Few cities the size of Hartford have two theaters as ambitious as Hartford Stage and TheaterWorks Hartford. Or as unique. “Hartford Stage’s brand is that we’re eclectic,” said Artistic Director, Melia Bensussen. “We’ve premiered so many new works with writers who’ve gone on to win Pulitzers and Tonys who’ve done their first work at Hartford stage. We’ve originated Broadway musicals.” Bensussen, who joined the company in 2019, right before the pandemic shut it down, plans to keep that tradition going: “I don’t want to do too much of any one thing.”

For its part, TheaterWorks focuses on new plays and new voices. “From the start, TheaterWorks has been interested in new plays, new playwrights, plays that people haven’t seen,” said Jeff Griffin, managing director since 2024. Now in its 40th season, TheaterWorks has two world premieres this season, one of which is their own original production.

Whatever shows they may put on, both leaders believe theaters are more than artistic institutions; they’re civic institutions. “I want us to really be Hartford’s theater,” Bensussen said. “We’re a civic organization. That doesn’t mean we don’t make great productions, but there is a consciousness of celebrating our location and the community.”

TheaterWorks’ always has that intent, though this upcoming season may be particularly acute: their big production is Circus Fire, based on the 1944 tragedy in Hartford. “As we promote it and talk to people, it’s amazing how many remember it so clearly,” Griffin said. They were either there or know someone who was, and all remember the resilience that followed the horror. “It’s not so much about the event itself,” Griffin said, comparing it to The Laramie Project, about Matthew Shepard’s murder. “It’s about the community and how they responded.”

Each theater is putting on four productions in the upcoming season, plus their annual holiday shows – A Christmas Carol at Hartford Stage and Christmas on the Rocks at TheaterWorks – but they’re particularly excited about their collaboration on a new production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street next June – the first time the theaters have worked together in this way. It will be, to use their word, “epic.” 

Both Bensussen and Griffin hope to work with other cultural institutions in the months and years ahead – whether theater, dance, or visual arts, all arts have the same mission. “People are starting to remember what’s important and why these institutions exist,” Bensussen said. “In this cultural and political moment, I think we need each other in this other way that maybe we didn’t a few years ago.” Stay tuned.