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01/04/2017 11:01 PMThe Impact of Parenting: That’s the basis for Sunset Baby which plays at TheaterWorks in Hartford from Thursday, Jan. 12 through Sunday, Feb. 19. The play features Tony Todd, who has multiple stage and screen credits and close ties to Connecticut. As the press materials described it, the play looks at “the spiritual, psychological, and socioeconomic imprint a parent leaves on a child. A cache of letters, written by a dead woman creates an exploration of how the sins of a parent can be visited upon a child, particularly when a long-absent father re-enters his daughter’s life.” For tickets or information, visit theaterworkshartford.org or call 860-527-7838.
Change at Arts & Ideas Festival: Mary Lou Aleskie, who has served as executive director of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven for more than 10 years, has resigned. She has accepted a position at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College. During her time with the festival, it expanded its collaboration with artists around the world. A search is beginning to find a new executive director.
New Year, New Play: Yale Rep is starting the new year with a world premiere of Imogen Says Nothing running from Friday, Jan. 20 to Saturday, Feb. 19. The work was commissioned by the Rep with support from Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre and was the recipient of a 2016 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. According to the press materials, “All the world’s a stage, but in Elizabethan England, all the roles are given to men. Enter Imogen, who seizes a wordless walk-on in Shakespeare’s new comedy and recasts herself in a ferocious real-life leading role. Imogen Says Nothing is the wildly theatrical and subversively funny tale of an unforgettable creature refusing to let history erase her part.” For tickets, visit yalerep.org or call 203-413-1234.
Laughs and Shakespeare: Hartford Stage is starting 2017 with one of Shakespeare’s more raucous (and earlier) comedies: A Comedy of Errors from Thursday, Jan. 12 to Sunday, Feb. 12. Darko Tresjnak, who is known for his finesse directing Shakespeare plays, will be at the helm. The play is great for kids because it is all about mistaken identities: twin brothers with twin servants each thinking the other dead, end up in the same city. Tresjnak has set the play in 1965 Greece and promises dancers, musicians, and acrobats. For tickets, visit hartfordstage.org or call 860-557-5151.
A Musical about Musicals: Playhouse on Park is presenting the off-Broadway hit, which had a limited Broadway run, [title of show] Wednesday, Jan. 11 to Sunday, Jan. 29. The show, written by Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen, is about two young musical theater writers attempting to plan and write a show that will gain acceptance at a musical theater festival whose submission deadline is just three weeks away. For tickets, visit playhouseonpark.org or call 860-233-5900 x 10.
Saying Goodbye: Unfortunately, in 2016 the theatrical world lost many talented people—some much too young. As I was compiling a list which I know does not include everyone, I was amazed to realize how many had contributed to our Connecticut theater scene. Three playwrights left us: Edward Albee, the Italian satirist Dario Fo, and British Peter Shaffer. But we lost many actors and directors and producers. First let’s look at those I know performed in Connecticut: Fritz Weaver, Tammy Grimes, David Huddleston, Patrice Munsel, Steven Hill, Gene Wilder, John McMartin, Anne Jackson, and David Margulies. But we also said goodbye to Dick Latessa, George S. Irving, Florence Henderson, James Houghton, Robert Vaughn, Kenny Baker, Arthur Hiller, Marni Nixon, Madeleine Sherwood, Patty Duke, Brian Bedford, and Alan Rickman. The theater world will remember them all.
Karen Isaacs is an East Haven resident. To check out her reviews for New York and Connecticut shows, visit 2ontheaisle.wordpress.com. She’s a member of both the Connecticut Critics Circle and New York’s Outer Critics Circle.