For Immediate Release
Contact: Theresa M. MacNaughton, tmacnaughton@hartfordstage.org
Office: 860-520-7114

Hartford Stage announces one additional play for the 2019/2020 season

Obie Award-winning playwright and actor Nilaja Sun will perform her acclaimed solo show Pike St.

HARTFORD, CT — March 28, 2019 — Hartford Stage announced today one additional play for the Tony Award-winning regional theatre’s 56th season. Obie-Award winning playwright, actor and teaching artist Nilaja Sun will perform Pike St., her compelling new solo show.

The last two productions of the 2019/2020 season will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Nilaja’s No Child… was one of my favorite shows of 2007-2008; I actually saw it twice, in New York and in Berkeley, and loved it even more the second time. Her performance was nothing short of virtuosic,” said Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson. “The opportunity to bring her beautiful new show Pike St. to Hartford was too good to resist. Like No Child..., Pike St. takes on key societal questions with generosity, humor, and depth.”

In Pike St., Sun vividly brings to life three generations of a Puerto Rican family on New York’s Lower East Side. Evelyn, a mother struggling to hold her life together with both grace and humor as she cares for her immobilized daughter and supports her womanizing father, relies on money from her brother who is serving abroad in Afghanistan. When he comes home, suffering from PTSD, Evelyn fights for her family’s healing, redemption and survival in the face of a threatening storm – both natural and man-made.

Pike St., originally produced by Epic Theatre Ensemble, will be directed by Ron Russell.

The New York Times raved that Sun “brings each to life with a radiant grace that makes her virtuosity seem as natural as breathing…full of vivid life.” Renowned as a gifted storyteller, Sun won Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards for No Child…, a biographical solo piece based upon her experiences as a New York City teaching artist.

Pike St. joins the previously announced mainstage productions for the 2019/2020 season, including Quixote Nuevo by Octavio Solis; Cry it Out by Molly Smith Metzler; and an adaptation of Jane Eyre from Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson. The beloved holiday classic, A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story of Christmas, will return for its 22nd season.

Subscriptions for the six-play mainstage season are currently on sale. Visit https://www.hartfordstage.org/show/subscribe, or call the Hartford Stage Box Office at 860-527-5151. Please note that titles and artists are subject to change.

Tickets for A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story of Christmas are on sale to subscribers only.  It is not part of a subscription series.

Single ticket and group sales for all shows will go on sale to the general public in July. For information on group sale discounts, visit www.hartfordstage.org/group-sales or call (860) 527-5151. 

Nilaja Sun

Nilaja Sun

Ron Russell

Ron Russell

HARTFORD STAGE

Now in our 55th season, Hartford Stage is currently under the leadership of Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak. In January 2019, Melia Bensussen was named the sixth Artistic Director of Hartford Stage and will assume the role in June. One of the nation’s leading resident theatres, Hartford Stage is known for producing innovative revivals of classics and provocative new plays and musicals, including 73 world and American premieres, as well as offering a distinguished education program, which reaches close to 21,000 students annually.

Since Tresnjak’s appointment in 2011 the theatre has presented the world premieres of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder on Broadway, winner of four 2014 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical by Tresnjak; Rear Window with Kevin Bacon; the new musical Anastasia by Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens; Quiara Alegría Hudes’ Water by the Spoonful, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Breath & Imagination by Daniel Beaty; Big Dance Theatre’s Man in a Case with Mikhail Baryshnikov; and Reverberation by Matthew Lopez.

Hartford Stage has earned many of the nation’s most prestigious awards, including the 1989 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Other national honors include Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, OBIE, and New York Critics Circle awards. Hartford Stage has produced nationally renowned titles, including the New York transfers of Enchanted April; The Orphans' Home Cycle; Resurrection (later retitled Through the Night); The Carpetbagger's Children; and Tea at Five.

The leading provider of theatre education programs in Connecticut, Hartford Stage’s offerings include student matinees, in-school theatre residencies, teen performance opportunities, theatre classes for students (ages 3-18) and adults, afterschool programs and professional development courses.    

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