Mission Statement
Connecticut Repertory Theatre is the producing arm of the University of Connecticut's Department of Dramatic Arts. Under the artistic direction of Gary M. English, CRT produces under a year-round contract with Actors' Equity Association, and serves as a cultural center for Connecticut and the New England region. CRT productions are directed and designed by, and cast with, visiting professionals, equity actors, faculty members and the department's most advanced students.
Selling more than 12,000 tickets annually, and nearly 1,000 subscriptions, CRT presents a wide range of material including premieres, contemporary plays, classics of the American musical theatre, and great works from the canon of world drama presented with both traditional and experimental points of view. CRT is also the performance outlet for the Department of Dramatic Art's internationally acclaimed Puppet Arts program, the only degree-conferring puppetry program of its kind in the United States.
CRT offers a subscription series of six plays and musicals during the academic year - four in the 493 - seat Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre (the Main Stage series), and two in the 116 - seat Studio Theatre (The Studio Works Series, emphasizing new, more experimental texts and forms). Each year, some of those productions comprise CRT's Morning Matinee Series, which introduces more than 3,000 middle and high school students and senior citizen groups to theatre.
A constituent member of The Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for the professional theatre, CRT is committed to the development of new work. Recent CRT world premieres include Brad Korbesmeyer's Open Window (a co-production with Merrimack Repertory Theatre, later sold to CBS for development as a television movie), Ellen M. Lewis' Eastville, and Puppet Arts adaptations of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Bell. Recent CRT Connecticut premieres include plays by Tony Kushner (A Bright Room Called Day), Steve Martin (Picasso at the Lapin Agile), Ellen McLaughlin (Iphigenia and Other Daughters), John Strand (Lovers & Executioners), Sam Shepard (Simpatico), Kathleen Tolan (A Girl's Life), and Lanford Wilson (A Sense of Place).
Guest artists recently at CRT include actors Kim Hunter, Judy Kaye, Kirsti Carnahan, Emily Loesser, Ron Parady, Michele Ragusa, Dorothy Stanley, Aleta Mitchell, Sarah Peterson, Florence Lacey, and Keith Grant; directors James Warwick, Victoria Bussert, Michael Montel, Nagle Jackson, B. Peter Westerhoff, Connie Grappo, Peter Bennet, Leah C. Gardiner, Larry Carpenter, and Peter Wallace; choreographers Tony Stevens, Jayme McDaniel and Schellie Archbold; and designers Dennis Parichy, Campbell Baird, Jane Reisman, Mimi Sherin, Eric Renschler, Marilyn Rennagel, Crystal Tiala and Tim Hunter. Recent additions to the Dramatic Arts faculty and staff, who serve as CRT resident designers, advisors and administrative personnel include Karen Ryker associate professor of voice/dialect coach, Kristin Wold assistant professor of acting, Bob Copley production manager, Meryl Fern company manager/ assistant to managing director, and Frank Mack managing director. |
