drama

Pocatello

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A banner of an image taken from the surface of a road framed by blurry trees and a blue sky with clouds. "POCATELLO" in white block letters with a white fork with spaghetti wrapped around the end of it. "by Samuel D. Hunter" in white text.

By Samuel D. Hunter
Directed by Paul Mullins
Mar 27-Apr 6
Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre 

Eddie manages an Italian chain restaurant in a city being paved over with strip malls and franchises. As pressures mount, he strives to keep his hometown feeling like home, one soup and salad special at a time.  A heartbreaking comedy about love and connection in a shifting world.

“[Pocatello is] about family and the longing for a human connection in a town that is both specific and also serves as a stand-in for modern America.”  -Samuel D. Hunter, Playwright

Portrait of Paul Mullins, a grey-haired white man with short white facial hair.

Paul Mullins

director

Paul Mullins is a theatre director based in New York City. He is an associate artist at both Santa Cruz Shakespeare and The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey where he has acted and directed for thirty years. For SCS he has directed King Lear, Twelfth Night,The Agitators, Pride and Prejudice, Love’s Labor’s Lost, The 39 Steps, Hamlet and Henry V. He has also directed plays for The Old Globe, Chautauqua Theater Company, Jewel Theatre Company, The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC., Dorset Theatre Festival, Portland Stage Company, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, American Stage, The Yale School of Drama, NYU Grad Acting and The Juilliard School. 

Design & Production Team:

Scenic Designer: Zach Farmer
Costume Designer: Emma Sowards
Lighting Designer: Cody Tellis Rutledge
Sound Designer: Abigail Golec
Props Manager: Miranda Fyfe
Dramaturg: Nora Hodzic

Production Stage Manager: Alison Savino
Stage Manager: Sam Hosler
Asst. Stage Manager: Max Moore 

A collage of design inspiration for Connecticut Rep's production of Pocatello (Spring 2025) interior photos of typical Italian restaurant chains, small towns, waiters, line cooks, and food. Portraits of the design team under the text "Pocatello Design Inspiration."

The Cast:

Eddie: Chris Martin
Doris: Carol Halstead, Equity Guest Artist
Cole: Dale Rose, Equity Guest Artist
Max: Djanne Martinez
Isabelle: Eliza Anderson
Troy: Daniel Pawlyk
Tammy: Halli Gibson
Nick: Zach Russell
Kelly: Akur Oryem
Becky: Aly Liew

A collage of smiling headshots on a black background of the cast of Pocatello (Spring 2025) at Connecticut Rep.

Show Photography:

©Mattais Lundblad

A collage of production photos from Connecticut Rep's production of Pocatello (Spring 2025.)A young woman with her feet on the chair reads a book; the staff sing Happy Birthday to an unimpressed elderly patron; two women struggle to order; a waiter helps a gentleman off the floor after a fall; a waitress sits to eat a leftover salad; two brothers have a heated moment.

Reviews:

“This is one of life’s hard lessons especially when you believe you can change the results by throwing in the cards life deals you, get a new hand, and change the outcome. that reads like a folk tale.”  – Bonny Goldberg, The Connecticut Critics Circle

“Some truly unexpected moments of pent-up rage, expressions of affection and other emotional moments that are beautifully written.” – Christopher Arnott, Hartford Currant

The Moors

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A landscape of foggy trees featuring a tree without its leaves in the foreground and a bird looking up at white text reading, "THE MOORS by Jen Silverman". The top half of the banner is overlayed with a muted pink color and the bottom half features a sage green.

By Jen Silverman 
Directed by Kristen Palmer 
 
Oct 10-20, 2024 
Nafe Katter Theatre 
 
Two sisters and a dog live out their lives on the bleak English moors, dreaming of love and power. The arrival of a hapless governess and a moor-hen set all three on a strange and dangerous path. The Moors is a dark comedy about love, desperation, and visibility.

Portrait of guest director Kristin Palmer, a white woman with short brown hair and glasses holding her hands by her face in a black shirt in front of buildings in a city.

Kristen Palmer

director

Kristen Palmer is a playwright and director and has taught theater and writing for over 25 years. Her plays have been produced in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, and elsewhere and are published by Broadway Play Publishing, Original Works, and Stage Partners. She is an alumna of the Women’s Project Lab, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and has been a William Inge Playwright in Residence, a Dakin Fellow at the Sewanee Playwright’s Conference, a Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and a Dramatist Guild Fellow. She is a New Georges associate artist and spent her 20s making theater as a company member of Printer’s Devil Theatre in Seattle.  Directing highlights include Creature by Heidi Schreck, She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen, and This Random World by Stephen Dietz.  She holds an MA from NYU and an MFA from Hunter College where she studied with Tina Howe and won both the Zarkower and Goldberg Prizes. She has created theater and directed projects with youth in schools, prisons and community programs around the country and served as Artistic Director of Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater, Middletown, CT from 2013-2018.  She is currently Head of Theater at the Greater Hartford Academy of Arts Half-Day Program. 

Design & Production Team:

Scene Designer: Zach Farmer 
Costume Designer: Adriana Gonzalez-Hernandez 
Sound Designer: Dennis Dowding 
Lighting Designer: Noah Ciccimarro 
Props Manager: Gino Costabile 
Music Coordinator: Travis Lavigne 

Production Stage Manager: Alison Savino 
Stage Manager: Caelyn Dorsey 
Assistant Stage Managers: Emily Hopkins, Janai Negroni 

A collage of inspiration imagery on a black background from design presentations for Connecticut Rep's production of The Moors (Fall 2024) featuring Scenic Design by Zach Farmer, Lighting Design by Noah Ciccimarro, Costume Design by Adri Gonzalez Hernandez, and Sound Design by Denis Dowding. Pictures pull from the 19th century with Victorian Gothic influences and capture the cold, unforgiving life on the English Moors. "THE MOORS DESIGN INSPIRATION" in white text. A QR Code is located at the bottom of the collage next to the sound design section.

The Cast:

Agatha – Kat Corrigan 
Huldey – Lily O’Neil 
Emilie – Morgan Hrymack 
Marjory – Katherine Berryhill 
Moor-Hen – Cipa Frost 
Mastiff – Evan Wolfgang 

Understudies – Eliza Anderson, Lia Crosby. Daniel Pawlyk Julia Smith, Evelyn Whitley 

A collage of headshots on a black background of the cast and director from Connecticut Rep's production of The Moors (Fall 2024). From top to bottom and left to right; Director: Kristen Palmer; Kat Corrigan; Lily O'Neil; Morgan Hrymack; Katherine Berryhill; Cipa Frost; Evan Wolfgang. Connecticut Rep logo in white above white text, "THE MOORS". Underneath the headshots read in white text, "Understudies: Julia Smith, Eliza Anderson, Evelyn Whitley, Daniel Pawlyk".

Show Photography:

©Mattais Lundblad

A collage of production photos from Connecticut Rep's production of The Moors (Fall 2024) featuring the cast and designs from the creative team. Huldey the maid pours tea for the guests; Huldey straddles Agatha in a murderous scene; Agatha in a slick bun and red gothic attire looks out; Emilie the governess sits reading; the characters sit in the parlor; the backdrop illuminates in a golden orange haze revealing the shadow of a deer looking upwards; The Mastiff and A Moor-hen sit together.

Reviews of the CRT Production:

“One minute you will be laughing and on the edge of your seat, and then the next, stunned and on the verge of tears.” 
– Benjamin Lassy, for The Daily Campus 
 
“Get ready for one howling good night of live theater” 
– Howard Steven Frydman, for The Howard 

A Doctor’s Dilemma

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A black and gold wallpaper banner with the image of a man in a suit and mustache holding a weighing scale with a person on each side. The banner reads, "A Doctor's Dilemma" in white text, "ADAPTED AND DIRECTED BY TLALOC RIVAS" in gold text, "BASED ON THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA BY GEORGE BERNARD SHAW" in gold and white text, "MAR 21-30" in white text.

Adapted and Directed by Tlaloc Rivas 
Based on The Doctor’s Dilemma by George Bernard Shaw 
The Nafe Katter Theatre 

March 21-30, 2024 

A doctor who has discovered a lifesaving cure must make an impossible decision. With only one lifesaving dose remaining and two people in need, whom should he save?  A scalpel-sharp satirical examination of the medical establishment, love and the value of art.

Portrait of director Tlaloc Rivas, a Latinx man with greying hair and a short beard.

Tlaloc Rivas

director (he/el)

Tlaloc Rivas is a playwright, director, and educator based in Central Connecticut (unyielded lands of the Mohegan, Nipmuc, and Pequot nations).

He is currently Lecturer in Acting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, Associate Professor in Residence in Theatre Studies at the University of Connecticut, and on the faculty at the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center.

Tlaloc was the inaugural Presidential Postdoctoral Presidential Fellow for Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama and currently serves on the boards for The New Harmony Project and the Latiné New Musical Theatre Lab.

Tlaloc is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers, the Dramatists Guild, and co-founder of the Latinx Theatre Commons. He is the recipient of the Sir John Gielgud Fellowship in Classical Directing, the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors, ​and a Usual Suspect for New York Theater Workshop.

Design & Production Team:

Zach Farmer – Scenic Design 
Hannah Corbett – Lighting Design 
Adrianne Williams – Costume Design 
Jake Neighbors – Sound Design  
 
Alison Savino – Production Stage Manager 
Ryan Hagin – Stage Manager 

The Cast:

Redpenny – Mark Sadowski 
Emmy – Lily O’Neil 
Ridgeon – Carlos Fruzzetti 
Lady Patricia – Morgan Hrymack 
Cutler Walpole – Siommara Guadalupe-Hill 
B.B. – Donte Warren 
Blenkinsop – Weimy Montero Candelario 
Jennifer – Kaitlyn Oliva 
Louis – Ian Rothauser 
Minnie and Mrs. Danbury, a secretary– Czarissa Moreno 
Raymond, a journalist – Garrett LaBranche 

Show Photography:

©Mattais Lundblad

A collage of images featuring actors from Connecticut Rep's production of A Doctor's Dilemma (Spring 2024). Three actors stand together with a phonograph in the background, an actor stares off a balcony upstage, an actor stands wearing a three piece suit and a top hat, and two more actors lock arms, one wearing a tan suit and the other a burgundy dress with a wide brimmed hat.

Review:

Christopher Arnott | Hartford Currant 

A Hundred Words for Snow

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By Tatty Hennessy 
Directed by Brendon Fox 

The Nafe Katter Theatre 
October 5 – 15, 2023  
 
After her father’s unexpected death, 15-year-old Rory discovers that he was planning a trip for the two of them to the North Pole. So she picks up his ashes, her passport, and her mother’s credit card, and sets out to make good on his plans. Layered, complex and as beautiful as the snowfall, Hennessy’s play is an epic Arctic adventure about adolescence, grief, love, and about being an explorer in a melting world. Winner of the Heretic Voices Award, the Vault Origins Award and nominated for 4 Off West End Awards, A Hundred Words for Snow is directed by Brendon Fox and features guest artist Téa Guarino in her CRT debut. 

“’hilarious and movingly poetic” ★★★★★ (London City Nights) 
“warm, witty and wonderful” ★★★★★ (The Stage) 

Portrait of Brendan Fox, white man with. a gentle smile looking at the camera.

Brendan Fox

director

Brendan is a director, teacher, adapter and producer who has worked nationally and internationally at a number of prominent regional theaters, universities and training programs, including Prague Shakespeare Company, The Julliard School, Cleveland Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Long Wharf Theater, Portland Center Stage, and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

​​Directing credits include: LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, American Stage; LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST, Prague Shakespeare Company, Colorado Shakespeare Festival; BASKERVILLE, Long Wharf Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse / Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; RELATIVELY SPEAKING, Dog Days Theatre; THE PITMEN PAINTERS, American Stage; ALABAMA STORY, Peninsula Players; PETER AND THE STARCATCHER, PlayMakers Repertory Company; ANGELS IN AMERICA (Parts One and Two), PlayMakers Repertory Company; FALLEN ANGELS, Theatre at Monmouth; SHIPWRECKED!, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING with Dana Delany, Old Globe Theatre; OPUS, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Portland Center Stage, Peninsula Players, L.A. Theatre Works; THE LEARNED LADIES, Texas Shakespeare Festival; REBORNING, Urbanite Theatre Company, TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Houston Shakespeare Festival; the L.A. premiere of THE LADY WITH ALL THE ANSWERS, Pasadena Playhouse; LOBBY HERO, FSU / Asolo Rep; LOVE’S LABORS LOST, Academy of Classical Acting; PRIVATE LIVES and THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE (LATW National Tours); AS YOU LIKE IT, Weston Theatre Company.

He holds a BS in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and an MFA in Directing from UCLA.

Portrait of Téa Guarino, a young black woman wearing a dark high-collared sleeveless top.

Téa Guarino

Equity Guest Artist

Téa Guarino is a Jersey Girl! She just recently graduated from Mason Gross School of the Arts and is a proud alumna. Storytelling and adventure are near to her heart, so she is overwhelmed with gratitude to be making her professional theatre debut with this wonderful play. Thank you to Rutgers University and the amazing faculty, HCKR, Matthew Lesher and most importantly, Mom and Dad.

Design & Production Team:

Scenic Designer: Christina J. Garner 
Lighting Designer: Hannah Corbett 
Costume Designer: Sarita Fellows 
Sound Designer: Dennis Dowding 
 
Production Stage Manager: Alison Savino 
Equity Casting: McCorkle Casting   

Show Photography:

©Mattais Lundblad

A collage of images of Guest Artist Téa Guarino from Connecticut Rep's A Hundred Words for Snow (Fall 2023) in an orange top and jeans holding her hands out, reading a book in a brown chair, and considering an urn.

Reviews:

“Téa Guarino… chisels her way through this icy expanse with grace and aplomb. The character of Rory seems frighteningly young to be having the adventures she has, except the play is largely a metaphor for coming-of-age transformations and revelations.” 
-Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant
 
“Hannah Corbett’s Lighting and Dennis Dowding’s Sound Design provide nuance and subtlety to the play.”  
“A Hundred Words for Snow, a striking production with a bravo performance by Tea Guarino.” 
-Stuart Brown, Stu on Broadway
 
“Guarino is delightful. she has an indelible charm that is captivating and sweet.” 
-Tim Leininiger, One Man’s Opinion