ABOUT THE PLAY
Break a leg… or someone else’s.
Down-on-his-luck actor Harry finally catches a break: he’s cast as the understudy in a long-lost Kafka play playing to sold-out Broadway crowds. But when the show’s swaggering Hollywood star, Jake, sweeps into rehearsal, the stage becomes a battlefield of ego, ambition, and insecurity of truly Kafkaesque proportions.
Caught in the crossfire is the razor-sharp stage manager—with a complicated history with both men—desperately trying to keep the production (and her sanity) from imploding before opening night.
Theresa Rebeck’s THE UNDERSTUDY is a wickedly funny, fast-paced backstage comedy about ambition, jealousy, second chances, and the fragile line between art and ego. Smart, biting, and unexpectedly moving, it’s a love letter to the theater—and a no-holds-barred look at what happens when the spotlight isn’t big enough for everyone.
“Rebeck’s sharply written script gets the comedy right, especially where it concerns the Kafkaesque play, and cannily captures the carping so common among competing actors.”
“There’s much that the playwright gets right with her comic premise, including the imagined sections of Kafka’s “play,” which are a perfect imitation of the writer’s style, and her depiction of the professional rivalries endemic to the acting profession.”
SCHEDULE
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FRIDAY, JULY 10th - 7:30 PM (PREVIEW)
SATURDAY, JULY 11th - 7:30 PM (OPENING NIGHT)
SUNDAY, JULY 12th - 2:00 PM
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WEDNESDAY, JULY 15 - 2:00 PM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 15 - 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, JULY 16 - 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 17 - 2:00 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 17 - 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 18 - 2:00 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 18 - 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JULY 19 - 2:00 PM (CLOSING)
MEET THE CAST
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Jeffrey Bean, Broadway: Amadeus; Bells Are Ringing. Off-Broadway: Dig (Primary Stages), Dublin Carol (Irish Repertory Theatre, received a 2020 Drama League Award nomination for Distinguished Performance); The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons); About Alice (Theatre For A New Audience). Television & Film: The Housemaid; Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin; The Chair Company; Crystal Lake; The Diplomat; The Hunting Party; Cabrini; Billions; Lincoln Rhyme; The Blacklist; The Good Fight; Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; Dr. Death. Regional: Alley Theatre, 25 Seasons; Humana Festival; Bay Street Theatre; White Heron Theatre; Dorset Theatre Festival; Hope Summer Repertory Company; Shakespeare Dallas jeffreybean.com
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David Mason's previous Dorset credits include: THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE, THIRST, TABLE MANNERS and the world premiere of DIG by Theresa Rebeck. Broadway: PICTURES FROM HOME (Studio 54). Off-Broadway: Theresa Rebeck's DIG (Primary Stages) and SEARED directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel (MCC); TRICK OR TREAT (59E59). Other NYC: Ensemble Studio Theatre, Civilian Studios, Primary Stages, Present Company, NativeAliens, Red Fern Theatre, Circle East. Selected regional credits include: the world premiere of THE NEST by Theresa Rebeck at Denver Center; CHAPTER TWO directed by Marsha Mason at Arizona Theatre Co.; numerous productions at Cleveland Playhouse, Portland Stage, Cape Playhouse, Geva Theatre Center, TheatreSquared, Northern Stage, Weston Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, New Century Theatre, Public Theater, Opera House Arts. TV: Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Leftovers, House of Cards, Law & Order: SVU.
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Elizabeth Heflin recently completed a run of Samantha Inside Out (World Premiere) at New Jersey Repertory. Broadway: The Government Inspector; Off-Broadway: Twelfth Night; National Tour: The Odd Couple with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. She’s a resident company member with the REP/UD: Medea, The Threepenny Opera, August: Osage County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Flea In Her Ear, Heartbreak House, The Millionairess, O’ Beautiful. She was also a company member at the Alley Theatre for 13 years: The Greeks, Much Ado About Nothing, The Real Thing, The Goat or Who Is Sylvia, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Doubt. Other regional credits include: The Old Globe, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Paper Mill Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Coconut Grove, Dallas Theater Center, Crossroads Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory, Westport Country Playhouse, and Geva Theatre. TV credits: The Pretender, Renegade, Days of Our Lives, Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and New York News.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
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Theresa Rebeck is a widely produced writer for stage, film, television, and novels, and the most Broadway-produced female playwright of our time. The two-time Emmy-nominated writer, and the Festival’s resident playwright, returns to direct this season on the heels of receiving critical acclaim for the New York productions of two of her own plays which were developed at Dorset Theatre Festival. Dig, which had its World Premiere in Dorset’s 2019 season, debuted Off-Broadway at Primary Stages this past August, and I Need That ran on Broadway this past December at the Roundabout Theatre Company and starred Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Danny DeVito.
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Joe Gery has worked extensively in theater with Caparelliotis Casting since 2014, as well as with Meredith Tucker Casting in film & television. His most recent theater credits include the Broadway productions of Good Night and Good Luck, Grey House, Ohio State Murders, Sam Gold's Macbeth, and The Minutes, as well as off-broadway productions at Signature Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, The Vineyard, and Ars Nova. Television credits include all three seasons of The White Lotus (HBO), Godfather of Harlem (EPIX), Ray Donovan (Showtime), and the final season of The Bold Type (Freeform).
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ADVISORY: TBA
RUNTIME: 95 minutes, no intermission
THE UNDERSTUDY is produced by Dorset Theatre Festival.
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Support for the 49th season is provided by Legacy Donors, the Rodgers Family Foundation, The James H. & Irene M. Hunter Charitable Trust, The Shubert Foundation, and the members of the Festival’s World Premiere Circle.
THE UNDERSTUDY is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Dramatists Play Service. www.concordtheatricals.com
NEWSROOM
Coming Soon….
SUPPORT
Donors will help us reach our goal and continue Dorset’s legacy of professional excellence in Southern Vermont.
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