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Capital Community College and Hartford Stage

“One Play” Collaboration Continues

By Andy Hart

February 02, 2012

The Tony award-winning theatre, Hartford Stage, and the city’s only public undergraduate college, Capital Community College, are more than neighbors – they are partners. The two institutions across the street from one another have joined forces to expose students to the world of theatre through a new collaboration dubbed One Play.

Modeled after the public library’s successful “One Book” program, One Play, which began in 2011, focuses the attention of the entire college each semester on a single play offered by Hartford Stage. The program includes special events related to each play, such as lectures, panel discussions with actors, and professional development opportunities for faculty. Many instructors also include the play in their courses. Capital Community College nights at Hartford Stage offer students, staff and faculty discounted tickets and include a pre-play pizza reception at the college.

Last semester more than 400 from Capital Community College, over 300 of whom were students, attended the first One Play, which was Water by the Spoonful, by Quiara Alegria Hudes, about a Latino family in contemporary America. An award-winning author of plays, musicals, screenplays and other literary works, Hudes spoke to a packed house at Capital – about her writing process, her background, and details about this play and other projects she is working on. Students were riveted by her personal accounts of family relationships and what drives her to write.

The next One Play is The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez, about a Jewish Confederate soldier who has returned from battle in the aftermath of the Civil War, and two former slaves who were raised as Jews in his household. Capital Days will be February 29 and March 1 and 3.

“We are thrilled about this partnership with the Hartford Stage,” says Dr. Jeffrey Partridge, Chair of Humanities at Capital. “I take my students to plays every semester, and I’m always amazed at how many of them have never experienced live theatre. Many of them are deeply moved by the experience and are thankful for the opportunity to enjoy something they thought was going to be totally boring. Now with the One Play program, hundreds of students will get to experience live theatre at the Hartford Stage – as a community! That is really exciting.”

To find out more about One Play and other cultural programs at Capital Community College, contact Dr. Partridge at jpartridge@ccc.commnet.edu or 860-906-5191.