2023-10-06 09:04:07
HARTFORD — COVID-19 closed the curtain on concerts, restaurant dining and sports in downtown Hartford, and while many of those things have bounced back, the return to the stage for Hartford’s theaters has been much harder.
The first 14 days of October, though technically encompassing two weeks, have been designated Theater Week in Hartford. The period, set up by the Greater Hartford Arts Council, is meant to celebrate theater and performing arts in Hartford, and it’s also an opportunity to bring people back into the audience.
“They have definitely been struggling,” said Rev. Dr. Shelley Best, CEO of the GHAC. “And then what’s powerful is even in the struggle, these theatres are the little trains that might. They’re making comebacks, and in many ways, they’re creating new work, showing up even in an more innovative fashion.”
Each day of Theater Week has a packed agenda spanning six different theaters in Hartford including The Bushnell, Theaterworks and Hartford Stage. If you attend events at the participating theaters during Theater Week you can scan a QR code at each venue to be entered to win prizes, the top prize which includes tickets to Hamilton on Broadway with a limo ride.
Tracy Flater, executive director of Playhouse Theatre Group called the initiative, which marks the first time the area theaters are working together, “desperately needed.”
“It would be hard for us to just implement on our own because the time, the planning, the resources, working harder than ever before,” Flater said. “So the fact that the Arts Council has even reached out to make this happen is just incredible.”
A slow comeback
Prior to the pandemic, Hartford’s Theaterworks on Pearl Street had 5,000 subscribers, according to Rob Ruggiero, producing artistic director.
“This past season we just got up to 2,500,” Ruggiero said.
While people have slowly returned to Theaterworks, a 191-seat theater focused on contemporary storytelling, Ruggiero said the pandemic seemingly got people in the habit of turning to less communal forms of entertainment.
“That’s what’s so tricky regarding the state of theater right now,” Ruggiero said. “It is certainly a space where people want to come and be entertained on on one level and have a communal experience with things, and but it creates a space that you can’t really get on like Netflix. Thank God people are starting to remember that as they come back, slower than we would like.”
This Theater Week, Theaterworks is running a production of Lizzie, which tells the story of Lizze Borden, a Fall River, Mass., woman acquitted of murder in the 1890s.
“Lizzie the musical is a rock concert retelling the legend of Lizzie Borden,” Ruggiero said. “And it’s very visually immersive and sound immersive and so it’s it’s fun, and it’s not your traditional musical in that regard.”
Nora Sydney and Courtney Kim perform in Theaterworks production of Lizzie which will run during Hartford Theater Week this October.
Contributed Photo/ Mike Marques
Flater remembers a time when Playhouse Theater instructors were teaching dance classes in their driveways through Zoom for months on end in the worst of the pandemic, trying to bring dance and theater to people despite the guidelines prohibiting any gatherings.
“We did everything from you know, run around and leave wine and nuts on our like major donors doorsteps and then kind of get together at night on Zoom to do theater trivia,” Flater said.
Like Theaterworks, she said Playhouse Theater has seen a slow increase in ticket sales. But with many COVID-19 era funding sources drying up and a failure to return to pre-pandemic attendance levels, Flater is concerned.
“We’re just getting stronger but definitely, definitely are hurting enough where we all might use just a little something more to bridge the gap as we wait for audiences — or if audiences are going to come back, and we have to figure out how to sort of restructure what we do.”
One way Playhouse Theater is doing that is by offering some free classes, tours and even a boozy tea party this Theater Week in honor of their performance of Jane Austen abridged.
“Lifestyles have changed,” Flater said. “Working from home. People are watching Netflix, and we just need to win them back.”
Ruggiero said one of the few positive affects of the pandemic is that it has erased some of the siloed nature of theaters in the Hartford area, forcing them instead to ban together to survive.
“We all have little fences around our houses,” Ruggiero said. “It wasn’t really as much competitive as like we’re so focused on what we were doing in our own yards. And so what I love is we’re all in need, and we’re all struggling. So it erased those. So we’re all communicating more, and we’re all sharing everything. We’re sharing resources.”
Some Theater Week events in Hartford that count toward the raffle entry include:
A free class at Playhouse Theater Academy
A Halloween poetry slam at Little Theater of Manchester
A free talkback following the Jane Austen abridged performance at Playhouse on Park
A free kid’s concert at Playhouse on Park
Regular performances of “Mrs. Doubtfire” at The Bushnell and “Lizzie” at Theaterworks
Theater enthusiasts can learn more regarding “Theater Week,” the raffle and how to get tickets at
1696584317
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