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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. Contemporary American Theater Festival 2024 Again this year, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, based at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is showcasing fascinating new theatre works that illuminate life from perspectives seldom portrayed onstage. The festival, which continues through July 28, offers four world premiere plays (one in two separate two-hour parts) at three venues on the university campus and the historic Shepherdstown Opera House downtown. Veteran actor Kenneth Tigar dazzles in his one-person performance The Happiest Man on Earth as the remarkable Eddie Jaku. Eddie (1920-2021) was a German Jew who, in his teens, was caught up in the Holocaust. He describes his youthful belief that his home city, Leipzig, was a center of arts and culture, and how that sense of security collapsed with the Kristallnacht destruction of 1938. He tells of how his training as an engineer kept him barely alive in concentration camps including Buchenwald and Auschwitz–because the Nazis needed him as a skilled worker. He managed to survive after the war marrying another survivor and moving to Australia, and he decided to spend the rest of his life looking for happiness in the present rather than dwelling on the horrors of the past. James Noone's scenic design, a simple structure of wooden planks and pieces of furniture, comes to life through Harold F. Burgess II's expressionistic lighting and Brendan Aanes' gripping sound design. Enough to Let the Light In starts out as a romantic comedy about Cynthia (Caroline Neff), a painter, and Marc (Deanna Myers), a psychologist, before shifting to an absorbing consideration of individual perceptions of reality. This is the first time after several months of dating that Cynthia has invited Marc into her home (a lavishly detailed set by Mara Ishihara Zinky), and something seems a little peculiar even before the two women enter. The question becomes: As one of the women believes in the power of prayer, is it possible that the other's belief in something objectively impossible could be equally true? Neff's role is showier, but Myers keeps pace with her throughout. What Will Happen to All That Beauty? is a two-part epic about living with AIDS, which playwright Donja R. Love calls "an offering" to the Black gay community and the two kinds of family, birth and found. Part 1, set in 1986, follows New Yorkers J.R. Bridges (Jude Tibeau) and his pregnant wife Maxine (Toni L. Martin, heartbreaking), beginning with his HIV-positive diagnosis and ending with the birth of his son. Part II takes place 30 years later, when J.R.'s son Manny (also Tibeau) is living in his father's Mississippi hometown and helping his friend Reggie (Keith Lee Grant) maintain a sanctuary for queer youth. Love takes their time delineating each character and his/her/their issues. Jerome Preston Bates seizes the audience's attention as J.R.'s father, a fiery preacher who can't accept his son as he is, while other actors portray, among others, a devout Muslim who leads a support group for HIV-positive men (Danté Jeanfelix, who also plays Manny's bedridden partner), a reserved older gay man (Keith Lee Grant), and two outspoken allies (MJ Rawls). Luciana Stecconi's non-realistic set allows each scene to flow into the next without interruption. Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting audaciously takes audiences into the often unseen world of a of a gay, non-binary writer and filmmaker with autism. Chantal Buñuel (Jean Christian Barry) is 19 years old, in love with cinema (their chosen name comes from two European film auteurs, Chantal Akerman and Luis Buñuel) and living with "my senses on full blast all the time." His parents (Roderick Hill and Jasminn Johnson) love and support him but struggle to comprehend the intensity of his feelings. The production vividly brings the audience into their disorientation, the sense of everything happening at once; director Oliver Butler has powerful support from Britton W. Mauk's surprising set, Kate McDee's lighting design, David Remedios' sound design, and ultimately the projections designed by Caite Hevner and Paul Lieber. The Contemporary American Play Festival runs through July 28, 2024, at Shepherd University, Shepherdstown WV. The For tickets and information, please call 681-240-2283 or visit catf.org. The Happiest Man on Earth Enough to Let the Light In What Will Happen to All That Beauty? Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting |
