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The Contemporary American Theater Festival creates new plays and art that make our culture, home, and world better.

CATF chooses to lead this effort with love and care for artists, audiences, and advocates. We choose to uplift our values of creating fearless art, telling diverse stories, serving our communities, and welcoming an inclusive family to our new play experience.

CATF chooses one path – to live our values and achieve our dreams – knowing that actions and words matter.

We recognize these choices impact the funding sources available to CATF.

WE CHOOSE to continue – we choose to make art in the face of censorship and oppression – to exercise our constitutional right to free speech and expression for all.

We invite you to choose this path with us.

 

MARCH 26, 2025
Read the joint statement from CATF, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Portland Center Stage, and The Public Theater.

 

A Path Towards Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression

CATF was founded in 1991 on the values of creating fearless art and telling diverse stories.

In 1991 we thought we understood what those values meant. More than 30 years later, those values now represent a mindful intention and best-practice commitment  to be more than a theater that produces plays by diverse playwrights. We, as the CATF team dream of being an institution that holds anti-racism and anti-oppression (ARAO) values in every aspect of our daily operations. We will strive to infuse these practices in the art, business, and culture we create for artists and audiences of the global majority. Today we commit to building an anti-racist and anti-oppressive CATF. 

How the Journey Began

In 2016, CATF’s Producing Director was a member of the Board for the Theatre Communications Group. After his return from a Board meeting focused on Equity and Inclusion, we understood the time for meaningful change was here. We hired Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity expert Sarah Bellamy to assess the organization. Over the years, we’ve consulted with Sarah to create recurring training sessions and outline protocols to  help us establish an offstage culture to better support onstage work. We thought we understood our purpose and our work. After the murder of George Floyd and the impact of the “We See You, White American Theater” movement, we began to fully recognize the urgency of the ARAO work and the necessary commitment needed to live the work of being anti-racist. We continue to work with Sarah Bellamy. We continue to work as individuals. We continue to work as a group of artists. And we continue to work with our Board of Trustees and many partners to create art, community, and culture that is anti-racist and anti-oppressive.

Below you will find CATF’s current Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Vision Statement and commitment. We know that this is ongoing, daily work. As we continue our journey to create anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices and foster inclusive and brave spaces, we will continue to share our updated vision, commitment, and learning with you. We invite you to participate in this journey with us. Envisioning and activating ARAO principles is essential to our continued growth and transformation as an institution. And this vital quest can only happen if we all work together.

Vision Statement

Land Acknowledgment

Community Committments

 

Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression

VISION STATEMENT

Across the country, individuals and organizations are striving to eradicate racism and address deeply rooted racial disparities within their individual and business practices. CATF acknowledges that racism and oppression exist in our institution, the American theater, and throughout our society. For centuries personal and structural racism has manifested in daily interactions, policies, and practices. This environment is a painful burden for the global majority.

Every season, artists from across the country gather at the Contemporary American Theater Festival to create theater –  the artistic medium dependent on the collaboration of artist and audience in heart and mind. CATF understands the power of the art to ignite change in the way only theater can. These artists, our change-makers, represent the diversity of this nation, and it is CATF’s responsibility to ensure that every artist feels welcomed, valued, heard, and supported for their powerfully unique contributions.

Art-makers have asked theaters to investigate and rectify racial inequities within industry practices. The Contemporary American Theater Festival’s name, mission, and values, urge the Festival to join in this vital movement for change. CATF hears you. We choose to answer this call. We choose to create a community inclusive of the historically marginalized voices of our industry. CATF commits to anti-racist and anti-oppressive art and art-making practices within all facets of our institution.  This commitment is the only path forward for CATF and transformative change for all. We acknowledge we have work to do.

CATF vows to create inclusive practices that disrupt and dismantle racism and oppression within our organization. We will reimagine art without bias, reinvent current and long-term operational procedures, and reassess our daily interactions. CATF pledges to dedicate time and money to sustaining anti-racist and anti-oppressive initiatives. CATF will foster brave spaces that create kind, supportive, accessible, and trustworthy environments for our global majority artists as they work towards powerful art-making.

CATF strives toward a future in which underrepresented communities are uplifted and valued within the American theater. CATF believes focusing on equitable art-making will create a richer, more profound experience for artists, audiences, and our communities. CATF pledges our art and actions to this charge – to this call to action.

This is CATF’s commitment;
a life-time work in progress.

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The Contemporary American Theater Festival acknowledges and honors the original custodians of West Virginia. We see it as a tremendous responsibility to perform and thrive on the ancestral lands of the Massawomeck Nation. This powerful tribe occupied the land between Lake Erie and the Chesapeake Bay. We acknowledge these ancestral lands as a gateway of three distinct language families: the Algonquin, Iroquoian, and Siouan-speaking peoples. In addition to the Massawomeck, several other Indigenous communities stewarded this land, including but not limited to the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois Confederacy), the Lenape (the Delaware), the Saponi, and the Shawnee.

For thousands of years, these lands cared for and supported the lives of countless humans. We confront the painful reality that colonizers eradicated local native groups, taking advantage of abundant natural resources. These oppressors used horrific acts of violence: coerced assimilation, paternalism, and genocide to steal land, overthrow the original custodians, and overcome a way of life centuries-old. We recognize we still benefit from these egregious acts today.

At CATF, we commit to learning about and advocating for the original inhabitants of these lands while celebrating the existing vibrant Native American culture. Today, several Native American tribes have descendants living here. May their contributions to the region’s history and culture be recognized and celebrated. We support Indigenous Peoples’ reclamation of their heritage and reconnection to their ancestral lands. We strive to use our voices and our art to help right the wrongs of this country’s past.

We believe all land is Native land. So, as you move from venue to venue throughout the Festival, we encourage you to take a moment and appreciate where you stand. Note the importance of recognizing the history that has brought you to this moment. Seek to understand your place within that history. CATF understands that Land Acknowledgments honor the past, present, and future. We urge you to seek opportunities to pay respect to and support the ongoing contributions of Indigenous Peoples.

CATF encourages the following actions:

  • Supporting Indigenous rights public policy.
  • Supporting Indigenous-led organizations and businesses in our area.
  • Attending Indigenous events, workshops, and seminars.
  • Supporting Indigenous creators on social media platforms.
  • Providing CATF tickets to Indigenous community members.

 

“We are still here. Let’s control our history’s narrative together. There is much to still be gained in commUNITY. I believe that every voice has a right to be heard, and every person has a right to be seen. Leveraged together, we have the innate power to create a better world.”

René Locklear White, CATF’s Indigenous Consultant

COMMUNITY COMMITMENTS

This document is for all CATF artists, both full-time and seasonal.  CATF believes whether someone appears on stage, backstage, in the admin offices, or at the front of house, they are artists and vital to the artistic process.

VALUES: The priorities that inform how we choose to act and react because we desire to hold ourselves and others in high regard.

COMMITMENTS: Our pledge and dedication to do our best even when it pushes and stretches us beyond our comfort zone.

PRACTICES: The cycle of acting and reflecting to further our learning.

OUR VALUES:

  • FEARLESS ART
  • DIVERSE STORIES
  • COMMUNITY
  • INCLUSION

OUR COMMITMENTS:

  • We choose to be here to Listen, to Learn, and to Practice
  • We admit the truth that racism and systems of oppression exist
  • We believe that a more equitable world is possible/achievable 
  • We pledge to disrupt and dismantle these systems through our Anti-Racist and Anti- Oppression practices
  • We choose to lead with love and care for ourselves, our artists, and our audiences in order to nurture profound relationships 
  • We choose to stand with courage and faith as we demonstrate our love and care
  • We choose a Brave Space that embraces everyone where they are in their practice
  • We choose to be in service to our practice, our art, and our artists
  • We believe our values and practices are necessary to make art, create community, and build a better future

OUR PRACTICES:

  • Making space for self-care:
    • Check in with yourself to understand your needs, comfort level, and capacity to complete a task. Recognize these needs and abilities might change throughout the day. 
    • Be open and honest with colleagues. Ask for support, and offer it, when it is needed. 
    • Create a self-care practice that ensures reflection, rejuvenation, and wellness. 
    • Engage in self-care to strengthen our collective well-being. 
  • Honoring the agenda, plan, or schedule, while holding them with flexibility:
    • Acknowledge that everyone’s time and commitment is valuable. 
    • Embrace patience and adapt as needed while the conversation/project grows, evolves, or changes.
    • Avoid putting someone ‘on the spot’ without the ability to prepare a response.
    • Understand that responses to new ideas may require follow-up discussions. 
  • Listening to learn:
    • Listen to understand the ideas and avoid making assumptions. 
    • Take time to think before you respond or ask questions.
  • Supporting spontaneous and unfinished thoughts in our conversation:
    • Speak in draft, understanding that perspectives may change throughout the process.
    • Support collaborative discussion to inspire evolving ideas.
    • Acknowledge that mistakes will happen; recognizing and addressing them is how we learn and grow. 
  • Uplifting Productive Silence:
    • Allow the space to grow in silence.
    • Make space for quieter voices to have the opportunity to speak up.
  • Respecting that words matter: 
    • Strive to use positive and uplifting language. 
    • Be mindful of oppressive language and its impact.
    • Be mindful of nonverbal communication and its impact. 
    • Allow others to ask clarifying questions and finish expressing their thoughts.
    • Question the idea, not the individual. 
    • Speak in “I” statements. 
    • Acknowledge that language is ever changing and we will adapt as we learn.

Simple steps for our daily practice

  • Share thanks and gratitude
  • Care for yourself and others
  • Understand that everyone entering the room brings many other people with them – honor all the people in the room that are not seen
  • Check-in with your colleagues and listen
  • Carry patience
  • Honor names and pronouns
  • Request and offer accountability
  • Live in the positive

BLACK LIVES MATTER.