FRASIER Star Dan Butler and Director Aneesha Kudtarkar to Join Dorset Theatre Festival's 2023 Season

Dorset Theatre Festival has announced full casting for Stephen King's Misery, adapted for the stage by William Goldman, which will open the 46th Season (June 23 - July 8), and the director for the third show of the season, Kate Hamill's Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson - Apt. 2B (August 11 - 26).

William Goldman's edge-of-your-seat adaptation of Stephen King's novel, Misery, which inspired the 1990 Oscar-winning film, will feature Dan Butler as Paul Sheldon. Butler starred as Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe in the long-running, Emmy Award-winning NBC comedy, Frasier. Kelly McAndrew, who will play Annie Wilkes, has been seen on and off Broadway and featured in television shows like House of Cards, New Amsterdam, Gossip Girl, and Orange is the New Black. Broadway veteran Greg Stuhr will play the sheriff. Stuhr's many Broadway credits include Larry David's Fish In the Dark directed by Anna Shapiro, Elaine May's Taller Than a Dwarf directed by Alan Arkin, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee directed by James Lapine.

"I love a summer thriller that will make the audience all jump and laugh at the same time. We want the Festival to be a place where people get to have fun, see incredible theatre, and leave the playhouse feeling exhilarated," said Will Rucker, the Festival's Executive Artistic Director. "We couldn't be more delighted to have artists of this caliber working on our stage to bring these iconic characters to life," he said. "These will be performances you won't want to miss."

Dan Butler and Greg Stuhr will reunite in Dorset after their acclaimed performances in the Festival's 2019 hit production, Slow Food by Wendy MacLeod. The previously announced director of Misery, Jackson Gay, also directed that production, as well as Dorset's suspenseful 2022 season opener, Wait Until Dark. Kelly McAndrew was last seen at Dorset Theatre Festival in 2014 in David Ives' All in the Timing directed by Jenn Thompson.

The Festival also announced Aneesha Kudtarkar as the director of Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson - Apt. 2B, a new play written by Kate Hamill, one of America's most popular playwrights. Kudtarkar is a New York-based theatre director and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama whose recent directorial projects include Queen (National Asian American Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre), The Cherry Orchard (The New School), and The Who and The What (TheaterWorks Hartford).

"I'm so excited to be helming this production of Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson. Kate Hamill's script brings forward all that is joyful and vital about live performance, while still giving us momentary pause to consider what we lost as a community during the pandemic," said Aneesha Kudtarkar. "I'm looking forward to revisiting the classic stories of Sherlock Holmes with a bright, dynamic, female-led cast in a contemporary setting. The play deftly moves from one mystery to the next with lots of humor, heart, and the occasional bit of slapstick comedy. My hope is that our production serves as an exuberant reminder of what we love about the theatre and the mysteries it can hold."

Kate Hamill was named 2017's Playwright of the Year by the Wall Street Journal. She has been one of the 10 most-produced playwrights in the country for the last five years. Dorset produced Hamill's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in 2018.

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

The box office may be reached by calling (802) 867-2223 ext. 101, Wednesday through Friday, 12 - 4 pm. For more information, or to purchase subscriptions and tickets online, visit www.dorsettheatrefestival.org.

Dorset Theatre Festival is committed to the ongoing work and practice of making our theatre a place accessible to everyone, and continues to offer free and reduced-cost ticket programs to members of the community. Requests for accessible tickets (starting at $0) can be made online or by contacting the box office.

Support for Dorset Theatre Festival is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Vermont Arts Council, 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 46th 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 1977, the Festival's annual celebration of great plays runs June through September and features top theatre-makers from around the country.

Increasingly known for high-quality world and regional premiere productions, in 2017 the Boston Globe dubbed the Festival, "Just north of the Berkshires, a new destination for playwrights." In addition to Main Stage productions of new plays, the Festival's new play development programs showcase works-in-progress and provide the Southern Vermont region an opportunity to play a key role in the evolution of new plays in consideration for future productions at the Festival and beyond.

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