Editor’s note: The first show in the Hartbeat’s Women’s Theater Festival on April 21 and 22) has been cancelled because of an urgent family matter.
HartBeat Ensemble is holding a Women’s Theater Festival, charmingly titled “WTF!,” for three consecutive weekends April 21 through May 6.
Of course, you could say that HartBeat Ensemble has a women’s theater festival every day.
The company’s five full-time staff members are all women. Last year, HartBeat explored women’s rights issues in an original musical, “Gross Domestic Product” and turned Ebenezer Scrooge into a woman for the Hartford-set holiday play “Ebeneeza.” Earlier this year, HartBeat revived its biodrama about the writer Lorraine Hansberry’s friendship with James Baldwin, “Jimmy & Lorraine.”
The festival consists of staged readings of new works-in-progress by women who’ve been associated with HartBeat for years.
Cindy Martinez’s “Pegao,” described as “a cultural identity story” about a Puerto Rican family, is first up, April 21 and 22 (this show has been cancelled. See editor’s note). “Lest We Forget” is a devised theater/movement piece by Vanessa Butler and Aurelia Clunie that “explores their experience as black women in the 21st century”; it can be seen April 28 and 29. “Group!,” a musical by HartBeat co-founder and artistic director Julia Rosenblatt (with composer Martin Carillo) takes place during intensive outpatient group therapy sessions at a publicly funded clinic for women with addictions. Its readings take place May 5 and 6. All three shows in the festival are directed by Hannah Simms, who has been active with HartBeat for a decade and is the lead facilitator of the company’s Youth Play Institute program.
Rosenblatt, who co-founded HartBeat Ensemble in 2001, says the female perspective of the festival, and of HartBeat as a whole, is “very deliberate. Even before I was its sole artistic director, HartBeat had a mission to tell stories from those who were underserved by other theaters. As a playwright, I made a decision years ago that I would only write women’s stories — not because I don’t care about men’s stories, but because they’ve already been told.”
Behind the scenes, HartBeat has created a work environment that allows for motherhood. “We have the work/life style we feel needs to be in all fields now,” Rosenblatt says. “There is a play area for our children in our office. In rehearsals, there’s a real effort to work around being parents, picking our kids up from school…”
The writers in the festival are also experienced as actors. Rosenblatt studied satirical political theater with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Butler starred in “Queens for a Year” at Hartford Stage and was Juliet in Capital Classics’ outdoor production of “Romeo and Juliet,” which also featured Clunie as Lady Capulet. Martinez’s HartBeat appearances have included “Flipside” (which went to the New York International Fringe Festival in 2012) and “Riding the Turnpike.”
The Women’s Theater Festival grew out of a process that HartBeat has been practicing for years. “Ensemble members bring different projects to the table, and we do workshops every year,” Rosenblatt says. “This year it is less of a workshop period and more material being shared with our audiences. I can see it becoming an annual thing.”
“These are staged readings,” Rosenblatt explains. “In terms of length, they all will eventually be full length, but for this workshop series they will be wherever the piece is at the time. ‘Group!’ has about 45 minutes of material right now, multiple scenes and songs.
“The idea is for audiences to come be a part of the creation process. Each project is going to look very different. We will share our process with the audience, perform what we have and then open it up to the audience for feedback.”
There’s an added advantage, Rosenblatt feels, to getting some of this work out there as soon as possible. “The development of a new piece can take years. We deal with contemporary social issues. You get anxious — is this going to be passé by the time it gets a full production?”
WTF! — THE WOMEN’S THEATER FESTIVAL is presented by HartBeat Ensemble April 21 through May 6. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Carriage House Theater, 360 Farmington Ave., Hartford. Tickets are $15. 860-548-9144, hartbeatensemble.org.
