Dina Janis News

Three theatres in one of the country's smallest states have a big idea.  Vermont's Dorset Theatre Festival, Northern Stage, and Weston Playhouse Theatre Company are creating an historic partnership to bring British playwright Alan Ayckbourn's celebrated comic trilogy, The Norman Conquests, to their stages in the spring and summer of 2016.  More than a year in the planning, the collaboration has three nationally prominent directors working with the same cast and creative team on successive productions of the three plays in White River Junction, Dorset, and Weston.

Three theatres in one of the country's smallest states have a big idea. Vermont's Dorset Theatre Festival, Northern Stage, and Weston Playhouse Theatre Company are creating an historic partnership to bring British playwright Alan Ayckbourn's celebrated comic trilogy, The Norman Conquests, to their stages in the spring and summer of 2016. More than a year in the planning, the collaboration has three nationally prominent directors working with the same cast and creative team on successive productions of the three plays in White River Junction, Dorset, and Weston.

Dorset Theatre Festival continues their Local First Festival of New Plays with a charming romantic comedy, A Kiss Like No Other by Brattleboro playwright, Steve Monroe.  The second in their Local First Series, this reading will be presented at the Bennington Museum on Saturday March 19th, at 12:30 pm.  Admission is free and all are welcome.  With a commitment to New Play Development, the Dorset Theatre Festival is excited to be able to showcase playwrights who come from our region inviting local audiences to participate in the growing of a new play.  

Building upon their continued reputation as a theatre where audiences can expect the unexpected, Dorset Theatre Festival's 2016 summer season will feature a historic collaboration with Vermont's Weston Playhouse and Northern Stage, a World Premiere by acclaimed playwright Theresa Rebeck, a Regional Premiere by award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl, and an exciting revival of Broadway's recent Tony Award-winner Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, featuring the life and music of jazz-icon Billie Holiday.

As the final show of their 2015 Mainstage Season, Dorset Theatre Festival will present The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Laura Eason, adapted from the novel by Mark Twain. Continuing the tradition of closing out the summer season with a fall presentation open to and specifically geared towards families and school groups, Tom Sawyer follows 2014's Travels with Mark Twain (starring Ron Crawford) and 2013's This Verse Business (starring Gordon Clapp as poet Robert Frost).

As the final show of their 2015 Mainstage Season, Dorset Theatre Festival will present The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Laura Eason, adapted from the novel by Mark Twain. Continuing the tradition of closing out the summer season with a fall presentation open to and specifically geared towards families and school groups, Tom Sawyer follows 2014's Travels with Mark Twain (starring Ron Crawford) and 2013's This Verse Business (starring Gordon Clapp as poet Robert Frost).

Dorset Theatre Festival's 2015 New Play Reading Series concludes on Monday, August 24th with Kate Moira Ryan's Hipsterly Ever After. Ryan is a New York-based playwright whose play The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, produced off-Broadway by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner, won a GLAAD Award. She was also a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn prize for her play Hadley's Mistake. She has received numerous fellowships including the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship to EST, the Sundance Institute, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Directing the reading is Mark Armstrong, Director of New Work for off-Broadway's Keen Company and the Executive Director for The 24 Hour Plays. Recent directing credits include Christopher Shinn's The Coming World, Lucas Hnath's Odile's Ordeal (both Williamstown) and Dan O'Brien's From Kandahar to Canada (EST).

Dorset Theatre Festival will stage John Patrick Shanley's Outside Mullingar, a Tony-award nominated romantic comedy from the Academy Award winning writer of Doubt and Moonstruck. The production will be directed by John Gould Rubin and will run from tonight, July 30th to August 15th.

Dorset Theatre Festival's 2015 New Play Reading Series continues on August 3 with Chris Newbound's The Trouble with Nicole. Newbound is a Berkshire-based playwright whose full-length play Birthday Boy received its world premiere at Berkshire Theatre Group in 2011 and was recently published by Samuel French. Last January, Chris's play Cigars was given a staged reading at Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, New York, and in February, his short play, Just Friends, was selected as one of ten plays to be included in Barrington Stage's popular 10X10 new play festival, making it the second time a short play of his was produced there. He's had numerous readings of various plays at Berkshire Theatre Festival, Made in the Berkshires, Berkshires Playwrights Lab, and New Stage.

Dorset Theatre Festival will stage John Patrick Shanley's Outside Mullingar, a Tony-award nominated romantic comedy from the Academy Award winning writer of Doubt and Moonstruck. The production will be directed by John Gould Rubin and will run from July 30th to August 15th.

Dorset Theatre Festival plans to produce two exciting special events on the Playhouse stage this month. Brian Dykstra, an actor, playwright, and HBO Def Poet currently playing Moriarty in the DTF production of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily will perform his one man show Brian Dykstra Selling Out, directed by Sherlock director Margarett Perry, on July 14th at 8:00 PM. On July 19th, Howard Fishman, a Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, will make his Dorset debut after sold-out performances at the Vermont Arts Exchange and The Flynn.

Dorset Theatre Festival will stage Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel, a moving and intimate story that confronts race and religion, directed by Giovanna Sardelli, from tonight, June 25th through July 5th.

Dorset Theatre Festival will stage Katie Forgette's Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily, a delightfully funny and exciting take on the famous detective story that weaves together threads of history and literature including the great Sherlock Holmes himself, his trusted friend Watson, the sinister Moriarty, the glamorous Lillie Langtry, and even Oscar Wilde. The production will be directed by Margarett Perry and will run from July 9th through the 25th. 'There is a reason that Sherlock is such a popular figure in literature as well as on stage and in film,' says Artistic Director Dina Janis. 'These mysteries are engaging throughout and always very satisfying. This piece in particular is so clever and entertaining.' The Case of the Jersey Lily places literature's favorite genius detective right in the middle of a blackmail scheme that connects the famous actress Lillie Langtry, celebrated playwright Oscar Wilde (just finishing work on his new play, The Importance of Being Forthright), criminal mastermind James Moriarty and Queen Victoria herself.

Dorset Theatre Festival will stage Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel, a moving and intimate story that confronts race and religion, directed by Giovanna Sardelli, from June 25th through July 5th

Dorset Theatre Festival will be opening its annual New Play Reading Series with a piece by Polish-born, New Jersey-raised playwright Martyna Majok who recently won the David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize.

This month, Dorset Theatre Festival kicks off its 2015 summer season with a special Family Fun show, a staged adaptation of the beloved children's book The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka performed by students from The Theatre Institute at Sage. With special family pricing and matinee performances, The Stinky Cheese Man invites families and children from the area to join DTF for a season filled with family-friendly fare, including Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily in July and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in September.

Dorset Theatre Festival's New Play Development Program is off to a great start this summer, with the announcement of a $10,000 NEA grant to support DTF's commitment to new work. DTF will continue to host its popular New Play Reading Series this year, and for the first time will collaborate with the Marble House Project and hold the readings in the Marble House Event Barn. In addition to the new play reading series, the Jean E. Miller Young Playwrights Program will present winning plays from regional student writers on June 15th at the Playhouse.

DTF recently received a $2,500 grant from the Vermont Community Foundation's Small and Inspiring Grant Program. The grant will help further DTF's mission of engaging students and families in the Vermont Arts community.

Three of Vermont's premier professional theatre companies have launched a ground-breaking collaboration beginning in 2016. In a joint press conference at the Marble House Project in Dorset, Artistic Directors Dina Janis of the Dorset Theatre Festival, Carol Dunne of Northern Stage in White River Junction, and Steve Stettler of the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company shared the news that they will partner to bring British playwright Alan Ayckbourn's celebrated comic trilogy, The Norman Conquests, to Vermont audiences in their 2016 seasons.

Dorset Theatre Festival announces its 2015 Season, featuring 3 Regional Premieres, 2 Pulitzer Prize winners, its 6th Annual New Play Reading Series and new for this year - a Family Fun Series designed to introduce quality theatre to the next generation of theatre-goers. "When I went about looking for the right plays for us to present this summer, my one criteria was to find plays that were moving, that make people care. These plays all have that quality, and whether funny, sad, or thought-provoking, people will walk out of the Playhouse this summer inspired and moved by what they have seen," says Dorset Theatre Festival Artistic Director, Dina Janis.