2017 New Play Reading Series Highlights
Our new play reading series is the hottest ticket in town!
If you thought you knew everything about Dorset Theatre Festival, we invite you to think again by attending one of our nationally-renowned New Play Readings. New plays begin their lives at the Festival, and a new generation of playwrights tests their voices here before having their plays produced on Broadway and beyond. We are extremely proud that we have hosted over 70 playwrights in the past 6 years, developing over 90 new works, 18 of which have gone on to receive full productions or further development at some of the most prestigious venues in the country. The Dorset Theatre Festival is redefining the landscape of regional theatre. We invite you to join us in growing new plays!
Dorset Theatre Festival is thrilled to have support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Shubert Foundation and Harold and Mimi Steinberg Trust and the Richard Rodgers Foundation.
So Hot. So Cool. Tickets on sale soon.
Click here to read an exclusive interview with Dorset Theatre Festival’s 2017 New Playwrights
NEW PLAY READING WITH MONA MANSOUR
Date: June 12, 2017
Time: 7pm
Mona Mansour’s Unseen will premiere at The Gift Theater in Chicago, opening February 2017. The Vagrant trilogy was recently presented at New Dramatists in NYC after a workshop at the Vineyard Ards Project with the Public Theater. Of the trilogy: The Hour of Feeling (directed by Mark Wing-Davey) received its world premiere in the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and a new Arabic translation was just presented at NYU Abu Dhabi, as part of its Arab Voices Festival. Urge for Going (directed by Hal Brooks): productions at Public LAB, and SF’s Golden Thread (directed by Evren Odcikin). The Vagrant, the third play in the trilogy, was commissioned by the Public and workshopped at the 2013 Sundance Theater Institute. Her play The Way West received its NY premiere at Labyrinth Theater in April 2016, directed by Mimi O’Donnell. Prior to that, the play was at Steppenwolf in Chicago, directed by Amy Morton, and Marin Theatre Company, directed by Hayley Finn. Mona was a member of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group and a Core Writer at Minneapolis’ Playwrights’ Center. With Tala Manassah she has written Falling Down the Stairs, an Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan commission. Their short play Dressing is part of Facing Our Truths: Short Plays about Trayvon, Race and Privilege, a collection of plays commissioned by the New Black Festival. Commissions include Waterwell, La Jolla Playhouse and Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s “American Revolutions.” 2012 Whiting Award. 2014 Middle East America Playwright Award, www.monamansour.com
NEW PLAY READING WITH LAUREN YEE
DATE: August 8, 2017
Time: 7pm
Lauren Yee‘s play King of the Yees will premiere this season at The Goodman Theatre an Center Theatre Group, followed by a production a CT Theatre. Other plays include Ching Chong Chinaman (Pan Asian, M erforming Arts), The Hatmaker’s Wife (Playwrights Realm, Moxie, layPenn), Hookman (Encore, Company One), In a Word (SF Playhouse, leveland Public, Strawdog), Samsara (Victory Gardens, O’Neil onference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival), and The Tiger Among Us (MAP Fund, Mu). Member of the Ma-Yi Writers’ Lab. Commissions: Denve enter, Lincoln Center/LCT3, Mixed Blood, Portland Center Stage, Sout oast Rep, and Trinity Rep. BA: Yale. MFA: UCSD. www.laurenyee.com
NEW PLAY READING WITH PAOLA LÁZARO
DATE: August 15, 2017
TIME: 7pm
Paola Lázaro is a playwright and actress born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She holds a BFA in Dramatic Writing from SUNY Purchase College and an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University. Paola is Atlantic Theater Company’s 2016/2017 Tow Playwright-in-Residence, supported by The Tow Foundation. She was a member of the Public Theater’s 2015 Emerging Writers Group and was selected as Playwright-in-Residence for the 2016 Sundance Theatre Lab in Morocco. Some of her plays include Tell Hector I Miss Him, Contigo and There’s Always the Hudson, which was selected as part of Labyrinth Theater Company’s Up Next Series. Paola is the recipient of the Arts Entertainment Scholarship Award (2011) from the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts. In 2015, she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her role in TO THE BONE at the Cherry Lane Theatre.