The Algerian political theater troupe Istijmam is in Connecticut this week, as guests of HartBeat Ensemble. Both companies will participate in a panel discussion on “Theater in Times of Crisis” 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13, at the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford. Istijmam journeyed here thanks to the New England Foundation for the Arts’ Center Stage program. The Algerians will also meet with students at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and Yale University this week. Sadly, Istijmam will not be giving a public performance in Connecticut. They will be performing in Durham, N.H., Sept. 16-18; in Ashfield, Mass., Sept. 19-21; in Denmark, Maine, Sept. 22-24; and at La Mama Theatre in New York City Sept. 26 through Oct. 2. Details at centerstageus.org.
That Istijmam/HartBeat panel discussion kicks off the fall semester of the University of St. Joseph’s Bruyette Athenaeum Performing Arts Series. The series continues with Hand2Mouth Theater’s sports-themed “Pep Talk” Friday and Saturday, Sept. 16 and 17, and the hip-hop theater performance “Spiritrials” (written and performed by Dahlak Brathwaite) Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. Sandglass Theater — the Vermont-based puppet troupe that has made numerous visits to UConn over the years, will be at St. Joseph’s Oct. 7-9 with “D-Generation — An Exaltation of Larks.” The annual “5X5” contemporary dance festival returns Oct. 28-29. Details at usj.edu/arts.
Fifty Years Of Yale Rep
The Yale Repertory Theatre is marking its 50th anniversary in style, with three separate gallery exhibits and a panel discussion, all free and open to the public.
The discussion is “50 Years of Yale Rep: A Conversation With Theatre Makers Present at the Creation, Along the Way, and Today,” takes place Oct. 7 at 3 p.m. in the Yale University Theatre. It features all three living Yale Rep artistic directors — Robert Brustein (who founded the theater in 1966 and ran it until ’79), Stan Wojewodski (who ran the Rep from 1991-2002) and the current, longest-serving artistic director, James Bundy. (Lloyd Richards, who helmed the theater from 1979 to 1991, died in 2006.) Also on hand: actors Carmen de Lavallade, Jane Kaczmarek and Kimberly Scott, playwright Sarah Ruhl, longtime Rep dramaturg Catherine Sheehy and set designer Michael Yeargan. The moderator will be James Magruder, who wrote the quasi-autobiographical novel “Love Slaves of Helen Hadley Hall” about his time as a Yale student in the ’80s.
The exhibitions, with the collective title “Yale Rep at 50: Daring Artists, Bold Choices,” are at The Study at Yale hotel (through Oct. 9), the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in NYC (Jan. 10 through April 8) and the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library on York St. in New Haven (Jan. 12 through March 31).
Of course, beyond the gallery shows and confabs, the Rep is staging plays this anniversary year as well. It’s been known since spring what the 50th anniversary season would be. It’s anchored by writers who’ve had some of their major works premiere at the Rep, (Sarah Ruhl, August Wilson) or who studied at the Yale School of Drama (Amy Herzog) or who have long-ago associations with the theater (Stephen Sondheim) or who are having new works developed by Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre (Aditi Brennan Kapil). Some of these writers can tick more than one of those boxes. More details at yalerep.org.
Comic ‘Backstagers’
Those who see me at the theater know that I am never without a comic book in my back pocket. Imagine my glee at the new “Backstagers” comic book. Like other comics published by Boom! (“Lumberjanes,” “Giant Days,” “Peanuts”), “Backstagers” explores the angst and awkwardness of childhood and adolescence. The eight-issue miniseries chronicles the behind-the-scenes adventures of a close-knit, super-competent teenage stage crew whose existence is overshadowed by the all-boy school’s preening student actors. Fantasy universes are uncovered beneath the stage. The second issue of “Backstagers” #2 — written by James Tynion IV, drawn by Ryan Syngh — is due out this month.
The Rest Of The Kingdom
A couple of weeks ago we learned that Robert Sean Leonard will be playing King Arthur in “Camelot” at the Westport Country Playhouse Oct. 4-30. (Did they study “Le Morte d’Arthur” in the Dead Poets Society?) What WCP didn’t tell us, until now, is who else will be on stage.
Britney Coleman (WCP’s “Into the Woods”) is Guenevere. Stephen Mark Lucas (“Book of Mormon” on Broadway and on tour) is Lancelot, and Patrick Andrews (from the recent WCP “Red”) is Mordred. The cast also features Michael DeSouza as Squire Dap, Mike Evariste as Dinadan, Jon-Michael Reese as Sagramore and Sana Prince Sarr as Tom. Michael Yeargan — busy this month, having also done “Meteor Shower” for Long Wharf — is designing the “Camelot” set. Mark Lamos directs, using the leaner, nine-actor script adaptation by David Lee. Britney Coleman played Guenevere in an earlier production of this version, directed by David Lee himself at Two River Theater in New Jersey in 2014.
Mellon Meets Dworin
The much-admired, social-issues-oriented Judy Dworin Performance Project has received $75,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Creativity Connects initiative. The program “investigates the ways in which the arts can connect with other sectors.” In Dworin’s case, that sector is the criminal justice system. Her troupe has partnered with Community Partners in Action to document, and expand upon, ongoing collaborations they’ve done with the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated. The Dworin Project’s project is titled “Bridging the Inside and Out: Arts, Prison and Social Service.” It’s one of just six Creativity Connects grants that the Mellon Foundation has bestowed nationwide, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Arts. Details at judydworin.org.
