Who We Serve

Dorset Theatre Festival has long thought of itself as a kitchen table for the community, a place where people come to laugh, celebrate, and learn together. The Festival fills arts needs for our audience, artists creating work we produce, and our local-state-regional ecosystem, while being a nationally recognized developer of new plays and playwrights.

One of the communities we serve is the people who work here. We feel a deep responsibility to the artists, technicians, and staff members who bring each of our seasons to life. The success of such a model relies on an atmosphere of caring, collaboration, and safety. It is fulfilling to see friendships forged between the young professionals each summer, alongside our incredible professional artists.

One of the most important parts of our work as a theater is paying artists. We strive to afford peace and tranquility amid the fast-paced activities of the summer. Paired with the opportunity to bring new plays to life, visiting actors, directors, and designers cherish their time in Dorset. Their appreciation inspires our summer staff to take pride in their work and the environment they have helped to create. We are proudly aware of the future implications of the training received by our summer staff members, many of whom go on to graduate programs and subsequent professional theater jobs.

The Festival also specifically serves playwrights through opportunities for first or early productions of new works. This year, we had a thrilling collaboration with Lena Kaminsky and director Bevin O’Gara on the second production of SALVAGE. Though the play had received a smaller scale production the year prior, we approached the Dorset production as a World Premiere, discovering and rewriting throughout the brief 15-day rehearsal period. The result was not only a fabulous production of the play, but the welcoming of these artists into Dorset’s artistic family. Having artists invested in the future of the Festival is humbling as well as essential.

The Festival’s ticket-buying audience, another community we serve, is composed of the local rural community of Southern Vermont, as well as tourists from surrounding regions. We continue to make significant investments in digital and local grassroots marketing in order to grow new audiences for the sake of the Festival and the local economy.

Our entire region struggles with attracting resources and audiences to the area. While we are located in a rural and sprawling landscape, we are also an hour from many larger populated locations like Saratoga Springs, the Berkshires, the Albany/Capital Region, and only a few hours from Boston and New York City. This represents tremendous opportunity in terms of engaging and developing new audiences. Tourists visit art galleries, museums, and other theaters when they travel to Southern Vermont, as well as patronize restaurants, hotels, and shops. The Americans for the Arts Arts and Economic Prosperity 6 Survey estimate the Festival’s economic impact on our community at more than $2 million per season. As we work to highlight the arts for regional tourists, the Festival also stands as a charming place for our local community to gather and see professional live theater, taking pride in the nationally recognized artistry happening in it's backyards.

The cornerstone of our community engagement is our thirteen-year-old Giving Back Program. We engage our community and provide access to the work we produce by underwriting free and low-cost tickets for those who serve our community and who may not otherwise attend the theater. Firefighters, farmers, police, EMS workers, Habitat for Humanity volunteers (and their families), and others benefit from pay-what-you-like tickets all season long. Though no longer an active national program, we continue the mission of Blue Star Theatres, offering discounted or complimentary tickets to all military personnel and their families, including veterans.

Each year we make new community connections with local non-profits or businesses that rely on volunteers. We continue to expand eligibility for the Giving Back program, inviting these groups to bring more new audience members to the Festival, and allowing them to use the tickets as an incentive for their own volunteers.

Over the last several years, we have further expanded our ticket access programs. Teachers continue to participate in an Educator Buy-One-Get-One offer, and there is a $15 ticket lottery for all performances. Our Community Inclusion Partnership Program offers complimentary sponsorships to BIPOC, AAPI, LGBTQIA+, and underrepresented and historically excluded community groups and business owners, including tickets and discount codes to distribute in their communities. Together with the Giving Back Program, Community Inclusion Partnership Program is at the heart of our mission to bring professional theater to our rural community, sparking and contributing to conversations that engage the people living and working in Southern Vermont.

Years of internal efforts to expand and transform our ticket access program has raised awareness of its availability and its use, thereby removing “cost" as a barrier-to-entry for our neighbors who wish to participate in the exceptional art being produced right here.

The 2025 season was our third year at the helm of the Dorset Theatre Festival and we are proud to say it was the most financially successful box office to date, and the second highest in attendance with more than 10,400 patrons filling the house.

We greatly appreciate your enthusiasm for what we do and with your support, we continue to deliver on our mission to foster new works. Two of last season’s four productions were World Premieres, breathing air for the first time on our Dorset stage. We capped the season with a staged reading from our creative Pipeline, another program we fund to cultivate fresh work. And, we piloted the first, of what we hope becomes our annual, “Playoffs” retreat, a five-day writing intensive for emerging playwrights.

As we look ahead to our 49th season, we dream of a vibrant, never-ending future for the Dorset Theatre Festival. The dream itself feels like a brave act, as our neighboring community theaters take a pause or re-imagine their capacity in an ever-shrinking cultural climate. We prefer to imagine a world where theaters like ours have enough. Enough patrons to fill our seats; enough resources to stage world-class performances; and enough sponsors to sustain the professional Theatre Festival you have come to trust for thought-provoking entertainment each and every summer season.

The word is out. Dorset is the place to be for world-class theater. We tell unique, bold and universal stories. Our reputation attracts gifted actors from stage, television and film, led by first-rate directors who hone their craft on transformational sets designed by award-winning professionals.

However you discovered us, we’re thankful you’re here and we hope you’ll help us continue to spread the word. Something special is happening in our own backyard, so come join us as we “Play in Vermont.”

Gratefully,