Apollinaire Theatre Company presents

Dido of Idaho by Abby Rosebrock

Parker Jennings as Nora, Ashley Lyon as Crystal, Photo: Danielle Fauteux Jacques

Parker Jennings as Nora, Mauro Canepa as Michael, Photo: Danielle Fauteux Jacques

“Hilariously off-kilter and engrossing."- The New York Times

“Hypnotic to watch. A blistering, hysterical look at trauma and regret." - Broadway World

When a love affair goes brutally awry, a hard-drinking musicologist seeks asylum with her estranged evangelical mother. Dido of Idaho is a modern, dark comedy that loosely re-imagines the ancient myth of Dido and Aeneas. This play is a funny, surprising, and often unsettling exploration of love, despair, and the difficult path toward self-acceptance.

Winner of the 2025 LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Original Writing, Best Direction, and Best Featured Performance.

“Vibrant, outré humor. Unwinds not at all as you might expect. Beth Henley infused with a few drops of Martin McDonagh’s deranged fierceness. Rosebrock has spun a comedy that freely intermingles laughter, frustration, tears and shock.” —Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times

Dido of Idaho is co-directed by Brooks Reeves and Apollinaire Theatre’s Artistic Director Danielle Fautuex Jacques. The production stars Parker Jennings (Is This a Room, Hedda Gabler, Every Brilliant Thing, Touching the Void) and features the work of several Apollinaire stand out performers: Mariela Lopez-Ponce (Co-Artistic Director of Teatro Chelsea, Gertrude in Hamlet (2016), Everyman, A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes, etc.), Paola Ferrer (Gertrude in Hamlet (2023), Dance Nation, Don’t Eat the Mangos, etc.), Ashley Lyon (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet), Mauro Canepa (Threesome, From White Plains, Caucasian Chalk Circle, etc.).

Performances of Dido of Idaho are April 17 - May 10, 2026

Fri. & Sat. at 8:00, Sun. at 3:00

Press Performance: Saturday April 18, 8:00

Performances are at the Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea. 

Performances will be followed by a Reception with the actors.

Tickets are $65, $60 seniors, $25 students, patrons age 30 and under, and artists pursing professional arts careers

Tickets can be purchased by calling (617) 887-2336 or on-line at www.apollinairetheatre.com

Information and directions at www.apollinairetheatre.com

Dido of Idaho by Abby Rosebrock

April 17 - May 10, 2026

Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea.

(617) 887-2336 • www.apollinairetheatre.com

Cast: 

Parker Jennings as Nora

Mariela Lopez-Ponce as Julie

Paola Ferrer as Ethel

Ashley Lyon as Crystal

Mauro Canepa as Michael

Directed by Brooks Reeves & Danielle Fauteux Jacques

Stage Manager: Laura Hubbard

ASM: Rama Hejaz, Max Wanty

Scenic & Sound Design: Joseph Lark-Riley

Costume Design: Parker Jennings

Lighting Design: Danielle Fauteux Jacques

Running Time: estimated 1 hour 40 minutes with one intermission

PARKER JENNINGS (Nora) was recently seen in Apollinaire’s Is this a Room, Hedda Gabler (Hedda- Elliot Norton Award nomination for Outstanding Actor), Every Brilliant Thing (Narrator- Elliot Norton Award nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance), The Squirrels (Chordata), Touching the Void (Sarah), Suppliant Women (Chorus Leader), and Lunch Bunch (Tuttle). Other credits include Prague Shakespeare Company’s productions of Romeo and Juliet (Capulet) and Taming of the Shrew (Hortensia), Speakeasy Stage’s People Places and Things (2022 Elliot Norton Winner, Outstanding Production), NY Theatre Festival’s Hurry Home, and Macbeth (Lady Macbeth). She holds a BFA in Theatre from Boston Conservatory at Berklee. www.parkerjennings.net | IG: @_parkerjennings

BROOKS REEVES (Co-Director) won a 2025 Elliot Norton award for Outstanding Actor. Apollinaire shows include 

Is this a Room, 

The Importance of Being Earnest (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Ensemble), The Suppliant Women, Lunch Bunch, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Ensemble), Romeo & Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Three Sisters, The Visit, Hamlet (as Hamlet and as Claudius), Brilliant Adventures, Midsummer, From White Plains, Blood Wedding, and the Norton winning Stupid Fucking Bird. Brooks has worked with the Golddust Orphans (Legally Blind: The Hellen Keller Musical), with Bridge Rep (Julius Caesar, The Libertine), Stoneham Theater (Neville's Island), Company One (An Octaroon, Shockheaded Peter), Central Square Theater (Arabian Nights), Zeitgeist Stage (Love! Valour! Compassion!, Bent, Boys in the Band), Hub Theatre of Boston (Tartuffe), Brown Box, Happy Medium, and Bad Habit Productions. He made his Boston area directing debut at Apollinaire with Winter Solstice by Roland Schimmelpfennig, and directed The Christians, Hir, The Squirrels, The Antelope Party and co-directed Wild Swimming, and wrote and appeared in And Your Little Dog Too • Y Tu Perrito También.

ABBY ROSEBROCK (Playwright) is a writer and performer from the Carolinas. Acting highlights include a range of leading roles in New York premieres. Her play Dido of Idaho recently won several 2025 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards, among them Best Original Writing. Her new play Lowcountry, called a “masterpiece of millennial rage” (TheaterMania), premiered Off-Broadway this year at the Atlantic Theater. Critics have described her work as “Beth Henley infused with a few drops of Martin McDonagh’s deranged fierceness” (Los Angeles Times) and “nimbly balanced on a knife edge between weird, excitingly uncomfortable comedy and deep, hideous pain” (New York Magazine). Abby’s original works have been developed and produced throughout New York City and across the country. Additional residencies and commissioning organizations include Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Echo Theatre LA, Bristol Riverside Theatre, Montana Rep, and more.

APOLLINAIRE THEATRE COMPANY creates unique encounters with plays that inspire and entertain. Our programs -Teatro Chelsea, Apollinaire Play Lab, Apollinaire in the Park, Resident Artist Program- complement our production season and cultivate an ecosystem of artists of all ages and career stages in our home for adventurous art, the Chelsea Theatre Works.

Apollinaire productions include our summer immersive bilingual productions The Suppliant Women, Hamlet, And Your Little Dog Too, and Romeo and Juliet, and Is This a Room conceived and adapted by Tina Satter, Touching the Void adapted by David Greig, Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan, Don’t Eat the Mangos by Ricardo Pérez González (co-production with Teatro Chelsea), Dance Nation by Clare Barron, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven by Young Jean Lee, and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart by David Greig.