TheaterWorks Hartford has announced a 12-performance extension of its World Premiere production of CIRCUS FIRE, now scheduled to run through May 31, 2026.
The extension includes additional Sunday evening performances on April 26, May 3, May 10, and May 17, as well as a special Sunday matinee on May 24. The production will also continue for an added week, with performances running from Wednesday, May 27 through Sunday, May 31. Circus Fire is written by Connecticut-based playwright Jacques Lamarre (TWH’s Christmas on the Rocks, I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti), multimedia experience and direction by Jared Mezzocchi (TWH’s Sandra), and is conceived by Lamarre, Mezzocchi, and TWH’s Artistic Director Rob Ruggiero. The show will be performed at the historic First Company Governor’s Foot Guard in Downtown Hartford.
In July of 1944, with the nation at war and a heat wave settling over the city, the residents of Hartford, Connecticut eagerly await the arrival of “The Greatest Show on Earth.” The unthinkable occurs when a fire turns the big top into an inferno. In the minutes, hours and days following the blaze, two communities – Hartford and the Circus – find themselves irretrievably intertwined by tragedy, blame, heroism, and healing. This multimedia World Premiere honors the power of community in TheaterWorks Hartford’s 40th Season.
The cast of CIRCUS FIRE includes 10 Connecticut-based actors – Olivia Nicole Hoffman, Caroline Kinsloving, Janelle Anne Robinson, Mike Boland, Constantino Fernandez, Stuart Rider, Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., Marco Verna, Rebecka Jones, and Dan Whelton – and two students from the Hartt School of the Performing Arts – Anastasia Maglaras and Eric Orsini.
The creative team for CIRCUS FIRE includes Brian Prather (Set Design), Arthur Wilson (Costume Design), Rob Denton (Lighting Design), Lindsay Jones (Sound Design), and Tom Kosis (Stage Manager).
CIRCUS FIRE will take place at the First Company’s Governor’s Foot Guard in Downtown Hartford. The move off-site aligns with the play’s themes around remembrance and Hartford-centric history. It also offers TheaterWorks Hartford an exciting canvas of space for the multimedia components of the show, the opportunity to perform the piece in the round, and for TWH to engage in a new community partnership and bring the story into the city of Hartford.
When asked what inspired him to write this play, Jacques Lamarre exclaimed “After putting together programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum with authors who have written about the Hartford Circus Fire and having attended the annual anniversary ceremony at the memorial site, I was struck by how this 1944 event still captivates and haunts us today. I was inspired to create this play to tell the story of how two communities – Hartford and the circus – experienced the fire. It’s important that we remember this tragedy’s heroes, the survivors, and those who lost their lives.”
“Having an opportunity to return to Theaterworks Hartford for a 4th production is an incredible honor, but what makes CIRCUS FIRE a unique experience is that it is going to be site-specific, performed deep within the community,” says Jared Mezzocchi regarding the project. “The First Company Governor’s Foot Guard is filled with history and represents Hartford over multiple decades, so to be creating within its walls about an event within its history and performed by 12 Connecticut-based performers from the city… It’s a dream project. Over the last two years of development with Jacques Lamarre and Rob Ruggiero, this story and script have given me a deep appreciation of Hartford, its citizens, and the complex history it holds. And the entire TWH production team has met this project with inspired enthusiasm to help us create a truly unique experience, incorporating innovative multimedia technology to fill the walls from floor to ceiling with image and sound. I know we will be making something special for this community.”
“CIRCUS FIRE is a centerpiece of our 40th season, and it reflects our commitment to telling stories that genuinely resonate with our community,” says TWH’s artistic director Rob Ruggiero. “I’m especially proud that we’re using an entirely Connecticut-based cast—ten remarkable local actors, joined by two student actors from our partnership with Kevin Ramsey and The Hartt School. It’s a wonderful opportunity to showcase the extraordinary talent that lives right here. Collaborating with playwright Jacques Lamarre and visionary director Jared Mezzocchi makes this project deeply personal; their imaginations have shaped something truly special. And I love that we’re bringing this work out into the community. We’re grateful to The First Company Governor’s Foot Guard for opening their historic doors to us, and we can’t wait for audiences to experience this story in such a meaningful place.”
Performances are on Tuesdays – Saturdays at 7:30pm, and Saturdays – Sundays at 2:30pm. Performance times can be found at twhartford.org. The First Company Governor’s Foot Guard is located at 159 High St., Hartford. The run time is approximately 100 minutes, with no intermission.
Tickets are priced at $25 – 70 (fees not included). All tickets can be purchased online at twhartford.org or by calling the box office at 860.527.7838.
About the Artists:
Jacques Lamarre (Playwright) is a Hartford area-based playwright whose work has been seen on stages across the country. In addition to CIRCUS FIRE, TheaterWorks Hartford has produced the world premieres of his plays I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, Raging Skillet, and Secondo. He is a contributor to their popular holiday hit, CHRISTMAS ON THE ROCKS. He has had plays produced in Connecticut at Seven Angels Theatre, Playhouse on Park, Farmington Valley Stage Company, Hole in the Wall, and Theatre4. He also writes for touring drag performers including Varla Jean Merman, Miss Conception, DIVA!, and Sutton Lee Seymour.
Jared Mezzocchi (Director / Multimedia Experience) is a two-time Obie Award-winning theater artist, working as a director, multimedia designer, playwright, and actor. Based out of New York, Mezzocchi’s work has appeared at notable theaters nationwide, including Playwrights Horizons, Geffen Playhouse, En Garde Arts, Vineyard Theater, The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth (company member), and many more. CIRCUS FIRE will be his fourth production at Theaterworks Hartford (Sandra, Someone Else’s House, Russian Troll Farm). In 2016, he received an Obie Award, the Lucille Lortel and Henry Hewes Award for his multimedia work in Qui Nguyen’s VIETGONE at the Manhattan Theatre club. In 2020, the New York Times spotlighted his multimedia innovations during the pandemic alongside four other theater artists, including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Paula Vogel. His work on Sarah Gancher’s digital production of Russian Troll Farm (at Theaterworks Hartford) was also celebrated as a New York Times critic pick, and praised for being one of the first digitally native successes for virtual theater. In 2023, that production won Mezzocchi his second Obie.
In 2024, Mezzocchi directed The Wind and the Rain: A Story About Sunny’s Bar through En Garde Arts and Vineyard Theater which was performed on a barge in NYC and called “Highbrow Brilliant” by New York Magazine. Last month, Mezzocchi directed The Moderate in Boston at Central Square Theater, and in the Fall he directed SEVERANCE star Jen Tullock in Nothing Can Take You From the Hand of God at Playwrights Horizons. As a playwright/ performer, he was awarded residency in the 2024 Colorado New Play Festival for his work 73 Seconds directed by Aya Ogawa and commissioned by En Garde Arts, premiering this spring in a planetarium in NYC.
Mezzocchi is a two-time MacDowell Artist Fellow, a 2012 Princess Grace Award winner, and recently celebrated his retirement at The University of Maryland, where he taught in the MFA Design program for the projection and multimedia track, a curriculum he created in 2012 that graduated 17 MFA students in Multimedia Design. Mezzocchi has a BA in theater and film from Fairfield University, and an MFA in performance and interactive media arts from Brooklyn College.
Rob Ruggiero (Artistic Director) is in his 14th season as Artistic Director at TheaterWorks Hartford. He has directed dozens of premieres and local favorites including Fever Dreams, Fun Home, The Legend of Georgia McBride, Next to Normal, Relativity (starring Richard Dreyfuss), and Christmas on the Rocks, which he also conceived. Broadway: Looped (starring Valerie Harper); High (starring Kathleen Turner). Rob conceived/directed the musical revue Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn which ran off-Broadway, and conceived/directed the musical Ella. His work can be seen across the country at Goodspeed, The Muny, St. Louis Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, among others.
About TheaterWorks Hartford:
TheaterWorks Hartford, led by Artistic Director Rob Ruggiero and Managing Director Jeff Griffin, has produced relevant, engaging, contemporary theater for 40 years at their historic Pearl St. address. Founded in 1985, TWH is committed to the power of storytelling in creating community and has produced over 200 plays and musicals, including the world premiere of High (with Kathleen Turner), Relativity (with Richard Dreyfuss), and Make Me A Song: The Music of William Finn, among others. Visit us at twhartford.org.
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