The Hot Wing King

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FROM THE ARTISTIC & MANAGING DIRECTORS

Dear Friends of Hartford Stage:

Welcome to Hartford Stage and our production of Katori Hall’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Hot Wing King.

When first reading this script, we were taken by its warm heart, its brilliantly evocative characters, and its seamless weaving of the challenges and joys of family, friendship, and personal ambitions. The Hot Wing King is the perfect addition to our 60th anniversary season, and to this theater’s commitment to telling stories that entertain and enlighten.

Katori Hall’s love for her brother inspired this work which so wonderfully captures the genuine love and struggle in confronting one’s true desires (see the dramaturgy note on page 6). In this story, Dwayne, Cordell, and their friends pursue the title of “Hot Wang King,” and in turn learn what winning is really about: the importance of the families we inherit, and those we choose, to our happiness.

Enjoy the feast!

Melia Bensussen Artistic Director

Cynthia Rider Managing Director

IN ASSOCIATION WITH BALTIMOR E CENTER STAGE PRESENTS

By Katori Hall

Directed by Christopher D. Betts

Joyce C. Willis Fellow Supported By The Roberts Foundation

Scenic Design

Costume Design

Lighting Design

Sound Design

Dialect and Voice Coach

Emmie Finckel

Jahise LeBouef

Adam Honoré

Kathy Ruvuna

Cynthis Santos DeCure

Casting Alaine Alldaffer

Production Stage Manager

Bernita Robinson*

Assistant Stage Manager Makayla Beckles*

Associate Artistic Director Zoë Golub-Sass

Director of Production

General Manager

Bryan T. Holcombe

Emily Van Scoy

FEBRUARY 29 – MARCH 24, 2024

The Hot Wing King is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

SEASON SPONSOR

PRODUCTION SPONSORS

PRODUCER

Sue Ann Collins

MELIA BENSUSSEN Artistic Director

CYNTHIA RIDER Managing Director

THE CAST

THE CHARACTERS

Cordell

Bjorn DuPaty*

Isom Israel Erron Ford *

Everett ”EJ” Marcus Gladney, Jr.*

Big Charles Postell Pringle*

Dwayne .................................................................................................... Calvin M. Thompson*

TJ ..................................................................................................................Alphonso Walker Jr.*

THERE WILL BE ONE INTERMISSION.

Associate Director Nattalyee Randall

Associate Scenic Designer .................................................................................... Cat Raynor

Assistant Scenic Designer ...................................................................................... Juhee Kim

Associate Lighting Designer .......................................................... Hayley Garcia Parnell

Assistant Sound Designer ................................................................................Carsen Joenk

Intimacy and Fight Coordinator ............................................................ Kelsey Rainwater

Production Assistant Austin Washington

Understudies never substitute for listed actors unless a specific announcement is made at the time of the performance. For Everett “EJ”: Sudan Chang

* Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

The Scenic, Costume, Lighting and Sound Designers in LORT theatres are represented by United Scenic Artists Local USA-829, IATSE.

The Director is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.

Bjorn DuPaty

Israel Erron Ford

Marcus Gladney, Jr.

Postell Pringle

Calvin M. Thompson

Alphonso Walker Jr.

Saturday, May 11, 2024

JOIN US FOR A DAZZLING CELEBRATION OF 60 YEARS

A one-night only event featuring a musical performance by the legendary Tony, Grammy, and Emmy award-winning ANDRÉ DE SHIELDS TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

GALA COMMITTEE

SHARI & MICHAEL CANTOR, CHAIRS

Brennden Colbert · Alana Curren · Jennifer DiBella · Dana Greenberg · Emily Harrington · Annie Hildreth · Jackie Iacovazzi

Brittnee Johnson-Colbert ·

Steven Lewis · Kaitlin Librizzi · Jessica Lister · TJ Noel-Sullivan · Alex Pilon · Esther Pryor

Claire Stermer · Judy Thompson · Joan Trammell · Josye Utick · Nicole Vitrano · Alia Walwyn-James · Patty Willis

KATORI HALL’S HUMANISM

IS TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM

BY FRANCESCA SABEL

This article was originally written for Studio Theatre’s 2023 production of The Hot Wing King.

Although Katori Hall has thought about writing herself a solo show—and as a playwright/actor/producer/director, she’s more than capable of doing so—in the end, she says, “I just like people too much. Plays remind me of the time I would play makebelieve with my sister. I like that feeling of creating life—new life— with other people.” Though her work spans decades and mediums, that abiding love of “other people” has remained the defining trait of all her storytelling.

Hall’s fascination with others’ stories dates back to her childhood. Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, Hall’s family dinners were always a competition to see who could tell the most elaborate anecdote (she jokes that her parents are “very dramatic people. I learned from the best”). Hall’s interest in storytelling initially led her to journalism; by 14, she was conducting interviews, learning about individuals in her community, and picking up on cadences and speech patterns in the process. But a few years later, an acting class at Columbia University pushed her to try her hand at a new kind of writing. When Hall and her classmate—another young Black woman—were assigned to do a scene together, they could not find a single play that featured two Black women talking. Hall made up her mind: “I was like, ‘Well, I have to write them.’”

Hall studied acting at the Institute for Advanced Theater Training (out of American Repertory Theater), and then enrolled in Julliard’s Playwriting MFA program, where she began to workshop what would later become The Mountaintop. Set in Martin Luther King Jr.’s hotel room on the night before he was assassinated, the play takes a more human view of a great historical figure—Hall’s King has smelly feet and a crush on his hotel maid. She believes that “a warts-and-all portrayal of Dr. King is important because there’s this extraordinary human being who is actually quite ordinary… by portraying him with his flaws and foibles, we too, can see—as human beings who have these flaws—that we, too, can be Kings.” It is hard to imagine a more telling expression of Hall’s humanism.

Playwright Katori Hall.

The Mountaintop, which premiered at a small British theatre in 2009 and eventually became a Broadway hit, propelled Hall to international success. She followed it up with 2013’s Hurt Village, about a group of neighbors in a Memphis housing project, and 2015’s Our Lady of Kibeho, set in a small town in Rwanda. In 2018, Hall returned to her interest in intimate history when she wrote the book for Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, which she also helped to produce. Though she was fascinated by the chance to focus on the personal life of an icon, Hall also took the project to pay tribute to her mother, a Tina Turner super-fan. “When I got the opportunity to lay my hands on the show,” she explains, “it was more, like, to impress my mom than anything else. But I ended up being changed in the process.”

If Tina was a gift to her mother, it was Hall’s brother Wayne who catalyzed The Hot Wing King. In real life, Wayne shares a home with his barbecue chef partner; in the show, Wayne becomes Dwayne, and the barbecue chef becomes Cordell, chicken-wing fryer extraordinaire. In a testament to how much her dramatic

work remains “steeped in the truth,” Hall has gone from playing make-believe with her sister to putting her brother and his friends onstage. And with these real and beloved individuals in mind, it was important to Hall that the play—groundbreaking for its joyful portrayal of gay Black men—should be less about their sexuality and more “about them being human,” messing up but also loving and supporting each other. In other words, whether it’s Dr. King or her own family, Hall’s “warts-and-all” aesthetic persists.

The past couple of years have been a whirlwind for Katori Hall. She was nominated for two Tony Awards for her work on Tina; she became the showrunner of Starz’ P-Valley, based on one of her plays; and most recently, she won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with The Hot Wing King. But through it all, her deep, empathetic humanism—her love of “other people”—has remained a constant, a principal that is both artistic and political. After all, she reflects, “in this little box…I can demand your time and give you my people’s humanity. That, to me, is its own activism.” And from a six-person comedy to a big Broadway musical, from stinky feet to spicy wings, that is exactly what she does.

Pg. 8: Scenic design by Emmie Finckel. Pg.9: In rehearsal for The Hot Wing King: (L to R): Bjorn DuPaty, Marcus Gladney Jr., Calvin M. Thompson and Israel Erron Ford. Photo by Molly Flanagan.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

KATORI HALL

Playwright

Katori Hall is a playwright and performer hailing from Memphis, Tennessee. Her award-winning play Hoodoo Love premiered at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 2007. It was developed under Lynn Nottage as part of the theatre’s 2006 Mentor Project. Hoodoo Love received three AUDELCO nominations (Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, August Wilson Playwright Award). Her other plays include: Remembrance, Hurt Village, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, The Mountaintop, On The Chitlin’ Circuit, and Freedom Train (KCACTF ten minute play national finalist). Her work has been developed and presented at the following venues: the American Repertory Theatre, Kennedy Center, Cherry Lane Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Schomburg Center, BRICLab, Women’s Project, World Financial Center, Lark Play Development Center, New Professional Theatre, The O’Neill, the Juilliard School, Stanford University, and Columbia University. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lecompte du Nouy Prize, North Manhattan Arts Alliance Fellowship, New York State Council on the Arts Commission Grant, New Professional Theatre’s Writers’ Festival award, Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting and Screenwriting, Royal Court Theatre Residency, and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. She has also been a Kennedy Center Playwriting Fellow. As an actor, her credits include “Law & Order: SVU,” The President’s Puppets (The Public), Growing Up A Slave (American Place Theatre), Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl (American Place Theatre), the world premiere of Amerika (Theatre de la Jeune Lune/American Repertory Theatre), Spring Awakening (Moscow Art Theatre School), Ain’t Supposed To Die A Natural Death (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Schooled (WOW Café Theatre), and Black Girl (Sande Shurin Theatre). As a journalist, her work has been published in “The Boston Globe,” “Essence,” “Newsweek,” and “The Commercial Appeal.” She graduated from Columbia University in 2003 with a major in African-American Studies and Creative Writing. She was awarded top departmental honors from the university’s Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS). In 2005, she graduated from the American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, receiving a Master of Fine Arts in Acting. She is now a student in the Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. She is a proud member of the Women’s Project Playwrights’ Lab, the Lark Playwrights’ Workshop, and the Dramatists Guild. katorihall.com

BJORN DUPATY

Cordell

Hartford Stage: Debut. Broadway: Thoughts of a Colored Man. OffBroadway: A Raisin in the Sun, Mlima’s Tale (Public Theater). National Tour: Julius Caesar, A Comedy of Errors (The Acting Company). Regional: The Hot Wing King (Alliance Theater & Studio Theater-D.C.); Pipeline

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

(Cleveland Playhouse & Studio Theater); Do You Feel Anger (Actors Theater of Louisville); The Bluest Eye (The Huntington); Mudrow (People’s Light Theater); Clyborne Park (Pittsburgh Public Theater); Fairfield (Cleveland Playhouse). Film: Demolition. Television: Sleepy Hollow, Alpha House, The Blacklist, Person of Interest, Madoff, Codes of Conduct, Zero Hour, All My Children. Education: M.F.A. Actor Training: Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.

ISRAEL ERRON FORD

Isom

Hartford Stage: Debut. Off-Broadway: Twelfth Night (Classical Theatre of Harlem); Sheherazade. Regional: Twelfth Night (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); The Inheritance (West Coast Premiere at Geffen Playhouse); Father Comes Home From The Wars: Parts 1 , 2 & 3, Twelfth Night, Choir Boy (Yale Repertory Theatre); Antony + Cleopatra (Yale Cabaret); Black Nativity (Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company). Television: Rap Sh!t (MAX). Live Streaming: Cruel Intentions: The Musical Live (STELLAR). Education: BFA Musical Theater, Carnegie Mellon University; MFA in Acting, Yale School of Drama (productions include: If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be A Muhfucka, Slave Play, Hamlet) Awards: Ovation Award 2016.

MARCUS GLADNEY, JR.

Everett “EJ”

Hartford Stage: Debut. Theatre: Choir Boy (Manhattan Theatre Club); Black Odyssey (Classic Stage); Skin of Our Teeth (BTG). Film/Television: Underground Railroad (Prime); City on a Hill (Showtime); Mayor of Kingstown (Paramount+); What Remains (Prime); Queens (ABC). Merci à Carnegie Mellon University et BRS/GAGE.

POSTELL PRINGLE

Big Charles

Hartford Stage: Debut. Broadway: Good Night, Oscar (with Sean Hayes), A Free Man of Color. Off-Broadway: Othello: The Remix (Westside); The Urban Retreat (The Public); The Seven (NY Theater Workshop); Song for New York (Mabou Mines); Hoodoo Love (Cherry Lane); The Misanthrope, pen/ man/ship ONLINE (Molière in the Park). Regional: OUR DAUGHTERS, LIKE PILLARS (The Huntington); The Matchmaker (Goodman Theatre); Q Brother’s Christmas Carol, Othello: The Remix, Funk It Up (Chicago Shakes); The Seven (La Jolla Playhouse); Broke-ology (Kansas City Repertory Theatre); A Soldier’s Play (Arkansas Repertory Theatre). Film: 30 Miles From Nowhere, Unknown Soldier, Orange Bow. Television: Rescue Me, Unforgettable, Law & Order, Law & Order: CI. Education: B.A. Theater, Bates College; Acting Conservatory Training: Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, England. Professional Positions: Roasting Vegetables, Library of Congress/LOC Mixtape (in-production). Composer: Q Brother’s Christmas Carol, Long Way

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Home, ms. Estrada, Last Stop on Market Stret. Gaming VO/MoCap: GTA IV, GTA: The Lost & The Damned, Red Dead Redemption II (Rockstar Games). postellpringle.com

CALVIN M. THOMPSON

Dwayne

Hartford Stage: Debut. Off-Broadway: Harlem Hellfighters on a Latin Beat, Two Roberts (Pregones PRTT); The Falling Season (Theatre Row); Couriers & Contrabands (TBG Theatre); At Buffalo (Theatre Row); A Soldier’s Play (Kumble Theatre); Staged (TOSOS); FLY (Capital Rep). Regional: The Hot Wing King (Alliance Theatre); The Mountaintop (Lean Ensemble); Esai’s Table (Cal State East Bay); The Bluest Eye, A Raisin In The Sun, Seven Guitars (Theatreworks Colorado); The Royale (Aurora Theatre); Joe Turner’s Come And Gone (American Stage); The Piano Lesson (August Wilson Reading Series); Voodoo Macbeth (Studio 620). Film: Ophelia, Ying and Yang. Television: Power Book III: Raising Kanan, City Of Dreams. Education: BFA University of South Carolina-Aiken; American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Awards: A 2019 ABFF Star Project semi-finalist and most recently 2023 Audelco Award nominee for Best Leading Actor. Thank you to God for all abundant blessings and to loved ones for support. Dedicated to Big Bro “D” and “Charles.” I love you. calvinmthompson.com | IG: mr.callycal

ALPHONSO WALKER JR.

TJ

Hartford Stage: Debut. Broadway: Pass Over, The Skin of Our Teeth. Regional: Legacy Land (Kansas City Repertory Theatre); As Much As I Can (Logan Vaughn). Film: Family Before Everything, I Held Him, Speak Up Brotha! Television: The Equalizer, Law & Order, Blue Bloods, East New York. Education: B.S. Psychology. I am grateful to do what I love. Thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way.

CHRISTOPHER D. BETTS Director

Christopher is The Roberts’ Foundation Joyce C. Willis Fellow at Hartford Stage where he directed Trouble in Mind in their 2022/2023 season. Christopher recently directed The Color Purple (North Carolina Theatre), Dreamgirls (Paramount Theatre, North Carolina Theatre) Choir Boy (Yale Rep), Legally Blonde (NYU Tisch), In the Southern Breeze (Off-Broadway), and Dutch Kings (Off-Off-Broadway). At Yale School of Drama: Is God Is, We Are Proud to Present..., Fireflies, littleboy/ littleman, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, and The Winter’s Tale. Christopher is also the creator, writer, director, and executive producer of the film MAJOR. Other collaborations include: Spring Awakening (NYU Tisch); Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors (PopArt Johannesburg/Market

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Theatre Lab); The Cave: A Folk Opera (New York premiere); Carrie (2015 Broadway World Best Musical nomination); a series of new works with the OBIE Award-winning Fire This Time Festival; workshops of Goodnight Tyler (Kennedy Center/Alliance Theatre), Refuge of the Damned (Long Wharf Theatre); and Barbecue (movement director, The Public Theater). Betts is a recipient of the Julie Taymor World Theater Fellowship, the Richie Jackson Artist Fellowship, and a two-time recipient of the SDCF Observership. He has been an artist in residence at Kampala International Theater Festival and PopArt Johannesburg and a teaching artist at The Market Theatre Lab. Betts is currently a professor in the Department of Undergraduate Drama at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, New Studio on Broadway, and a support team member at artEquity. He received his B.F.A. with triple honors from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (Bachelor’s Representative) and his M.F.A. in Directing from Yale School of Drama.

EMMIE FINCKEL

Scenic Designer

Hartford Stage: Debut. Broadway: KPOP (Associate Scenic Designer). Off-Broadway: Comedy of Errors (Public Theater); 53% Of (2nd Stage); In the Southern Breeze (Rattlestick Playwright’s Theatre); The Watering Hole (Signature Theatre); Hearrt Strings (Atlantic Theater Company); In the Penal Colony (New York Theatre Workshop Next Door). Regional: Becoming a Man (A.R.T.); the ripple, the wave that carried me home (Yale Repertory Theatre); As You Like It (La Jolla Playhouse). Upcoming: Sanctuary City (TheaterWorks Hartford); Problems Between Sisters (Studio Theatre D.C.); Manning (Portland Stage). Education: Yale School of Drama (M.F.A.), Wesleyan University (B.A.).

JAHISE LEBOUEF

Costume Designer

Hartford Stage: Trouble in Mind. Broadway: MJ the Musical (Assistant Costume Designer, NY); The Devil Wears Prada (Assistant Costume Designer, Chicago). Off-Broadway: In The Southern Breeze (Rattlestick Theatre).

Regional: Billy Strayhorn: Something To Live For (Pittsburgh Public); Cry it Out, A Christmas Carol (Crescent City Stage). Film: Dance For Me (BET+). Television: Blue Bloods, The End Game (Costume Coordinator). Education: Bachelors in Production & Design (NYU Tisch).

ADAM HONORÉ

Lighting Designer

Hartford Stage: Debut. Recent Broadway: Purlie Victorious, Ain’t No Mo’, Chicken & Biscuits. Select Off-Broadway: Jelly’s Last Jam (Encores! City Center); Flex (Lincoln Center); This Land Was Made (Vineyard Theatre); Patience (Second Stage); Ain’t No Mo’ (The Public); Carmen Jones (Classic Stage Co). Regional: Alliance Theater, Arena Stage, Asolo Rep, Barrington Stage Co, Center Theater Group, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Cleveland

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, Geffen Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, The Huntington, Paper Mill Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre Co, Signature Theatre, Williamstown Theater Festival. Nominations: Drama Desk, Elliot Norton, Henry Hewes, Helen Hayes, Suzi Bass. @itsadamhonore

KATHY RUVUNA

Sound Designer

Hartford Stage: Trouble In Mind. Off-Broadway: Ni Mi Madre, In the Southern Breeze (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); Amani (National Black Theatre); Bernarda’s Daughters (The New Group); Dark Disabled Stories (Bushwick Starr); Circle Jerk Live (Fake Friends); Sandra (Vineyard Theatre); Mary Gets Hers (Playwrights Realm). Regional: John Proctor is the Villain (Studio Theater); Sweat, What-A-Christmas! (Alley Theatre); Pipeline, Cry It Out, Radio Golf, Lion in Winter (Everyman Theatre); Good Faith (Yale Repertory Theatre); Twelfth Night (Two River Theatre); I and You, Read to Me, The Great Leap (Portland Stage). Education: B.F.A. in Sound Design from The Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University, M.F.A. in Sound Design from the Yale School of Drama.

CYNTHIA SANTOS DECURE

Dialect and Voice Coach

Hartford Stage: Debut. Off-Broadway: Cymbeline (NY Classical). Regional: Wish You Were Here, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, Today is my Birthday, El Huracán (Yale Rep); La Broa’ (Trinity Rep); Queen of Basel (TheaterWorks Hartford); Quixote Nuevo (Seattle Rep, SCR, Denver Center, Round House); In The Heights (Marriott Theater, Phoenix Theater, Chance Theater); Laughs in Spanish (Denver Center); Scenes with Cranes (REDCAT); I Come From Arizona (Children’s Theatre Co.). Television: Orange is the New Black (Netflix), The Affair (Showtime). Education: BA: (Acting) University of Southern California; MFA: (Acting) California State University, Los Angeles. Professional Positions: Voice and dialect coach; Associate Professor of Acting at Yale Drama, certified teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork, Fitzmaurice Voicework® actress, member of SAG/AFTRA, AEA. Co-editor of Scenes for Latinx Actors and Latinx Actor Training

ALAINE ALLDAFFER

Casting

Hartford Stage: Simona's Search, A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas, Pride and Prejudice, Trouble in Mind, The Art of Burning, The Mousetrap; It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play; Ah, Wilderness!; Quixote Nuevo; Ether Dome. Theater: Credits include Grey Gardens (for Playwrights Horizons and Broadway); Clybourne Park (Playwrights Horizons and Broadway); Circle Mirror Transformation (Drama Desk and Obie Awards for Best Ensemble and an Artios Award for casting); and The Flick (Playwrights Horizons and The Barrow Street Theater). Regional: Theaters include The

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Huntington Theatre in Boston, Studio Theater in DC, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Seattle Rep, ACT, Berkeley Rep, People’s Theatre in Philly among others. Television: Credits include The Knights of Prosperity (aka Let’s Rob Mick Jagger) for ABC. Associate credits include Ed for NBC and Monk for USA.

BERNITA ROBINSON

Production Stage Manager

Hartford Stage: Debut. Select credits: 2023 National Music Theater Conference (The O’Neill); Ragtime (25th anniversary reunion concert); For Colored Girls (2002 Broadway revival); Thurgood, Moon for the Misbegotten, Man of La Mancha, and the original production of Rag/Me Off-Broadway: Assassins, Macbeth, The Cradle Will Rock, The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, Carmen Jones (Classic Stage Company). Regional: The Roof of the World, Evita, Ring of Fire. Awards: 2022 recipient of the Stage Managers Association Lifetime Achievement Award in the Art of Stage Management. Grateful to my family for their continued support.

MACKAYLA BECKLES

Assistant Stage Manager

Hartford Stage: Debut. Regional: Olney Outdoors, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (Olney); Young Playwrights Festival (Baltimore Center Stage). Upcoming: Long Way Down (Olney). Education: BFA in Acting, University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

ABOUT BALTIMORE CENTER STAGE

Designated the State Theater of Maryland in 1978, Baltimore Center Stage provides the highest quality theater and programming for all members of our communities, including youth and families, under the leadership of Artistic Director Stevie Walker-Webb and Managing Director Adam Frank. Baltimore Center Stage ignites conversations and imaginations by producing an eclectic season of professional productions across two mainstages, through engaging community programs, and with inspiring education programs. Everything we do at Baltimore Center Stage is led by our core values—chief among them being Access For All. Our mission is heavily rooted in providing active and open accessibility for everyone, regardless of any and all barriers, to our Mainstage performances, education initiatives, and community programming.

ABOUT HARTFORD STAGE

Hartford Stage has been led by Artistic Director Melia Bensussen and Managing Director Cynthia Rider since the summer of 2019. The theater’s mission is to enlighten, entertain, and educate by creating programming of the highest caliber that has a transformative impact on audiences, the community, and its field. Under Bensussen’s artistic vision, the theater has reimagined classics including Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness! which reopened the theater to great acclaim following the pandemic and brought more work celebrating the Latine heritages in the region, including Quixote Nuevo, the virtual American Voices New Play Festival, Kiss My Aztec!, Espejos: Clean, and Simona’s Search. Hartford Stage has presented various world premieres including the Broadway successes Anastasia and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (winner of four 2014 Tony Awards), and Quiara Alegría Hudes’ Water by the Spoonful (winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama). Hartford Stage’s vast education programs engage students of all ages from across the state through student matinee performances, in-school programs, theatre classes, and youth productions. HartfordStage.org

L-R: Chelsea Lee Williams, Sarah Lyddan, and Heather Alicia Simms in Trouble in Mind (2023) directed by Christopher D. Betts. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

ABOUT HARTFORD STAGE

MELIA BENSUSSEN

Artistic Director

Melia is the sixth artistic director, and the first woman, to lead Hartford Stage. She began her tenure in Hartford in July of 2019, after serving as Chair of Performing Arts at Emerson College in Boston. An Obie-award-winning director and artistic leader, she has directed extensively at leading theatres throughout the country, including productions at the Huntington Theatre Company, Sleeping Weazel, Shakespeare & Company, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, La Jolla Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the New York Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Class Company, Primary Stages, Long Wharf Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, People’s Light and Theatre Company, Bay Street Theatre, and Playwrights Horizons, among others. Raised in Mexico City, Melia is fluent in Spanish and has translated and adapted a variety of texts, including her edition of the Langston Hughes translation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding published by TCG. A graduate of Brown University, she is the recipient of a Drama League Directing Fellowship, and a Princess Grace Directing Fellowship, as well as their top honor, the Statue Award.  Melia is the Chair of the Arts Advisory Council for the Princess Grace Foundation and serves as Secretary on the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).

CYNTHIA RIDER

Managing Director

Rider has been the Managing Director of Hartford Stage since 2019. Previously, she was the Executive Director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and prior to joining OSF, Cynthia Rider spent nine years at Kansas City Repertory Theatre as Managing Director and the Associate Director for Advancement & Administration. Her experience also includes six years as Executive Director of the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey. In her early non-arts career, she served as Associate Director of the Massachusetts Manufacturing Partnership, which worked to strengthen small and medium-sized manufacturers across the state. Rider’s theatre experience also includes time spent on the stage. After graduating from Boston University, she started her theatre career as a resident company member at the Alley Theatre in Houston.

EDUCATION @ HARTFORD STAGE

Our award-winning education programs provide students of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds with innovative opportunities that challenge and inspire. Using theater techniques, we build community and citizenship, promote a passion for literacy and creative expression, and encourage lifelong learning.

ADULT & YOUTH CLASSES

Throughout the year, we have classes for youth and adults looking to improve their acting skills.

STUDENT MATINEES

Middle and high school students are invited to join us for special performances throughout the year. They’ll get to see the show, plus participate in a talkback with the cast. Add-on workshop with a teaching artist available! Tickets start at $20, with discounts available for Title 1 schools.

CONNECTIONS

Connections is an in-school program that brings teaching artists into classrooms to explore a book through drama, strengthening reading comprehension skills and building excitement about reading.

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS

Bring a Hartford Stage teaching artist to your afterschool program! Programs range from drama classes to full productions and are designed based on the needs of each individual school.

Learn more at HartfordStage.org/Education

ABOUT HARTFORD STAGE

EQUITY & ANTI-RACISM COMMITMENTS

We are working toward greater anti-racism, equity, justice, inclusion, and belonging for all at our theatre. We invite you to join us on this journey.

CREATING A CULTURE OF BELONGING & INCLUSION

We strive to create a place where all people feel a sense of belonging across the organization. We strive to create a culture where everyone sees themselves, their styles, their culture, and their humanity reflected and appreciated in all the work we do.

CONTINUED LEARNING & SKILLSET BUILDING

We strive to equip our staff, volunteers, and board with opportunities to strengthen their personal and collective understanding of the inequities and injustices within and outside our organization and build skillsets that bring greater consciousness into every aspect of our work.

EQUITABLE & SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS & PRACTICES

We strive to build an organization that recognizes the humanity of every member of our staff, board, volunteer, audience, and community and the needs and necessities to live and thrive in the 21st century.

Words matter.

Actions speak louder.

Learn more at HartfordStage.org

A THANK YOU TO THE PEOPLE WHO FIRST LIVED ON AND CARED FOR THESE LANDS

We recognize that our theatre is built on land that was once and still is peopled by indigenous tribes, specifically territory of the Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Golden Hill Paugussett, and Schaghticoke peoples and their ancestors of these lands: the Wangunk, the Podunk, and the Tunxis.

ANNUAL CONTRIBUTORS

Thank you to our donors. We are grateful for the generosity throughout our entire community and recognize all of our supporters on our website at HartfordStage.org/recognition. We are happy to acknowledge here those with leadership contributions in the past 12 months, February 21, 2023 –February 21, 2024.

ANNUAL FUND

DIRECTOR CIRCLE • $50,000+

Anonymous

Rick & Beth Costello

Estate of Nafe E. Katter

Karl Krapek

Jack & Donna Sennott

PRODUCER CIRCLE • $25,000+

Jill Adams & Bill Knight

Don & Marilyn Allan

The Cheryl Chase & Stuart Bear Family Foundation

Sue Ann Collins

Wes & Chloe Horton

David & Janice Klein

Sally Speer

Judith & William Thompson

OVATION SOCIETY • $10,000+

Sheryl & Doug Adkins

Anonymous

Arnold Greenberg

Francine & Robert Goldfarb

Dianne & Walter Harrison

George & Helen Ingram

Jane & Roger Loeb

The Pryor Family Foundation

Chrissie & Ezra Ripple

Elizabeth Schiro & Stephen Bayer

ENCORE SOCIETY • $5,000+

Andra Asars

Sara & David Carson

Jamie & Isaac Cohen

Alana & Matthew Curren

Devon & Thomas Francis

Grunberg Family Foundation

Barbara & Matthew Hennessy

Jackie & Drew Iacovazzi

Konover Coppa Family Fund

Katherine J. Lambert

Tom & Margah Lips

Amy & Neal Mandell

Barri Marks

Harry E. Meyer

Judith Meyers & Richard Hersh

Michael & Colleen Nicastro

Suzanne B. Ruffee

Donald & Linda Silpe

Nelson & Helen Sly

ANNUAL CONTRIBUTORS

Deborah & Jeffrey Steinberg

Sally & Allan Taylor

Elizabeth & Gerard Vecchio

Maggie & Sherwood Willard

Mark & Patty Willis

Elease & Dana Wright

The Zachs Family Foundation

PATRON SOCIETY • $3,500+

Paul & Joanna Bourdeau

Marla & John Byrnes

Robert L. & Susan G. Fisher

Ruth Fitzgerald & Dave Sageman

Marilda Gandara & Scott O’Keefe

Doris & Ray Guenter

Carrie & Jonathan Hammond

Annie Hildreth & Ted Potters

Adlyn & Theodore Lowenthal

Ed & Kelly Lyman

Duff Ashmead & Eric Ort

Bob & Joan Penney

Kristen Phillips & Matthew Schreck

Rhonda Tobin & Jeffrey Smith

Nicole Vitrano & Art Wallace

Jacqueline Werner

HONORARY GIFTS

IN HONOR OF MELIA BENSUSSEN

Tracy King

William V. & Patrick M.

Madison-McDonald

IN HONOR OF TODD BRANDT

DarrylLee VanOudenhove

IN HONOR OF ANNIE HILDRETH

Diane Hildreth

IN HONOR OF DAVID & KATHLEEN JIMENEZ

Marla & John Byrnes

Sue Ann Collins

IN HONOR OF KATHERINE LAMBERT

Janet Faude

IN HONOR OF AMY & NEAL MANDELL

Debi & Peter Miller

IN HONOR OF CYNTHIA RIDER

Sandy Grampsas

Anne Rider & Rob Hinrichs

IN HONOR OF ROSALIE ROTH

Karl Krapek Jr.

IN HONOR OF HANS WALSER & CAROL SCOVILLE

Karen Kleine

IN HONOR OF PATTY WILLIS

The Burkehaven Family Foundation

IN HONOR OF THE CONTINUATION OF NON-COMMERCIAL THEATRE

James F. Ingalls

MEMORIAL GIFTS

IN MEMORY OF PETER BLUM

Donald & Linda Silpe

IN MEMORY OF GALINA FAYNGERSH

Diana Lee

IN MEMORY OF BEVERLY GREENBERG

Anonymous

IN MEMORY OF ANNEMARIE HAENDIGES

Brian Haendiges

IN MEMORY OF MARGARET MACDONNELL

William MacDonnell

IN MEMORY OF BERNICE POKSAY AND KIM O’NEAL

Anonymous

IN MEMORY OF JOHN SENNOTT

Audrey Mulholland

ANNUAL CONTRIBUTORS

INSTITUTIONAL GIVING

$200,000+

Raytheon Technologies*

The Shubert Foundation

Stanley Black & Decker*

United States Treasury

$100,000+

The Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

The Edward C. & Ann T. Roberts Foundation

$75,000+

Burry Fredrik Foundation

$50,000+

Connecticut Judicial Branch

The John and Kelly Hartman Foundation

The Katherine K. McLane & Henry R. McLane Charitable Trust

The Scripps Family Fund for Education and the Arts

Travelers*

$25,000+

City of Hartford

Connecticut Humanities

The Elizabeth M. Landon & Harriette M. Landon Charitable Foundation

Ensworth Charitable Foundation

Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

Laurents/Hatcher Foundation

Robinson & Cole LLP

SBM Charitable Foundation, Inc

$15,000+

Lucille Lortel Foundation

The MorningStar Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

Talcott Resolution*

$10,000+

Cummings & Lockwood*

Greater Hartford Arts Council

The J. Walton Bissell Foundation, Inc.

Liberty Bank*

The William & Alice Mortensen Foundation

$5,000+

William H. & Rosanna T. Andrulat Charitable Foundation

Allan S. Goodman, Inc.

The BFA Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

The Burton & Phyllis Hoffman Foundation

The Charles Nelson Robinson Fund

Grunberg Realty*

Jana Foundation

McDonald Family Trust

PeoplesBank*

The University of Saint Joseph*

$2,500+

Connecticut Department of Economic & Community Development

Enterprise Rent a Car Foundation

Fiducient Advisors*

The George A. & Grace L. Long Foundation

$1,000+

Alexander M. & Catherine Maus Wright Charitable Foundation

The Foulds Family Foundation

NewAlliance Foundation

$500+

Watkinson School

>$500

United Way of Central Indiana

* BUSINESS PARTNERS

Become a Hartford Stage BUSINESS PARTNER!

JOIN OUR GROWING CLASS OF 2023/2024 PARTNERS!

Conning • Cummings & Lockwood • Fiducient Advisors •

Grunberg Realty • Liberty Bank • PeoplesBank •

Talcott Resolution • Travelers • The University of Saint Joseph

Becoming a Business Partner is an easy, customizeable way to support Hartford stage. Entertain clients, engage vendors, or reward employees!

Your charitable or in-kind contribution will support the artistic, educational, and community programming at Hartford Stage. Select benefits that align best with your priorities, and receive prominent recognition all season-long.

All partnerships will be fully customized to meet your needs!

Benefit options include:

Complimentary Show Tickets

Complimentary Gala Tickets

Recognition Opportunities

Unique Private Event Spaces

Fully Catered Events

Conversations with Artists

Invitations to Special Events

DISCUSS YOUR UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT TODAY!

Contact Jennifer Levine at jlevine@hartfordstage.org or 860-520-7249.

What is an Endowment Fund?

An Endowment Fund is an investment account for a non-profit organization. The goal of an endowment fund is to exist into perpetuity; to provide support to the organization not only in the present time, but in the future as well. Our Endowment Fund offers a dependable and reliable source of income, which allows us to balance out the unpredictable revenue from ticket sales and charitable contributions.

How

does Hartford Stage use its Endowment Fund?

Hartford Stage uses an annual draw up to 5% from our endowment to support our artistic programming, our summer education camp, and maintenance to our theater facility.

Why should I donate to the endowment?

A gift to the endowment is a gift to the future of Hartford Stage. The larger the endowment, the larger the annual draw, providing much needed stability in our income stream. This ensures that Hartford Stage can continue to entertain, educate, and enlighten audiences for years to come.

How can I donate to Hartford Stage’s Endowment?

Make a direct gift through:

Cash Donations • Stock Donations

Contributions from your IRA or Donor-Advised Funds

Joining our Shakespeare Society

To learn more about the Hartford Stage endowment, Shakespeare Society, or to contribute, contact Jennifer Levine at jlevine@hartfordstage.org or 860-520-7249.

Nathan Darrow, Jotham Burrello, Omar Robinson, and Jamie Ann Romero in The Winter’s Tale (2023).

Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY

The Shakespeare Society comprises individuals who have provided for the future of Hartford Stage in their estate plans. Hartford Stage is deeply grateful for their generosity and foresight. The members of this group help to ensure the legacy of Hartford Stage. Have you included Hartford Stage in your estate plans? Tell us about it! Contact Evan Kudish at ekudish@hartfordstage.org or 860-520-7241 to share your plans and allow us to thank you.

Anonymous (15)

Mr. & Mrs. Paul Bourdeau

Mrs. Joan Brown

Kimberley & Christopher Byrd

Marla & John Byrnes

Mario R. Cavallo

Sue Ann Collins

Richard G. Costello

Ms. Linda Diana DeConti

Mr. Reginald Gregory DeConti

Robert L. & Susan G. Fisher

Kathy Frederick & Eugene Leach

Victoria E. Gallo

Helen Ingram

David & Janice Klein

Joel M. & Naomi Baline Kleinman

Katherine J. Lambert

Christopher Larsen

Tom & Margah Lips

Mark & Liisa Livingston

Elaine T. Lowengard

Judith Meyers & Richard Hersh

Ki Miller

Arthur & Merle Nacht

Judge Jon O. Newman

Belle K. Ribicoff

Ezra & Chrissie Ripple

Prudence P. Robertson

Barbara Rubin

Carol W. Scoville

Donald & Linda Silpe

Jennifer Smith Turner & Eric Turner

Elsa Suisman

Michael Wilson & Jeff Cowie

Michael & Ellen Zenke

IN MEMORIAM

Hartford Stage fondly remembers these late members of the Shakespeare Society. Anonymous (6)

Margaret Atwood

Cynthia Kellogg Barrington

Maxwell & Sally Belding

Susan R. Block

Clifford S. Burdge

Edward C. Cape

Ruth Cape

Anna Clark

David Clark

James H. Eacott, Jr.

Yummy Graulty

Dieter & Siegelind Johannes

Hugh M. Joseloff & Helen J. Joseloff

Nafe E. Katter

Janet M. Larsen

Joe Marfuggi

Mr. & Mrs. Henry R. McLane

Mary & Freeman Meyer

Tuck Miller

Ann Richards

George Richards

Dr. Russell Robertson

Robert K. Schrepf

Talcott Stanley

Janet S. Suisman

Michael Suisman

Helen S. Willis

Louise W. Willson

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OFFICERS

Jack Sennott, President

Elease Wright, Vice President

Devon Francis, Treasurer

Michael Nicastro, Secretary

GOVERNING DIRECTORS

Douglas Adkins

Don Allan

Patti Broad

Marla J. Byrnes

Shari Cantor

Julio Concepción

Mark G. Contreras

Richard G. Costello

Alana Curren

Anne D’Alleva

John Doran

Marilda Lara Gándara

Rev. Darrell L. Goodwin

Annie Hildreth

Nancy P. Hoffman

Very Rev. Miguelina Howell

Jackie B. Iacovazzi

Katherine Lambert

Kelly M. Lyman

Sibongile Magubane

Barri Marks

Marge Morrissey

Mark Overmyer-Velázquez

Andy Pace

Esther A. Pryor

Tom Richards

Rosalie Roth

Allan B. Taylor

William J. Thompson

Rhonda J. Tobin

Gerard Vecchio

Nicole Vitrano

Patty Willis

STAGE ONE

Young Professional Board Directors

Cordelia Brady

Kentavis Brice

Brennden D. Colbert

Jarrett Eamiello

Emily Harrington

Brittnee Johnson-Colbert

Kaitlyn Keeler

Oliver Kochol

Kaitlin Librizzi

Greidy Miralles

TJ Noel-Sullivan

Janixia Reyes

Kristy Sanandres

Claire Stermer

Nathan Sykes

Alia Walwyn-James

LIFE DIRECTORS

George L. Estes III

Arnold C. Greenberg

Walter Harrison

Jeffrey S. Hoffman

George A. Ingram

David M. Klein

Roger S. Loeb

Belle K. Ribicoff

Christina B. Ripple

Anne Rudder

Linda Fisher Silpe

Sherwood Willard

HONORARY DIRECTORS

David Carson

Michael Grunberg

Carrie Hammond

Barbara Hennessy

Amy Leppo Mandell

Robert A. Penney

Bruce Simons

Judith E. Thompson

EMERITUS DIRECTORS

Margaret B. Amstutz

R. Kelley Bonn

Sara Marcy Cole

Susan J. Copeland

Susan G. Fisher

Judith C. Meyers

PAST PRESIDENTS

Jill Adams

Joel B. Alvord

Paul L. Bourdeau

David W. Clark Jr.+

Sue Ann Collins

Ellsworth Davis+

Elliot F. Gerson

Thomas J. Groark Jr.+

John W. Huntington+

Walter Harrison

David R. Jimenez

David M. Klein

Edward Lane-Reticker+

Janet Larsen+

Thomas D. Lips

Scott McAlister+

Tuck Miller+

Christina B. Ripple

Deanna Sue Sucsy

Jennifer Smith Turner

Peter R. Wilde+

EX OFFICIO DIRECTORS

John B. Larson

US Representative, First Congressional District of Connecticut

Arunan Arulampalam

Mayor City of Hartford

Melia Bensussen

Artistic Director

Hartford Stage

Cynthia Rider

Managing Director Hartford Stage

ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

LEADERSHIP

Melia Bensussen, Artistic Director

Position endowed by Janet S. Suisman

Cynthia Rider, Managing Director

ADMINISTRATION

Emily Van Scoy, General Manager

Sara Walnum, Business Manager

Scott Bartelson, Director of Internal Communications & Organizational Strategy

ARTISTIC

Zoë Golub-Sass, Richard P. Garmany Associate Artistic Director

DEVELOPMENT

Jennifer Levine, Director of Development

Evan Kudish, Individual Giving Manager

Sierra Vazquez, Annual Fund Manager

Shannon Kennedy, Development & Marketing Associate

EDUCATION

Jennifer Roberts, Director of Education

Nina Pinchin, Associate Director of Education

Emely Larson, Studio Manager

2023/2024 Teaching Artists

Marie Altenor, Isaiah Artis, Thomas Beebe, Jha’Neal Blue, Brandon Couloute, Eddie Cruz, Shelby Demke, Caroline Frederick, Erica LuBonta, Greg Ludovici, Jan Mason, Jessica MacLean, Tori Mooney, Justin Pesce, Erin Rose, Kevin Scott, Heidi Jean Weinrich

MARKETING

Todd Brandt, Director of Marketing

Molly Flanagan, Marketing Associate

House Management

Scott McEver, Audience Experience and Front of House Manager

Lindsay Abrams, Events Coordinator/ Assistant House Manager

Aarron Schuelke, Assistant House Manager

Bartenders:

Tanya Bermudez, Lexi Blinder, Sam Chiasson, Karen Kudish, Loren Milledge, Kimberly Quinn, Nefris Quiterio, Erica Santa Lucia, Kerry Yerkes

Gift Shop Attendants/Event Bartenders:

Art Arpin, Paulette Caldwell, John Harbison

Patron Services

Lindsey Hoffman, Box Office Manager

Corey Welden, Box Office Supervisor

Box Office Representatives:

Jha’Neal Blue, Christopher Burgos, Eddie Cruz, Lindsey Taft

PRODUCTION

Bryan T. Holcombe, Director of Production

Wesley Schroeder, Assistant Production Manager

Leland Ensminger, Facilities Manager

Austin Washington, Production Assistant

Set Construction & Scenic Art

Aaron D. Bleck, Technical Director

Jared Wolf, Assistant Technical Director

Ian Sweeney, Lead Carpenter

Audra Giuliano, Scenic Carpenter

Nathalie Schlosser, Charge Scenic Artist

Costumes & Wardrobe

Alex Meadows, Costume Shop Director

Melissa Thurn, Assistant Costume Director

Joshua Richardson, Wardrobe Supervisor

James Weeden, Draper

Jack Trainor, First Hand

Props

Joe Dotts, Props Manager

Alex Ferdman, Assistant Props Manager

Lighting

Jackie Costabile, Lighting Manager

Ethan Sepa, ALDM, Programmer

Sound

Lucas Clopton, Audio/Video Manager

Jim Busker, Assistant Audio/Video Manager

Company Management

Christopher Rowe, Company Manager

FOR THIS PRODUCTION

Michele L. Sanson, Crafts Artisan & Stitcher

Lauren Marina, Props Artisan

Callum McCabe. Props Artisan & Props/Food Prep Run Crew

Painters: Kathleen Kennan, Erin Sagnelli

Stitchers: Joe O’Brien, Christine Regina

Hanna Zammarieh, Wardrobe Crew

Special Thanks

Residence Inn Downtown Hartford

Downtown Hartford YMCA

Hilton Hartford