It’s one of most ambitious projects by The Hartt School’s Theatre Division: “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.”
The multi-day, two-part, main-stage production of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel will be presented this fall. It will feature the theatre division’s third- and fourth-year actor-training students, its faculty members and guest appearances by members of the University of Hartford community.
Theater-goers can take in the production in sections over several days or make it an immersive experience by attending both three-hour parts during a weekend, when they will be presented back-to-back with a dinner break.
The production runs Nov. 3-8 at Millard Auditorium. Part 1 will be presented Nov. 3 and 5 at 7:30 p.m.; and Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. Part Two will be presented Nov. 4, 6, 7 and 8 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets, which go on sale in September, are $20. Info here.
Nickleby will be played by Stephen Mir, a fourth-year actor who will graduate in spring 2016. Mir appeared locally in Hartford Stage’s “Hamlet” and Ivoryton Playhouse’s “The Last Romance.” His Hartt credits include “Antigone,” “The Cider House Rules” and “Glengarry Glen Ross.”
Also appearing will be Humphrey Tonkin, professor of Shakespeare and theater history and University of Hartford president emeritus; Hartt Theatre Division Director Alan Rust; theater professor Robert H. Davis; artist teacher Annemarie Davis; and University of Hartford President Walter Harrison (a past board president of Hartford Stage).
The production was a sensation on Broadway in 1981, when it was first produced in a slightly longer version of eight hours, starring Roger Rees, who died last week at the age of 71. Rees was former artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival.
‘Hamlet’ Takes A Break
Reese Hart, 17, of Bloomfield High School will play the title role in Hartford Stage Young Company’s “Breakdancing Shakespeare: Hamlet.”
The show, presented in conjunction with the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s Neighborhood Studios, will take place Aug. 10-12 at 7 p.m. at the Hoffman Auditorium in Bruyette Atheneum at the University of Saint Joseph, 1678 Asylum Ave., West Hartford.
The cast also includes Dana Clarke, 17, Howell Cheney Tech in Manchester, as Laertes; Jarriel DeJesus, 15, Granby Memorial High School, as Bernardo/Osric; Gabriella Dominguez, 15, Glastonbury High School/Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, as Player/Dancer; Danielle Hoffman, 17, Farmington High School/Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, as Gertrude; Daisy Infantas, 19, University of Hartford, as Ophelia; Alana Morgan, 16, Global Communications Academy in Hartford, as Horatio; Ashley Morgan, 19, Manchester Community College, as Polonius; Diego Pichay, 14, South Windsor High School, as Guildenstern.
Also: Jewels Rivera, 15, Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, as Marcellus; Kaleb Rutland, 16, of Manchester, as the Ghost/Gravedigger; Lili St. Amand, 16, Hall High School in West Hartford, as Rosencrantz; Benjamin Stone, 15, East Granby High School, as Claudius; Karina Ukhnitska, 15, New Britain High School, as Player/Dancer; and Emma Webb, 16, Canton High School, as Player/Dancer.
The play has been adapted for the Breakdancing Shakespeare production by Scott Bartelson, management associate for Hartford Stage. Nina Pinchin, associate director of education, is directing the production. Hip-hop dance instructor Brandon Couloute returns as choreographer, and former Breakdancing Shakespeare cast member Gina Salvatore returns as stage manager.
“Created in 2006, Breakdancing Shakespeare is a paid, six-week summer apprenticeship for students ages 14 through 19 from the area,” is how the theater describes the program. “Students learn techniques of breakdancing, physical and vocal characterization, movement, and interpretation of classical text. The students use these skills to put a modern twist on a classic Shakespeare piece to help make the language accessible to audiences of all ages.”
General admission tickets are $5 and may be purchased through the Hartford Stage Box Office at 860-527-5151 or online at hartfordstage.org.
‘Twelfth Night’
Artistic Director James Andreassi will direct and play the role of Sir Toby Belch in the Elm Shakespeare Company production of “Twelfth Night” Aug. 20 to Sept. 16 at Edgerton Park, on the border of New Haven and Hamden.
Set in the south of Spain, the production will also feature Paula Plum as Maria; Yale School of Drama graduate Aaron Moss as Duke Orsino; longtime company members Raphael Massie and Jeremy Funke as Malvolio and Sir Andrew Aguecheek; Andrea Goldman as Olivia; Lydia Barnett-Mulligan as Viola; and Jacob Heimer as Feste. Other cast members include Shawn Tyler Allen, Joshua Dill, Edward Hall, Jonathan Higginbotham, Nathan Tracy and Keith Watford.
The company’s 20th Anniversary Gala and Auction will be held Sept. 3. Information: elmshakespeare.org, and 203-874-0801.
Short Takes
>>Long Wharf Theatre’s opener for the 2015-16 season — the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Disgraced” — is now a co-production with Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company. The New Haven run of the Ayad Akhtar drama is from Oct. 14 to Nov. 8, with artistic director Gordon Edelstein staging the production. Boston’s run will be Jan. 8 to Feb 7.
>>Tony Award nominee and Bloomfield native Jessica Hecht (Broadway’s “A View from the Bridge,” “The Assembled Parties,” “The Last Night at Ballyhoo,” TV’s “Breaking Bad”) plays wife Golde in the Broadway revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” opposite Danny Burstein as Tevye. Bart Sher (“The King and I,” “The Light in the Pizza”) directs. Previews will begin Nov. 12, with opening night Dec. 17 at The Broadway Theatre. Previews begin Nov. 12 and opens Dec. 17.
>>Single tickets for New Haven’s Shubert Theatre stop of the tour of “The Book of Mormon” will go on sale Friday at 9:30 a.m. The show will play the Shubert Oct. 13-18. Tickets, at $34 to $126, will be available online at shubert.com, by phone at 203-562-5666 and at the theater’s box office, 247 College St., New Haven.
>>Bryce Pinkham, Tony Award nominee for the musical “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder,” returns to the show July 28 after taking a break to appear in the Broadway production of Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Heidi Chronicles.”
>>Capital Classics Theatre Company is celebrating its 25th season by staging the Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival’s production of “Romeo and Juliet,” running three weekends (July 23 through Aug. 9), outdoors on the grounds of the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford. Performances will be held on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 5:30 p.m. The Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival also will feature pre-show and auxiliary entertainment ranging from Elizabethan consort singing to talks by scholars.
>>Playwright A. R. Gurney will be guest speaker at Westport Country Playhouse’s Sunday Symposium following the Sunday, July 26, 3 p.m. matinee performance of his world premiere comedy “Love & Money.” He will be joined by Mark Lamos, playhouse artistic director and director of the new Gurney play, co-produced with New York’s Signature Theatre. The Playhouse Sunday Symposium program is free and open to the public.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct cutline information. Stephen Mir is shown in Ivoryton Playhouse’s “The Last Romance,” not “Cider House Rules.”
