Starring
MARK LIGHT-ORR as Reg
RICHARD GALLAGHER as Norman
ASHTON HEYL as Ruth
CAITLIN CLOUTHIER as Sarah
JENNI PUTNEY as Annie
DAVID MASON as Tom

Scenic Design by DAVID ARESNAULT
Costume Design by CHARLES SCHOONMAKER
Lighting Design by STUARD DUKE
Sound Design by JANE SHAW
Production Stage Manager DANIELLE ZANDRI

In a historic collaboration with Vermont’s Weston Playhouse and Northern Stage, DTF presented Table Manners, the second play in Alan Ayckbourn’s acclaimed comic trilogy, The Norman Conquests. Northern Stage presented the first play, Living Together in the spring of 2016, and The Weston Playhouse presented the third play, Round and Round the Garden, in July and August.

All three companies shared a cast and creative team. Dorset Theatre Festival’s production was helmed by renowned director Evan Yionoulis, known to regional audiences for her recent revival of Hapgood at Williamstown Theatre Festival. The trilogy is both wildly comic and poignant, as the complex relationships among six characters are examined. All three plays are set during the sexual revolution of the 1970s and take place over the same weekend at an English country estate. Each play takes place in a different part of the house with Dorset Theatre Festival’s Table Manners  taking place in the dining room.

NEWSROOM

Conquering ‘The Norman Conquests’ Without Going Broke-American Theatre Magazine

Table Manners Review by Telly Halkias-Manchester Journal

Table Manners Review by Alex Brown-Seven Days

‘Norman’s Conquests’ aims to capture Dorset by Andrew McKeever-Manchester Journal

Starring
ANDREA SYGLOWSKI as Elizabeth Bishop
CHRIS HENRY COFFEY as Robert Lowell

Lighting Design by GRANT W.S. YEAGER
Scenic & Costume Design by JOHN McDERMOTT
Sound Design by AMY ALTADONNA
Projection Design by KEVIN RAMSER
Production Stage Manager Geoff Boronda

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.

Newsroom

Dorset’s ‘Dear Elizabeth’ is about us-Review by Telly Halkias-The Manchester Journal

Dear Elizabeth Review by Kate Abbott-BTW Berkshires

A poetic friendship: Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell by Jim Lowe-The Rutland Herald

Berkshire Eagle-Best Bets for Theater

Broadway World-Poet Michael Dumanis speaks on Dear Elizabeth

Starring
KRISTINE NEILSON as Renne
BRENT LANGDON as Lyle
DAVID TURNER as Charles
BRIAN DYKSTRA as Reg
NILANJANA BOSE as Katrina
JOSIAH BANIA as Topher
ELIZABETH EVANS as May
KATIE PAXTON as Waitress

Set Design by NARELLE SISSONS
Lighting Design by MICHAEL GIANNITTI
Costume Design by BARBARA BELL
Sound Design by MUTT L. DOGG
Dramaturg MARGARETT PERRY

The Festival continues its commitment to developing new plays with a World Premiere of The Way of the World by Theresa Rebeck. The Way of the World is a contemporary retelling of the sardonic masterpiece by William Congreve.  

Set in the demimonde of the hyper-rich Hamptons, it follows the story of a good-hearted heiress who has become prey to the attentions of an amoral party boy.  After he callowly seduces her aunt, making the older woman a figure of public ridicule, their romance is dead in the water.  But his insistence on winning back the moneyed heroine fuels the summer’s gossip in the land of the one-percent.  Can love emerge in a world where love means nothing?

While embracing a language which is completely of the moment, the play faithfully revels in Congreve’s gimlet-eyed questions about society. Theresa Rebeck herself will helm the production, bringing with her a star-studded cast. Theresa Rebeck is an acclaimed playwright whose New York productions recently include, Seminar starring the late Alan Rickman and Dead Accounts starring Katie Holmes. Most recently she is known for her hit NBC TV series-Smash. Theresa was named one of the “150 Fearless Women in the World” by Newsweek Subscriptions on sale March 1, 2016. Single Tickets on sale April 1, 2016. Prices range from $46-$60. Student/Youth discounts available.  This production runs approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes including one intermission.

Starring
MARINDA ANDERSON as Billie Holiday
KENNEY GREEN as JIMMY

Scenic Design by ALEXANDER WOODWARD
Lighting Design by MICHAEL GIANNITTI
Costume Design by TRACY CHRISTENSEN
Sound Design by JANE SHAW
Production Stage Manager KELLY BORGIA

Fresh from a Tony Award-winning revival on Broadway, award-winning playwright Lanie Robertson recreates this vivid look into the life and times of jazz great Billie Holiday.  

The time is 1959. The place is a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie’s  last performances, given four months before her death. More than a dozen musical numbers are interlaced with salty, often humorous, reminiscences, revealing a riveting portrait of the lady and her music.  Dorset Theatre Festival’s production will be helmed by Artistic Director Dina Janis.

This production runs approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
Audience Advisories: This production contains profanity, references to drug use and sexual assault, and the use of herbal cigarettes.