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New Artistic Director, Unique Theater, Seven Spots on the Sun, and More

New Artistic Director: Long Wharf has named Jacob G. Padrón as its new artistic director as of Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. The theater had been without an artistic director since early last year when Gordon Edelstein was fired. Padrón will certainly bring new perspectives to the theater. He is just 38 and is not a director; that’s rare as most artistic directors are stage directors. His experience includes production management jobs at New York City’s Public Theater, Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and The Sol Project, a national initiative that showcases Latinx playwrights. The project was involved in the production at Yale Rep earlier this fall of El Huricán.

In addition, he is on the faculty of the Yale Drama School and has been on staff at WarnerMedia. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Loyola Marymount and an MFA from Yale Drama School. He is a co-founder of Tilted Fields Productions and the Artists’ Anti-Racism Coalition.

Unique Theater: Each year, Yale Rep brings unique theater productions and artists to New Haven in its No Boundaries Performance Series. This season, it begins with WET: A DACAmented Journey, Thursday, Dec. 13 to Saturday, Dec. 15. Written and performed by Alex Alpharaoh, it tells the story of an undocumented American and the struggles as he navigates the system. What Remains will run Thursday through Sunday, Feb. 14 through 16, 2019. It’s developed by award-winning choreographer Will Rawls and poet and MacArthur award recipient Claudia Rankine. It combines poetry, music, and dance to explore “society’s role in the disturbance and murder of its black citizens.” For tickets, visit yalerep.org or call 203-432-1234.

Yale Drama School: Third-year students at Yale Drama School each year present plays produced entirely by these professionals-in-training. The second production this year is Seven Spots on the Sun, which runs Thursday, Dec. 13 to Tuesday, Dec. 18. It will be directed by Jecamiah M. Ybañez. It is described as combining magic realism, myth, and history to examine what it costs to heal the wounds of war. On Saturday, Feb. 2 through Friday, Feb. 8, Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress will be directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar. It’s about a white director, a black leading lady, and a play that deals with race. For tickets, visit drama.yale.edu or call 203-432-1234.

Television and Cinemas: More and more shows are being shown on either TV or in movie theaters. Among the upcoming productions is an airing on Public Television of Ernest Shackleton Loves Me, an off-Broadway hit. In cinemas the following are planned: the London production of The King and I starring Kelli O’Hara and Ken Wantanabe on Thursday, Nov. 29 and Tuesday, Dec. 4 (kingandicinema.com) and a reshowing of Allegiance with George Takei and Lea Salonga on Friday, Dec. 11 (fathomevents.com).

A Historic Christmas: The Connecticut Repertory Theater on the UConn campus is presenting Paula Vogel’s A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration from Thursday, Nov. 29 to Sunday, Dec. 9. The play premiered at Long Wharf; the cast will be led by Tony award nominee and UConn alum Forrest McClendon. It is an epic story about an escaped slave and her daughter who arrive in the capital at Christmas. For tickets, call 860-486-2113 or visit crt.uconn.edu.

I Loved It: It is the brand new musical on Broadway, The Prom. It’s a rarity for Broadway right now: It is not based on a film, TV show, book, or other source; it doesn’t tell the life story of a music celebrity; and it is not comprised of songs from some composer or performer’s repertoire. The germ of the story is suggested by a news item several years ago, but book writers Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin (he also does the lyrics), composer Matthew Sklar, director/chorographer Casey Nicholaw and the entire cast have created something truly enjoyable. It’s at the Longacre Theater. For tickets, visit telecharge.

New York Notes: King Kong, the latest attempt to create a musical spectacular from a classic film has opened on Broadway to almost unanimous poor reviews. Some of the critics were especially vitriolic; about the only thing that was praised was the giant puppet of King Kong. Heading to Broadway for a brief holiday run is the long-running off Broadway show Celebrity Autobiography which features a cast reading from the autobiographies and memoirs of celebrities and others. It is constantly updated and some of the works are mashed together. It will be on Monday nights at the Marquis Theater from Monday, Nov. 26 to Monday, Dec. 19. The rotating cast includes many members of Saturday Night Live. Some of the special guest performers will include Alec Baldwin, Rachel Dratch, Lewis Black, Susan Lucci, and others.

Karen Isaacs is an East Haven resident. To check out her reviews for New York and Connecticut shows, visit 2ontheaisle.wordpress.com. She’s a member of both the Connecticut Critics Circle and New York’s Outer Critics Circle.