Hartford Stage Hosting Two Special Exhibits During DIVINE RIVALRY, 3/2-3/20

Hartford Stage will celebrate the artistic partnership among director Michael Wilson, set designer Jeff Cowie, and sound designer John Gromada in Working with Michael, a multi-media exhibit in "room," Hartford Stage's new function space. At the same time, the theatre will unveil Part II of Capturing the Moment, a season-long retrospective of the work of company photographer T. Charles Ericson, commemorating his 25 years with Hartford Stage. The Ericson installation will be in the theatre's upper lobby. The exhibits coincide with the run of Divine Rivalry, a world premiere play by noted political journalist Michael Kramer, which is the last MainStage production Wilson will be directing as Hartford Stage Artistic Director. Cowie designed the sets for the production, and Gromada the sound and original music. Official opening of both exhibits is Wednesday, March 2 at 6:00 p.m., directly before the 7:30 performance of Divine Rivalry.

Divine Rivalry tells the fascinating true story of a little-known painting competition between Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, orchestrated by the nefarious Niccolo Machiavelli. The production is underwritten by The Shubert Organization and The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. Support for Hartford Stage productions is provided by The Greater Hartford Arts Council and The Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. Divine Rivalry and Working with Michael run at the Tony Award-winning theatre through March 20. Capturing the Moment II will run throughout the rest of the season.

Jeff Cowie's Hartford Stage set design credits include The Orphans' Home Cycle, Dividing the Estate, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, Our Town, Mahalia: A Gospel Musical, The Good Body, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Bad Dates, Peter & Jerry: A Play by Edward Albee, The Mystery of Irma Vep, 8 by Tenn, The Night of The Iguana, The Trip to Bountiful, Macbeth, Camino Real, The Death of Papa, A Streetcar Named Desire; and The Clearing, The Carpetbagger's Children and Necessary Targets, all three of which transferred to Off-Broadway.Other Off-Broadwaycredits includeDividing the Estate, A Safe Harbor for Elizabeth Bishop, The Day Emily Married, Colder Than Here, What Didn't Happen, Letter from Ethel Kennedy, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, When They Speak of Rita, Defying Gravity and The Red Devil Battery Sign. He has also worked extensively as a designer at regional theatres around the country.

Cowie's awards include 2003 Connecticut Critics Circle Award, Outstanding Set Design (The Night of the Iguana); 2001 Drama Desk nomination (The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant); NEA/Rockefeller Foundation Award; and the Edward Albee Foundation fellowship. Mr. Cowie, a visual artist, has his new works on view at Janice LaMotta Fine Art and Diane Birdsall Gallery, Old Lyme.

John Gromada's work at Hartford Stage includes the original music and/or sound design for The Orphans' Home Cycle, Dividing the Estate, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, Zerline's Tale, A Christmas Carol, Nightingale, Summer and Smoke, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Macbeth, Camino Real, Enchanted April, The Bay at Nice, Much Ado About Nothing, The Glass Menagerie, The Clearing, A Streetcar Named Desire, Necessary Targets, Dollhouse, Our Town, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue, Dutchman, The Philadelphia Story, The Carpetbagger's Children, Tea At Five, and Bad Dates. Broadway credits include original scores for Next Fall, Dividing the Estate, Proof, Prelude to a Kiss, A Bronx Tale, Old Acquaintance, Heartbreak House, Well, Rabbit Hole, A Streetcar Named Desire, Twelve Angry Men, Sight Unseen, The Retreat From Moscow, Enchanted April, Summer and Smoke, Holiday, A Few Good Men.

Gromada's other NY credits includeThe Orphans' Home Cycle, The Grand Manner, Shipwrecked!, The Singing Forest, Streamers, Crimes of the Heart, Pig Farm, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, Bach at Leipzig, Oedipus at Palm Springs, Small Tragedy, many others; Public Theater: The Singing Forest, Henry V, Julius Caesar, Tartuffe, The Skriker, Machinal, and The Swan, and he has designed more than 200 productions at leading theatres here and abroad. His awards includeDrama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Obie, Eddy, Drama-Logue, NEA Opera Music Theatre Fellowship, Connecticut Critics Circle Awards, and ASCAP awards.

T. Charles Erickson has been a professional photographer since 1979. While working as the Yale University photographer in 1981, he began pursuing a freelance career which led him to the specialty of photographing performances for theatre, dance and opera companies around the country. Beginning with the Long Wharf Theatre in 1984, Mr. Erickson has continually expanded his reputation as the photographer for many of the dominant theatres on the national scene with past and present clients including Hartford Stage, Yale Rep, Princeton's McCarter Theatre, Boston's A.R.T. and Huntington theatres, Houston's Alley, San Diego's Old Globe, Minneapolis' Guthrie Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Lincoln Center, in addition to numerous independently mounted Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.

Mr. Erickson has also worked with an impressive spectrum of fine artists over the years, documenting the work of Barnett Newman, Red Grooms, Robert Indiana, Ann Hamilton, Tony Smith, Chris Burden, Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel among many others. His photos are regularly featured in Time, New York, ArtForum, American Theatre and most major newspapers in the U.S. He has more than 100 magazine and book covers to his credit. He has been the subject of profiles in The New York Times, The Hartford Courant, Stage Directions, The New Haven Register, and American Theatre. Mr. Erickson is a 1979 graduate, in Art History, of the University of Massachusetts and has lived in the New Haven area since that time.

Admission to the exhibits is free; for tickets to Divine Rivalry or for more information, please call the Hartford Stage box office at 860-527-5151. Hartford Stage is located at 50 Church Street in downtown Hartford with parking located in the MAT Garage, directly adjacent to the theatre. The theatre is accessible from I-84 and I-91.

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