Dorset Theatre Festival to Offer Exciting Youth Programs, Spring & Summer 2014

Dorset Theatre Festival is about to kick off its fourth annual Jean E. Miller Young Playwrights Competition, which provides free playwriting instruction to area schools, and invites students to submit their work to be judged by a panel of nationally recognized playwrights. This year, with new underwriting of the educational programming, DTF will offer a cash prize for the winners, as well as a staged reading of the winning plays performed at the Dorset Playhouse and open to the public. Interested educators should contact Ashley Connell (ashley@dorsettheatrefestival.org) to get involved with the program. Submissions will open for student work in the late spring and winners will be announced at the end of the summer. Entries are accepted in middle school (grades 5-8) and high school (grades 9-12) categories.

In addition to the annual Young Playwrights program, DTF is planning an exciting end-of-season production Travels with Mark Twain featuring reknowned actor Ron Crawford as the great American satirist and author. Travels recreates some of Twain's famous lectures on travel, as well as selections from classic works such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. This production follows the performance of Gordon Clapp's This Verse Business, a one-man show based on the talks of poet Robert Frost, which was featured at DTF at the end of last summer's season. Travels with Mark Twain will run for evening performances from September 18th to the 20th, as well as special educational matinees for area schools on the 18th and 19th. For more information, or to book educational tickets, contact Kit Wallace (kit@dorsettheatrefestival.org or 802-867-2223) For the regular summer season (June to September) Dorset offers free tickets to children ages 12 and under.