Hartford Stage's Staging of Rare Williams Work A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur Taped for Lincoln Center Archives

By Ernio Hernandez
April 28, 2006

Hartford Stage's current production of the rarely produced Tennessee Williams drama A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur will be preserved on video by The Theatre on Film and Tape Archive of the New York Public Library for Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

The Archive has previously recorded the company's productions of Camino Real (1999), The Glass Menagerie (2001) and 8 by Tenn (2003). The recording will take place at the performance on May 4.

Hartford artistic director Michael Wilson (Enchanted April) directs the play, which began April 6 and opens April 14 at the Connecticut company's home for a run to May 7. Joan van Ark, Annalee Jefferies, Carlin Glynn and Jayne Taini star.

Continuing the company's exploration of Williams' canon, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur is a comedy about four women in a St. Louis boarding house near the title lake during the Depression. The staging marks the eighth entry in the Hartford's ongoing Tennessee Williams Marathon, which began in 1998.

Van Ark — known for her television role as Valene Ewing on "Knots Landing" — has previously been seen on stage in Barefoot in the Park, The School for Wives and The Rules of the Game on Broadway and Love Letters, Three Tall Women and The Exonerated Off-Broadway. She recently appeared in the La Jolla Playhouse staging of Private Fittings.

Joining her in the cast are Jefferies (The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue, Bad Dates), Glynn ("Sixteen Candles," The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) and Taini (Enchanted April, "Boston Legal").

The design team includes Jeff Cowie (scenic), Rui Rita (lighting), David C. Woolard (costumes) and John Gromada (sound).

Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune — starring Robert Clohessy and Portia — will follow the Williams work, May 18-June 18 to end the season for the company.

Tickets to shows at Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street in downtown Hartford, CT will be available by calling (860) 527-5151 . For more information, visit www.hartfordstage.org.