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06/17/2021 12:01 AMShakespeare Outdoors: Playhouse on Park in West Hartford is launching the Connecticut Shakespeare Festival, which will present performances at Auerfarm in Bloomfield. This new venture will run from Wednesday, July 7 to Sunday, Aug. 22 Shakespeare and Sondheim is the theme for the season. A Midsummer Night’s Dream will run from Wednesday, July 7 to Saturday, July 17 followed by the Sondheim musical Into the Woods from Wednesday, July 28 to Sunday, Aug. 22. Prior to the performances, guests can enjoy The Green Show, which features “music, dance, comedy and Shakespeare scenes that break down their “Shakesfear (the fear and sometimes utter terror of not being able to understand the language and characters of Shakespeare.)” It begins one hour before curtain time. In addition, the festival will include two productions aimed at young audiences. Shakespeare 4 Kids: Dream Scheme from Saturday, July 10 to Sunday, July 18 and Snow White, a new adaptation of the fairy tale with all roles played by just two actors. It runs Saturday, July 31 to Sunday, Aug. 22. For information and tickets, visit ConnecticutShakespeareFestival.org.
New Voices: Hartford Stage is presenting the inaugural season of American Voices New Play Festival, which features three new American plays by writers with Latinx and Hispanic roots. Each receives a four-day workshop followed by a public reading. The virtual events run from Wednesday, June 23 to Saturday, June 26. Following a kick-off conversation on the 23rd, the schedule includes a reading of Her Math Play for Thursday, June 24, Simona’s Search on Friday, June 28 and Ash Tree on Saturday, June 26. Tickets are free with a suggested donation to Hartford Stage. Visit HartfordStage.org for information or reservations.
O’Neill Center Schedule: The Eugene O’Neill Center in Waterford is offering both online and in-person events this summer. The center annually houses conferences for musical theater, playwrights, cabaret artists, and others, where works are developed and presented. It has been responsible for the development of major playwrights and musical theater writers, composers and lyricists. Neither the National Music Theater Conference nor the National Playwrights Conference will present staged readings as in the past. The selected participants will work virtually and on the campus with other professionals.
The Cabaret & Performance Conference will present seven shows, outdoors, from Thursday, Aug. 5 to Saturday, Aug. 14. These included performances by participants in the conference and the mentors. In addition, the Blue Gene’s Pub, on the grounds of the center, will be open for drinks along with food trucks from Friday to Sunday with brunch also on Sundays. Garden Gatherings will offer casual concerts from O’Neill alumni on Sundays – June 20, July 11 and July 18. The Saturday Spotlight discusses and demonstrates the works of the festival. The four events are Saturdays, June 26, July 10 and 24, and Aug. 7. Reservations are required. For further details, visit TheONeillCenter.org/summer.
New York Notes: Pass Over is currently the leader in the first show to begin performances on Broadway. It will begin previews Aug. 4 and open on Sept. 12. It is moving from Off-Broadway with the entire cast. Antoinette Chimonye Nwadnu, the playwright, has extensively revised the play, saying “though much of Pass Over remains a lament over the lives of Black people stolen too soon...the new version centers the health, hope and joy of our audiences.” The Lehman Trilogy, which follows two centuries of global financial history, will begin previews on Broadway, Sept. 25 and officially open on Oct. 14. The award winning show had a limited engagement in New York at the Park Avenue Armory in 2019. The frantic farce, The Play That Goes Wrong will reopen off-Broadway on Oct. 15. Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Adaptation will premier off-Broadway this fall, featuring music from the catalog of Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman who were responsible for the scores to Mary Poppins and other Disney film musicals.
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 the Connecticut Critics Circle, New York’s Outer Critics Circle, the League of Professional Theater Women and the American Theatre Critics Association.