Additional Season Casting Announced by Dorset Theatre Festival

Dorset Theatre Festival has announced casting for the upcoming productions of Satellites by Erin Breznitsky, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt, starring film, television, and stage actors Christopher Lowell and Kerry Bishé (August 6 - 16) and The Book Club Play by Karen Zacarías, directed by Jackson Gay, featuring actors Caitlin Clouthier, Lucas Dixon, Jax Jackson, Elizabeth Narciso, Alfredo Narciso, and Abigail Stephenson (July 11 - July 26).

The previously announced season also includes Salvage, a new play by Lena Kaminsky, directed by M. Bevin O'Gara, starring Marcia DeBonis, Eva Kaminsky, and Robbie Sublett (June 20 - July 5) and Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz directed by Robert Egan (August 22 - September 6). All performances will take place at the Dorset Playhouse (104 Cheney Rd, Dorset, VT 05251).

"This summer is shaping up to be one of the Festival's most exciting seasons in several years," said Dorset Theatre Festival Executive Artistic Director Will Rucker. "I can't wait for our community to see these incredible plays, and so proud of the outstanding talent we have coming to work on them. And there's even more exciting news still to announce."

The third main stage production will be an intimate, romantic, and epic new love story, Satellites by Erin Breznitsky, starring film and television actors Christopher Lowell and Kerry Bishé.

Christopher Lowell is best known for playing the roles of Stosh "Piz" Piznarski in the television series Veronica Mars (2006-2007), William "Dell" Parker in the television series Private Practice (2007-2010), Sebastian "Bash" Howard in the television series GLOW (2017-2019), and Jesse Walker in How I Met Your Father (2022-2023). He has also appeared in films, notably Up in the Air (2009), The Help (2011), and Promising Young Woman (2020), all of which were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Kerry Bishé is best known for her role as Donna Clark in the AMC television series Halt and Catch Fire. She also played Lucy Bennett in the reboot of Scrubs. Other notable roles include Cristina Jurado in the Netflix series Narcos and Kathy Stafford in the film Argo.

Satellites will be directed by six-time Festival director, Adrienne Campbell-Holt, whose previous Dorset World Premieres, Downstairs (2017) by Theresa Rebeck starring Tim and Tyne Daly and Still (2023) by Lia Romeo starring Tim Daly and Jayne Atkison, both went on to acclaimed Off-Broadway productions in NYC.

In Satellites, Girl meets Boy, Girl marries Boy, Girl moves on after Boy goes missing in outer space...Until Boy mysteriously reappears on Earth 7 years later. Astronaut Mike and climate scientist Katherine awkwardly meet again for the first time in a NASA waiting room. While he has been lost in the far reaches of the cosmos, she has forged ahead on her own, grounded in the earthbound reality of career and motherhood. Memories of the couple's romantic past converge with an impossible reunion in the present as they attempt to bridge the astronomical gap between then and now. Intimate, charming, and beautiful, Satellites is about time, space, and two people with great ambitions searching for connection..

"I'm thrilled to be premiering Satellites at Dorset with this astronomically talented team," said Satellites playwright, Erin Breznitsky. "Kerry and Chris are each fantastic actors in their own right, but together they will bring a depth and emotional resonance that is perfect for the world of this play, which is cosmic and intimate in equal measure. I can't wait for audiences to see them at work on stage."

Erin Breznitsky is a Brooklyn-based playwright and theater artist. She has been a finalist for Shakespeare's New Contemporaries and a semi-finalist for the O'Neill Theatre Center National Playwright's Conference and the Princess Grace Playwriting Award.

Dorset's second Main Stage production of the season will be The Book Club Play by Karen Zacarías, directed by Jackson Gay, featuring Caitlin Clouthier 
(As The World Turns, Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery at Dorset), Lucas Dixon (NCIS: Origins, The Report, The Tick), Alfredo Narciso
(Star Trek: Discovery, Manifest, A Streetcar Named Desire), Elizabeth Narciso
(Blue Bloods, Boston Legal), Abigail Stephenson
(Ohio State Murders, The Good Fight), and Jax Jackson
(Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, HBO's High Maintenance).

The Book Club Play is a comedy about books and the people who love them. When the members of a devoted book club become the subjects of a documentary film and accept a provocative new member, their long-standing group dynamics take a hilarious turn. A sold-out hit at theaters across the country, this delightful and engaging play is sprinkled with wit, joy, and novels galore.

Karen Zacarías, author of last year's Dorset hit Native Gardens, was recently named by American Theatre magazine as one of the most produced playwrights in the United States. She is one of the inaugural resident playwrights at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, a core founder of the Latinx Theatre Commons, and founder of the award-winning Young Playwrights' Theater (YPT), one of the best arts education programs in the nation.

Jackson Gay returns to Dorset to direct after helming the Festival's acclaimed productions of Sidekicked (2024), Stephen King's Misery (2023), Wait Until Dark (2022), and Slow Food (2019), which reunited actors Dan Butler and Peri Gilpin, both alums of the TV comedy Frasier.

Subscriptions, memberships, and single tickets are on sale now. Additional casting for the 2025 Main Stage season will be announced at a later date. More information is available on Dorset's website, dorsettheatrefestival.org.

Support For Dorset Theatre Festival is provided by the Shubert Foundation, the Rodgers Family Foundation, the James H. and Irene M. Hunter Charitable Trust, and the members of the Dorset Theatre Festival World Premiere Circle.

ABOUT DORSET THEATRE FESTIVAL

Now in its 48th year, Dorset Theatre Festival produces a professional Main Stage season at the historic Dorset Playhouse in Dorset, VT, highlighting both new plays and classic works. Enlightening, entertaining, and inspiring audiences since 1976, the Festival's annual celebration of great plays runs June through September and features top theater-makers from around the country.