Hartford Stage Artistic Director Michael Wilson Departs

The New York Times reports today that Hartford Stage Artistic Director Michale Wilson will be stepping down from his poast after 12 years in the position.  Wilson is departing in the hopes, he tells the New York Times, of being "more fully in the rehearsAl Hall."

Upcoming directing projects for Wilson include a production of Tennessee Williams' The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore starring Olympia Dukakis for the Roudabout in January 2011.  In addition, according to the report, he is hoping to bring Williams' Night of the Iguana to Broadway sometime next season or in the early part of the 2011-2012 season.

Says Wilson in the Times of his departure, "I feel that now is a great moment to step down and pass the reins to a new generation of leadership because I think the theater is now very well positioned to attract a talented new director." Wilson oversaw the captialization and $4 million renovation of the theatre, in addition to the birth of Horton Foote's Orphan's Home Cycle, which is expected to move to Broadway next season after it's acclaimed off-Broadway run at the Signature this year.

To read the full report in the Times, click here.

Wilson has overseen sixty-one new productions for the theatre, including A Moon for the Misbegotten and The Mystery of Irma Vep, both later revived as part of the Hartford Stage/Long Wharf Theatre Partnership begun in 2005. He has directed twenty-three new productions, including the premieres of Enchanted April (also Broadway, Outer Critics Circle nomination); Horton Foote's The Carpetbagger's Children (also Off-Broadway, Lincoln Center Theater); Eve Ensler's Necessary Targets (also Off-Broadway); David Grimm's The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue and Chick, The Great Osram; and Jeremy Sams' Zerline's Tale. As part of the theatre's nine year Tennessee Williams Marathon, he has directed The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, Camino Real, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Night of the Iguana, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, and 8 By Tenn (which included the premieres of The Palooka, Now the Cats with Jeweled Claws, and The One Exception). His other productions include David Hare's The Bay at Nice, Long Day's Journey into Night, and Macbeth. Under his leadership, Hartford Stage has focused on the development of new work - with sixteen world premieres, nine Brand:NEW festivals, six Broadway or Off-Broadway transfers - and expanding its education and community outreach programs, which have garnered the Bank of America's 2007 Neighborhood Builders Award and the Hartford Courant's 2005 Tapestry Award for the company. Other directing includes Broadway: Old Acquaintance (Roundabout Theatre Company). Off-Broadway: Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate and The Day Emily Married (Primary Stages); Chris Shinn's What Didn't Happen (Playwrights Horizons); and Jane Anderson's Defying Gravity (Laura Pels Theatre). Resident: Alley Theatre, A.R.T., Berkeley Rep, Goodman, Guthrie, Long Wharf, NY Stage & Film, and Philadelphia Theatre Co., among others. International: Angels in America Parts I & II, 1995 Venice Biennale. Awards: Daryl Roth Creative Spirit, Princess Grace Foundation Statue and Elliot Norton Awards; Edward Albee Foundation Fellowship; the Connecticut Critics Circle's Tom Killen Award for Outstanding Contribution to Connecticut Theatre; the 2007 National Governors Association Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts; and a 2007 Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Hartford. Education: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Morehead Scholar. Other: Mr. Wilson was named the 2003 Citizen of the Year by the Greater Hartford Civitan Club. From 1990 to 2002, he was privileged to have as his stage manager the late Wendy Beaton, with whom he collaborated on over 17 productions in four American cities and in Venice.

For more information, visit www.hartfordstage.org.