supporting all manner of performing arts, Amy enjoys reading, crocheting, baking, hiking, and riding her motorcycle through the back roads of the Shenandoah Valley.

Ed Herendeen founded the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia in 1991 with the mission to produce and develop new American theater. Through his leadership, and operating under an LORT D Actor’s Equity Association contract, the theater festival has produced 133 new plays – including 56 world premieres and 11 commissions – and has gained a reputation as one of country’s most important curators of new work. Hosted on the campus of Shepherd University, CATF produces a four-week season of six plays in rotating repertory and attracts a national audience and an ever growing international audience.

Ed has also worked at The Walnut Street Theater, The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Missouri Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe, The Lyceum Theatre, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. CATF was presented with the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1999 and the Governor’s Award for Leadership in the Arts in 2012. Ed was honored with the College of Fine Arts Distinguished Alumni Award in Theater from Ohio University and has served on the Admissions Committee for New Dramatists, as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and has served on the board of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for American theaters.

Ed retired from CATF in 2021.

CATF’S MISSION & HISTORY | CATF’S PRODUCTION HISTORY

A Letter from Ed Herendeen

It has been an honor to lead the Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University. For thirty-one years, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with professional artists to create the future of American theater. I’m so proud of what we all have accomplished together.

The past eighteen months have given me time to reflect and to come to the decision that now is the right time for me to retire as the Producing Director of the Contemporary American Theater Festival as of December 2021. I am looking forward to discovering and enjoying the next chapter of my life.

As I exit, I personally assure you the Festival is undoubtedly set up for success. The six play repertory has been selected for the 2022 season. As you know, many of the artists have been working on these shows for the past two years. We are moving forward. The Festival will continue to flourish and thrive. I am curious and excited to experience the future of new play development in Shepherdstown, WV.

The most important part of my role has been the new work. The Contemporary American Theater Festival is not one person. It’s always been a group of artists who come together to breathe life into new plays and create new American theater. The ongoing legacy of the Festival is the work created and produced on the stages.

Thank you for being a part of this legacy.

Ed Herendeen