HARTFORD, CT —
September 20, 2017 — Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko
Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts announced
today the cast and creative team for the World Premiere of Sarah Gancher’s Seder, an
intimate tale of survival and freedom, which will perform at Hartford Stage
October 19 through November 12. Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson will direct.
Set
in Budapest in 2002, Seder is a visceral family drama that weaves
together a mother’s mysterious past working for the Hungarian KGB with a
daughter’s unexpected homecoming. As the family attempts to celebrate its first
Passover Seder, a lifetime of dark secrets is revealed. The play is based on a
true story.
In addition to Seder,
Sarah Gancher has two other world premieres coming up this season: I’ll
Get You Back Again in October
at Round House Theatre, directed by Rachel Chavkin, and The
Lucky Ones, a new musical with the Bengsons next spring at Ars Nova,
directed by Anne Kauffman. Another musical with the Bengsons, Hundred Days,
premiered at Under the Radar this year and will be produced this winter by New
York Theatre Workshop. Gancher’s writing has been
seen on stages across the United States and internationally, including London’s
National Theatre, Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, Steppenwolf, and The Flea. Seder is part of her 7th cycle of plays set in
Budapest, where she lived for several years.
“In Seder, Sarah tackles a less well-known
period of 20th Century Jewish history, post-WWII in Communist Eastern
Europe,” Williamson said. “It’s a compelling and thought-provoking play, which
asks what I believe are vital questions: What responsibility does a secretary
for the Hungarian KGB bear for the atrocities committed by her bosses? And can
her children, growing up in a democratic era, actually make more moral choices
than she has? What does the right choice look like?”
The cast of Seder
includes Liam Craig (The Scene, Hartford Stage; The Killer, Theatre for a New Audience)
as Tamas; Mia Dillon (Cloud 9 and A Song at Twilight, Hartford Stage; Our Town, Broadway) as Erzsike; Birgit Huppuch (The Moors,
Yale Repertory and The Playwrights Realm; Men
on Boats, Playwrights Horizons) as Judit; Dustin Ingram (Crimes of the
Heart, McCarter Theatre Center; True
Blood) as Laci; Steven Rattazzi
(Indecent, Broadway; Marie Antoinette, Yale Repertory) as
David; Julia Sirna-Frest (Welcome to the Gun Show, Ars Nova; [Porto], The Bushwick Starr) as Margit;
and Jeremy Webb (The Visit, Broadway; The Glorious Ones, Lincoln Center Theater)
as Attila.
Seder
follows Williamson’s Hartford Stage directorial debut, Cloud 9, last season. Before
her appointment as Associate Artistic Director in 2015, Williamson was Hartford
Stage’s Senior Dramaturg & Director of New Play Development for three
years. She helped launch 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; and the new
musical Anastasia, currently on Broadway. A dramaturg, director, producer,
and translator, Williamson has also worked with the American Conservatory
Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Pioneer Theatre, Steppenwolf, Theatre de la Jeune
Lune, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
In
addition to Williamson, the creative team is comprised of Set Designer Nick Vaughan (Cloud 9,
Hartford Stage; The Royale, Lincoln
Center Theater); Costume Designer Ilona Somogyi (Cloud 9 and Romeo & Juliet at
Hartford Stage); Lighting Designer Marcus Dilliard (Refugia,
The Guthrie Theatre; Tartuffe,
South Coast Rep/Berkeley Rep/Shakespeare Theater); Sound Designer Jane Shaw (Heartbreak
House and La Dispute, Hartford Stage); and Script Consultant Jocelyn Clarke (Sundance Theatre Lab,
SITI Company).
Lori Ann Zepp (August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson and The
Body of An American at Hartford Stage) will serve as Production
Stage Manager, with Merrick A.B. Williams
(Somebody’s Daughter, Second
Stage Theatre; Damn Yankees, The
Merry-Go-Round Playhouse) as Assistant Stage Manager.
Sponsors
The Executive Sponsor for Seder is The Edgerton Foundation New Plays Award.
The Community Partnership Sponsor is the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater
Hartford.
Additional
support provided by Federman, Lally
& Remis.
The 2017-18 Season is also sponsored by
the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Connecticut
Department of Economic and Community Development.
Special
Dates
Previews begin at 7:30
p.m., Thursday, October 19
Opening Night: 8 p.m., Friday, October 27
Closes: 2 p.m., Sunday, November 12
Tickets
& Performances
Tue, Wed, Thu, Sun at
7:30 p.m.—Fri, Sat at 8 p.m.—Sat, Sun at 2 p.m.
Wed matinee at 2 p.m. on November 1 only.
Weekly schedules vary. For details, visit www.hartfordstage.org.
Tickets for
all shows start at $25. Student tickets: $18.
For group
discounts (10 or more), email groupsales@hartfordstage.org or call 860-520-7114.
For all
other tickets, please call the Hartford Stage box office at 860-527-5151 or
visit www.hartfordstage.org.
Follow
Hartford Stage
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Special
Events
- Sunday Afternoon Discussion, October 29. Enjoy a lecture from artists and scholars
connected with the production immediately following the 2 p.m. matinee.
Free
- AfterWords Discussion—Tuesday, October 31 and November
1 & 7. Join members of
the cast and our Artistic staff for a free discussion, immediately
following select 7:30 p.m. performances on Tuesday or the 2 p.m. Wednesday
matinee.
- Open Captioned Performances—Sunday, November 5,
2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. For
patrons who are deaf or have hearing loss — free service with admission.
- Audio
Described Performance—Saturday, November 11, 2 p.m. For patrons who are blind or have low
vision — free service with admission.
