Remember those Shepherdstown plays I mentioned a few months ago?

To quote myself: "[Esther and John and Mary Ellen and I] went to Shepherdstown at the end of July and saw "Breadcrumbs" and "Lidless." They were not bad. But neither were they especially good . . ."

Well, not everyone agrees with my evaluation:

CATF plays nominated

Two works presented at last summer's five-play rep at the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown, W.Va., have been recommended for awards consideration by the American Theatre Critics Association.

CATF Artistic Director Ed Herendeen was notified that Jennifer Haley's "Breadcrumbs" and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's "Lidless" have been put forward for the association's ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award, recognizing work produced outside New York City during 2010.

Haley's "Breadcrumbs" follows a female writer's struggle with Alzheimer's disease. Cowhig's "Lidless" is about a female Army veteran whose life is upended when a terror suspect she interrogated with questionable methods at Guantanamo Bay visits her years later. "Both plays look at memory and redemption and forgiveness and reconciliation [and] how people deal with the past," says Herendeen.

Finalists will be chosen in January and the winners announced at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville in the spring. The winning playwright will receive a $15,000 award, and the two runners-up $5,000 each.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/23/AR2010112307322.html