*A witty Irish drama wrapped in humanity*
**AUGUST 18 - SEPTEMBER 3**

By Ronán Noone
Directed by Theresa Rebeck

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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

August 18 - September 3
THIRST - World Premiere

By Ronán Noone
Directed by Theresa Rebeck

A witty Irish drama wrapped in humanity

Set during Eugene O’Neill’s classic Long Day’s Journey Into Night, failure, denial, and passion roil as two Irish servants and an American chauffeur pass the day in the kitchen of the Tyrone family’s residence in 1912. As tensions rise and the past rears its head, a search for love and belonging becomes the search for “home.”

“I am thrilled to be directing this magnificent play by an extraordinary Irish-American writer, Ronán Noone. THIRST is beautiful, funny, heartbreaking. Unmissable,”

— Theresa Rebeck, Director

Two-time Emmy-nominated writer Theresa Rebeck returns to Dorset on the heels of co-writing the spy ensemble thriller, The 355, which recently hit theaters via Universal. Rebeck’s fourth Broadway play, Bernhardt/Hamlet, premiered as part of the Roundabout Theatre Company’s 2018-19 season, making her the most Broadway-produced female playwright of our time. As the Festival’s Resident Playwright, Rebeck has developed more than seven productions at Dorset Theatre Festival that have gone on to other stages around the country, including 2017’s Downstairs starring Tim and Tyne Daly. This season, she returns to Dorset after directing the Festival’s 2019 award-winning World Premiere of her play, Dig.

FROM THE DIRECTOR of the Festival’s award-winning play *DIG.*

Take a look back at DORSET’S 2019 HIT WORLD PREMIERE,

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**Resident Playwright**

and the most Broadway-produced female playwright of our time returns to Dorset.

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PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE:
Although this play started out life as The Second Girl, it is not that anymore. This play now called Thirst has been redrafted and reworked into a new and separate work of art.

The Second Girl was originally produced by the Huntington Theatre Company, Boston. Peter DuBois, Artistic Director / Michael Maso, Managing Director. The Second Girl was developed by The Orchard Project, American Conservatory Theatre, CATF, Vineyard Playhouse, and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre.

THIRST is produced by Dorset Theatre Festival.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

RONÁN NOONE - PLAYWRIGHT

RONÁN NOONE believes in playing with a myriad of elements to find the right way to tell a good story; a necessary story that tells us who we are, where we have been, and where we are going. He believes in stories that resonate beyond the theatre’s door and that add ideas to the national conversation. He believes in the playwright as thinker travelling in the direction of their fear. His play The Smuggler won the Best Playwright award at the 1st Irish Festival of New York in January of 2019. The Second Girl (Thirst) was the inaugural winner of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Excellence in Playwriting Award (2015) and an Edgerton Award winner in 2014. Additional plays include The Atheist; Brendan; Scenes from an Adultery; The Lepers of Baile Baiste, The Blowin of Baile Gall, The Gigolo of Baile Breag (The Baile Trilogy); The Compass Rose; Little Black Dress; and A Small Death.

The Atheist played at the Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. It was also co-produced by The Culture Project and Ted Mann’s Circle in the Square productions in New York, and received both Drama Desk and Drama League acting nominations. Other recent international productions have taken place in the UK (London and Edinburgh), Spain, Canada, the Philippines, and Ireland. His full-length and one-act plays are published by Samuel French, Smith and Kraus, Bakers Plays, and Dramatists Play Service. Awards include Jeff recommendations in Chicago; Helen Hayes recommendations in Washington D.C.; Ovation recommendations in Los Angeles; Critics Award in Austin, Texas; American Critics Steinberg New Play Award nomination; nomination for best play at 1st Irish Festival New York 2013 and 2015; three Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards for Best New Play; the Boston Theatre Critics Association’s Elliot Norton Outstanding Script Award; The Kennedy Center Michael Kanin National Playwriting Award; a 2014 Edgerton New American Play Award, and a finalist for the ScreenCraft Stage Play Award (2020). His essay on theatre, “Being Afraid to Breathe,” is published by the Princeton University Library Chronicle LXVIII and his play The Second Girl was featured and published in the fall 2016 edition of the Eugene O’Neill Review published by Penn State University Press. Other plays have been featured in books on Irish studies, such as Anail an Bheil Bheo: Orality and Modern Irish Culture and Sinead Moynihan’s Other People’s Diasporas. Noone has attended the Sundance Theatre Workshop and developed work at New York Stage and Film, The Orchard Project, Eugene O’ Neill Foundation Festival at Tao House in Danville CA, The Lark Theatre, Theresa Rebeck’s Vermont Writer’s Retreat, American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco, and The Hermitage Artist Retreat in Florida.

He is an Artistic Associate at the Vineyard Playhouse on Martha’s Vineyard and he has developed work for television with Pretty Matches Productions and the reality TV-based production company High Noon Entertainment. His 2014 live action short The Accident (based on his short play I Glue You) has played the Boston International Film Festival and the Montclair Film Festival. Noone is also on the board of the Éire Society of Boston.

After studying politics and mathematics at University in Galway (NUIG), Ireland, he began a writing career with a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism. He wrote for various newspapers in Ireland with a small stint in Prague. After an editor said his writing was de-constructive and did not meet the formula for a newspaper’s parameters, he wrote his first play. Later, he immigrated to America and submitted that play to Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and studied with Nobel laureate Derek Walcott. There he understood that deconstruction was not a bad word and for a play to develop you need the support, belief, and resources of a theatre community behind you. As a teacher, he guides writers to search for the beating heart in their work, to critique with care, to rewrite using the pen as a scalpel, and to read and reread plays, screenplays, and TV pilots.

THERESA REBECK - DIRECTOR

Theresa Rebeck’s many plays have been widely produced on and off Broadway, regionally and internationally. Recently, her play BERNHARDT/HAMLET was seen on Broadway at the American Airlines theater on Broadway, starring Janet McTeer, and her play DOWNSTAIRS was presented at Primary Stages, starring Tyne and Tim Daly. Her play SEARED, starring Raul Esparza was recently produced at Manhattan Class Company. The production received an Outer Critics Circle award. Ms. Rebeck is also a recipient of PEN America’s Laura Pels Award for mid-career playwrights.

As a director her work has been seen at The Alley Theater of Houston, Dorset Theater Festival, the Orchard Project, the REP theater of Delaware, the Folger Shakespeare Theater and the Working Theater, in NYC. In television, she is known for her work on NYPD Blue (Writer’s Guild, Peabody and Edgar awards) and for creating the NBC series Smash. She wrote the screenplay for The 355, starring Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong'o and Penelope Cruz.

Ms. Rebeck is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. She has a Ph.D. and M.F.A. from Brandeis University. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. She teaches at the University of Houston as the Distinguished Visiting Theater Artist. She is the resident playwright at the Dorset Theater Festival of Vermont.

MEG HENNESSY (Cathleen)

Meg Hennessy is an actor from Limerick, Ireland. She moved to New York in 2016 to study Meisner at the Maggie Flanigan Studio and made her Off-Broadway debut as the character of Lily in the Irish Rep’s version of The Dead in 2018. She has since performed five shows with the Rep, including Plough and the Stars as Mollser, and Shadow of a Gunman as Minnie Powell. Her television debut in the series Archive 81 was released on Netflix on Jan 14th, in which she guest stars as Rose in episode 7. She is also a writer and spoken word artist and has performed her work with the American Irish Writers Association, Restless Open Mic, the Harlem Bomb Shelter, and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

DAVID MASON (Jack)

David Mason's previous Dorset credits include: TABLE MANNERS and the world premiere of DIG by Theresa Rebeck. Off-Broadway: Theresa Rebeck's 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 Cape Playhouse, Geva Theatre Center, TheatreSquared, Northern Stage, Weston Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, New Century Theatre, Public Theater, Opera House Arts. TV: The Blacklist, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Leftovers, House of Cards, Law & Order: SVU, All My Children. #beanartshero #blacklivesmatter

KATHY MCCAFFERTY (Bridget)

Kathy McCafferty's recent roles include Anna in Year One, Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, Leontine in John Cleese's Bang Bang!, Regina in The Little Foxes. Broadway Tour: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center Theater, 59E59 Theaters. Regional credits include: Portland Stage, Palm Beach Dramaworks, Huntington Theatre Company, Ahmanson Theatre, Arkansas Rep., Boise Contemporary Theatre, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Shadowland Stages, Bay Street Theatre, Rep. Theatre of St. Louis, The Human Race Theatre, New Century, Hudson Stage, and others. TV/ Film: LITTLE AMERICA, HOUSE OF CARDS, 30 ROCK, LAW & ORDER: CI, LAW & ORDER: SVU, DATES LIKE THIS, THE ONION NEWS.

AVERY TRUNKO (Stage Manager) Broadway: Les Liaisons Dangereuses; Off-Broadway: Belfast Girls (Irish Repertory Theater); The Confession of Lily Dare (Primary Stages); Hangmen; On the Shore of the Wide World (Atlantic Theater Company); Privacy; Julius Caesar (Public Theater); This Space Between Us; Molly Sweeney (Keen Company); Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson (The Working Theater); Uncle Vanya (Hunter Theater Project) By the Way Meet Vera Stark (Signature Theatre); Eureka Day (Colt Coeur); Superstitions; The Ding Dongs; Is Edward Snowden Single? (The Pool Plays) Select Regional: The Heart of Robin Hood; Rip Van Winkle (Hudson Valley Shakespeare); The Moors; Elevada (Yale Repertory Theatre); Avery holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama, and a BFA from Hofstra University.

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.

MARY ELLEN STEBBINS (Lighting Designer) Based in New York City, collaborations include work with MCC Theater, Shakespeare Theater Company, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as Theresa Rebeck, Clare Barron, A$AP Rocky, Adrienne Truscott, Monica Bill Barnes, and eighth blackbird. She is a 2020 Bessie Award Honoree for her work with Monica Bill Barnes’ Days Go By and a 2016 Henry Hewes nominee for her design for Clare Barron’s I’ll Never Love Again. She is a 2019 Opera America Tobin Director-Designer Prize recipient, a 2014 Live Design Young Designer to Watch, the 2011 USITT Barbizon Lighting Design Award winner, and a 2009 Hangar Theater Lab Company Design Fellow. Mary Ellen holds an AB from Harvard University and an MFA from Boston University. She is a member of USA 829.

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.

JUDY BOWMAN, CSA (Casting Director) has been casting with Dorset Theatre Festival since 2009. RECENT THEATER: Kerrigan/Lowdermilk/Lauren Gunderson’s Justice (Arizona Theatre Co.); Madeline Sayet’s Where We Belong (Woolly Mammoth tour); Lloyd Suh’s Bina’s Six Apples (CTC/Alliance); Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick (Woolly Mammoth/Huntington/Pasadena); Antigone, Light It Up, and The Three Musketeers (Cleveland Play House); and A Christmas Carol (McCarter). TV/FILM: Hallmark’s Redemption in Cherry Springs, Big Dogs season 1(Amazon), One Moment with Danny Aiello, Separation, Hurricane Bianca, Lost Cat Corona, Gold Star. Artios Award nominee for Best Webseries Casting, PT Barnum Award recipient. Former faculty with Columbia University’s MFA film program, Harlem School of the Arts, & NYU/Strasberg. www.judybowmancasting.com