Miles Anderson to Play Patriarch in HEARTBREAK HOUSE at Hartford Stage

By: Apr. 26, 2017
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Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts announced today the creative team and cast for George Bernard Shaw's comic and caustic masterwork Heartbreak House, directed by Tresnjak. The show plays May 11 to June 11.

Heartbreak House features the venerable Captain Shotover, his daughters - 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. When the beautiful but impoverished Ellie Dunn arrives, she gets a lesson in romance, politics, and the art of navigation.

Shaw's most ambitious and prophetic achievement, Heartbreak Houseis set in England in 1914, but its themes and concerns reach across the twentieth century well into our own age. Other works by Shaw include Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Saint Joan, Major Barbara and Arms and the Man.

Tresnjak's Hartford Stage credits include the musical Anastasia, currently on Broadway; A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (winner of four 2014 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical for Tresnjak); The Comedy of Errors; Rear Window; Romeo & Juliet; and Hamlet. Other recent credits include The Killer (2014 Obie Award for Direction) at Theatre for a New Audience and The Ghosts of Versailles and Macbeth at LA Opera.

Internationally acclaimed actor Miles Anderson will play the role of eccentric patriarch Captain Shotover. His West End roles include The Weir, The Bullet, Before the Party, Oliver! and The Rehearsal, and his numerous Royal Shakespeare Company credits include Macbeth, Twelfth Night and The Witch of Edmonton. In England he is well-known for the TV series "Ultimate Force," "House of Cards" and "Soldier, Soldier." Film credits include Cry Freedom, The 39 Steps and most recently, La La Land.

In addition to Anderson, the cast includes Tessa Auberjonois (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Yale Rep; Trainspotting, Player's Theatre Off-Broadway) as Lady Utterword; Dani de Waal (Mamma Mia, London's West End; Once, US National Tour) as Ellie Dunn; Grant Goodman (Macbeth, Hartford Stage; The Merchant of Venice, Theatre for a New Audience) as Randall Utterword; Andrew Long (Hamlet, Hartford Stage; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime,Broadway) as Boss Mangan; Charlotte Parry (The Real Thing and Coram Boy, Broadway) as Hesione Hushabye; Keith Reddin (The Play's the Thing and A Taste of Honey, both on Broadway, as an actor;Rear Window, Hartford Stage, as playwright) as Mazzini Dunn; Stephen Barker Turner (All My Sons, Roundabout Theatre Company; Dead Poets Society, Classic Stage Company) as Hector Hushabye; and Mary VanArsdel (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, First National Tour; Mary Poppins, First National Tour) as Nurse Guinness.

In addition to Tresnjak, the creative team includes: Set Designer Colin McGurk (assistant designer for Anastasia and A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder at Hartford Stage and on Broadway); Costume Designer Ilona Somogyi (Romeo & Juliet and Cloud 9 at Hartford Stage); Lighting Designer Matthew Richards (The Comedy of Errors and Romeo & Juliet at Hartford Stage); and Sound Designer Jane Shaw (The Comedy of Errors and Romeo & Juliet at Hartford Stage). Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director ElizaBeth Williamson, Dramaturg for Anastasia and Romeo & Juliet, will serve as Dramaturg.

Robyn M. Zalewski (The Comedy of Errors and Romeo & Juliet at Hartford Stage) will serve as Production Stage Manager with Stephanie Holmes as Assistant Stage Manager (Having Our Say - The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years at Hartford Stage; Witness Uganda at American Repertory Theatre).

Special Dates: Previews begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11; Opening Night: 8 p.m. Friday, May 19; Closes: 2 p.m. Sunday, June 11. Schedule: Tue, Wed, Thu, Sun at 7:30 p.m.-Fri, Sat at 8 p.m.-Sat, Sun at 2 p.m.; Wed matinee at 2 p.m. on May 24 only. Weekly schedules vary. For details, visit www.hartfordstage.org.

Tickets for all shows start at $25. Student tickets: $20. For group discounts (10 or more), contact Theresa MacNaughton at 860-520-7114. For all other tickets, call the Hartford Stage box office at 860-527-5151 or visit www.hartfordstage.org.

SPECIAL EVENTS:

Sunday Afternoon Discussion, May 21
Enjoy a lecture from artists and scholars connected with the production immediately following the 2 p.m. matinee. Free

AfterWords Discussion-Tuesday, May 23 and May 30 & Wednesday, May 24
Join members of the cast and our Artistic staff for a free discussion, immediately following select 7:30 p.m. performances on Tuesday or the 2 p.m. Wednesdaymatinee.

Open Captioned Performances-Sunday, May 28, 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.
For patrons who are deaf or have hearing loss - free service with admission

Audio Described Performance-Saturday, June 3, 2 p.m.
For patrons who are blind or have low vision - free service with admission

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.



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