Hartford Stage Adds Shaw's HEARTBREAK HOUSE to Season

Darko Tresnjak, Artistic Director, and Michael Stotts, Managing Director, announced today that George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House, with its particular relevance to today's social climate, will replace Saint Joan as the final play of the 2016-17 season. Tresnjak will direct.

Heartbreak House will play the exact same May 11 to June 11 schedule that was originally assigned to Saint Joan. The official opening date will be Friday, May 19.

Tresnjak said, "For me, Heartbreak House is George Bernard Shaw's most ambitious, most prophetic achievement. It is a comic and caustic play about the venerable Captain Shotover, his daughters Hesione and Ariadne, one liberal, the other conservative, and a household full of bickering guests in a home that's like a ship - or a country - charting uncertain waters. It takes place in England in 1914, but its themes and concerns reach across the twentieth century well into our own age."

Tresnjak noted that he hopes to reschedule Saint Joan for a later season.

Subscribers will use their same tickets, originally issued for Saint Joan, for Heartbreak House. Single-ticket buyers have several options, including exchanging their tickets for any of our upcoming shows. For information, contact the Hartford Stage box office at 860-527-5151 or visit www.hartfordstage.org.

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HARTFORD STAGE

Now in our 53rd year, 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 close to 20,000 students annually.

Since Tresnjak's appointment in 2011 the theatre has presented the world premieres of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder on Broadway, winner of four 2014 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical by Tresnjak; Rear Window with Kevin Bacon; the new musical Anastasia by Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens; Quiara Alegría Hudes' Water by the Spoonful, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Breath & Imagination by Daniel Beaty; Big Dance Theatre's Man in a Case with Mikhail Baryshnikov; and Reverberation by Matthew Lopez.

Hartford Stage has earned many of the nation's most prestigious awards, including the 1989 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.