MARK AUERBACH
Hartford Symphony Labor Dispute Solved
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra and union representatives of the American Federation of Musicians Local 400 (AFM) have come to an agreement on a new, four-year collective bargaining agreement . This contract will run through August 31, 2019.
The musicians gave up a lot to come to this agreement, and Music Director Carolyn Kuan forfeited a portion of her salary, in solidarity with orchestra members. This comprehensive new agreement positions the 72-year-old organization for growth, important long-term fundraising campaigns, and dynamic artistic programming.
As the Hartford Symphony Orchestra moves forward, it has to address a new model of doing business. Currently, it outsources a lot of its management, including development efforts, to The Bushnell, its landlord. It has to deal with an aging audience, a decline in public and private support for the arts in general, and seek new income streams and programs that both appeal to audiences and potential funders. They need to develop new leadership, particularly in marketing and development, so they can compete. The Hartford Symphony is trying to survive in a market that has lost its major opera company and ballet company.
Smaller regional orchestras (like the Springfield Symphony Orchestra) are facing similar issues – aging audiences, dwindling support. It’s not easy times for the arts.
Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal in Love Letters at The Bushnell. (Photo by Austin Hargrave)
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw, stars of the movie Love Story (you remember, “Love means…never having to say you’re sorry”) return to the stage in A. R. Gurney’s Love Letters, which visits The Bushnell on February 9-14 (just in time for Valentine’s Day).
Love Letters is the story of two well-to-dos, Andrew Makepeace Ladd III (O’Neal) and Melissa Gardner (McGraw), who meet at age 7, and whose friendship spans a half century. Their relationship is shared via their correspondence to each other. Gurney’s play made its debut in 1988, moved to Off-Broadway the following year, and been widely performed across the country ever since.
For details: 860-987-5900 or www.bushnell.org.
Think Summer
Barrington Stage Company offers lots of new theatre on tap this summer. John Rando and Joshua Bergasse, the director and choreographer of On The Town, which moved to Broadway, are revisiting the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance (which in its1980 Tony Award winning revival, introduced Linda Ronstadt to Broadway audiences, made Kevin Kline a star, and launched the career of Rex Smith). Joe Iconis’ new musical, Broadway Bounty Hunter, will premiere with Annie Golden. Also scheduled: Presto Change-O, with music by Joel Waggoner and book and lyrics by Eric Price. That show, about a multigenerational family of magicians, will be directed by Mark Bruni For details:: 413-236-8888 or barringtonstageco.org.
Shakespeare and Company returns to Lenox this summer with three Shakespearean classics, The Merchant of Venice, The Two Gentleman of Verona, and Twelfth Night, plus several new works by Liz Duffy Adams and Nilo Cruz. The highly acclaimed Cry Havoc, with Stephan Wolfert, a hit last season, returns. For details: 413-637-3353 orwww.shakespeare.org.
Stephan Wolfert headlines Shakespeare and Company’s upcoming season. (Photo by John Boccat)
Of Note
Rob Ruggiero, Artistic Director of Hartford’s TheaterWorks, has a way with musicals. He’s been invited to direct The Music Man at The Muny in St. Louis *July 5-11), one of America’s leading summer theatres. http://muny.org/shows/2016-season
Steven Tower, Northfield-based singer with many local chorales, including Da Camera Singers in Amherst, and an actor in productions at the Country Players and Silverthorne Theatre Company, died on 1/17/16, after a brief illness. RIP
Miguel Zenón
Keep in Mind…
The 10×10 New Play Festival keeps Barrington Stage Company sizzling this winter. Julianne Boyd and Tristan Wilson have selected 10 new 10-minute plays, to be performed February 11-28 at Barrington Stage’s Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center on 36 Linden Street in Pittsfield. Boyd and John Miller Stephany direct the 10 short plays by Emily Taplin Boyd, Tom Coash, Andrew Dolan, Steven Korbar, Ana Nogueira, Sean Harris Oliver, Ann Marie Shea, Scott Sickles, Joseph Samuel Wright, and Kelly Younger. For details: 413-236-8888 or barringtonstageco.org.
Miguel Zenón, 2016 Grammy nominee, explores the music of his native Puerto Rico in his new Identities Are Changeable song cycle, bolstered by a 12-piece big band. The Identities Big Band at the UMass Fine Arts Center Concert Hall on February 11. Identities Are Changeable is Miguel Zenón’s latest album, just nominated for a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album. For details: 413-545-2511, t800-999-UMAS, or www.fineartscenter.com.
Boeing Boeing, Marc Campletti’s farce about an American playboy in Paris, who juggles relationships with three flight attendants at three airlines, lands at Little Theatre of Manchester on February 5-21. The comedy picked up a Tony Award for “Best Revival of a Play” in 2008. Rayah Martin directs. For details: 860-647-9824. orwww.littletheatreofmanchester.org
Elementary, My Dear Fellow, a new one-act play about actor William Gillette by Shera Cohen, gets a reading on February 11 at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford. Cohen is a Springfield-based publicist and arts writer. Her cast includes some of the area’s best-known community theatre people, including Martin Shell as Gillette, Tim O’Brien as Arthur Conan Doyle, Frank Aronson, Jarice Hanson, Luis Manzi, Kristen Anne Ferraro, Keith Purcell, and Julie Waggoner. For details:https://www.marktwainhouse.org/visitor/events_programs.php
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.
