Gordon Clapp to Lead World Premiere of Theresa Rebeck's DIG

Dorset Theatre Festival, under the leadership of Artistic Director Dina Janis and Producing Director Will Rucker, will open DIG, the first World Premiere production of the 42nd Season, on July 11. The play is written and directed by the Festival's Resident Playwright, Theresa Rebeck.

DIG will feature Andrea Syglowski ("New Amsterdam," "The Good Wife," "How To Get Away With Murder") in the role of Megan. Syglowski will return to Dorset having previously starred in DEAR ELIZABETH (2016) and CRY IT OUT (2018). Emmy Award-Winner Gordon Clapp, best known for his role as Det. Greg Medavoy on all 12 seasons of the television series NYPD Blue, will play Megan's father, Lou. The cast also includes Jeffrey Bean (Broadway's Bells Are Ringing; Alley Theatre Resident Company) as Roger, Greg Keller (Broadway's Uncle Vanya, Wit, Our Mother's Brief Affair, Dorset's Cry It Out) as Everett, David Mason ("The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," "House of Cards," "Law and Order: SVU") as Adam, and Sarah Ellen Stephens (Classic Kitchen Timer, Girls in Trouble) as Molly.

Dorset's World Premiere of DIG, under the direction of the playwright, Theresa Rebeck (Broadway's Bernhardt/Hamlet, Dead Accounts, Seminar; Dorset's Downstairs, The Way of the World), will have scenery designed by Christopher and Justin Swader (Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson), costumes by Tilly Grimes (Small Mouth Sounds, Romance Novels for Dummies), lighting designed by Philip S. Rosenberg (Broadway's The Elephant Man, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder), and sound designed by Fitz Patton (Lewiston/Clarkston, Broadway's Choir Boy, Bernhardt/Hamlet).

"We are so thrilled for Theresa to be back 'home' for the summer," said Will Rucker, Dorset's Producing Director. "And the artists who have followed her here are incredibly talented. I'm so proud that our audiences will see Dig in Dorset before anyone else."

DIG is the newest play from the author of DOWNSTAIRS and Broadway's 2018 hit Bernhardt/Hamlet. A dying plant shop in a dying urban neighborhood receives a visitor from the past: Meghan, the neighborhood screw-up, whose suicide attempt followed a terrible tragedy. Roger, the store owner, wants nothing to do with this situation, but Megan is improbably clinging to life. Can a soul beyond saving be saved? A play about courage, redemption and photosynthesis.

DIG has received an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award to support the world premiere production at Dorset Theatre Festival. Piloted in 2006 with Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, the Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards give plays in development extended rehearsal periods for the entire creative team, including the playwrights. The program launched nationally in 2007 and has awarded grants to non-profit theatres for 393 new plays to date. The Edgerton Foundation was awarded the 2011 TCG National Funder Award.

Over the last twelve years, the Edgerton Foundation has supported an extended rehearsal process for over 405 world premiere productions. Through this support, many plays have scheduled numerous subsequent productions, with 30 making it to Broadway. Fifteen plays were nominated for Tony Awards, with All the Way, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Oslo winning the Best Play or Musical Awards. Ten plays have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with Next to Normal winning in 2010, Water by the Spoonful in 2012, The Flick winning in 2014, Hamilton winning in 2016, and Cost of Living in 2018.

"Because of the Edgerton Foundation, we can extend the rehearsal process for this play, which is always so important when producing something for the first time," said Dina Janis, Artistic Director, Dorset Theatre Festival. "It will be a deeper, more rigorous creative process. Bringing a play to life with designers directly involved in the process from the beginning is extremely important to us and one of the reasons that we are excited to support Theresa in the direction of her own play. Her vision for the world of the play is always influenced by the contributions of designers by whom she is inspired and challenged."

Dorset Theatre Festival Resident Playwright Theresa Rebeck has developed more than six productions at the Festival that have gone on to other stages around the country, including 2017's DOWNSTAIRS starring Tim Daly and Tyne Daly, which ran Off-Broadway at Primary Stages in fall 2018. The Most Broadway-Produced Female Playwright of Our Time, Rebeck returns to Dorset as writer-director for the first time since her The Way of the World in 2016. That play went on to the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC in 2018, where Rebeck also directed.

Dig run from from July 11th through July 27th at the Dorset Playhouse. Subscriptions for the 2019 Summer Season and single tickets are on sale now. The box office may be reached by calling (802) 867-2223 ext. 101, Tuesday through Saturday, 12 - 6 pm. For more information, or to purchase subscriptions and tickets online, visit www.dorsettheatrefestival.org.

Support for the 42nd Season is provided by the Rodgers Family Foundation and by the 2019 Season Sponsors: The Dorset Inn, Barrows House Inn and Restaurant, and Dorset Bakery.

Dorset Theatre Festival's mission is to create bold, innovative, and authentic theatre that engages a diverse, multi-generational community, and economically diverse region: enlightening, entertaining, and inspiring our audience through the celebration of great plays. We aim to redefine the landscape of theatre by presenting thought-provoking productions drawn from the new and classic canon, as well as through the development of new plays, new audiences, and new artists for the future of American theater. We produce theatre that matters.

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