Loss and survival. Resilience and renewal. And Hallmark movies! **JULY 14 - 23**

Written and performed by Heidi Armbruster
Directed by Dina Janis

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NOTE: At this time, all patrons, staff, and volunteers will be required to wear face masks in indoor common areas and during performances. Health & Safety Protocols.

ABOUT THE PLAY

Production photo by Joey Moro

July 14 - 23 (2 WEEKS ONLY!)
SCARECROW - World Premiere

Written and performed by Heidi Armbruster
Directed by Dina Janis

From the author of the Festival’s 2019 hit World Premiere Mrs. Christie. A look at loss and survival. Resilience and renewal. And Hallmark movies.

Will the bulls chase her off the property, or will she garden herself into oblivion? A New York City actress lands herself on her family’s dairy farm to grieve herself back to life. But can she ever make enough meatloaf to feel a sense of purpose again now that her most important person is no longer on the planet? One woman’s look back at the last 33 days of her father’s life in a rip-roaring and touching journey of roller coasters, kittens, and cows. SO MANY COWS!

MADE IN VERMONT: Scarecrow was originally developed in the Festival’s Women Artists Writing Group, and workshopped as part of the 2021 Pipeline Series of New Plays.

“The play is truly hilarious and at the same time, a deeply touching story that illuminates the lives of one family of farmers in Wisconsin, a place very much like Vermont in so many ways”

— Dina Janis, Artistic Director

SCARECROW is produced by Dorset Theatre Festival. CLICK HERE to become a 2022 Season Sponsor.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

HEIDI ARMBRUSTER - PLAYWRIGHT/PERFORMER

Heidi Armbruster, is a New York City-based theatre artist dedicated to creating new work and discovering new approaches to classical literature and theatre. Heidi is a founding member and co-curator of Dorset Theatre Festival’s Women Artists Writing, a group dedicated to cultivating the emergence of diverse theatrical voices. Heidi’s play Mrs. Christie received its world premiere at Dorset Theatre Festival in the summer of 2019. Her other plays, including Dairyland, Murder Girl, Every Good Girl Deserves Fun (and other misremembered things), Where the I Divides, and Purgatory, have been produced and developed at prestigious theatres across the country including SPACE on Ryder Farm, Primary Stages, Kansas City Rep, Red Bull Theater’s Short Play Festival, and many others. As an actress, Heidi has extensive New York and regional theatre credits, including Time Stands Still on Broadway and Lincoln Center’s production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Disgraced. Heidi was awarded a Drama League Nomination for her work in the Keen Company’s revival of Tea and Sympathy and has many TV and film credits including The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, 30 Rock, SVU, House of Cards and her role as Michelle on Darren Star’s TV Land hit Younger.

DINA JANIS - DIRECTOR

Dina Janis has served as the Artistic Director of the Dorset Theatre Festival for the past eleven years, where she recently was co-creator and director of Gorgeous Nothings, with Mary Bacon and Purva Bedi. Dina oversees Dorset's New Play Development Programs including the Festival’s Women Artists Writing Group, Pipeline Series of New Plays, and the new Commissioning and Fellowship Program. Dina's Main Stage productions at Dorset include the acclaimed production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill by Lanie Robertson, The Whipping Man by Mathew Lopez and Out of the City by Leslie Ayvazian. As part of the Pipeline Series Dina has directed A Stage of Twilight by Sarah Schwab starring Karen Allen, and A Life in the Theatre by David Mamet starring Treat Williams

ROB CHIKAR (Production Stage Manager) Select Credits include - BROADWAY: The King and I; Larry David’s Fish In The Dark; and You Can’t Take it With You. OFF-BROADWAY: American Morning (Prospect Theater); Harry Clarke at the Minetta Lane Theater, Stuffed by Lisa Lampanelli, Teenage Dick (The Public), Hallelujah Baby! (York Theatre), and Chix 6 The Musical. REGIONALLY: Quixote Nuevo (HuntingtonTheatre & The Alley Theatre), Quixote Nuevo and Make Believe (Hartford Stage), Kill Local (La Jolla Playhouse), Diner The Musical (Delaware Theater Company), These Paper Bullets (Geffen Playhouse); These Paper Bullets and In a Year With 13 Moons
(Yale Repertory Theatre); Travesties (Bay Street Theatre); The 24-Hour Musicals. Los Angeles; The Pirates of Penzance (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Education: M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama. Proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

CHRISTOPHER & JUSTIN SWADER (Scenic Designers) are scenic designers for theatre and live events. DTF: Dig, Queen of the Night. Previous designs with Dallas Theater Center, Two River Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Miami New Drama, Tectonic Theater Project, New Victory Theatre, Resident Ensemble Players, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Lincoln Center Education, York Theatre Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Kitchen Theatre Company, Penguin Rep, Luna Stage, IBEX Puppetry, Trusty Sidekick, A$AP Rocky, Sotheby’s, Big Apple Circus, National Geographic. Lucille Lortel nomination, Henry Hewes nominations, AUDELCO, IRNE & Carbonell Awards. www.cjswaderdesign.com

FABIAN FIDEL AGUILAR (Costume Designer) Attended the Yale School of Drama for his MFA and Boston University (BFA) to pursue theatrical costume design. Credits include: Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, Max Makes a Million, Winnie the Pooh (Alliance Theater), Slow Food, Queen of the Night (Dorset Theater Festival), Afterglow, Safeword (Midnight Theatricals), Recent Alien Abductions (Play Co.): Mlima’s Tale, In the Heights, Man of La Mancha, Romeo and Juliet (Westport Country Playhouse); ¡Bienvenidos Blancos! or Welcome White People! (Team Sunshine, Philadelphia), A View from the Bridge, Seven Spots on the Sun, The War Boys (NYC); Sotto Voce (Portland Stage); Midsummer, The Moors (Yale Repertory Theater world premiere); He Left Quietly (SummerWorks Performance Festival, Toronto). In his spare time he likes to paint watercolors.

PAUL WHITAKER (Lighting Designer) New York credits include work at The Public Theater, MCC Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company and others. Regional credits include The Guthrie, The Alley, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Denver Center, The Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, The Children’s Theatre Company, The Long Wharf Theatre, The Huntington Theatre Company, Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Minnesota Opera, San Diego Opera, and others. Paul is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. Paul is a Principal Lighting Designer/Theatre Consultant for Schuler Shook. www.schulershook.com www.paulwhitakerdesigns.com

Fitz Patton (Sound Designer) Broadway: The Rose Tattoo, Choir Boy (Tony; Drama Desk Awards), Bernhart/Hamlet, Three Tall Women, Meteor Shower, Present Laughter, The Little Foxes, The Humans (Drama Desk Award), Our Mother’s Brief Affair, Blackbird, The Father, An Act of God, It’s Only a Play, Airline Highway, The Other Place, Outside Mullingar, Casa Valentina. Off-Broadway: Greater Clements, The Mother, Torch Song; Napoli, Brooklyn; Yen; Prodigal Son; The Other Place (Drama Desk nomination); and When the Rain Stops Falling (Drama Desk; Lortel Awards). He is the founding editor of Chance Magazine, a serialized art book on performance and design.