Hartford Stage Reveals Portion of 2015-16 MainStage Season

Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak announced today Hartford Stage's 2015-16 season will open in September with the world premiere of An Opening in Time, a subtle and moving play about finding connections in a changing world, written by Connecticut native Christopher Shinn.

The 52nd season lineup also will include the award-winning The Body of an American by Dan O'Brien and Romeo and Juliet, directed by Tresnjak. A new musical directed by Tresnjak and another play will be announced soon.

Next fall will bring the world premiere of An Opening in Time by Christopher Shinn. Born in Hartford and raised in Wethersfield, Shinn is the author of Dying City, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2008, which was produced by Hartford Stage in 2009. His other plays include Where Do We Live (Obie Award), Now or Later (Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play shortlist), and Four.

An Opening in Time begins with Anne, a retired schoolteacher, moving back to the suburban town in central Connecticut which she left years before. She finds a number of things have changed. Dunkin' Donuts franchises are everywhere; the local high school is putting on a production of Rent; and a long-lost friendship suddenly reappears in a new guise.

Over the holidays, Hartford Stage will present the 18th annual production of A Christmas Carol-A Ghost Story of Christmas, directed by Maxwell Williams, former Associate Artistic Director, who recently became Artistic Director at Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carré in New Orleans.

The season will continue in January with Dan O'Brien's The Body of an American, a stark, radical and rapid-fire true story of the time a single photograph reshaped the history of global events. The Winner of the 2014 Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding New American Play and a co-recipient of the Inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Award, it is "a play that tightens its grip as it probes where war lives, and discovers we each carry it inside ourselves." (The Guardian, UK)

In 1994 Canadian photojournalist Paul Watson won the Pulitzer Prize for his picture of a dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. As he shot the photo, he believed he heard the dead soldier say, "If you do this, I will own you forever." Playwright Dan O'Brien, haunted by ghosts of his own, heard Watson tell this story on the radio in 2007, and reached out to Watson. This is the story of their friendship, told by two actors playing a multitude of roles, in an exciting and poetic new form of documentary drama.

After Hartford, The Body of an American will transfer to New York under the auspices of Primary Stages, co-producer of this production.

Since his arrival in Hartford four years ago, Tresnjak has treated Connecticut theatregoers to a string of critically acclaimed Shakespeare productions, including The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, and this season's Hamlet ("A coup de theatre that will be remembered for a long time." -Hartford Courant).

Next season he will helm the greatest love story of all time, Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespeare's most popular play, the intense feud between the Montague and Capulet families devastates the city of Verona and foreshadows tragic consequences for young Romeo and Juliet. Revenge, passion and a secret marriage lead the world's most famous star-crossed lovers to a harrowing end.

SUBSCRIPTIONS & INFORMATION

The six-play MainStage Season is on sale now, and subscriptions start at $125, a substantial savings over the cost of individual tickets. Order online at www.hartfordstage.org/subscribe or call the Box Office at 860-527-5151.

Tickets to A Christmas Carol are also on sale but to subscribers only. 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.

HARTFORD STAGE

Now in our 51st year, Hartford Stage is one of the nation's leading resident theatres, known for producing innovative revivals of classics and provocative new plays and musicals, including 68 world and American premieres, as well as offering a distinguished education program, which reaches more than 20,000 students annually.

In 2011, Darko Tresnjak became only the fifth artistic director to lead Hartford Stage. Since then 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 Darko; Quiara Alegría Hudes' Water by the Spoonful, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Breath & Imagination by Daniel Beaty; and Big Dance Theatre's Man in a Case with Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Hartford Stage, under the leadership of Managing Director Michael Stotts, has earned many of the nation's most prestigious awards, including its first Tony Award in 1988 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.

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