A Midsummer's Look at the Dorset Theatre Festival

by Anita Sandler

“Our audiences have been smart, literate, interested, curious and challenging.” Words of praise from Carl Forsman, Artistic Director of the Dorset Theatre Festival in his first year of production here in Vermont. This is an exciting time in his life, in the life of the DTF, and in the lives of the audiences who have been a part of this new era with new plays, playwrights, designers, and directors. The best of Broadway and the best of off-Broadway are here in Vermont under the talented, caring, and insightful wing of Forsman. His accomplished actors respect and admire him and that’s why they’re here.

This first season is critical and exciting. Forsman knows that how to win audiences, how to get them and keep them and have them excited enough to share their theatre experience, is to give them great work. “We’re capable of doing great things, we’ve got great artists, we’re doing plays we deeply care about that speak to the heart and soul and intellect of people.” In response to my question of ‘how do you get the people to come....?’ Forsman says that no marketing or PR tricks can take the place of giving someone that one great theatre experience that they want to share with a friend and have that friend tell someone else. It has to be ‘one great special experience at a time’.

We are midway through the season with the first 2 plays, Theophilus North and Talley’s Folly, receiving great reviews and enthusiastic audiences. Forsman is bringing plays he loves and that have meaning to him and he believes will have meaning to others. He was glad Theophilus North was the first production of his new season because “it’s about important things, making a difference and what being an artist means”. It is a representation of the honest work he wants to do, with a cast that is generous and set design that is clean and elegant. And he remembers 26 years ago seeing an Off -Broadway production of Talley’s Folly with his parents, and remembering to this day every thing about the play, every nuance, even the scenery....and that kind of ‘memory’ is what he hopes to give his audiences.

Dulcy, written by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly and directed by Forsman, runs from July 19th to August 5th and is sponsored by The Vermont Country Store. It is the first in The Kaufman Collection, DTF’S ambitious endeavor to bring one of this American master’s work to life every summer. Kaufman’s comedies and musicals appeared on Broadway for more than 20 consecutive years from the 1920's to the 1940's. DTF with Forsman at the helm is dedicated to bringing these works back to life nearly 80 years later. “No theatre has been dedicated to doing all of Kaufman’s plays ...what a wonderful role to step into....let’s be that theatre!” Cheryl Lynn Bowers as Dulcy embodies the creative free spirit of the main character. With the look and the quirkiness of a young Lucille Ball, Bowers talks of comedy like a musician, in beats and timing. Forsman thinks she was born for the role of Dulcinea Smith as she attempts to help her husband Gordon (Mark Alhadeff) save his fake pearl business. The 11 person cast is as an ambitious undertaking by Forsman who Bowers calls “everyone’s personal cheerleader”. She calls the Playhouse “a jewel box...a treasure...” and feels humbled and privileged to be a part of it all.

The final production, Sleuth, an original theatrical thriller by Anthony Shaffer, runs from August 9th to 26th and is sponsored by R.K.Miles and Hand Motors. Directed by Jesse Berger, and starring Philip Godwin, Jay Goede, Robert E. Lawson, Vincent Marks and Sean McNulty, Sleuth is a mystery written specifically for the theatre, a dying art form that has only 10 acknowledged classics and for this reason alone should be preserved and performed. It is a ‘fun ride’ with a plot that revolves around Milo’s intricate game of revenge. The game gets more and more complicated than any of the characters can possibly foresee and ends with “a twist you’ll be talking about til the next season”

Forsman wants everyone to feel the magic of the theatre experience and to feel how important theatre is to our souls and to our lives. He sees it as the life of the soul or as Chekhov said,”Holding a mirror to Nature”. Elemental. Joyful. He feels a great responsibility not only to the people of the local community and of Southern Vermont, but also to the Board of Directors, sponsors and donors who are the backbone, support and mainstay of the Playhouse and the Dorset Theatre Festival, and he is humbled by their support and dedication. Forsman believes that if he can do great work of the highest quality, offer the best in plays, performances, design...if he can make people feel the ‘special magic of the theatre’ ...they will come back...not just once but again and again, and they’ll tell a friend and as word spreads, every seat will be filled for every performance.