Hundreds Gather At CT Theaters To Support Diversity, Inclusion

HARTFORD — Hundreds of people stood outside Hartford theaters Thursday night. They shined flashlights, battery-operated candles and cellphones in what was intended as a collective artistic statement of unity, diversity, compassion and hope.

The gathering was part of a national event among arts organizations called the Ghostlight Project. It was planned for the eve of the presidential inauguration, and was held simultaneously at 5:30 p.m. at hundreds of theaters throughout the country, including dozens in Connecticut.

Outside TheaterWorks on Pearl Street, Hartford-raised actor Tony Todd, state director of culture Kristina Newman-Scott and Greater Hartford Arts Council CEO Cathy Malloy led a crowd of more than 100 as they read statements of inclusion and tolerance.

Many in the TheaterWorks gathering then marched down Asylum Street to the Sea Tea Comedy Theater, where they were joined by those who’d been at a similar gathering outside the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. People were invited inside the Sea Tea theater to discuss the Ghostlight Project and its themes. The procession was led by a giant blue puppet designed by local artist Anne Cubberly for her performance piece “Night Fall.”

A few blocks away at Hartford Stage, more than a hundred people filled the theater’s lobby. There were readings from Shakespeare and songs performed by the cast of Hartford Stage’s current production of “The Comedy of Errors.”

Outside The Bushnell on Capitol Avenue, a crowd formed well in advance of the start of the 5:30 p.m. event. Al and Nancy Fichman had come from Bloomfield to share their pledge: “We are lovers of family and the arts. We fight for all people to be judged as individuals.”

Glastonbury resident Jackie Parente’s pledge was, “I am a human being. I fight for equality for all.”

“I feel it’s very important,” Parente said, “whether for the arts or for anything, that this message is sent to the new presidential] adminstration.”

TheaterWorks producing associate Taneisha Duggan, who helped organize the Ghostlight Project event at that theater, said, “I did not expect to see so many faces here. My own pledge card said, ‘I feel weary but hopeful.’ Now I feel much more hopeful.”

Each theater hung its own ghostlight as a symbolic beacon to drive home messages of inclusion and providing a safe haven to exchange thoughts and ideas. At The Bushnell, the light was a spotlight taken from the theater and placed in an outside courtyard. At TheaterWorks, the light was positioned in a window of the theater’s costume shop on the second floor of the City Arts on Pearl building. An actual ghostlight — a bare bulb on an upright metal stand, used by theaters to keep the stage area lit at night — was on display in the Hartford Stage lobby.

The Ghostlight Project motto, which TheaterWorks projected on the wall across from the theater and which Hartford Stage illuminated on the awning board, is “Be a Light.”

Editor’s Note: The caption information with the photo has been changed to correct the name of Claudia Hill-Sparks.

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