HartBeat Ensemble Presents 'Live From the Edge', 4/3

HartBeat Ensemble will present "Live From The Edge," an evening filled with "the best of" performances from visiting ensemble Universes, a band of poets from New York who have created their own brand of fusion theatre. Performances will take place Friday, April 2nd and Saturday, April 3rd at 8 p.m.

Advance tickets and further information are available by calling (860) 548-9144, x115. Tickets are $15 but thanks to support from the City of Hartford's Office of Cultural Affairs, they are $10 for Hartford residents.

Universes members Steven Sapp, Mildred Ruiz, Gamal Abdel Chasten, and "Ninja" utilize each person's unique realms of performance and life experience. They draw from Jazz, Spanish Boleros, Gospel, the Blues, Hip-Hop, and more to create an exuberant, insightful, and eloquent evening's entertainment. Universes tours world-wide; in the past year alone they have been to eleven cities in the United States as well as the Encuentros Festival in Columbia; they are currently traveling to New Orleans, before heading to the Northeast. "Live From The Edge" will give Connecticut residents an overview of Universes' distinct performance style, as it contains elements of their entire body of work. Their stage work is accessible to people from all backgrounds and ages.

HartBeat Ensemble is thrilled to present Universes to Greater Hartford and is able to do so as part of a unique touring circuit being pioneered specifically for ensemble theater presenters and funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The circuit also includes partner ensembles: Sandglass Theater of Putney, Vermont, and Touchstone Theater of Bethlehem, PA.. The performances by Universes mark the second installment in HartBeat Ensemble's "presenting" series, which premiered with last year's smash success appearance by Robert Karimi and DJ D Double.

The mission of HartBeat Ensemble is to create original, professional theater based on stories from our community. Through Mainstage plays, Open-Air performances, and Education programs, HartBeat Ensemble makes theater accessible beyond the barriers of class, race, and gender. Their last major production was Ebeneeza: A Hartford Holiday Carol, which traveled through four of Hartford's neighborhoods and drew in new and diverse audiences.