Plays by Women from the Contemporary American Theater Festival

Based at Shepherd University, in West Virginia, the Contemporary American Theater Festival is nationally and internationally recognized as a home for playwrights and the development and production of new plays

The Festival makes it a priority to celebrate and produce playwrights with strong, distinct voices, with a core value to tell diverse stories

This Anthology of work provides plays that speak to one of the most compelling virtues of artists everywhere freedom of speech

A necessary volume of women playwrights' work, ranging from a two-time Obie Award-winning author to emerging writers just beginning their careers, it represents a group of women who vary in age, race and sexual orientation and offers an invitation to artistic leaders, scholars and students to embrace gritty, thought-provoking new dramatic work

Edited by The Festival's Producing Directors Peggy McKowen and Ed Herendeen, this Anthology features an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage

Each of the five powerful plays is followed by an informative and discursive playwright interview conducted by Sharon J. Anderson that contextualizes and develops the works within the wider context of the annual festival

The plays include:

Gidion's Knot ~ Johnna Adams

The Niceties ~ Eleanor Burgess

Memoirs of a Forgotten Man ~ D.W Gregory

Dead and Breathing ~ Chisa Hutchinson

20th Century Blues ~ Susan Miller