Darko Tresnjak to Direct SAINT JOAN as Part of Hartford Stage's 2016-17 Season

Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts announced today that Hartford Stage's 2016-17 season will include George Bernard Shaw's SAINT JOAN, the dazzling play about Joan of Arc, directed by Tresnjak.

Tresnjak, who is currently directing the new musical ANASTASIA at Hartford Stage, said: "Our 2016-17 season begins with QUEENS FOR A YEAR, the world premiere of T. D. Mitchell's play about four generations of women in the American military. The season comes full circle with George Bernard Shaw's magnificent SAINT JOAN, performed for the first time at Hartford Stage, an epic play about war, religion, nationalism and gender. The role of the uncompromising title character is comparable in range and scope to that of Hamlet and Cyrano de Bergerac. It is a rare instance in classical theatre where a young actress gets to lead a company on an epic theatrical journey."

As a teenager, Joan of Arc led the French army to victory over the British in a series of decisive battles during the Hundred Years' War. Shaw wrote the role for his favorite actress, the legendary Sybil Thorndike. Since then many of the most respected stage actresses, including Uta Hagen, Lynn Redgrave, Imelda Staunton, Judi Dench and Jane Alexander, have played Shaw's Joan.

Shaw wrote SAINT JOAN in 1923, just three years after the heroine was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. An Irish playwright, Shaw wrote more than 60 plays, including Man and Superman, Pygmalion, Arms and the Man, Major Barbara and Heartbreak House. He received an Academy Award for his screenplay of Pygmalion, and he was honored with the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The theatre previously announced T.D. Mitchell's QUEENS FOR A YEAR, a gripping family saga from one of the writers of the TV show "Army Wives;" August Wilson's THE PIANO LESSON, winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; William Shakespeare's THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, one of The Bard's zaniest comedies; and James Lecesne's THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY, presently nominated for four distinguished awards in New York City.

One more play will be revealed soon. The dates for all plays will be announced shortly.

The six-play MainStage Season is on sale now and subscriptions start at $125, a substantial savings over the cost of individual tickets. Visit www.hartfordstage.org/subscribe or call the Box Office at 860-527-5151. Please note that all titles are subject to change.

Tickets to A Christmas Carol are also on sale but to subscribers only. A Christmas Carol is not part of a subscription series.

Single tickets for all shows will go on sale to the general public in July. However, group seats are available now for all shows via www.hartfordstage.org/group-sales or Theresa MacNaughton at (860) 520-7114.

Now in its 52nd year, Hartford Stage is under the leadership of Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts. One of the nation's leading resident theatres, Hartford Stage is known for producing innovative revivals of classics and provocative new plays and musicals, including 70 world and American premieres, as well as offering a distinguished education program, which reaches more than 20,000 students annually.

Since Tresnjak's appointment in 2011 the theatre has presented the world premieres of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder on Broadway, winner of four 2014 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical by Tresnjak; Quiara Alegría Hudes' Water by the Spoonful, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Breath & Imagination by Daniel Beaty; Big Dance Theatre's Man in a Case with Mikhail Baryshnikov; and Reverberationby Matthew Lopez.

Hartford Stage has earned many of the nation's most prestigious awards, including the 1988 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Other national honors include Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, OBIE, and New York Critics Circle awards. Hartford Stage has produced nationally renowned titles, including the New York transfers of Enchanted April; The Orphans' Home Cycle; Resurrection (later retitled Through the Night); The Carpetbagger's Children; and Tea at Five.

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.

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