Dorset Theatre Festival Reveals 2026 Summer Season Featuring DECEIVED, THE UNDERSTUDY, ADVICE, and LOBBY HERO
The four-show season will run June through September at the Dorset Playhouse.
Dorset Theatre Festival has announced the lineup for its 49th Main Stage Summer Season, which will run June 19 through September 5 at the historic Dorset Playhouse in Dorset, Vermont.
The 2026 season will feature DECEIVED, a new adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight by Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson; THE UNDERSTUDY by Theresa Rebeck; the New England premiere of Brent Askari’s ADVICE; and Kenneth Lonergan’s LOBBY HERO.
Executive Artistic Director Will Rucker said the lineup explores themes of power, ambition, and truth through a mix of thriller, comedy, and contemporary drama.
“This season is packed with suspense, sharp comedy, and complex characters navigating high-stakes situations,” Rucker said. “From a pulse-pounding psychological thriller to a Tony Award–winning modern classic, these plays examine power, ambition, truth, and the fragile lines between them.”
DECEIVED
Based on the play Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton
By Johnna Wright & Patty Jamieson
Directed by Jackson Gay
June 19 – July 4, 2026
The season will open with DECEIVED, a new adaptation of the psychological thriller that inspired the term “gaslighting.”
Set in fog-bound London in 1901, the play follows a young bride who begins to suspect something is wrong inside her home as mysterious disturbances mount. Her husband insists the incidents are imagined, forcing her to question whether she can trust her own perception of reality.
Director Jackson Gay returns to Dorset after staging several previous productions for the Festival, including The Book Club Play (2025), Sidekicked (2024), Stephen King’s Misery (2023), and Wait Until Dark (2022).
“This adaptation pulls us into the suffocating anxiety of psychological gaslighting and celebrates the raw courage required to reclaim one's inner compass,” Gay said.
THE UNDERSTUDY
Written & Directed by Theresa Rebeck
July 10 – July 18, 2026
The second production of the season will be THE UNDERSTUDY, a comedy written and directed by Dorset’s Resident Playwright Theresa Rebeck.
The play centers on a struggling actor cast as an understudy in a Broadway production of a long-lost Franz Kafka play. When a Hollywood star joins the rehearsal process, tensions rise as egos clash and the stage manager attempts to keep the production from falling apart.
“The Understudy is about love, loss, failure, survival, dreams, nightmares and the love of theater,” Rebeck said.
Rebeck is one of the most widely produced playwrights in the United States and has had five plays produced on Broadway. Several of her works have also been developed at Dorset, including Downstairs and The Way of the World.
ADVICE
By Brent Askari
Directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt
New England Premiere
July 31 – August 15, 2026
The season continues with the New England premiere of Brent Askari’s comedy ADVICE.
The play follows a couple celebrating their anniversary dinner when a recently divorced friend arrives with an unexpected announcement: he has written a self-help book despite his own chaotic life. As the evening unfolds, tensions rise and uncomfortable truths emerge.
Director Adrienne Campbell-Holt returns to Dorset for her seventh production with the Festival.
The production will star Katie Lowes, known for her role as Quinn Perkins on ABC’s Scandal, and Adam Shapiro, whose credits include The Bear, Never Have I Ever, and The Lincoln Lawyer.
LOBBY HERO
By Kenneth Lonergan
Directed by M. Bevin O’Gara
August 21 – September 5, 2026
The season will conclude with Kenneth Lonergan’s LOBBY HERO, a drama set in the lobby of a Manhattan apartment building where a murder investigation draws together a drifting security guard, his supervisor, and two police officers.
As their personal and professional loyalties collide, the characters must confront questions of truth, responsibility, and moral compromise.
Lonergan is an Academy Award–winning playwright and filmmaker whose screenplay for Manchester by the Sea won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Director M. Bevin O’Gara previously served as Producing Artistic Director of Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca and spent 15 years with the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston.
Subscription sales for the 2026 Dorset Theatre Festival season begin March 18, with single tickets going on sale April 15.
Now in its 49th year, Dorset Theatre Festival produces a summer season of professional theatre at the Dorset Playhouse, presenting both classic works and new plays by artists from across the country.
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