The Mark Twain House & Museum and Hartford Stage present REVISITING OUR TOWN with Howard Sherman in conversation with Melia Bensussen.

Join Hartford Stage and The Mark Twain House & Museum for a lively dialogue with Howard Sherman, author of the new book Another Day’s Begun about Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town. Hartford Stage Artistic Director Melia Bensussen and Sherman will talk about the book — on the day of its publication! — and swap stories about working at Hartford Stage, where Howard served as public relations director in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

It is said that Thornton Wilder’s Our Town is one of the most produced plays in America and it has been that way since the play debuted in 1938. Why is Wilder’s play such a perennial, when so many plays from that era are rarely revived – or forgotten? The new book Another Day’s Begun: Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the 21st Century doesn’t offer a singular answer to that question, but rather the thoughts and recollections of actors, directors, musical directors and designers who have engaged with the play in both the US and UK, offering their insights into the play and what its has meant to their own lives. The participants range from students and amateurs to well-known figures like Jane Curtin, Helen Hunt, Jane Kaczmarek, Moisés Kaufman, and Michael McKean.

This is a FREE event, but we encourage you to consider, if you’re able, making a donation, which will be shared equally by the Twain House and Hartford Stage. Both organizations deeply appreciate any support you can offer during this challenging time. REGISTER HERE.

Signed copies of Another Day’s Begun are available through The Mark Twain Store.

Howard Sherman is a theater administrator, writer, and advocate. He has been executive director of the American Theatre Wing and the O’Neill Theater Center, managing director of Geva Theatre, general manager of Goodspeed Musicals and public relations director of Hartford Stage. He was also interim director of the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts and has worked at Manhattan Theatre Club, the Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays, and the Westport Country Playhouse. Since 2012, he has been the US columnist for The Stage newspaper in London, and in 2018 was named Contributing Editor of Stage Directions magazine.

Melia Bensussen is the Artistic Director of Hartford Stage. Previously she was the Chair of the Performing Arts Department at Emerson College in Boston.  While in Boston Melia directed productions at the Huntington Theater, Merrimack Repertory, Sleeping Weazel and Actors Shakespeare Project.  Around the country she has directed at Baltimore Centerstage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, the New York Shakespeare Festival, MCC, Primary Stages, the Long Wharf, ATL, People’s Light, San Jose Rep, and many others.  Raised in Mexico City, Melia is fluent in Spanish and has translated/adapted a variety of works, including her edition of the Langston Hughes translation of Lorca’s Blood Wedding, published by TCG.  A winner of an OBIE award, she is the Chair of the Arts Advisory Board for the Princess Grace Foundation.  She has been a member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers since 1990, and currently serves as the Secretary for the Executive Board.

Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are made possible in part by support from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign and its Travelers Arts Impact Grant program, with major support from The Travelers Foundation.