Berkshire Bright Focus...

     The Dorset Theatre Festival has been a fixture in the Dorset and Manchester area for more than 70 years. As a playhouse it has been a community theater and a professional theater since 1949 when Fred and Pat Carmichael led the company. Reconceived by the late Jill Charles, withJohn Nassivera, in the 1970’s, the Festival now plays in a renovated historic barn at 104 CheneyRoad, in Dorset. DTF has served as a launching pad for acclaimed plays and playwrights including Douglas Carter Beane’s When Bees in Honey Drown and Advice from a Caterpillar, The Jazz Club by John Nassivera and the 1996 Pulitzer Prize finalist Old Wicked Songs by Jon Marans.  The Dorset Theatre Festival received the Moss Hard Award for Outstanding Theatre in 1995 and 1997.

Carl Forsman, who also helms the New York City-based Keen Company, was named DTF’s Artistic Director in December 2006.  He is proud to bring to Vermont Keen Company’s commitment to innovative design work, wonderful ensemble acting, and productions that speak to our shared humanity and need for connection. Carl is the recipient of a Drama Desk nomination as Best Director for Keen’s 2001 production of The Voice of the Turtle, and his production of Sin (A Cardinal Deposed) for the New Group won an OBIE Award. Keen Company won a 2005 Drama Desk citation “for moving and enlightening audiences with plays that build upon our theatrical heritage.”