A Look at Our Lobby – Darko

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak finishes an eight-year tenure with the world premiere musical The Flamingo Kid. Since his appointment in 2011, Hartford Stage has produced 53 productions with a focus on innovative revivals of classics and provocative new plays and musicals.

Local Companies Celebrate The Flamingo Kid

The Flamingo Kid, Darko Tresnjak’s final production as Artistic Director of Hartford Stage, has enticed an unprecedented number of sponsors to host pre-show events for their clients and employees. Hartford Stage is grateful to the following companies for their support and for keeping our event spaces hopping.

• US Trust
• Bank of America
• Fiduciary Investment Advisors
• The Jackson Laboratory
• Cummings & Lockwood, LLC
• Bradley, Foster & Sargent
• 50 Church Street Productions
• The Cheryl Chase & Stuart Bear Family Foundation
• Locke Lord, LLP

Incoming Artistic Director Melia Bensussen to direct We All Fall Down for Huntington Theatre Company

Incoming Hartford Stage Artistic Director Melia Bensussen will direct Lila Rose Kaplan’s We All Fall Down at Huntington Theatre Company’s Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts Jan. 10-Feb. 9, 2020. We All Fall Down is a family comedy set at a Seder gathering. The play is part of Huntington’s 2019/20 season. For more info, https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/2019-2020/we-all-fall-down/

Just Announced – The 2019/2020 Season

Subscriptions for the six-play mainstage season are now on sale. All six plays for the 2019/2020 season have been announced, including Quixote Nuevo by Octavio Solis; Cry it Out by Molly Smith Metzler; Pike St. by Nilaja Sun; Jane Eyre, adapted and directed by Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson; The King’s Speech by David Seidler, directed by Michael Wilson; and Ah, Wilderness!, Melia Bensussen’s directorial debut as Hartford Stage Artistic Director. Visit https://www.hartfordstage.org/show/subscribe, or call the Hartford Stage Box Office at 860-527-5151 to subscribe.

Farewell, 2018/19 Apprentices

Hartford Stage is grateful for all the hard work our apprentices did this season, and we wish them well on their future endeavors. Hearty congratulations to Arts Administration Apprentice Cathleen Payne, who is now Operations Associate at The Booking Group in New York City; Production/Company Management Apprentice Emma Lipson, who will become the Associate Company Manager at Barrington Stage; and Artistic Apprentice Yan Chen, a 2019 Rhodes Scholar who will pursue a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation at the University of Oxford in October. Learn more about the Hartford Stage Apprentice Program here: https://www.hartfordstage.org/apprenticeships.

Anastasia returns home to Hartford at last

Anastasia will return home to Hartford next year.  The beloved musical, which closed on Broadway in March after a successful two-year run, will make a national tour stop at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts January 14-19.  Anastasia made its world premiere three years ago at Hartford Stage. For more information, visit  https://bushnell.org/Anastasia.

Once Upon a Time at Summer Studio…

Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Robin Hood and Once Upon A Mattress await young artists in this year’s Hartford Stage Summer Studio! Our Summer Studio 2019 registrations are underway for youth ages 3 to 18. The theme is “Once Upon A Time.”  Summer studio programs begin July 8 and run through August 16 for various groups – Day Dreamers (ages 3 to 5); Children’s Cast and Bookends (ages 5-8), Junior Troupe (ages 8-11); Youth Ensemble (ages 10-15); One Act Play (ages 9 -15) and Teen Musical  (ages 14-18). For more information or to register, visit www.hartfordstage.org/education or contact Grace Clark at gclark@hartfordstage.org or (860) 520-7244.

Breakdancing Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Breakdancing Shakespeare is excited to revisit A Midsummer Night’s Dream this summer. The popular six-week Neighborhood Studios program combining the traditional language of Shakespeare’s play with modern hip-hop dance features Greater Hartford area high school students between the ages of 14 and 18. Three electrifying performances will be held at Hartford Stage on August 1, 2 and 3.  For more information, visit https://www.hartfordstage.org/education/bds.

Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance takes home four Olivier Awards

Congratulations to The Inheritance, Matthew Lopez’s epic, two-part play, which took home four Olivier Awards last month, including Best Play, the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director for Stephen Daldry, Best Actor for Kyle Soller, and Best Lighting by Jon Clark. The Inheritance, a 2013 Aetna New Voices Fellowship commission, was dramaturged by Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson.

Sharon Washington’s Feeding the Dragon Receives Lucille Lortel Award Nomination

Congratulations to Sharon Washington on receiving a Lucille Lortel Award Nomination for Outstanding Solo Show for Feeding the Dragon.  Washington performed her acclaimed one-woman show (based on her life growing up in a New York City public library) last January.

Coming Next – Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin

Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin is the musical story of an immigrant boy who gave a country its voice. Reflecting upon Berlin’s humble beginnings as the child of immigrants to his rise as one of America’s iconic songwriters, the production features several of the composer’s most recognizable songs, including “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “Always,” “Blue Skies,” “God Bless America,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “There’s No Business like Show Business,” and “White Christmas.” Limited Engagement Performance: June 21-30.  https://www.hartfordstage.org/hershey-felder-as-irving-berlin/