SLOW FOOD by Wendy MacLeod
Directed by Jackson Gay

Limited engagement - 10 performances only!

Irene and Peter just want to have a nice meal out on their big anniversary in Palm Springs. But their highly neurotic waiter, Stephen, will not bring them their food, and everything goes horribly, ridiculously wrong. This absurd server will have them examining everything from their menu choices to their very future together! Will their shared desperation get them their spanakopita - or end their marriage? A comedy for anyone who's ever been "hangry."

Wendy MacLeod (Playwright) Wendy MacLeod’s play The House of Yes became an award-winning Miramax film which premiered at Sundance. Slow Food, which was developed at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference with actors Reed Birney and Jane Kaczmarek, recently premiered at Merrimack Repertory Theater and The Laugh Track is slated for production at ACT in Seattle in 2020.  Her comedy Women in Jeopardy! premiered at GEVA and is now being done around the country. Other plays:  Sin (Goodman, Second Stage) Schoolgirl Figure (Goodman), The Water Children and Juvenilia (Playwrights Horizons), Things Being What They Are (Seattle Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre), and Find and Sign (Pioneer Theater). She did the screenplay adaptation for The Shallow End, a short film directed by Cynthia Silver.  Her essays and humor pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, POETRY, on Salon, The Rumpus, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and on All Things Considered.

Jackson Gay (Director) UPCOMING: Power of Sail by Paul Grellong (The Warehouse Theatre); Chekhov’s The Seagull (Juilliard); Partnership by Elizabeth Baker (Mint). RECENT: Kleptocracy by Kenneth Lin (Arena Stage); Make Believe by Bess Wohl (Hartford Stage); Woman In Mind by Alan Ayckbourn (REP); Transfers by Lucy Thurber (New York Stage & Film and MCC, off-Broadway Alliance Best New Play Award 2018); Christina Anderson’s the ripple, the wave that carried me home (Ground Floor Berkeley Rep); The Cake by Bekah Brunstetter and Lover Beloved by Suzanne Vega and Duncan Sheik (AlleyTheatre); Lisa Lampanelli’s Stuffed (Westside Theatre); Mat Smart’s Kill Local (La Jolla Playhouse); Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Studio Theatre / New Neighborhood); Shakespeare’s Much Ado adapted with Ken Lin (Cal Shakes); These Paper Bullets! by Rolin Jones with music by Billie Joe Armstrong (New Neighborhood, Atlantic, Geffen, Yale Rep - Critics Pick Time Out NY, Best Production and Adaptation LA Sage Awards, Best of 2015 Time Out Los Angeles, Connecticut Critics Circle Award Best Production and Best Director); 3C by David Adjmi and Thurber’s Where We’re Born (Rattlestick); Silverman’s The Moors and Elevada by Sheila Callaghan (Yale Rep); Thurber’s The Insurgents (Labyrinth Theatre Company); Thurber’s Scarcity and Jones’ The Jammer (Atlantic); A Little Journey by Rachel Crothers (Mint - Drama Desk nomination Outstanding Revival of a Play); Jones’ The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Atlantic and Yale Rep, Connecticut Critics Circle Award Outstanding Production of a Play).  Teaching: Williams, Yale, New School, Columbia, Fordham, ESPA Primary Stages. MFA Yale School of Drama.

Peri Gilpin (Irene) Peri is so very happy to be at DTF for the first time. Theatre credits include Native Gardens at The Old Globe, Matthew Modine Saves The Alpacas at The Geffen, As Bees in Honey Drown at The Lucille Lortell and The Pasadena Playhouse, and A Midsummers Night Dream at The STNJ.  TV credits include Frasier, Make It or Break It, Broad City, Scorpion, Mr Robinson, CSI, Modern Family, Law & Order, Hot in Cleveland, Desperate Housewives, Family Reunion, and Why Women Kill. Movies include Benjamin, The Outdoorsman, Spring Forward. She lives with her delightful, twin 15 year old daughters and husband, artist, Christian Vincent in Los Angeles.

Dan Butler (Peter) His many acting credits include Broadway: Travesties (Roundabout); Twentieth Century (Roundabout); The Hothouse (Broadway); Off-Broadway/Regional: Beautiful Day Without You (Origin Theatre); WarholCapote (A.R.T.), Toast (Public), The Weir (Irish Rep), Irish Curse (Soho Playhouse); Old Money (Lincoln Ctr.), Only Thing Worse You Could’ve Told Me …(Actor’s Playhouse, Drama Desk/Outer Critics nominations), Beast, Emerald City (both at NYTW), Lisbon Traviata (MTC/Mark Taper Forum), The Widow Claire (Circle in the Square downtown). Film: Crazy Stupid Love; Karl Rove, I Love You (co-writer/director); Pearl (adaptor/director); Enemy of the State; Fixing Frank; Long Walk Home; Silence of the Lambs.  TV: Modern Love; The Mist; Prayers for Bobby; Hey, Arnold; Frasier (Bulldog).

Greg Stuhr (Stephen) Broadway credits include Larry David’s Fish In the Dark, directed by Anna Shapiro, Elaine May’s Taller Than a Dwarf, directed by Alan Arkin, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, directed by James Lapine. Greg has performed at Steppenwolf, Yale Rep, South Coast Rep, and the AtlanHc Theater Company, in world premieres by Bruce Norris, Rolin Jones, Keith Reddin, and Ethan Coen, respecHvely. He stars in and co-wrote with director Jenna Ricker the acclaimed indie film The American Side, which the San Francisco Chronicle hailed as a ‘stylish, tense, wiBy, imponderable and exhilaraEng tribute to film noir classics’. He served as producer on the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, Qualified, also directed by Ms. Ricker, which premiered this spring at SXSW. And along with fellow-New Neighborhood members, Adam O’Byrne and Rolin Jones, Greg created the comedy series Luba’s Lot for Fox Television Studios.

Antje Ellermann (Scenic Designer) designs sets for theatre, opera and TV. Off Broadway credits include: Building the Wall, Stuffed, Dear Elizabeth, I’ m Looking for Helen Twelvetrees, The Belle of Amherst, The Open House (Signature Theatre), Hamlet, and The Broken Heart (Theatre for a New Audience). Regionally her work has been seen at: Hartford Stage, Two River Theater, Kansas City Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, NY Stage & Film, Trinity Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Denver Center Theatre Company, Cleveland Playhouse, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Bard SummerScape and Pittsburgh Opera Center. Award nominations: Connecticut Critics Circle Award (The House That Will Not Stand), Helen Hayes Award, Ovation Award and Lucille Lortel Award (Nine Parts of Desire), Emmy Award Nomination: Becoming American. Website: www.antjeellermann.com

Fabian Fidel Aguilar (Costume Designer) attended Yale University and Boston University to pursue theatrical costume design. Design credits include In the Heights, of La Mancha, Romeo and Juliet (Westport Country Playhouse), safeword. (Midnight Theatricals), Recent Alien Abductions (Play Co.), Max Makes a Million, Winnie the Pooh (Alliance Theater), and Cathy Zuber’s associate on Socrates (The Public) and Porgy and Bess (The MET). Other credits include ¡Bienvenidos Blancos! or Welcome White People! (Team Sunshine, Philadelphia); A View from the Bridge; Seven Spots on the Sun; The War Boys (East coast premiere); Sotto Voce (Portland Stage); Midsummer; The Moors (Yale Repertory Theater world premiere); He Left Quietly (Toronto). While in Boston he worked for various theatres, conservatories, and universities including: American Repertory Theater, Boston Ballet, Moscow Ballet, the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, and others. In his spare time he likes to paint watercolors or urban sketch. 

Michael Giannitti (Lighting Designer) has been working with Dorset Theatre Festival since 2010, the first 6 years as Producing Director. His lighting designs include the original Broadway production of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, 45 productions at The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC (including 5 years as resident lighting designer), 26 productions at Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, and many productions at Trinity Rep, Capital Rep, Portland Stage, Shakespeare & Company, Weston Playhouse, Arkansas Rep, Barrington Stage, Chautauqua, Virginia Stage, Indiana Rep, George Street, Arena Stage, Old Globe, Seattle Rep, Huntington, Yale Rep, Olney and other theatres. NYC lighting designs include 59E59, Dance Theatre Workshop, Danspace Project, The Joyce, The Kitchen, Here Arts Center, P.S. 122, La Mama, and the Off-Broadway production Sounding Beckett, originally produced at the Library of Congress. He has been on the Bennington College Faculty since 1992. As a Fulbright Specialist Grant recipient, he taught in New Zealand and Romania, and has been a guest lecturer at the Guangxi Arts Institute in China. MFA: Yale School of Drama; BA: Bates College. www.michaelgiannitti.com.

Sinan Refik Zafar (Sound Designer) is a New York based sound designer and composer. His recent work includes What the Constitution Means to Me (NYTW, Berkeley Rep, Clubbed Thumb), peerless (Yale Repertory Theater), Hamlet (Waterwell), Intimate Apparel (TheatreSquared), We are Proud to Present... (Yale Dramat), Detroit (TheatreSquared), Richard in 9 Poses (Clubbed Thumb), Midsummer (Tiltyard), Macbeth (d. Will Frears) and Lindsey Ferrentino’s Amy and the Orphans (Carlotta Festival of New Plays). Other regional credits include O, Fallen One (Curly Cue & Co); Blood Knot (Lounge Theatre), Woyzeck (Illyrian Players); Julius Caesar (Griot Theatre). He holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. SinanZafar.com

Carolynn Richer (Stage Manager) Dorset Theatre Festival: Cry It Out. Off Broadway: Joan (Colt Coeur), Downstairs (Primary Stages), Peer Gynt and the Norwegian Hapa Band (Ma-Yi Theater Company), These Paper Bullets! (Atlantic Theater Company), Stuffed (Westside). Regional: The Way of the World (Folger Theatre); Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All…, Little Shop of Horrors (Berkshire Theatre Group); Accidental Death of an Anarchist, A Streetcar Named Desire, Stones in His Pockets (Yale Repertory Theatre); Middletown, Cabaret, Street Scene (New School for Drama). BA: University of Notre Dame. MFA: Yale School of Drama.

Community Partner Night

Thursday, August 29

6:30 PM Reception in the Dorset Playhouse Cafe
7:30 PM Performance

Sponsored by The Barn Restaurant & Tavern

Community Partner Nights are pre-show receptions to honor our local heroes. Featuring food donated by local eateries and live music, the community gathers at the Dorset Playhouse to thank our corporate sponsors and celebrate our Giving Back Program.

Our Giving Back Program underwrites free and low-cost tickets for local firefighters, farmers, police, EMS workers, Habitat for Humanity volunteers and families, and all military personnel and their families.

Click HERE to learn more!

Post-Show Talk Back

Sunday, August 25

Talk Back will immediately follow the 2 PM Performance.

Talk about the play! Learn more about the production and the actors by joining Artistic Director, Dina Janis, as she leads a talk-back discussion with select cast and creative team directly after the performance.