Dream houses: architects take notes as six playwrights imagine the ideal theatrical space.(designs and plans for a new performing arts complex)

American Theatre, July, 2005 by Estvanik, Nicole

This July, for the 15th year running, Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, W.Va., showcases a select group of new American plays. The 2005 quartet is comprised of Melinda Lopez's Sonia Flew, Sam Shepard's The God of Hell, Lydia Stryk's American Tet and Sheri Wilner's Father Joy.

CATF is also moving forward on another front: After raising the first $10 million of its capital campaign, it is finalizing plans for a new performing arts complex. The nearly $50-million project--scheduled for completion in 2011, with some facilities in use as early as 2009--includes two 250-seat theatres and a 150-seat lab theatre, as well as classrooms, offices, shop space and living quarters for resident artists. This past January, while still in the...