Che Ayende, Lea Coco and More Set for Hartford Stage's TWELFTH NIGHT; Full Cast Announced!

Hartford Stage, under the leadership of Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts, today announced the cast of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare including several members of the critically-acclaimed cast of last season's The Tempest, also directed by Tresnjak, on stage from May 18 through June 16. Press night is at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 22. Opening night is at 8 p.m. Friday, May 24. Hartford Stage's Production of Twelfth Night is part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

The bard's finest comedy is a paean to the restorative power of love. Viola, the shipwrecked heroine, lands on the shore of Illyria, and disguised as a page, Cesario, searches for her lost brother. Countess Olivia mourns the loss of her own brother. When the lovely Countess meets the handsome young page, desire banishes grief in this intoxicating comedy.

The cast of Twelfth Night includes Che Ayende (The Whipping Man, Hartford Stage) as Feste; McKinley Belcher III (Invisible Man, Huntington Theatre Company) as Antonio; Lea Coco (Hamlet, Folger Theatre) as Orsino; Michael Spencer Davis (The Tempest, Hartford Stage) as Sir Toby Belch; Adam Green (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare Theatre Company) as Sir Andrew Aguecheek; Kate MacCluggage (Bell, Book and Candle, Hartford Stage and model for the artwork for Twelfth Night) as Viola; Gregor Paslawsky (Bell, Book and Candle, Hartford Stage) as Fabian and Sea Captain; Joe Paulik (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford Stage) as Sebastian; Jennifer Regan (How I Learned to Drive, Second Stage) as Maria; Stacey Yen (The Arabian Nights, Arena Stage) as Olivia; and Bruce Turk, recipient of a Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship (The Tempest, Hartford Stage and Measure for Measure, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey) as Malvolio. The Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship is a partnership for actors that supports their artistic and professional growth in collaboration with a TCG Member theatre.

The cast will also include five students from the Hartt School at the University of Hartford: Josh Boscarino, Celina Lopez, William Macke, Katie Schenker and Arielle Soloman.

Director Darko Tresnjak joinEd Hartford Stage in 2011 as Artistic Director and directed Bell, Book and Candle, The Tempest, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and Breath & Imagination at Hartford Stage. He was the Artistic Director of The Old Globe Shakespeare Festival in San Diego from 2004-2009. His directing credits at The Old Globe include The Women,The Pleasure of His Company, Bell, Book and Candle,Cyrano de Bergerac, Coriolanus, All's Well That Ends Well, Hamlet, Titus Adronicus, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Winter's Tale, A Comedy of Errors, Antony and Cleopatra, The Two Noble Kinsmen, andPericles. Recent directing credits include the national tour of The Merchant of Venice, starring F. Murray Abraham; City of Angels at Goodspeed Musicals; andTitus Adronicus at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

For tickets call Hartford Stage at 860-527-5151 or visit hartfordstage.org.

Now in its 49th season, Hartford Stage is one of the nation's leading resident theatres, known internationally for producing classics, provocative new plays and musicals, and neglected works from the past, as well as a distinguished education program that reaches 21,000 students annually. In 2011, Darko Tresnjak became the fifth artistic director to lead Hartford Stage. That same year, the theatre presented the World Premiere of Quiara Alegría Hudes' Water by the Spoonful, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This year the company also produced a world premiere musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, which recently played at The Old Globe in San Diego, and the world premiere of Breath & Imagination by Daniel Beaty, which recently played at City Theatre Company in Pittsburg.

Hartford Stage has earned many of the nation's most distinguished awards, including a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, the Margo Jones Award for Development of New Works, OBIE awards, two New York Critics Circle Awards, a Dramatists Guild/CBS Award and an Elliot Norton Award, and has produced nationally renowned titles, including the Broadway productions of Enchanted April and Our Country's Good and the Off-Broadway productions ofThe Orphans' Home Cycle and The Carpetbaggers Children.

The leading provider of theatre education programs in Connecticut, Hartford Stage's offerings include student matinees, in-school theatre residencies, teen performance opportunities, theatre classes for students (ages 3-18) and adults, afterschool programs and professional development courses. In 2012 the theatre acquired the education programs of the Hartford Children's Theatre and created The Children's Theatre of Hartford Stage.

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