Dobrish and Ivey Set to Direct for Second Stage Theatre Uptown Festival

Jeremy Dobrish and Judith Ivey are set to direct two world premiere comedies for the Second Stage Theatre Uptown Festival, running May 24-August 25 at Second Stage Theatre’s uptown home, the McGinn/Cazale Theatre.

Ivey will direct Marisa Wegrzyn’s The Butcher of Baraboo, which will run from May 24-June 30 with an official opening on June 11. The play is a black comedy about a butcher, a secret, and one perfectly polished meat cleaver. Ivey is currently represented in New York with her production of Fugue at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Previous New York directorial credits include Southern Comforts and More. She is best known as an actress, and is a two-time Tony Award recipient for her performances in Steaming and Hurlyburly. Wegrzyn’s previous plays include Killing Women, Psalms of a Questionable Nature, Ten Cent Night, and Hickorydickory.

Dobrish will direct Josh Tobiessen’s Election Day, a dark comedy about the price of political (and personal) campaigns. It runs from July 16-August 25, with an opening date of August 1. Dobrish is the artistic director of the adobe theater company, and his previous Off-Broadway directorial credits include In the Wings, The Joys of Sex, Class Mothers ’68, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Tobiessen’s previous plays have been produced in the Baldwin New Play Festival at USCD and in Ireland in the Galway Arts Festival and Dublin Fringe Festival.

The Second Stage Theatre Uptown Festival was created to help develop and provide exposure for the voices of a new generation of theater artists by helping to provide early-career artists with the support of a major artistic institution. For more information, visit www.secondstagetheatre.com.