November 3, 2022

 

St. Paul, Minn.  -  Robert Dorfman has been named the Director of Wellsprings and New Play Development at Six Points Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, formerly Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company.

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He is an actor/director/producer who's worked in theater, television and film across the country. Robert has also been involved with the search and evaluation of new plays and musicals for several national programs and competitions including New Dramatists in New York.

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As Director, he will advance the Six Points Theater (SPT) mission to develop new plays that look at life through a Jewish lens and reveal the common threads of humanity with the goal of bringing new Jewish plays to national awareness. Through commissioning as well as selection of submissions, Six Points Theater will build upon its history of world premiere productions. 

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For last season’s New-Play Reading Festival, Robert led a search for unproduced scripts that furthered SPT's mission. Of the several new plays selected and streamed, one of the three finalists, Mathew Goldstein’s Groupthink, received a full production this season which Robert directed.  Also at Six Points Theater, he directed world premieres of Operation: Immigration by Avi Aharoni and Shul by Sheldon Wolfe.

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“I’m elated to lead this program and continue the work of premiering innovative Jewish stage literature on the Six Points Theater stage,” Robert said, “expanding our identity as stewards of new voices and, in the Hebrew, Tikkun Olam, “'repairing the world.'"

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Now in its 28th season, Six Points Theater was founded in 1995 by Barbara Brooks to engage people of all backgrounds in work rooted in Jewish content. The theater’s work has garnered five Ivey Awards as well as the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council's Arts Achievement Award.

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​More About the Wellsprings New Play Program

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Begun in 2002, Wellsprings is Six Points Theater’s initiative to find and develop a continuous flow of new Jewish plays.

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SPT commissions new work and accepts submissions from playwrights for world premiere productions. The theater works with playwrights from around the country to bring exciting new plays and musicals to the stage. To submit a new, unproduced play for consideration, click on this link. 

 

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Wellsprings Productions  

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The Magic Dreidels by Jenna Zark, adapted from the book by Eric Kimmel, was Six Points Theater’s first commission. The play received its world premiere in 2000 and has played multiple holiday seasons at the theater as well as at other theaters in the United States. Hanukkah Lights in the Big Sky by Buffy Sedlachek (2004), and The Chanukah Guest by Jenna Zark (2014), also adapted from the Eric Kimmel book, were commissioned and premiered at the theater.  The last commissioned work was Chanukah in the Dark by Hayley Finn (2021), with original songs by Adam Wernick. 

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Other plays that received their world premieres at Six Points Theater after being submitted: Lovers and Traitors: The Killing of the Rosenbergs by Elissa Mautner (2004); Shadow of the Valley by Lewis K. Schrager (2005); The Gospel According to Jerry by Richard Krevolin and Irwin Kula (2011); We Are the Levinsons by Wendy Kout (2017); Natasha and the Coat by Deborah Stein (2018); Shul by Sheldon Wolf (2019); Operation: Immigration by Avi Aharoni (2020);  and Groupthink by Mathew Goldstein (2022).