CREATIVE SOLUTIONS
TheaterWorks announces a 2020-21 season that’s prepared to change with the times
Prepare to be “Seared,” attend “Zoey’s Perfect Wedding” and hear “The Sound Inside” at TheaterWorks Hartford. TheaterWorks has announced its 2020-21 season, and it’s different from the one they were ready to announce in March. The usual caveat in announcements such as this — “schedule is subject to change” — means something else this year. The titles aren’t likely to change but, based on whatever the state’s regulations on public gatherings might be in coming months, the way the plays are staged and seen may have to be rethought on short notice.
TheaterWorks got a taste of this when their March production of “Every Brilliant Thing” scaled down its audience size to fewer than 100 seats, just before the state shut down all theaters. That show ran for just four days before it and the rest of the 2019-20 season was canceled. Two shows intended for that season (“Fun Home” and “The Who & the What”) have turned up on the 2020-21 list, though they may look different than they would have last year. Some actors previously booked might not be available now, and new circumstances might lead to new directions and styles.
This isn’t a case of wanting to reopen and hoping for the best. TheaterWorks is considering every angle.
“This is the time to think outside the box,” says TheaterWorks producing artistic director Rob Ruggiero. “It seems unlikely that we’ll be able to gather in the way we’ve been used to. So what kind of creative solutions can we come up with?” We can breed creativity and innovation here. I hope that we leave this situation having learned some lessons.”
The Theaterworks 2020-21 season, with exact dates yet to be decided, consists of:
• “The Who & the What” by Ayad Akhtar. Originally scheduled for July/August of this year, the drama (about a Pakistani-American writer whose new book about women and Islam is causing consternation in her family) will now happen in September/October. TheaterWorks staged Akhtar’s global economics hostage drama “The Invisible Hand” two years ago.
• “The Sound Inside” by Adam Rapp, scheduled for February/March. This confrontation between a Yale creative writing professor and a promising, troublesome student marked Rapp’s Broadway debut just last year. He’s been the darling of offBroadway since the mid-00s, has taught playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for “Red Light Winter” in 2006.
• “Fun Home,” with book and lyrics by Lisa Kron and music by Jeanine Tesori, based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, based on the cartoonist’s own childhood and coming-out experiences. The musical, originally planned for August/September of this year as part of the 2019-20 season, will now happen in April/May of 2021.
• “Zoey’s Perfect Wedding” by Matthew Lopez, whose other comedy “The Legend of Georgia Mc