HartBeat Ensemble Announces World Premiere Of BEE TRAPPED INSIDE THE WINDOW

HartBeat Ensemble announced today the world premiere production of Saviana Stanescu's Bee Trapped Inside The Window. Set in a wealthy suburb in Connecticut, this intimate drama focuses on the interwoven stories of a Russian émigré, her biracial daughter, and an Asian-American cleaning woman who has been trafficked into domestic service. Reflecting themes of isolation and connection, Stanescu's lyrical play is set to run at HartBeat Ensemble's Carriage House Theater (360 Farmington Avenue) in Hartford, CT from April 22 through May 8.

HartBeat Ensemble Artistic Director Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. states, "Saviana was already an award-winning playwright and journalist in Romania before she migrated to the United States. She has an unerring ear for the brutal poetry of work and isolation that haunts all women who migrate to the U.S."

The cast of Bee Trapped Inside the Window features Mami Kamura, Erin Lockett and Jennifer Dorr White. The production is directed by HartBeat Ensemble member Vernice P. Miller with stage management by Rachel Russo. The design team includes Jennifer Fok (lighting),Norm Johnson, Jr. (set), Carrell Johnson (costume), and Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. (sound). Bee Trapped Inside The Window was originally commissioned and produced by Civic Ensemble as part of Civic Acts: New Plays Toward the Beloved Community.

About the Play:

Bee Trapped Inside The Window explores the modern day domestic servitude effect on the lives of three women of different backgrounds and ethnicities in the leafy suburbs of Connecticut. May is an Asian-American in-house domestic worker for a wealthy family with kids; Sasha is a Russian-American corporate executive with a drinking problem; and Mia is Sasha's black daughter, who is exploring and gradually understanding her own biracial identity.

Written as intercut interior monologues sliding into dialogue, the play follows Mia's coming-of-age story over the course of 15 years through her relationships with her mom and her neighbor, while offering a window into the lives of domestic workers and immigrants.

Performances of Bee Trapped Inside The Window are April 22 through May 8; Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sunday matinees at 2pm. General admission tickets are $25; students, seniors and Let's Go Arts cardholders are $20; no one left behind for lack of funds. Tickets can be purchased by visiting HartBeatEnsemble.org or at door subject to availability. Bee Trapped Inside The Window is a live in-person theater event. Masks and proof of vaccination will be required. For more information on our COVID safety policies visit HartBeat's website.

There will be a free Encounters discussion on Bee Trapped Inside The Window on Saturday, April 23 at 10am at the Carriage House Theater. Encounters programs feature small group discussions on critical questions, as well as specialist feedback and engagement. The Encounters Series is a program of UConn's Dodd Human Rights Impact Democracy and Dialogues Initiative.

About the Artists:

Saviana Stanescu (playwright) is a cutting-edge Romanian playwright, poet, and ARTivist based in New York/Ithaca. Her US plays include Aliens with extraordinary skills, Ants, White Embers (all published by Samuel French), Useless, Toys, For A Barbarian Woman, Lenin's Shoe, Waxing West (New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Play), What Happens Next, Bee Trapped Inside the Window. Honors include: Fulbright, Indie Theatre Hall of Fame, John Golden Award, KulturKontakt, Marulic Prize, Best Play of the Year UNITER Award. Saviana's plays have been developed/produced off-Broadway at Women's Project, La MaMa, 59E59, NYTW, EST, HERE, New Georges, Lark; regionally at the Hangar Theatre, Cherry Artspace, Civic Ensemble; and globally at Teatro La Capilla in Mexico City, Teatrul Odeon in Bucharest, Dramalabbet in Stockholm, etc. (www.saviana.com)

Vernice Miller (director) is a performer, director, producer, activist. Stage work includes directing Three Women (Break the Silence) by anthropologist Dr. Omotayo Jolaosho at the Market Theater Laboratory in Johannesburg before touring South Africa. In Slovenia and Poland, she performed and co-directed Nomansland for Seth Baumrin's Subpoetics International. Miller directed the inaugural production of Bee Trapped Inside the Window by Saviana Stanescu, commissioned by Civic Ensemble in Ithaca, NY. Miller has collaborated with jazz musician Wynton Marsalis on Eatonville, a Zora Neal Hurston project, and spent ten years working internationally with HBO comedienne Hazelle Goodman. She is currently an adjunct lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in NYC. In 1995, with Joann Maria Yarrow, she co-founded A Laboratory for Actor Training Experimental Theatre Company, to evolve work they began with Roberta Carreri at Eugenio Barba's Odin Teatret in Denmark. Miller is the recipient of the London New Play Festival's Best Actress Award for her solo performance of Medea: Now. (www.ALATetc.org)

Mami Kimura (May) is originally from Japan. She has been working in various theatre, film, TV, web series, commercial and voice-over productions in NYC since 1997. Her roles range from "strong immigrant mother" to "sexy villain" and "laundromat owner" to "doctor" to "madame of whorehouse". Recently she produced the original miniseries Targets on YouTube, which she wrote, directed, edited and performed.

Erin Lockett (Mia) is an actor from Oakland, CA who received her BFA in Acting from Ithaca College in 2020. She has appeared in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Ithaca Shakespeare Company) and Commanding Space (Syracuse Stage). Erin has appeared in readings of Sense and Sensibility and The Inferior Sex for The Hangar Theater. Bee Trapped in Inside the Window has been a part of Erin's life for four years.

Jennifer Dorr White (Sasha) Previously with Saviana Stanescu: Waxing West and Lenin's Shoe (The Lark). Recent credits: Jesus in Manhattan (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Three Girls ... (Cherry Lane), Loyalty (Hudson Guild), Congratulations Debby (title role), NOS4A2 (recurring), Blindspot, and Law & Order: SVU. Select NYC and regional theatres: Working Theater, New World Stages, terraNOVA, CollaborationTown, SATC, Human Race, Dorset, Denver Center. Select Film/TV: Good Enough, A.B.C.D., Onion News Network. JenniferDorrWhite.com

About HartBeat Ensemble:

Founded in 2001, HartBeat Ensemble's mission is to create provocative theater that connects our community beyond traditional barriers of race, gender, class and geography.a??HartBeat Ensemble is the only institutiona??in Hartford that consistently uses theater to speak powerfully across different generations, races, populations and interest groups. As an ensemble of artist-activists, we create as well as present innovative productions based on critical civic issues. HartBeat continues to inspire the next generation of leaders to create change for a better world through its Youth Play Institute. To learn more, please visit HartBeatEnsemble.org.

Support is provided by the Department of Economic and Community Development, CT Office of the Arts, CT Humanities, Greater Hartford Arts Council's United Arts Campaign, National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts Resilience Fund and Travelers.