Dorset Theatre Festival Hosts 7th Annual Retreat for Playwrights

The Dorset Theatre Festival is up and running with its 7th Annual Writers Retreat hosted by Theresa Rebeck in collaboration with The Lark New Play Development Center. Each spring, accomplished writers from across the country are invited to the quaint village of Dorset, where they spend their days writing, their evenings reading new pages, discussing each other's work and generally sharing the process of growing new plays. The Retreat's mission is to support top playwrights, giving them time and space away from their day to day career pressures to concentrate completely on process while getting input from peers and in particular from playwright Theresa Rebeck, who hosts the retreat each spring. "It is exciting how many of our writers began plays at the retreat that have gone on to productions at some of the top theaters across the country. DTF is truly making its mark on the national landscape and that is a dream come true for me personally," says Dina Janis, Artistic Director of DTF.

This year the writers in attendance are Theresa Rebeck (Seminar, Broadway; Smash, NBC), Sam Marks (Old Masters, Steppenwolf; The Delling Shore, Humana Festival); Sarah Gubbins (The Kid Thing, Steppenwolf), Alex Kilgore (stageFARM ), Ken Weitzman (The Catch, Denver Center; The As If Body Loop, Humana Festival), Suzanne Bradbeer (The God Game, Capital Rep), and Marisa Smith (Saving Kitty, W.H.A.T, Smith Kraus Publishing.

The Writers Retreat is part of DTF's acclaimed New Play Development Program which also includes their popular Summer New Play Reading Series slated to begin on June 5th with an exciting reading of Theresa Rebeck's new play Zealot starring Alfre Woodard.

For more info on upcoming New Play events go to www.dorsettheatrefestival.org or call 802-867-2223.