Welcome to the
Pipeline of New Plays
You can be here when the hits are born.
The Pipeline Series provides writers with fully supported weeklong AEA workshops. Culminating in public staged readings, this interactive program invites our audience to become vital participants in the development of new plays
Since 2018, the Pipeline has featured plays written by Theresas Rebeck, Kate Cortesi, Melissa Ross, Frank Harts, Sofia Alvarez, Matthew Paul Olmos, and Sarah T. Schwab, as well as actors including Treat Williams, Estelle Parsons, Karen Allen, Julie White, Danny DeVito, and Ray Anthony Thomas
Pipeline Projects
2025 Pipeline Presentation:
Bad Dates: Endgame
by THERESA REBECK
Directed by JOHN BENJAMIN HICKEY
Starring Tony Award winner, JULIE WHITE
A follow up to Rebeck’s acclaimed play, Bad Dates!
“The original Bad Dates has long been one of Theresa’s most popular plays, and it feels like a great honor for our Resident Playwright to be debuting the sequel right here in southern Vermont.” - Will Rucker
2022 Pipeline Presentation
I Need That
By THERESA REBECK
Directed by MORITZ VON STUELPNAGEL
Starring DANNY DEVITO, LUCY DEVITO, and RAY ANTHONY THOMAS
"What could be more exciting than a summer with a new play by Theresa Rebeck, and featuring some of my favorite actors of all time," - Dina Janis
Beyond the Pipeline…
The first step on the journey to Broadway! I Need That, starring Danny DeVito had an acclaimed run on Broadway in 2023, at American Airlines Theatre, produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company!
2021 Pipeline Presentation
Scarecrow
Written and Performed by HEIDI ARMBRUSTER
The heart of the piece is really about a relationship with the farm landscape that my father devoted his life to, and to be able to be outdoors for performances adds another layer to this work,” - Heidi Armbruster
Beyond the Pipeline…
Scarecrow was produced on the mainstage in the 2022 season at the Dorset Theatre Festival
2020 Digital Pipeline Presentation
Wingspan
By CHRIS BOHJALIAN
Directed by LISA ROTHE
Starring MARY BACON, GRACE EXPERIENCE, SATHYA SRIDHARAN, and LATOYA LEWIS
"I am so grateful to Dina Janis and Lisa Rothe and the team at the Dorset Theatre Festival. They're both brilliant and have been instrumental in helping me turn a one-act into a complete drama,"
2019 Pipeline Series
Three star-studded evenings of developmental readings, and one special presentation
Panelists
By SOFIA ALVAREZ
Directed by JADE KING CARROL
Starring MARGARET IVEY, BRIAN MISKELL, UGO CHUKWU, MEREDITH HOLTZMAN and TERESA LIM
Three Girls Never Learnt The Way Home
By MATTHEW PAUL OLMOS
Directed by LARISSA LURY
Starring ANDREA NEGRETTE, HEATHER VELAZQUEZ, TONI LACHELLE POLITT and JENNIFER DORR WHITE
Beyond the Pipeline…
Three Little Girls Never Learnt The Way Home was produced by Cherry Lane, directed by Lury
A Stage of Twilight
By SARAH T. SCHWABB
Directed by DINA JANIS
Starring KAREN ALAN, KALE BROWNE, and OLIVER PALMER
Beyond the Pipeline…
A Stage of Twilight was adapted into a feature length film starring Karen Allen, William Sadler and Alfredo Narciso
2018 Pipeline Series
Is Edward Snowden Single?
By KATE CORTESI
Directed by PIRONNE YUSEFZADEH
Invictus Mingus
By FRANK HARTS
Directed by JACKSON GAY
A co-production with New Neighborhood
A New Play
By MARISSA ROSS
Directed by GIOVANNA SARDELLI
Starring Academy Award Winner ESTELLE PARSONS
Special Presentation:
A Life In The Theatre
By DAVID MAMET
Directed by DINA JANIS
Starring TREAT WILLIAMS
New Play Reading Series
Prior to 2018, Dorset Theatre Festival annually hosted a series of new-play-readings, which helped to produce Pulitzer Prize-winners, Susan Blackburn Award finalists, and other hit new plays!
2017 New Play Reading Series
A new play, by MONA MANSOUR
A new play, by LAUREN YEE
There’s Always The Hudson, by PAOLA LÁZARO
2016 New Play Reading Series
Employee Of The Month, by BRIAN DYKSTRA
HENRICK IBSEN’s A Doll’s House, in a new translation by ROYSTON COPPENGER
Directed by JOHN GOULD RUBEN
Three Quarter Inches of Sky by SHERRY KRAMER
2015 New Play Reading Series
The Birthday Boy, by CHRIS NEWBOUND
Cost of Living, by MARTYNA MAJOK
2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Drama
A new play, by KATE MOIRA RYAN
2014 New Play Reading Series
Utterly Changed, by NICOLE BURDETTE
Starring KATHRYN ERBE
Dillingham City, by LUCY THURBER and MATT GOULD
Zealot, by THERESA REBECK
Starring JOHN DOYLE and ALFRE WOODWARD
Susan Blackburn Prize Finalist
2013 New Play Reading Series
The Purple Lights of Joppa, Illinois, by ADAM RAPP
The Bootlegger and the Rabbi’s Daughter, a new musical by TAJLEI LEVIS and composer JOHN MERCURIO
Rest, by SAMUEL D. HUNTER
Special Presentation:
This Verse Business / Robert Frost
Starring Emmy award-winner GORDON CLAPP
2012 New Play Reading Series
The Undeniable Sound of Right, by LAURA EASON
Radiance, by CUSI CRAM
The Bay of Fundy, by SHERRY KRAMER
2011 New Play Reading Series
The Nap, by MARISA SMITH
Do Something Pretty, by MELISSA ROSS
Naked Influence, by SUZANNE BRADBEER