Locally Engaged - Nationally Relevant
The Dorset Theatre Festival been a launching pad for Broadway hits, Pulitzer Prize-winners, and Susan Blackburn Award finalists and more!
From the Pipeline:
Bad Dates: Endgame
By THERESA REBECK
The world premier of Theresa Rebeck’s new play, Bad Dates: Endgame will open at Hartford Stage in early 2027.
Bad Dates: Endgame was Dorset Theatre Festival’s 2025 Pipeline Presentation, starring Tony Award-winner Julie White.
Lucy DeVito and Danny DeVito in the Broadway Production of I Need That, by Theresa Rebeck, at the Roundabout Theatre, directed by Moritz Von Stuelpnagel
I Need That
By THERESA REBECK
Following its successful reading as a Pipeline Presentation, I Need That, by Theresa Rebeck premiered on Broadway at American Airlines Theatre with an acclaimed limited engagement.
Director MORITZ VON STUELPNAGEL, as well as stars DANNY DEVITO, LUCY DEVITO and RAY ANTHONY THOMAS all reprised their roles for the American Airlines production.
Karen Allen in A Stage of Twilight, a film by Sarah T. Schwabb, produced by Cardinal Flix
A Stage of Twilight
By SARAH T. SCHWABB
Following its presentation, a part of Dorset Theatre Festival’s 2019 Pipeline Series, A Stage of Twilight was adapted into a feature-length film of the same name, with legendary actress KAREN ALLEN reprising her role from Dorset Theatre Festival presentation.
Cost of Living, premiered on Broadway at the Samuel J Friedman Theatre
Cost of Living
By MARTYNA MAJOK
Following its 2015 reading at the Dorset Theatre Festival, Cost of Living premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2016. It then had an Off-Broadway engagement at the New York City Center in 2017, before debuting on Broadway in 2022.
Cost of Living won a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Gregg Mozgala), and Outstanding New Play, as well as the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
From the Main Stage
The Way of the World
By THERESA REBECK
On the Main Stage in 2016, Dorset Theatre Festival debuted the premier production of Theresa Rebeck’s play The Way of the World, directed by Rebeck, herself. The play is a retelling of the sardonic masterpiece by William Congreve. Following its strong reception at the Dorset Theatre Festival, The Way of the World enjoyed a production at the Folger Theatre in Washington, DC.
Tim and Tyne Daly in Downstairs at Cherry Lane Theatre. Directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt.
Downstairs
By THERESA REBECK
Following its world premiere, part of the Dorset Theater Festival’s 2017 season, Downstairs, by Theresa Rebeck quickly moved to New York. Produced in 2018 by Cherry Lane Theatre, with Tim and Tyne Daly reprising their roles, and Adrienne Campbell-Holt returning to direct. Downstairs was produced by Arc Stages in 2022, starring Ali Stroker.
Jeffrey Bean and Mary Bacon in Dig, Bean reprised his role. Rebeck also returned to direct.
Dig
By THERESA REBECK
Premiering in our 2019 Season, Dig was later produced Off-Broadway at Primary Stages in 2023, in a production the New York Times called “intelligent, compassionate [and] beautifully acted”
Armbruster reprises her role in the Next Act Theatre production of Scarecrow, directed by Laura Gordon
Scarecrow
By HEIDI ARBRUSTER
This project was developed in the Dorset Women Writer’s Artist Group, and then shared as part of Dorset Theatre Festival’s Pipeline Series. Following its premier on the mainstage in 2022, the play was produced at Next Act Theatre, in Wisconsin and in 2025 by the Cape Cod Theatre Project.