Hello Friends of Hartford Stage,

The days are getting longer, and lighter. It’s the third night of Hanukkah as you read this, and we are almost at the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. But my husband, Chuck, pointed out, as he does every year, that the sun is now setting later than it did a week ago. We are past the day of the earliest sunset—not the shortest day, but the earliest sunset. If you’re like me that might take a minute to process.

The observation that the sun is now setting a bit later every day comforts me. As does the news of the vaccine, and most directly, the generosity of this community in helping support our theatre through this challenging time.

Wendell Berry, that wonderful poet of the natural world, wrote, in The Real Work,

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.

At Hartford Stage, we are working on new songs—if you’ll forgive the metaphor. It has been a real labor of love for staff at Hartford Stage to work on our Holiday offering this year, A Community Carol—our new adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Over 80 artists, neighbors, community leaders, students and families have participated in its creation: seeing their faces and hearing their voices as they’ve interpreted Dickens’ tale of regeneration and possibility, of forgiveness and generosity, has brought much light to our dark theatre. I am excited for us to share this new and adventurous adaptation this week.

Next weekend, I will be hosting another new holiday tradition we started last season—Un Villancico Navideño en Español, a Spanish community reading of Dickens’ story. Last year's inaugural event was full of intergenerational participation, with some folks fluent in Spanish and others learning or brushing up on their second language. We wish we could be on stage again, but are determined to re-create this welcoming atmosphere on Zoom.

On Wednesday, December 16, our Scene and Heard: LIVE! will be dedicated to sharing with all of you how these new adaptations have come to be, and is bound to be a lively conversation about virtual work, community engagement, bilingual producing, and the many individual voices that have gone into the making of this year’s holiday offerings. We hope you’ll join us and take a behind-the-scenes look with some of our A Community Carol creators Rasean Davonte Johnson, Pornchanok (Nok) Kanchanabanca, Robert Hannon Davis, Julia Rosenblatt, Anne Cubberly, Devé-Ann Bennett, and Dejé Bennett.

Although it’s been a long, hard year, it’s time to celebrate the many ways we have of bringing light into our homes at this dark time of year. We must celebrate that spring will come, and albeit virtually, celebrate that soon we will be seeing each other and theatre in person again.

We hope you can join us for some of our events this week, and whether or not we connect personally, I send my wishes to you and yours for a period of rest, recuperation and celebration in the weeks ahead.

With all best wishes—con deseos que disfrute de todo lo posible en esta temporada,    

Melia