Tony Winner Darko Tresnjak Extends Stay as Artistic Director of Hartford Stage

Sue Ann Collins, president of the Board of Directors of Hartford Stage, announced today that Darko Tresnjak, artistic director since 2012, has extended his contract through June 2019.

"We are so fortunate to have Darko. We have all witnessed the results of his exquisite directorial and stage setting creativity," Collins said. "His contributions to the City of Hartford's cultural scene through his enormous talents have been as great as his ability to bring national recognition to our theatre. I am thrilled that he is extending his time at Hartford Stage."

During Tresnjak's tenure, the theatre has experienced renewed artistic and financial success - reaffirming its commitment to the works of William Shakespeare, building on the theatre's mission to develop new works for the American Theatre, and successfully launching musical theatre as a programming priority.

Tresnjak said, "I want to thank our staff, our board, and our audience for five thrilling seasons at Hartford Stage. It is a privilege to work and to live in this supportive, adventurous, and enlightened community."

In his first season, the theatre produced the world premiere of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, which went on to a successful run on Broadway, winning four Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Director for Tresnjak. That same season, Hartford Stage produced Man in a Case, starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, which enjoyed a successful national tour. Gentleman's Guide is now in its second year of a national tour. Other new plays developed and produced by Tresnjak include Daniel Beatty's Breath and Imagination; Somewhere and Reverberation by Matthew Lopez; An Opening in Time by Christopher Shinn; The Body of An American by Dan O'Brien; and this season's Queens for a Year by T.D. Mitchell.

Over the past five years, the theatre has seen its subscriber base grow by 30% to over 8,000 patrons; and single ticket sales reached all-time highs with last season's productions of Rear Window, starring Kevin Bacon; Romeo & Juliet; and the premiere of Anastasia, which will open on Broadway on April 24, 2017, with Tresnjak once again at the helm as director.

"Darko's work is visually stunning. He has maximized the flexibility of the theatre's stage, which was renovated in 2011, and he has pushed us in all areas of design and production. That is one of the hallmarks of his work, and it is certainly a characteristic that keeps our audiences excited about attending Hartford Stage," said Michael Stotts, the theatre's managing director. "He also has enormous respect in the artistic community; and, without fail, we are able to attract some of the best theatre artists in the country to work here in Hartford."

Tresnjak is the fifth Artistic Director of the 53-year-old Hartford Stage. He received the 2014 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for his direction of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, starring Jefferson Mays. He received a 2015 Obie Award for his direction of The Killer, starring Michael Shannon, at Theater for a New Audience. He has received three Connecticut Critics Circle Awards for his Hartford Stage productions of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Hamlet and Anastasia. Other productions at Hartford Stage include Hamlet; Private Lives; Kiss Me, Kate; Macbeth; La Dispute; Twelfth Night; The Tempest; and Bell, Book and Candle.

From 2004 to 2009, he was the Artistic Director of The Old Globe Shakespeare Festival, where he received five San Diego Critics Circle Awards, four for his direction of Pericles, The Winter's Tale, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and Cyrano de Bergerac, starring Patrick Page, and one for Excellence in Artistic Direction. He is a recipient of the 2001 Alan Schneider Directing Award. Recent collaborations include The Ghosts of Versailles with Patti LuPone and Patricia Racette and Macbeth with Plácido Domingo at LA Opera and The Merchant of Venice with F. Murray Abraham at Theatre for a New Audience and the Royal Shakespeare Company Complete Works Festival. He has also directed productions at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Huntington Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, Westport Country Playhouse, Vineyard Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Stratford Shakespeare Festival and The Public Theater.

Tresnjak's upcoming productions for Hartford Stage include Shakespeare's comedy of mistaken identities, The Comedy of Errors-a Madcap, Midwinter, Musical Extravaganza-and a revival of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan.

Hartford Stage is under the leadership of Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts. One of the nation's leading resident theatres, Hartford Stage is known for producing innovative revivals of classics and provocative new plays and musicals, including 73 world and American premieres, as well as offering a distinguished education program, which reaches approximately 20,000 students annually.

Hartford Stage has earned many of the nation's most prestigious awards, including the 1988 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Other national honors include Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, OBIE, and New York Critics Circle awards. Hartford Stage has produced nationally renowned titles, including the New York transfers of Enchanted April; The Orphans' Home Cycle; Resurrection (later retitled Through the Night); The Carpetbagger's Children; and Tea at Five.

The leading provider of theatre education programs in Connecticut, Hartford Stage's offerings include student matinees, in-school theatre residencies, teen performance opportunities, theatre classes for students (ages 3-18) and adults, afterschool programs and professional development courses.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride