HARTFORD, CT — September 17,
2018 — Hartford
Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing
Director Michael Stotts announced today the cast and creative
team for Henry V, which will be
performed Thursday, October 11, through Sunday, November 11. Stephen Louis Grush portrays the English
king.
Henry V will be the first Shakespeare
production, and the second play overall, in Hartford Stage’s 55-year history to
be staged in the round. In addition to Grush, the ensemble cast – comprised of
half men and half women – features Karen
Aldridge as Exeter, Miles Anderson
as Pistol, Kate Forbes as the
Constable of France and Burgundy, Peter
Francis James as the Chorus and Sir Thomas Erpingham, Felicity Jones Latta as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Nym and Alice,
and Baron Vaughn as Fluellen and
Mistress Quickly. Hartford Stage Associate
Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson
will helm the production, which marks her Shakespeare directorial debut for the
Tony Award-winning theatre.
“Elizabeth
Williamson has assembled a splendid company of actors and designers for her
provocative and innovative staging of a Shakespeare masterpiece,” Tresnjak
said.
In Henry
V, shortly after gaining the throne, Henry must decide whether or not to
embark on a war that could solidify his reign—or bring his country to its
knees. In France, he grows up fast under the pressure to use all means
necessary to win a war against tremendous odds. But even if he finds victory,
how easy will it be to settle the peace?
Williamson
previously directed the world premiere of Seder, by Sarah Gancher, and
Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9 at Hartford Stage. A dramaturg as well as a
director, her credits include Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance, which is
transferring to London’s West End this fall, and the Hartford Stage world
premieres of the Tony Award-winning musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love
and Murder; Big Dance Theatre’s Man in a Case; Matthew
Lopez’s Reverberation; Christopher Shinn’s An Opening in
Time; Bess Wohl’s Make Believe; and
the new musical Anastasia, currently on Broadway. She has served
as dramaturg for many Shakespeare productions, including Hartford Stage’s Hamlet,
Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s
Dream. Williamson has also worked with the American Conservatory Theater,
HERE, La Jolla Playhouse, Pioneer Theatre Company, Primary Stages, Steppenwolf
Theatre Company, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, the Williamstown Theatre Festival,
and many others.
Stephen Louis Grush (Long Day’s Journey into Night,
Geffen Playhouse; Sex with Strangers,
Geffen Playhouse and Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Romeo & Juliet, Chicago Shakespeare Theater) will make
his Hartford Stage debut as Henry. Grush is joined by Karen Aldridge (Matilda the
Musical, Broadway; Le Costume,
The International Centre for Theatre Research; Twelfth Night, Chicago Shakespeare Theater) as Exeter; Miles Anderson (Macbeth, Royal Shakespeare Company; Oliver!, West End; Heartbreak
House, Hartford Stage) as Pistol; Liam Craig (Boeing Boeing, Broadway; Seder, Hartford Stage; The Tempest, Shakespeare Theatre Company)
as
the French Ambassador, Bardolph, and Gower; Kate Forbes (Macbeth, Broadway; The Merchant of Venice, TFANA/Royal Shakespeare Company; Hamlet, Hartford Stage) as the Constable of France and Burgundy; Peter
Francis James (On Golden Pond, Broadway; Much
Ado About Nothing, The Public Theater; The
Maids, Classic Stage Company) as the Chorus
and Sir Thomas Erpingham; Felicity Jones Latta (The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, National Tour; Metamorphoses, Broadway; Cymbeline,
Hartford Stage) as the Archbishop
of Canterbury, Nym, and Alice; Anthony Michael Lopez (The
25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, National Tour; Othello, New York Theatre Workshop; The Penalty, The Public Theater) as the
Dauphin and MacMorris; Nafeesa Monroe (i, Pioneer Theatre Company; Disgraced, Pittsburgh Public Theater; Julius Caesar, Folger Theatre) as the King of France, le Fer, and Bates; Jamie Rezanour
(Queens for a Year, Hartford Stage; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Classical
Theatre of Harlem; Our Town, Milwaukee
Repertory Theater) as Montjoy, Orleans and Cambridge; Evelyn Spahr (Light
Shining in Buckinghamshire, New York Theatre Workshop; Uncle Vanya, Harold Clurman Laboratory; Remarkably Normal, National Tour) as Katherine and Boy; and Baron
Vaughn (Damn Yankees, New York City Center; Drowning Crow, Manhattan Theatre Club; Grace and Frankie, Netflix) as Fluellen and Mistress Quickly.
Mark Lawrence,
Haley Tyson, and Reid Williams, students at The Hartt School at the
University of Hartford, have been cast in the Ensemble.
In addition to Williamson, the creative team includes
Set Designer Nick Vaughan (Seder and Cloud
9 at Hartford Stage); Costume Designer Beth Goldenberg (Queens
for a Year, Hartford Stage;
Engagements, Second Stage Theater); Lighting Designer Stephen
Strawbridge (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hartford Stage; Passion Play, Yale Repertory Theatre); Sound
Designer Matt Hubbs (Indecent, Broadway; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, American Repertory
Theater); Composer/Original Music by Christian
Frederickson (Sound design for The
Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, Hartford Stage; Composer, Trojan Women (After Euripedes), SITI
Company). Yan Chen, Hartford Stage
Artistic Apprentice, will serve as Dramaturg.
Robyn M. Zalewski (A Midsummer Night’s
Dream and A Lesson from Aloes at
Hartford Stage) will serve as Production Stage Manager, with Nicole
Wiegert as Assistant Stage Manager (A Midsummer Night’s Dream and A
Lesson from Aloes at Hartford Stage).
