Hello Hartford Stage Supporters:

As the cancellation emails fly into our inboxes and the stresses of the world are ever encroaching, and as we at Hartford Stage have to curtail our programming, I'm reaching out to reassure you that we are determined to stay connected, to remain vibrant, and to create alternative theatrical work while our stage is dark.

The temporary closing of Hartford Stage, and the rest of this country's theatres, is reminiscent of the closing of the theatres in Elizabethan England during the plague years. After that closure the theatre rebounded with some of the greatest plays in the English language - I've been thinking of those closures since last week, and was gratified to read Sarah Ruhl speak of them in the NY Times last Friday -

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/opinion/broadway-coronavirus.html

Ruhl here mentions encouraging people to create their own work, improvise and poetize and engage in theatrical events while at home.  

I think this is a wonderful idea - but I want to add something else to the mix - that all of us at Hartford Stage will find ways to continue to connect with you, and connect you to our theatre, in the coming weeks.  

We are here working in Hartford and will continue to find ways to keep theatre in your lives and ours. In 1938 Kaufman and Hart wrote a backstage comedy called The Fabulous Invalid, a nickname for the theatre itself, since no matter how many times, throughout the decades, people have decried its demise, the "fabulous invalid" that is the theatre continues to thrive.

And so we will.

Join me for Scene and Heard LIVE next Wednesday, March 25 at 5 PM EST via Zoom. Pour yourself a drink and join me and our community for a theatre fun gathering, including a communal reading of a ten-minute play!  
How to join Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/475236018
Meeting ID: 475 236 018

Please RSVP to Rachel Alderman at RAlderman@hartfordstage.org if you plan to attend!

Warmly,

Melia