2016 Dear Elizabeth — Dorset Theatre Festival

The story of one of the greatest correspondences in literary history and a remarkable 30 year friendship...

Dorset Theatre Festival is excited to produce Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl, one of the most renowned playwrights of her generation. Dear Elizabeth chronicles the remarkable thirty-year friendship between two of the most celebrated and honored American poets of the 20th century: Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. With postmarks from Maine to Key West, and as far away as London and South America, Dear Elizabeth is a lyrical and moving portrait of two lives that unfold in letters.

A recent hit Off-Broadway at The Women’s Project, the production will be helmed by director Adrienne Campbell-Holt, known to regional audiences for her acclaimed work on DTF’s productions of Red starring Tim Daly, and The Scene by Theresa Rebeck.

Cast

Andrea Syglowski (Elizabeth Bishop)—recently appeared in the world premiere productions of The Nest by Theresa Rebeck (Denver Center) and Of Good Stock by Melissa Ross (South Coast Rep). Her 2014 production of Venus in Fur at The Huntington Theatre garnered her the Elliott Norton Award for Best Actress in a Large Theatre, and an IRNE Award for Best Actress. She has participated in new play development workshops at The Roundabout, New York Theatre Workshop, Labyrinth Theatre Company, Bay Street Theatre, The Lark, Ars Nova, Jewish Plays Project, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, The New York Society Library, and BAM. Other credits include: Asking for Trouble (Ensemble Studio Theatre); The Walk Through (Slate Theatre Company); A Flea in her Ear, Bully to You, Schmoozy Togetherness, White Trash Anthem (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Three Sisters, Loves Labours Lost, Elijah, Carve (Chautauqua Theatre Company); Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare at the Manor). TV: The Good Wife, How to Get Away with Murder, Elementary. Film: Every New York City Party Happens in a Bathroom. Training: USC and The Juilliard School, class of 2013, where she was the proud recipient of the Robin Williams Scholarship.

Chris Henry Coffey (Robert Lowell)—is pleased to be making his DTF debut. Most recently he was seen in the world premiere of Can You Forgive Her? by Gina Gionfriddo at the Huntington, Boston. Broadway: Bronx Bombers by Eric Simonson (Circle in the Square). Off Broadway: Pulitzer prize-winning Water by the Spoonful (Second Stage); Bronx Bombers (Primary Stages); Richard Nelson’s Frank’s Home (Playwrights Horizons); Happy Hour by Neil LaBute (LaMama, ETC). Other Regional: How Shakespeare Won the West by Richard Nelson (Huntington); The Dining Room, Lips Together, Teeth Apart (Westport); Frank’s Home (Goodman), Arthur Miller’s Resurrection Blues (Old Globe); The Front Page (Long Wharf); Violet Hour (Dallas Theater Center); Alley, Yale Rep, Williamstown, others. Selected film & TV include Diverge (upcoming), The Little Tin Man, Epilogue (Tribeca FF 2013), Neil LaBute’s BFF (Tribeca FF 2012) and David Schwimmer’s Trust (“One of the year’s best films.” – Roger Ebert). Billie & Billy, Law & Order, Law & Order: CI, The Good Wife, Cupid, others. Graduate, Yale School of Drama.

Creative Team

Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Director)—is the Founding Artistic Director of Colt Coeur, a Brooklyn-based theatre company. Recent world premieres: Cal in Camo by William Francis Hoffman (Colt Coeur/Rattlestick), Kings by Sarah Burgess (workshop production, WP Theater), The Nest by Theresa Rebeck (Denver Theatre Company), One Child Born (Oberon at American Repertory Theater), How to Live on Earth by MJ Kaufman (Colt Coeur), 52nd to Bowery by Chiara Atik (EST Marathon), Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel (Colt Coeur @ HERE, NYC), REUNION by Greg Moss (South Coast Rep), Everything is Ours by Nikole Beckwith (Colt Coeur), Recall by Eliza Clark (Colt Coeur), Fish Eye (Colt Coeur). Other productions: Red starring Tim Daly (Dorset Theater Festival), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Yale), world premiere of Seven Minutes in Heaven by Steven Levenson (Huntington Theatre Company and Colt Coeur). Director of #makeitfair. BA Barnard College, Columbia University.

Grant W.S. Yeager (Lighting Design)—is a Brooklyn based lighting designer for theatre, concerts, dance, and occasionally television. In New York his work has been featured at: Carnegie Hall, New World Stages, the Vineyard Theatre, Ars Nova, Westside Theatre, HERE Arts Center, Atlantic Theatre Company, Gotham Hall, The Cherry Lane Theater, Forest Hills Stadium, The Hudson Theater, The Kaye Playhouse, Summerstage in Central Park, and more. He has done work in regional theatres across 15 states, as well as international productions in Venezuela, Mexico, Bermuda, and South Korea. He is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 and an IATSE ACT member.

John McDermott (Set Design & Costume Design)—At DTF: Red, The Scene. For Colt Coeur: Cal in Camo, Dry Land, Recall, Fish Eye. For Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth, Measure For Measure, The Arabian Nights, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, An Iliad, As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale. At Shakespeare and Co: The Taming, Ugly Lies the Bone, Red Velvet, The Comedy of Errors, An Unexpected Man and Sotto Voce. Transfers at Powerhouse Theater, Tribes, Peerless, Lost in Yonkers at Barrington Stage. Sense & Sensibility, New York Animals, Hamlet, Saint Joan for Bedlam. Asst Professor at Adelphi University

Amy Altadonna (Sound Design)—Selected credits include Dry Land, Seven Minutes in Heaven, Recall, Everything is Ours (Colt Coeur), Milk (New Georges), Red Velvet, The Unexpected Man (Shakespeare & Co.), Take Me Back (Walkerspace), Skin of Our Teeth, Treasure Island (Perseverance Theater), The Capables (Gym at Judson), Bastards of Strindberg (SATC), Foxfire, Secret Garden, Private Lives (Utah Shakes), Death of a Salesman, Fences, The Other Place (Virginia Stage Co.). Films include the features Salesgirl, Mandatory Love, Perfect Wedding, and shorts Yield and 2:15. She teaches sound design at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. B.A. Music, William & Mary; M.F.A. Sound Design, Yale. www.amyaltadonnasounddesign.com

Kevin Ramser (Projection Design)—is a Pittsburgh-based artist working in multimedia for live performance. This is his second year designing for the Dorset Theater Festival, following Outside Mullingar in July 2015. Since 2012 he has worked in Pittsburgh with the art and music collectives VIA and Honcho as a visual artist, visual arts curator, and video engineer. His work has appeared at many venues in the US and abroad, including the Serpentine Gallery, The Kitchen, BAM Fisher, and the Carnegie Museum of Art. He is currently pursuing his MFA in Video and Media Design at Carnegie Mellon University.

Geoff Boronda (Stage Manager)—New York credits include Mobile Unit: Romeo & Juliet, Mobile Unit: The Comedy of Errors, Buzzer, Ping Pong, Under the Radar Festival, The Urban Retreat, The Great Immensity, and Fortress of Solitude (The Public Theater); generations (Soho Rep); Nobody Rides A Locomotive No Mo’ (Rising Circle). Regional: Hamlet, Dear Elizabeth, and A Doctor in Spite of Himself (Yale Repertory Theatre); Beautiful Star, A Christmas Carol (Triad Stage); The Sunshine Boys (Connecticut Repertory Theater). He received his Master’s degree in Stage Management from the Yale School of Drama.