OCTOBER 10—NOVEMBER 3
2024/2025 SEASON
FROM THE ARTISTIC & MANAGING DIRECTORS
Welcome to our first production of the 2024/2025 season, and to the world of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Robert Louis Stevenson first published this novella, titled Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1886, at the beginnings of Freudian science, at a time when Darwin was gaining more popularity, and when Nietzsche was philosophizing about religion. It exploded when first published and was linked to the misdeeds of Jack the Ripper which began just a few years later.
The fight between the good and evil in each human soul, the very idea that there is such a binary — that we can divide ourselves so cleanly between our good impulses and our bad — is still as relevant a concept today as it was when Stevenson began to explore it in the late 19th century. Countless adaptations and dramatizations have been written since then as it continues to be an allegory that enthralls us. Jeffrey Hatcher, in this adaptation, has stressed the psychological complexities of the story, and created a grand theatrical ride for us.
In Hatcher’s adaptation we hear that Dr. Jekyll believes that “there is not one mind, but two. Two streams of consciousness, one on the surface, the other subterranean.” Dr. Jekyll originally intends to isolate the two streams, one from the other, thus allowing himself freedom from the anxiety of choice, freedom from dark desires. Is such a freedom possible, or even desirable?
At Hartford Stage we tell stories that explore our humanity and complexity — and what better way than through this psychological thriller that questions our impulses and our judgements. We hope this wild ride of a play entertains you and leaves you pondering these larger questions.
Enjoy the show and we look forward to seeing you again for more adventures this season at Hartford Stage.
Melia Bensussen Artistic Director
Cynthia Rider Managing Director
MELIA BENSUSSEN
Artistic Director
CYNTHIA
RIDER Managing Director
Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher
From the novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Directed by Melia Bensussen
Choreographer Shura Baryshnikov
Scenic Design Sara Brown
Costume Design An-lin Dauber
Lighting Design Evan C. Anderson
Original Music & Sound Design Jane Shaw
Wig, Hair, & Makeup Design Jodi Stone
Fight Choreographer Omar Robinson
Voice & Dialect Coach Jennifer Scapetis-Tycer
Casting Alaine Alldaffer
Production Stage Manager Nicole Wiegert
Assistant Stage Manager Julius Cruz
Associate Artistic Director Zoë Golub-Sass
Director of Production Bryan T. Holcombe
General Manager Emily Van Scoy
OCTOBER 10 – NOVEMBER 3, 2024
The World Premiere of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was commissioned and produced by Arizona Theatre Company, David Ira Goldstein, Artistic Director; Jessica L. Andrews, Executive Director. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service imprint.
SEASON SPONSORS
PRODUCERS
Don & Marilyn Allan
Cheryl Chase & Stuart Bear
Family Foundation
STUDENT MATINEE SPONSOR
POST-SHOW DISCUSSION SPONSOR
THE COMPANY
Dr. Henry Jekyll ........................................................................................ Nathan Darrow
Dr. H.K. Lanyon Peter Stray
Dr. Gabriel Utterson Omar Robinson
Sir Danvers Carew/The Inspector ............................................................. Nayib Felix
Elizabeth Jelkes ...........................................................................................Sarah Chalfie
Mr. Poole ....................................................................................... Jennifer Rae Bareilles
All other roles played by the ensemble.
Assistant Director Rebecca May Ristow
Assistant Costume Designer Kyle Artone
Assistant Lighting Designer ................................................................. Emma Mongol
Associate Sound Designer ....................................................... Carl “C.J.” Whitaker
Fight Captain .......................................................................................... Omar Robinson
Production Assistant Alyssa Edwards
The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are 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 and Choreographer are members of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.
Jennifer Rae Bareilles
Sarah Chalfie Nathan Darrow
Nayib Felix
Omar Robinson
Peter Stray
AN INTERVIEW ON ADAPTATION
WITH DIRECTOR MELIA BENSUSSEN & PLAYWRIGHT JEFFREY HATCHER
Melia Bensussen: Well, Jeffrey Hatcher, it’s a pleasure to see you. I’m so grateful for this adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde.
Jeffrey Hatcher: You’re welcome. All for you, Melia.
MB: Yes. Well, we go way back, sir.
Jeff, you originally wrote this adaptation 15 years ago, give or take. What inspired you to do this adaptation?
JH: Well, David Ira Goldstein, friend and former artistic director at Arizona Theatre asked me if I’d ever thought about adapting it. And once or twice over the last 40 years or so, I’ve thought, “Oh, what could I do with the Jekyll and Hyde story?”
A lot of adaptations of really well-known titles sometimes tend to be reactive — reactive not only to the original, but to all the other adaptations. You get used to the tropes and what all the other adapters have done. There are a couple of things that I didn’t want to do that many other adapters have done and done well. But I got very excited, thinking that I could pull off a few tricks that nobody else had.
MB: In your adaptation, what do you feel you are focused on thematically? Without giving spoilers!
JH: I don’t want to give away the fun because part of writing the piece was thinking it’ll be fun for the audience, fun for the actors and director! There is a notion that when Dr. Jekyll takes the tincture, that he always becomes the same, Mr. Hyde — and I thought, when you take something that alters your consciousness, you are often different every time you take it, based on how much you take, or what you interact with (other drugs, etc.), based on your mood. There are different levels of inebriation, there are
different ways that you can be stoned, or high, or what have you. And I thought, well, let’s look at Mr. Hyde in terms of variation and possibilities. And the other was this notion that somehow if Mr. Hyde was so bad, Jekyll had to be so good. Even Stevenson in the original novella...
Hyde.
MB: Let’s see the copy. It looks very much like a first edition. It looks very original.
JH: It’s 1886!
Even in the novella, Stevenson makes a reference to Jekyll as having had some darker or more complicated thoughts or instincts or inclinations when he was younger. So, I thought, rather than take the old fashioned view that Jekyll was great and Hyde was evil, now we take the view that Jekyll is a normal human being with mixes of good and bad, which means that, if we’re going for that negative — you know, like a photograph — if we’re going for that negative flash in Hyde, then Hyde is not going to be completely evil. There are going to be pieces of him that are, let’s call it, positive and that these things could shuffle during the course of the play.
MB: In reading Stevenson, I realized how much Dr. Jekyll is struggling because he hates having to deal with his dark impulses. He’s trying to separate into this binary of good and evil. So that “good Dr. Jekyll” doesn’t have to think about anything dark in his psyche. And I feel like Stevenson’s writing with a real sense of irony about how impossible that is to do.
Jeffrey Hatcher and a first edition of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
JH: Oh, yeah. In all these mad doctor stories — Jekyll and Hyde, Frankenstein, The Island of Dr. Moreau — perfection is going to go awry. It’s an interesting view of science as seen by an artist. Because we believe in science these days — follow the science! — but we also know, re: Robert Oppenheimer, that the science doesn’t always work out the way you’d like it to. You’ll get your results, but you’ll get more than that. So, I think Stevenson, if he were to twist it just slightly, it would be closer to The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Because in a sense, both Dorian Gray and Jekyll and Hyde are stories of middle class Englishmen who go take a walk on the wild side. And the metaphor in Dorian Gray is, of course, homosexuality. But a lot of people would say that that’s the same thing in Jekyll and Hyde too. The things you couldn’t write about in the popular press or popular novels or plays, you find a metaphor. And in this case, it’s the drug and the other life.
MB: Right. And there’s something in both in your piece — in some of the language that you’ve crafted so wonderfully — but also in the Stevenson, that says Jekyll’s life was 90% effort. It’s really exhausting for Jekyll to be Jekyll! And there’s a freedom in not having to be Jekyll, which really links to — in a sense — why people
Director Melia Bensussen (right) in rehearsal for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Nathan Darrow and Jennifer Rae Bareilles. Photo by Molly Flanagan.
turn to substances. It’s a sort of escape from the self, which we all long for in different ways, on some level.
JH: He’s a classic Victorian repressed character. He is suppressing emotions, suppressing behavior, and it’s what’s demanded of a man of his sort, a man of his class and position. He is a doctor at role. He’s not known for his bedside manner. I think we make it clear that Dr. Jekyll is a research clinician. He has a position that gives him a lot of moral authority. And moral authority is easily destroyed by one smear, smudge, scratch. And so, he spent his life trying to make sure none of that veneer cracks.
MB: So, where do Jekyll and Hyde fall on the spectrum of what we perceive as good?
JH: Well, that’s where the woman comes into it. But rather famously, I think in the novella, women are barely present.
MB: No women speak in the novella.
JH: No, there’s a maid who witnesses a murder.
MB: And faints!
JH: As I would, perhaps. I think women have the right idea about fainting. Just make sure that fainting couch is behind you.
I think it’s very interesting that the first adaptation to the stage of Jekyll and Hyde immediately introduced a female character, Jekyll’s fiancé. And for about the next hundred years, adapters have always stuck in a fiancé — a very nice virginal, upper class woman for Jekyll to be dating. And then there’s usually a prostitute, or a bar girl, or a singer who encounters Mr. Hyde. So, other adapters have, I think wisely — for commercial reasons — said, “Well, there’s got to be some romance to this!”
We have a woman in our version — Elizabeth — but we don’t have that virgin / whore dichotomy.
MB: Right, the good and the bad are embedded in each other, which is part of what is wonderful about this adaptation. You’re getting rid of all the binaries. It starts with this desire for a
separation of good and evil, and then that human nature doesn’t allow that kind of separation.
A community member asked me if there was comic relief in this dark story. And I was able to attest to your sense of humor! I told her the story of how when you and I first worked on Turn of the Screw over 25 years ago, after our first preview, you looked at me somewhat distressed and said, “They missed all these jokes.” And I said, “But Jeff, we’ve set it up. It’s creepy.” And you said to me, and I never forgot it, and I really learned from it, “If they’re not laughing with us, they’re not with us.” And I’m really enjoying what you’ve planted into Jekyll and Hyde along those lines.
JH: I don’t know, a drama that doesn’t have a good few comedic moments. I mean, a really good production of Waiting for Godot or Death of a Salesman or No Man’s Land has a lot of laughs. King Lear has a lot of laughs. Some of it is basic, old-fashioned “let the audience release tension, let the audience know they have permission to laugh.” But it is also a way of aligning audiences with character.
MB: Yes! In rehearsals, we are so enjoying the humor in your adaptation and creating moments that align us with characters that — at first glance — you might not expect to connect with. There’s great wit in the piece. It’s also such a joy to work with you in real time, finding new moments of humor — and horror! Even though it’s a published play, you’re making changes to fit these actors and this thrust stage. It’s really a gift for us. We feel like we’re doing a new play because you Zoom in, you answer our questions, you’ll be visiting during technical rehearsals and preview performances. You’re really helping us make this play fit this theater at this time and with this cast.
JH: Well, I’m always open to changes on a play that’s been out there for a while. But usually, you don’t revisit a play that’s been out there for a long time. So, I figured why not revisit it? There’s always something that you’ll do.
MB: Thank you so much. This has really been a pleasure.
THE OTHER FELLOW
Inspiration for Jekyll and Hyde
By Zoë Golub-Sass
In 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) had a nightmare that made him toss and turn in his sleep. So much so, he woke his wife Fanny. When Fanny woke him, he said “Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale!” Stevenston had dreamt up a couple of scenes that were the basis for his Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But where did this dream come from?
There are many contested sources of inspiration for this great work — for Edward Hyde and the horror that lurks beneath the surface of civil society.
Some argue that Stevenson was inspired by the case of his friend, Eugene Chantrelle (1834-1878). Chantrelle was a sociable Frenchman who, in 1878, murdered his wife at home, poisoning her with opium. After the trial, other murders came to light. Stevenson noted “He [Chantrelle] had left France because of murder; he had left England because of a murder; already since he was in Edinburgh, more than one — as I was told by the Procurator-Fiscal, more than four or five — had fallen a victim to his little supper parties and his favorite dish of toasted cheese and opium. And with all this expense of life, he was only clinging to solvency by his eyelids, he was being forced daily nearer to that last mismanaged crime that was to bring him to the gallows.”
Others argue we have William Brodie (1741-1788) to thank for the tale. Brodie was a well-respected city councilor, cabinet maker, and locksmith who led a secret life of gambling, affairs, and theft.
Robert Louis Stevenson, 1893.
Brodie was captured after a collaborator turned him in. In his workshop, authorities discovered his disguise and secret copies of his customers’ keys, that he had used to break into buildings. Stevenson had a demonstrated interest in the case, stretching back to his early writings when he wrote a play inspired by Brodie.
Others claim that Hartford’s own Horace Wells (1815-1848) — the dentist at the center of our production of Ether Dome (2014) — is the one who inspired Stevenson’s story.
But one of the most compelling sources might have been Robert Louis Stevenson himself.
Stevenson’s interest in good and evil — and the fine line that separates the two — can be traced throughout his works. His earliest works deal with hidden identities, morality, and gothic horror.
While Stevenson’s writings are filled with adventure and great energy, he was an ill man who often suffered from respiratory problems. He had bouts of bed-rest followed by bursts of creative energy and activity.
During these bed-rests, Stevenson experienced vivid dreams and a dual consciousness — most often and most intensely when he had a fever. In an 1892 letter to F.W.H. Myers he relayed his experience of two states of consciousness — myself and the other fellow. While myself held reason and rationality, the other fellow contained darkness and creativity. Stevenson goes on to describe how the two relate, and how they can bleed into each other, coexisting during lucid, conscious states.
He goes on to describe a few of these dream experiences and explains, “I have called the one person myself, and the other the other fellow. It was myself who spoke and acted; the other fellow seemed to have no control of the body or the tongue; he could only act through myself, on whom he brought to bear a heavy strain, resisted in one case, triumphant in the two others. Yet I am tempted to think that I know the other fellow...”
Statue of Horace Wells in Bushnell Park.
So, perhaps we have the other fellow to thank for this dark, chilling tale. Or perhaps it is Stevenson himself. While we cannot determine the external influences that lead to Stevenson’s generative dream, we can point to a widespread curiosity around the idea of myself and the other fellow — the mystery of the mind, both of our own and of our neighbors — that underpins many great theories and questions about humanity. We have a great desire to know the unknowable. To understand what makes us human. What makes us moral and what undoes that morality that keeps society afloat. With Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Stevenson’s novella, we welcome you to the ongoing conversation and the thrill of the mystery.
Remember Horace Wells from Ether Dome?
Horace Wells was a practicing dentist who discovered modern anesthesia. In 1844, he attended a traveling carnival which had an act where they administered nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”) to audience members, who didn’t feel pain after being struck. Wells wondered if nitrous oxide could be used to relieve his patients’ pain. He began experimenting on himself, with a colleague extracting one of his teeth after taking nitrous oxide. It was a success! The tooth was extracted and Wells didn’t experience any pain. He began to use nitrous oxide on his patients. In 1845, Wells was invited to demonstrate his findings at Massachusetts General Hospital. However, there was an error in the administration of the gas and the patient called out in pain. Wells was quickly dismissed, deemed a fraud, and gave up his career. His former student William Morton took Wells’ research and ran with it, using ether rather than nitrous oxide. Morton successfully demonstrated his technique at Mass General in 1847.
Wells descended into a depression and became addicted to chloroform. In 1848, after taking chloroform, he went into the street and threw sulfuric acid on two prostitutes. He was sent to prison where he committed suicide by taking chloroform and then inflicting a lethal wound.
Michael Baakensen and Amelia Pedlow in Ether Dome (2014).
Photo by T. Charles Erickson.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
JENNIFER RAE BAREILLES
Mr. Poole
Hartford Stage: It’s a Wonderful Life (2022, 2021). Off-Broadway: The Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons); Trial (American Theater of Actors); Valer (Connelly Theater); Maybe Tomorrow (Under St. Marks); Shelter (June Havoc Theater). Regional: The Thanksgiving Play (Cincinnati Playhouse); Bright Half Life (Kitchen Theatre); Proof (Theatre of Yugen at NOHspace – San Francisco); Speed the Plow (Theatre of Yugen at NOHspace – San Francisco); Fiction (Phoenix Theater – San Francisco). Film: Light of the Moon (Feature Film); Daddy’s Issues (Short Film); Picture Perfect (Short Film); The Expert (Short Film). TV: Little Voice; Two Roads. Education/Training: Meisner Technique (Jim Jarrett, 2-year program); HB Studios (Stage Combat; Christian Kelly-Sordelet); The Barrow Group (Seth Barrish/Lee Brock, New York, 2 years); Jean Shelton Actors Lab (Jean Shelton, San Francisco 5 years); Studio ACT (San Francisco, 3 years). Professional Positions: Current Improv and Acting Teacher (and weekly performer) at the People’s Improv Theater –NYC.
SARAH CHALFIE
Elizabeth Jelkes
Hartford Stage: Debut. New York: FillFillFillFillFillFillFill (The Flea). Regional: The Rose Tattoo (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Off the Main Road (Williamstown). Education/Training: MFA Acting, Columbia University.
NATHAN DARROW
Dr. Henry Jekyll
Hartford Stage: The Winter’s Tale. Off-Broadway: Summer and Smoke (CSC / Transport Group). International: Richard III (Old Vic / World Tour / BAM). Regional: A Chorus Line (Music Theater Heritage); Richard II (Luna Stage); Dial M for Murder (Old Globe); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, To Kill a Mockingbird (KC Rep); A Number (People’s Light); Hamlet, Henry V (HASF); Five Mile Lake (McCarter); Ajax (ART); Death of a Salesman (Weston Playhouse); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (KCAT); The Little Dog Laughed (Unicorn); Much Ado About Nothing (Berkeley Rep). Television: House of Cards, Billions, Gotham, The Wizard of Lies, Preacher, Rectify, Godless, Bull, Blue Bloods, Blindspot; The Blacklist, Quantico, F.B.I., Law & Order. Training: University of Evansville; NYU; The Public Theater Shakespeare Lab; The Actors CenterCompany Member.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
NAYIB FELIX
Sir Danvers Carew/The Inspector
Hartford Stage: Debut. Regional: Angels in America Parts I & II, A Christmas Carol, Evocation to Visible Appearance (Actors Theatre of Louisville ). Film: Not Okay. Television: Jessica Jones. Education: BFA in Psychology, Penn State University, MFA Actor Training, The Juilliard School; Productions include: Coriolanus, Troilus and Cressida, How to Catch Creation.
OMAR ROBINSON
Mr. Gabriel Utterson
Hartford Stage: The Winter’s Tale. Regional: Toni Stone, Common Ground Revisited, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Romeo and Juliet, Tartuffe (Huntington Theatre Company); Radio Golf, black odyssey, The Hunchback of Seville (Trinity Repertory Company); Pride and Prejudice (Dorset Theatre Festival); King Hedley II, Seven Guitars, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, The School for Scandal, The Comedy of Errors, Henry VIII, Pericles, Twelfth Night (Actors’ Shakespeare Project). Film: The Finest Hours. Education: BA, Emerson College.
PETER STRAY
Dr. H.K. Lanyon
Hartford Stage: Debut. Regional: Hamlet (Vineyard Playhouse); Arcadia (Folger Theatre); Julius Caesar, Antony & Cleopatra (Shakespeare Theatre, DC); Drunk Enough To Say I Love You (Forum Theatre); Animal Farm (Synetic Theatre); Comedy Of Errors (Rosemary Branch, London); various new play workshops (Public Theatre/ NYU, with Suzan Lori Parks). Film: Summerhouse, Reset, The Tomorrow Job, Viking Seige, Monstrous, Canaries. TV: The Savant, New Amsterdam, Law & Order, Deadly Honeymoon, Lost. Education/Training: BA Acting, Royal Central School Of Speech & Drama, London.
JEFFREY HATCHER Playwright
Jeffrey Hatcher’s plays have been produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in theaters around the U.S. and the world. Broadway: Never Gonna Dance (book). Off-Broadway: Three Viewings and A Picasso (Manhattan Theatre Club); The Government Inspector, The Alchemist (Red Bull); Scotland Road, The Turn of the Screw (Primary Stages); Lucky Duck (book with Bill Russell) (The New Victory); Tuesdays with Morrie (with Mitch Albom)
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
(The Minetta Lane, Sea Dog); Other plays/theaters: Compleat Female Stage Beauty, Mrs. Mannerly, Murderers, Cousin Bette, Smash, Key Largo (with Andy Garcia), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Holmes and Watson, Dial M for Murder, A Confederacy of Dunces and others at Guthrie Theater, Geffen Playhouse, Old Globe, Yale Rep, Seattle Rep, Huntington, South Coast Rep, Arizona Theater Company, Indiana Rep, Children’s Theater Company, Illusion, Denver Center, Philadelphia Theater Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Rep, Northlight, Westport Playhouse, Actors Theater of Louisville, TheatreWorks and more. Film: Stage Beauty, Casanova, The Duchess, Mr. Holmes and The Good Liar. Television: episodes of Columbo and The Mentalist. Grants/Awards: NEA, TCG, Lila Wallace Fund, Rosenthal New Play Prize, Frankel Award, Charles MacArthur Fellowship Award, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Barrymore Award Best New Play and 2013 Ivey Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a member and/or alumnus of the Playwrights’ Center, New Dramatists, and the Dramatists Guild.
MELIA BENSUSSEN Director
Melia Bensussen is an award-winning director and artistic leader who has directed extensively at leading theatres throughout the country. The first woman to lead Hartford Stage, she has been its Artistic Director since the summer of 2019. Devoted to new work as well as to classic texts, she was appointed Artistic Director of the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center in 2024. Raised in Mexico City, Bensussen 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 Theater Communications Group. Among her credits developing and premiering new works, she co-conceived and directed, alongside playwright Kirsten Greenidge, the theatrical adaptation of Anthony J. Lukas’ Pulitzer Prize winning Common Ground, which premiered at the Huntington Theater in Boston. A graduate of Brown University, Bensussen serves on the Arts Advisory Board for the Princess Grace Foundation, and on the executive board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC). Prior to her position at Hartford Stage, she was Chair of the Performing Arts Department of Emerson College, in Boston. She is the recipient of an OBIE Award for Outstanding Direction, as well as the Statue Award from the Princess Grace Foundation for Excellence in Directing.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
SHURA BARYSHNIKOV
Choreographer
Hartford Stage: Simona’s Search, Pride and Prejudice. Regional: Enough to Let the Light In (Contemporary American Theatre Festival); The Good John Proctor, Becky Nurse of Salem, The Inferior Sex, Fuente Ovejuna, A Christmas Carol, A Flea in Her Ear, Middletown, Veronica Meadows, Social Creatures, Oklahoma!, The Completely Fictional – Utterly True – Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe (Trinity Repertory Company); As You Like It (The Gamm Theatre); Dark Room, Salomé, Julius Caesar, The Forgetting Curve (Bridge Repertory Theatre); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Cabaret (The Wilbury Theatre Group); The Telling (FirstWorks) This Love Unbound (Emmanuel Music); Norma, The Handmaid’s Tale (Boston Lyric Opera); Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher (Odyssey Opera). Film: Svadba (Director, Boston Lyric Opera). Professional Positions: Associate Professor of the Practice Theatre Arts and Performance Studies at Brown University. Affiliations: Actors’ Equity Association, American Guild of Musical Artists, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Awards: Top prize for Artistic Creation in Opera America’s 2023 Digital Excellence in Opera Awards (Svadba).
SARA BROWN
Scenic Designer
Hartford Stage: Pride and Prejudice. Off-Broadway: Hagoromo, A House in Bali (Brooklyn Academy of Music); Off-Off Broadway: World of Wires (the Kitchen); Der Freischütz (Heartbeat Opera); The Mother of Us All (MetLiveArts). Regional: Bluebeard’s Castle | Four Songs (Boston Lyric Opera); The Lehman Trilogy, Common Ground: Revisited (Huntington Theater Company); The Lily’s Revenge, Burn All Night, The Shape She Makes (American Repertory Theater); Fellow Travelers, La Rondine (Minnesota Opera); Prince of Providence, Little Shop of Horrors, Death of a Salesman, Skeleton Crew Appropriate, A Christmas Carol, The Inferior Sex (Trinity Repertory Company). Dance: The Day (Jacob’s Pillow); Always Now: The Other Shore (On The Boards). Virtual/Online: The Other Shore (Zoe|Juniper); Fat Ham (Wilma). Education: MFA University of Virginia. Professional Positions: Associate Professor, MIT Music and Theater Arts.
2024/2025 SEASON
JANUARY 23 - FEBRUARY 16, 2025
AUGUST WILSON’S TWO
TRAINS RUNNING
A compelling drama exploring the beauty in resilience.
Directed By Gilbert Mccauley
MARCH 6 - MARCH 30, 2025
LAUGHS IN SPANISH
A vibrant collage of chaos, cultura, and connection.
Written By Alexis Scheer
Directed By Lisa Portes
APRIL 17 - MAY 18, 2025
ROMEO & JULIET
The world’s most famous romance.
Written By William Shakespeare
Directed By Melia Bensussen
JUNE 5 - JUNE 29, 2025
HURRICANE DIANE
A provocative comedy about letting things get a little wild.
Written By Madeleine George
Directed By Zoë Golub-Sass
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
AN-LIN DAUBER
Costume Designer
Hartford Stage: All My Sons, Lost in Yonkers, It’s A Wonderful Life. New York: Paul Swan is Dead and Gone; What You Are Now (The Civilians); Letters That You Will Not Get (American Opera Project); H*tler’s Tasters, Great Novel (New Light Theater); Salesman 之死; June is the First Fall (Yangtze Repertory Company); Bulrusher, Passage (Juilliard); By The Queen (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival). Regional: Dial M For Murder (Geva Theater); Metamorphoses, Little Women, Public Works: The Tempest (Seattle Rep); Common Ground Revisited (Huntington Theater); A Christmas Carol: The Live Radio Play (Alliance Theater); The Thanksgiving Play (Virginia Stage Company); The Kind Ones (Magic Theater). Professional Positions: Assistant Professor of Costume Design at the University of Washington, Company member of The Feast. Education/Training: MFA Yale School of Drama. anlindauber.com.
EVAN C. ANDERSON
Lighting Designer
Hartford Stage: The Winter’s Tale, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Theater: Symphony of Rats (The Wooster Group); Pipe Dream (Berkshire Theatre Group); Scenes With Girls (TheaterLab); Blue is the light that doesn’t reach us, I Love That For You (Acker Statd Palast); Happy Life (The Hearth); The Juniors (Colgate University); The Plot (Yale Repertory Theatre); Pivot, Seven Spots On The Sun, Much Ado About Nothing (Yale School of Drama); Red Speedo, Latinos Who Look Like Ricky Martin, The Swallow And The Tomcat, The Rules, Fade, One Big Breath (Yale Cabaret); One Small Step (New Ohio); Treasure Island (Book-It Repertory Theatre); Every Five Minutes, The Motherfucker with the Hat (Washington Ensemble Theatre); The Realistic Joneses (New Century Theatre Company); The Holler Sessions (ACT Theatre); Caught, Grand Concourse (Seattle Public Theater). Television: John Early: Now More Than Ever (Roulette) Dance: always now (On The Boards); future ancestors (Jacob’s Pillow); And Now, Hold Me (Dance Place); already there (Kennedy Center); She Will Come On Her Own (Center At West Park). Education: MFA, Yale School of Drama.
JANE SHAW
Sound Designer / Composer
Hartford Stage: 2.5 Minute Ride, The Art of Burning (co-production with the Huntington); Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, Hamlet, Rear Window, A Lesson from Aloes. Off-Broadway: The Wanderers (Roundabout); I Was Most Alive With You, Men on Boats (Playwrights Horizons); The Killer (Theatre for a New Audience); The Fears (at Signature); Hedda Gabler (Bedlam); Actually (MTC);
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Hindle Wakes (The Mint); Jackie (Women’s Project). Regional: Little Women (Seattle Rep, Milwaukee Rep); A Christmas Carol (composer, Guthrie Theater); At the Wedding (Studio Theatre); Ken Ludwig’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (Alabama Shakespeare); A View from the Bridge (Long Wharf Theatre); Lend Me A Soprano (The Alley); True Art (Dorset Theatre Festival); Intelligence (Arena). Recognition: Drama Desk, Connecticut Critics Circle, Henry Award, Bessie Award, Premios ACE 2012, NEA/TCG Career Development Grant, Meet the Composer Grant, and several Lortel nominations. Education: Harvard University; Yale School of Drama. JaneShaw.com
JODI STONE
Wig, Hair, and Makeup Designer
Hartford Stage: A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas (2023), Seder, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Queens for a Year. Broadway: Hamilton, Tommy, Jersey Boys, Beautiful, Ain’t Too Proud, Allegiance, Motown, The Color Purple, Beetlejuice, Great Gatsby, Wicked. Regional: Richard II (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Cherry Orchard, The Sisters Rosensweig, Gem of the Ocean, The Rivals (Huntington Theatre Company). Film: Dan In Real Life, Underdog, What Lies Beneath, Outside Providence. TV: The Wiz, Jesus Christ Superstar, Brotherhood. Education: Bachelor’s Theatre Arts, Gettysburg College 1992. Professional Positions: Custom Wig Maker, CGL Wig Designs (2021–current); Wig and Makeup Supervisor, Hartford Stage (2018–2020); Wig and Makeup, Designer Children’s Theatre Company (2001–2004); Wig Master (1995-1997), Stitcher/ Wardrobe (1992-1995), Huntington Theatre Company.
JENNIFER SCAPETIS-TYCER
Voice and Dialect Coach
Hartford Stage: Pride and Prejudice Regional: Maggie, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Billy Elliot, Passing Through, Hi My Name is Ben, Cabaret, Christmas in Connecticut, Private Jones (Goodspeed); The Wier, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Photograph 51, On Cedar Street, Dracula, Once, Shirley Valentine, The Importance of Being Earnest, Holiday Memories, What the Jews Believe, Outside Mullingar, Church & State, A Christmas Carol (Berkshire Theatre Group); Flight of the Monarch (Shakespeare and Company); Indecent, Miss Benett: Christmas at Pemberley, All is Calm, A Shayna Maidel, The Scottsboro Boys, My Name is Asher Lev, Intimate Apparel, Last Train to Nibroc, A Moon for the Misbegotten, I Hate Hamlet (Playhouse on Park); Cabaret (Nutmeg Summer Season, Connecticut Repertory Theatre); Tribes (Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati); A Christmas Carol (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park). Education: MFA Voice Studies, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Professional Positions: Associate Professor, Voice Speech and Dialects, University of Connecticut.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ALAINE ALLDAFFER
Casting Director
Hartford Stage: All My Sons, The Hot Wing King, 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. Theatre: Grey Gardens, 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 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.
NICOLE WIEGERT
Production Stage Manager
Hartford Stage: All My Sons, Simona’s Search, The Winter’s Tale, Ah, Wilderness!, Pike St., Detroit ‘67, Henry IV, A Lesson from Aloes, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Regional: Goodspeed Opera House, TheaterWorks Hartford, Long Wharf Theatre, CT Rep, Kansas City Rep, Mountain Playhouse, Ivoryton Playhouse, Theater by the Sea, First Stage Milwaukee, Renaissance Theatreworks, Milwaukee Ballet, Milwaukee Public Theater, Milwaukee Chamber Theater. TV: House Hunters, Extreme Cheapskates, Biggest Loser. Love to LC, WW, CW & DC.
JULIUS CRUZ
Assistant Stage Manager
Hartford Stage: Simona’s Search. Broadway: Dear Evan Hansen. National Tours: Dear Evan Hansen. Regional: Zoe’s Perfect Wedding, Secondo, Fun Home, Christmas on the Rocks, Queen of Basel, Rembrandt, Clyde’s (TheaterWorks Hartford); Sound of Music, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Parallel 45); A Chorus Line, A Sound of Music (Theater by the Sea). Education: BA Theater Studies, University of Connecticut (productions include: Antigone, She Kills Monsters, Good Children, Shakespeare in Love).
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 Latiné 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 produced 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
Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. and Marsha Mason in All My Sons (2024), directed by Melia Bensussen. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.
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
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.
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. 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.
You’re Invited to Play a Part
You’re
Invited to Play a Part
As we look ahead, we envision a thriving theater that continues to tell compelling and relevant stories—from the classics to the contemporary—that tell of our common humanity and welcomes intergenerational audiences that reflect the communities around us.
As we look ahead, we envision a thriving theater that continues to tell compelling and relevant stories—from the classics to the contemporary— that tell of our common humanity and welcomes intergenerational audiences that reflect the communities around us.
The $20 million raised will secure our vision and enhance our community.
The $20 million raised will secure our vision and enhance our community.
The Set the Stage campaign is focused on two areas where donors like you can impact the future.
The Set the Stage campaign is focused on two areas where donors like you can impact the future.
ENDOWMENT Building a robust endowment will ensure Hartford Stage is here fulfilling its mission for decades to come.
ENDOWMENT Building a robust endowment will ensure Hartford Stage is here fulfilling its mission for decades to come.
PROGRAMMING Donations are a crucial component to creating the world-class art you see on our stage, and for sharing the power of what theater can do with our community.
PROGRAMMING Donations are a crucial component to creating the world-class art you see on our stage, and for sharing the power of what theater can do with our community.
Please join us in setting the stage for Hartford Stage’s next 60 years.
Learn more about how you can be a part of the legacy of Hartford Stage.
SET THE STAGE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS
Thank you to our early supporters of the Set the Stage Campaign. We are grateful for their generosity.
$2 MILLION+
Stanley Black & Decker*
$1 MILLION+
The Hartford Travelers*
$750,000+
Don & Marilyn Allan
Rick & Beth Costello
$500,000+
Jack & Donna Sennott
The Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
$250,000+
David & Janice Klein
$100,000+
Doug & Sheryl Adkins
Sue Ann Collins
The Robert & Francine Goldfarb Family Fund
Wes & Chloe Horton
Thomas & Margah Lips
Chrissie & Ezra Ripple
$50,000+
John & Suzanne Bourdeaux
Walter & Dianne Harrison
Barnaby Horton & Hannah Granfield-Horton
Marjorie E. Morrissey
$25,000+
David & Kathleen Jimenez
Mike & Colleen Nicastro
Judith Meyers & Richard Hersch
Barri Marks
$10,000+
Marla & John Byrnes
David & Linda Roth
Rosalie Roth
Marilda Gandara & Scott O’Keefe
Kelly & Edward Lyman
Andy & Jen Pace
$5,000+
Devon & Thomas Francis
Sherwood & Maggie Willard
Ted Whittemore
George & Helen Ingram
Theodore & Nancy Johnson
Dan & Arlene Neiditz
$100 - $4,999
Kathleen & David Bavelas
Robert & Catherine Boone
Alana & Matt Curren
Pam & Peter Sobering
Rhonda Tobin & Jeffrey Smith
Paul & Karen Torop
Mary Ellison
Carolyn Johnson
Robert Parrott & Sally Wister
*BUSINESS PARTNERS
The cast of The Mousetrap (2022). Photo by T. Charles Erickson.
Thank you to all 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, September 18, 2023 –September 18, 2024.
ANNUAL FUND
PRODUCER
CIRCLE • $25,000+
Jill Adams & Bill Knight
Don & Marilyn Allan
The Cheryl Chase & Stuart Bear Family Foundation
Rick & Beth Costello
Wes & Chloe Horton
David & Janice Klein
Jack & Donna Sennott
Sally Speer
Judith & William Thompson
OVATION SOCIETY • $10,000+
Sheryl & Doug Adkins
Sue Ann Collins
Francine & Robert Goldfarb
Arnold Greenberg
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
Patti Broad
Sara & David Carson
Jamie & Isaac Cohen
Alana & Matthew Curren
Devon & Thomas Francis
Nancy Goodwin
Barbara & Matthew Hennessy
Jeffrey & Nancy Hoffman
Barnaby W. Horton & Hannah Granfield-Horton
Konover Coppa Family Fund
Katherine J. Lambert
Christopher Larsen
Tom & Margah Lips
Amy & Neal Mandell
Barri Marks
Harry E. Meyer
Judith Meyers & Richard Hersh
Michael & Colleen Nicastro
Douglas H. Robbins
Rosalie B. Roth
Suzanne B. Ruffee
Donald & Linda Silpe
Nelson & Helen Sly
ANNUAL CONTRIBUTORS
Sally & Allan Taylor
Elizabeth & Gerard Vecchio
Maggie & Sherwood Willard
Mark & Patty Willis
Elease & Dana Wright
The Zachs Family Foundation
PATRON SOCIETY • $3,500+
Paul & Joanne Bourdeau
Marla & John Byrnes
Robert L. & Susan G. Fisher
Ruth Fitzgerald & Dave Sageman
Marilda Gandara & Scott O’Keefe
Doris & Ray Guenter
David & Gail Hall
Carrie & Jonathan Hammond
Jackie & Drew Iacovazzi
Adlyn & Theodore Lowenthal
Ed & Kelly Lyman
Bob & Joan Penney
Kristen Phillips & Matthew Schreck
Rhonda Tobin & Jeffrey Smith
Nicole Vitrano & Art Wallace
Jacqueline Werner
Yvette Yelardy & Daniel Morgenstern
HONORARY GIFTS
IN HONOR OF MELIA BENSUSSEN
William V. & Patrick M.
Madison-McDonald
IN HONOR OF TODD BRANDT
DarrylLee VanOudenhove
IN HONOR OF ANNIE HILDRETH
Diane Hildreth
IN HONOR OF KATHERINE LAMBERT
Janet Faude
IN HONOR OF CYNTHIA RIDER
Sandy Grampsas
Anne Rider & Rob Hinrichs
Ellen Rider & Stanley King
IN HONOR OF ROSALIE ROTH
Karl Krapek Jr.
IN HONOR OF HANS WALSER & CAROL SCOVILLE
Karen Kleine
IN HONOR OF ROSALIND SPIER
Karen & Phillip Will
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 ROBERT EPSTEIN
David & Janice Klein
IN MEMORY OF GALINA FAYNGERSH
Diana Lee
IN MEMORY OF ANNEMARIE HAENDIGES
Brian Haendiges
IN MEMORY OF MARGARET MACDONNELL
William MacDonnell
IN MEMORY OF LOIS M. O’HARE
Mr. & Mrs. Michael E. O’Hare
IN MEMORY OF BERNICE POKSAY AND KIM O’NEAL Anonymous
ANNUAL CONTRIBUTORS
INSTITUTIONAL GIVING
$200,000+
The Shubert Foundation
Stanley Black & Decker*
$100,000+
Connecticut Department of Economic & Community Development
Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
The Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
Raytheon Technologies*
$75,000+
Burry Fredrik Foundation
$50,000+
Greater Hartford Arts Council
The John and Kelly Hartman Foundation
The Katherine K. McLane & Henry R. McLane Charitable Trust
SBM Charitable Foundation, Inc.
The Scripps Family Fund for Education and the Arts
Travelers*
$25,000+
Connecticut Humanities
Connecticut Judicial Branch
The Elizabeth M. Landon & Harriette M.
Landon Charitable Foundation
Ensworth Charitable Foundation
The Hartford*
Laurents/Hatcher Foundation
Robinson & Cole LLP*
Roberts Foundation for the Arts
$15,000+
Global Atlantic
Lucille Lortel Foundation
The MorningStar Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
Talcott Resolution*
United States Treasury
$10,000+
Conning
Hartford Steam Boiler
The J. Walton Bissell Foundation, Inc.
The Vandeventer Foundation
The William & Alice Mortensen Foundation
$5,000+
Allan S. Goodman, Inc.
The BFA Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
The Burton & Phyllis Hoffman Foundation
The George A. & Grace L. Long Foundation
Grunberg Realty
Jana Foundation
McDonald Family Trust
Stanley D. & Hinda N. Fisher Fund
William H. & Rosanna T. Andrulat
Charitable Foundation
$2,500+
The Blair Fund
Enterprise Rent a Car Foundation
Alexander M. & Catherine Maus Wright Charitable Foundation
$1,000+
The Foulds Family Foundation
Carol Sirot Foundation
$500+
United Way of Central Indiana
IN-KIND
The University of Saint Joseph* * BUSINESS PARTNERS
Entertain clients, engage vendors, or reward employees and support Hartford Stage.
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.
It’s easy to become a Business Partner and all partnerships will be fully customized to meet your needs!
Benefit options include:
• Complimentary Show Tickets
• Recognition Opportunities
• Unique Private Event Spaces
• Fully Catered Events
• Conversations with Artists
• Invitations to Special Events
Call us today to create your unique partnership agreement!
Contact Director of Development 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 Director of Development 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! Call Evan Kudish, Manager of Board & Donor Relations, at 860-520-7241 to share your plans and allow us to thank you.
Thank you to all members of our Shakespeare Society:
Anonymous (15)
Brian & Betty Ashfield
Richard & Alice Baxter
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
Carrie & Jonathan Hammond
Walter & Diane Harrison
George & Helen Ingram
David & Janice Klein
Joel M. & Naomi Baline Kleinman
Katherine J. Lambert
Christopher Larsen
William C. Leary
Tom & Margah Lips
Mark & Liisa Livingston
Elaine T. Lowengard
Donna Matulis
Judith Meyers & Richard Hersh
Ki Miller
Arthur & Merle Nacht
Judge Jon O. Newman
Lyn Oliva & John Brighenti
Belle K. Ribicoff
Ezra & Chrissie Ripple
Prudence P. Robertson
Barbara Rubin
Carol W. Scoville
Donald & Linda Silpe
Jennifer Smith Turner & Eric Turner
Mary L. Stephenson
Elsa Suisman
Robert & Gretchen Wetzel
Michael Wilson & Jeff Cowie
Henry M. Zachs
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 & David Clark
James H. Eacott, Jr.
David Geetter
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 & George Richards
Dr. Russell Robertson
Robert K. Schrepf
Talcott Stanley
Janet S. & Michael Suisman
Helen S. Willis
Louise W. Willson
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OFFICERS
Michael D. Nicastro, President
Elease Wright, Vice President
Devon Francis, Treasurer
Richard G. Costello, Secretary
GOVERNING DIRECTORS
Douglas Adkins
Don Allan
Patti Broad
Marla J. Byrnes
Shari Cantor
Jamie Hait Cohen
Julio Concepción
Mark G. Contreras
Alana Curren
Anne D’Alleva
Jarret Eamiello
John Doran
Marilda Lara Gándara
Rev. Darrell L. Goodwin
Emily Harrington
Rydell Harrison
Annie Hildreth
Barnaby Horton
Very Rev. Miguelina Howell
Jackie B. Iacovazzi
Katherine Lambert
Aaron Lyles
Kelly M. Lyman
Sibongile Magubane
Amy Leppo Mandell
Barri Marks
Margorie E. Morrissey
Andy Pace
Sarah M. Patterson
Esther A. Pryor
Allan B. Taylor
Judith E. Thompson
William J. Thompson
Rhonda J. Tobin
Nicole Vitrano
Patty Willis
Yvette Yelardy
STAGE ONE
Young Professional Board Directors
Cordelia Brady
Kentavis Brice, Co-Chair
Brennden D. Colbert
Angel Cotto
Brittnee Johnson-Colbert
Kaitlyn Keeler
Greidy Miralles
TJ Noel-Sullivan
Malia Peres
Claire Stermer, Co-Chair
Nathan Sykes
Maxwell Toth
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
Linda Fisher Silpe
Sherwood S. Willard
HONORARY DIRECTORS
Carrie Hammond
Barbara Hennessy
Nancy P. Hoffman
Robert A. Penney
Rosalie Roth
Bruce Simons
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
Jack Sennott
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
ARTISTIC
Zoë Golub-Sass, Richard P. Garmany Associate Artistic Director
Jeffrey Steele, Artistic Management Assistant
DEVELOPMENT
Jennifer Levine, Director of Development
Evan Kudish, Manager of Board & Donor Relations
Sierra Vazquez, Annual Fund Manager
Travis Kendrick-Castanho, Development Associate
EDUCATION
Jennifer Roberts, Director of Education
Nina Pinchin, Associate Director of Education
Emely Larson, Studio Manager
2024/2025 Teaching Artists
Marie Altenor, Thomas Beebe, Brandon Couloute, Shelby Demke, Erica LuBonta, Greg Ludovici, Jan Mason, Jessica MacLean, Tori Mooney, Justin Pesce, Kevin Scott
MARKETING
Todd Brandt, Director of Marketing
Molly Flanagan, Marketing Associate
Shannon Kennedy, 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, Sam Chiasson, Tracy Chinnici, 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:
Julie Borsotti, Amaris Diaz, Briana Maia, Rick Sahlin, Lindsey Taft
PRODUCTION
Bryan T. Holcombe, Director of Production
Wesley McCabe-Schroeder, Assistant Production Manager
Alyssa Edwards, 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
Grace Petersen, Assistant Costume Director
Joshua Richardson, Wardrobe Supervisor
James Weeden, Draper
Rio Cañas, First Hand/Stitcher
Props
Joe Dotts, Props Manager
Claire Linden-Dionne, Assistant Props Manager
Lighting
Jackie Costabile, Lighting Manager
Ethan Sepa, ALDM, Programmer
Sara Dorinbaum, Light Board Operator
Sound
Lucas Clopton, Audio/Video Manager
Jim Busker, Assistant Audio/Video Manager
Company Management
Christopher Rowe, Company Manager
FOR THIS PRODUCTION
John Holder, Angelina Savelli, Carpenters
John Cowles, Barry Sellers, Alex Zeek, Costume Drapers
Marissa Menezes, Costume Crafts
Hanna Zammarieh, Wig Supervisor and Wardrobe
Kathleen Kennan, Scenic Artist
Kailee Goodine, Matthew Hennessey, Run Crew
Allison Nishimura, Joseph O’Brien, Margaret McFarland, Stitchers
SPECIAL THANKS
Bethany Joy Costumes NYC Downtown Hartford YMCA
Mark Twain House
Residence Inn by Marriott Hartford Downtown
