The Age of Innocence

April 5 – May 6

By Edith Wharton

Adapted for the Stage by Douglas McGrath

Directed by Doug Hughes

Approximate Running Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes with no intermission.

Recommended Ages: 14+

Ticket Prices

$25 | $42 | $63 | $79 | $90

All Regular Season Student Seats $18.

Includes all fees. Prices subject to change without notice. Please call for Student Matinee Rates.

The Gilded Age of the 1870s.

New York City society at its most cultivated, wealthy and rigid—an elite class of people who dreaded scandal more than disease. In her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Edith Wharton introduces us to the courtly young gentleman lawyer Newland Archer; his traditional and demure fiancée May; and the free-spirited Countess Olenska, who has come home from Europe, tainted by scandal. From the moment Newland meets the Countess, he is torn between virtue and desire, and all three are forced to make the agonizing choice, ever old and ever new, between love and honor.

Presented in Association with the McCarter Theatre Center.

Artists

Adapted for the Stage by
Douglas McGrath

Based on the Novel By
Edith Wharton

Director
Doug Hughes

Scenic Designer
John Lee Beatty

Costume Designer
Linda Cho

Lighting Designer
Ben Stanton

Original Music & Sound Design
Mark Bennett

Wig & Hair Design
Charles LaPointe

Choreographer
Peter Pucci

Pianist
Yan Li

Production Stage Manager
Lori Lundquist

Assistant Stage Manager
Jared Oberholtzer

Casting Director
Caparelliotis Casting

Cast

Countess Ellen Olenska
Sierra Boggess

May Welland
Helen Cespedes

The Old Gentleman
Boyd Gaines

Mrs. Manson Mingott
Darrie Lawrence

Mrs. Welland/Mrs. Van Der Luyden/Florist
Deirdre Madigan

Mrs. Archer
Haviland Morris

Thorley/Riviere/Dallas
Josh Salt

Newland Archer
Andrew Veenstra

Mr. Van Der Luyden/Larry Lefferts/Letterblair
Tony Ward

Julius Beaufort/Sillerton Jackson/Mr. Hickey
Nick Wyman

Students from The Hartt School at the University of Hartford

Ensemble
Sara Norton, Daniel Owens, Sara Schwab, Alessandro Gian Viviano

Events & Talks

HPL @ Hartford Stage

Hartford Public Library and Hartford Stage invite you to dig deeper into the world of the plays onstage. Take out a book today! Select books available at the theatre and at each Hartford branch library.

AfterWords Discussion

April 17, 18 & 24

Join members of the cast and our Artistic staff for a free discussion, immediately following select 7:30 p.m. performances on Tuesday or 2 p.m. Wednesday matinees. FREE

Pride & Plays

April 11, 6:00pm

FREE pre-show nosh and complimentary wine, soda and coffee (plus drink specials at a cash bar) for our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patrons and allies.

For tickets to the 7:30 p.m. show, use Promo Code LGBT25 and save 25% off seats for this special performance.

Sunday Afternoon Discussion

April 8
Immediately following the 2 p.m. Matinee

Emily Orlando is a tenured Associate Professor of English at Fairfield University. She is the author ofEdith Wharton and the Visual Arts as well as articles published in the following peer-reviewed journals and essay collections: American Literary Realism; Twentieth-Century Literature; Women's Studies; Victoriographies: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century Writing; Studies in American Naturalism; New Voices on the Harlem Renaissance; Edith Wharton and Material Culture; Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country: A Reassessment; and Edith Wharton in Context. With Meredith Goldsmith, Orlando is co-editor of the peer-reviewed book Edith Wharton and Cosmopolitanism (2016). She is currently editing Volume 6 of The Complete Works of Edith Wharton: Writings on Architecture, Design, and Gardens for Oxford University Press. From 2015 to 2017 Dr. Orlando was President of the international Edith Wharton Society, after having served two years as Vice President and, before that, as Secretary. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Edith Wharton Review. Last year the American Writers Museum in Chicago hired Dr. Orlando as a consultant to design an installation focusing on Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. From Fall 2013 through Spring 2017 she served as Director or Co-Director of the Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program at Fairfield University. Since joining Fairfield’s English Department in Fall 2007, she has taught courses in American literature, Victorian literature, transatlantic decadence, gender studies, and the American realist writer Edith Wharton (1862-1937). Dr. Orlando earned her B.A. in English and French at Saint Anselm College and her Ph.D. in English at the University of Maryland (2002). In Spring 2018, the Rank and Tenure Committee recommended her for promotion to Full Professor at Fairfield University. FREE.

Sunday Afternoon Discussion

April 15
Immediately following the 2 p.m. Matinee

James Golden is a Hartford native. He studied Divinity and History at the University of Edinburgh before receiving a doctorate in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He has been Director of Education at The Mark Twain House & Museum since 2015, and is currently also a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Trinity College, Hartford.