League of Professional Theatre Women Celebrates Women's History Month At Hartford Stage & More

The Connecticut Chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women celebrates Women's History Month this March with a visit from the all-woman leadership team at Hartford Stage.

Melia Bensussen, artistic director, and Cynthia Rider, managing director, will be on hand for a discussion celebrating how "Connecticut Women Make History" with Tracey Knight Narang at 7 pm Tuesday, March 16 on Zoom. The event is offered as part of Women's History Month and is free. An RSVP (click here) is required to receive the Zoom link for the event.

This is the first time in Hartford Stage's history that two women jointly hold the co-leadership roles. Connecticut is not new to having women at the helm of some of its theaters. Jacqueline Hubbard is coming up on 30 years as artistic director at Ivoryton Playhouse and over at Seven Angels in Waterbury, Semina DeLaurentis has been artistic director for about the same number of years. Darlene Zoller is co-founder/artistic director at Playhouse on Park and Wendy Goldberg continues her longtime position of artistic director of the National Playwriting Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford (where until her retirement a few years ago, founder Paulette Haupt headed the National Music Theater Conference). And there are other women who have been serving in other leadership positions around the state for some years. The Bensussen and Rider appointments come in a more recent flurry of women in theater leadership, however.

• Donna Lynn Hilton recently became artistic director of Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam.
• Tiffani Gavin was named executive director of the O'Neill Theater Center.
• Shelley Quiala is the new executive director of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven.
• Kit Ingui was named managing director of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven

Hartford Stage is one of three theaters in Connecticut to be honored by the CT Chapter of LPTW with a Seal of Approval Award for its success in employing equal numbers of women both on and behind the stage (Yale Repertory and Playhouse on Park are the other recipients).

Join us for a fascinating discussion with these women making history!

March 16
7 pm (Eastern)
on Zoom
RSVP HERE

More about our guests:
Melia Bensussen is an award-winning director and artistic leader who has directed extensively at leading theatres throughout the country since 1984, including productions at the Huntington Theatre Company, Sleeping Weazel, Shakespeare & Company, Actors' Shakespeare Project, La Jolla Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the New York Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Class Company, Primary Stages, Long Wharf Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, People's Light and Theatre Company, Bay Street Theatre and Playwrights Horizons, among others.

Raised in Mexico City, Bensussen is fluent in Spanish and has translated and adapted a variety of texts, including her edition of the Langston Hughes translation of Federico Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding. She is currently working on commissions and productions at the Huntington Theatre Company and ArtsEmerson in Boston.

Her acclaimed work with new plays has taken her to the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, New York Stage and Film, PlayPenn, The Playwrights' Center, Sundance, and other new play programs across the United States. Ongoing collaborations with playwrights include such distinguished writers as Kirsten Greenidge, Melinda Lopez, Jeffrey Hatcher, Masha Obolensky, Charlotte Meehan, and Kate Snodgrass. She has been lucky to have the opportunity to collaborate with a range of American Playwrights, including Annie Baker, Mat Smart, Edwin Sanchez, Nick Gandiello, Eduardo Machado, Jose Rivera, Lee Blessing, Richard Dresser, and Willy Holtzman.

A graduate of Brown University, Bensussen currently serves as the Chair of the Arts Advisory Board for the Princess Grace Foundation and for the past eleven years has chaired the Performing Arts Department at Emerson College. She also serves on the executive board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).

Cynthia Rider became the theater's eighth managing director She previously served as executive director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she worked with the board and noted Artistic Director Bill Rauch in the creation of a 10-year strategic plan, oversaw an increase in contributed income of more than 20 percent, and participated in artistic initiatives that resulted in three OSF-commissioned plays moving to Broadway, with one winning the Tony Award for Best Play and another winning the Pulitzer Prize.

Additional highlights of Rider's successful tenure at OSF include the creation of the Access for All campaign, which renovated the courtyard in front of OSF's theatres and added an elevator and wheelchair seating to the Bowmer Theatre, and the opening of the new Hay-Patton Rehearsal Center - all while producing a repertory season of eleven productions in three theatres, managing an annual operating budget of $40 million, and offering a number of educational and community engagement programs for audiences and students.