Hartford Stage Announces 50th Anniversary Season

Hartford Stage's 2013-2014 season will kick off with a major initiative: Classical Repertory for a New Generation, a nod to Hartford Stage's start as a repertory theatre in 1963. The same cast will play in repertory in performances of Marivaux's provocative comedy La Dispute andShakespeare's bloody and searing tragedy Macbeth. La Dispute is adapted by Tresnjak and Elizabeth Williamson, senior dramaturg/director of new play development, from a translation by Williamson. Tresnjak will direct both shows - La Dispute, Sept.12-Nov.10, and Macbeth, Sept.14-Nov.10, 2013. Kate Forbes (The Crucible and The Cover of Life at Hartford Stage) will play Lady Macbeth.

Anniversary festivities continue with The Underpants, a laugh-out-loud comedy by Steve Martin, adapted from the play by Carl Sternheim. Gordon Edelstein will direct, in a co-production with Long Wharf Theatre, Jan 9-Feb. 2, 2014, where Edelstein is artistic director.

This will be followed by the rarely produced A Song at Twilight, Noël Coward's elegant and bittersweet comedy, and will mark the return of former Artistic Director Mark Lamos for the first time since 2002 (Much Ado About Nothing). A Song at Twilight, Feb.20-March 16, 2014, will be a co-production with Westport Country Playhouse, where Lamos currently serves as artistic director.

Matthew Lopez (The Whipping Man), current Aetna New Voices Fellow at Hartford Stage, will bring his new work Somewhere to Hartford Stage for its East Coast Premiere April 3-27, 2014. This dance-filled family saga will be directed by Giovanna Sardelli and feature Lopez's aunt, Priscilla Lopez, an original cast member of Broadway's A Chorus Line and a Tony Award-winner for A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine.

The season will close with another world premiere musical-comedy, Love and Other Fables, book by Jay Jeffries and John McMahon, lyrics by Jeffries. John Rando (Broadway's A Christmas Story, Tony Award-winner for Urinetown), will direct this reimagining of Aesop's life, from May 22-June 15, 2014.

Also on tap is the regular holiday [resentation of A Christmas Carol-A Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens, adapted and originally directed by former Artistic Director Michael Wilson. Wilson will return this season to collaborate with Director Maxwell Williams on the updated version, which runs Nov. 29-Dec. 28, 2013.

Meanwhile, in this season, full casting has been announced for Beth Henley's Abundance (April 4-28). will include Monique Vukovic (Buddy Cop 2, Atlantic Theater Company and Housebreaking, Cherry Lane Theatre) as Bess, Brenda Withers (Cyrano, Folger Theatre and The Tempest, The Pearl Theatre Company) as Macon, Kevin Kelly (Henry V, Two River Theater Company and Richard III, The Public Theater) as William, James Knight (Measure for Measure, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and Alive and Well, The Old Globe) as Jack and John Leonard Thompson (The Pitmen Painters in Palm Beach and Crime and Punishment, Center Stage) as Elmore.