Austin Arts Center at Trinity College

Austin Arts Center at Trinity College The hub of artistic life at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Box Office: Mon-Fri, 10:00 a.
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The Austin Arts Center is home to the Music, Studio Arts, and Theater and Dance Departments. Students throughout Trinity College engage in a wide range of arts opportunities, both through academic courses and extracurricular activities. Students do not need to major in the arts to perform in a play, a musical, a musical ensemble, or a dance performance, or gain skills in backstage theatrical work,

or take a studio arts class. The Austin Arts Center houses a large proscenium theater, black box theater, and recital hall, as well as a recording studio, electronic music lab, art gallery, art studios, classrooms, and music practice rooms. Theater and dance studio classrooms and an additional performance space are located in Trinity Commons.

TWO PERFORMANCES THIS WEDNESDAY!Trinity/La Mama Showcase
Wed, Dec 11 (4:30pm & 7:30pm)
Performance Lab (Trinity Commons)...
12/09/2024

TWO PERFORMANCES THIS WEDNESDAY!

Trinity/La Mama Showcase
Wed, Dec 11 (4:30pm & 7:30pm)
Performance Lab (Trinity Commons)

An evening of original multidisciplinary theater and dance performances created by the students of the Trinity/La MaMa study away class of Fall 2024. This performance is the culmination of TLM, an intensive performing arts program, where throughout the semester the cohort immerse themselves in the diverse art scenes and everyday life of New York City. They explore a wide range of approaches to creating performance: from puppetry to butoh, clowning to vogueing, improvisation to writing solo performance. This show is the culmination of their artistic experiences, experimentations, and on-going discoveries.

To find out more about the Trinity/La MaMa program and how you can apply, please visit our website: www.trinitylamama.org

SOLD OUT BUT THE WAITLIST IS OPEN (via the AAC box office). It will be an intimate audience, but we anticipate being abl...
12/03/2024

SOLD OUT BUT THE WAITLIST IS OPEN (via the AAC box office). It will be an intimate audience, but we anticipate being able to accommodate a few more people at the door.

In Bodies Becoming: Three Evenings of Choreographic Research a company of student dancers stretch their minds and bodies, engaging in three distinct models of choreographic inquiry over the course of the semester. Each evening combines embodied experimentation with discussion, highlighting the ongoing choreographic research of artists Rebecca Pappas (September 26), Sara Smith (October 24), and Brandon Couloutte (December 5). 

The series ends with The Breakthrough, a live hip hop concert experience featuring Brandon Coulote and singer Marcus Rodriguez alongside professional and student dancers in an unforgettable, high-energy evening.



“BALTIMORE” OPENS TONIGHT!(Photos by John Atashian)Trinity’s Department of Theater and Dance proudly presents “Baltimore...
11/21/2024

“BALTIMORE” OPENS TONIGHT!
(Photos by John Atashian)

Trinity’s Department of Theater and Dance proudly presents “Baltimore” on November 21-23 in AAC’s Goodwin Theater. Directed by Godfrey Simmons (Artistic Director of HartBeat Ensemble and THDN faculty member), the play is a timely provocation to consider how we are conditioned to see one another. “When you see me, what do you see?”

BALTIMORE
Thurs-Sat, Nov 21-23 (7:30pm)
Sat, Nov 23 (2pm)
Goodwin Theater (AAC)

Written by Kristen Greenidge
Directed by Godfrey Simmons

When a racially-charged incident divides her first-year students, reluctant resident advisor Shelby finds herself in the middle of a conversation she does not want to have. As pressure to address the controversy mounts from residents, the new dean, and even her best friend, Shelby must decide if she will enter the fray or watch her community come apart at the seams. Sharp, funny, and searing, Baltimore is a timely drama about racism on college campuses.

Baltimore is produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc. www.playscripts.com.


OPENS THURSDAY! RESERVE YOUR TICKETS TODAY!Trinity’s Department of Theater and Dance proudly presents “Baltimore” on Nov...
11/19/2024

OPENS THURSDAY! RESERVE YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

Trinity’s Department of Theater and Dance proudly presents “Baltimore” on November 21-23 in AAC’s Goodwin Theater. Directed by Godfrey Simmons (Artistic Director of HartBeat Ensemble and THDN faculty member), the play is a timely provocation to consider how we are conditioned to see one another. “When you see me, what do you see?”

BALTIMORE
Thurs-Sat, Nov 21-23 (7:30pm)
Sat, Nov 23 (2pm)
Goodwin Theater (AAC)

Written by Kristen Greenidge
Directed by Godfrey Simmons

When a racially-charged incident divides her first-year students, reluctant resident advisor Shelby finds herself in the middle of a conversation she does not want to have. As pressure to address the controversy mounts from residents, the new dean, and even her best friend, Shelby must decide if she will enter the fray or watch her community come apart at the seams. Sharp, funny, and searing, Baltimore is a timely drama about racism on college campuses.

Baltimore is produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc. www.playscripts.com.


“BALTIMORE” OPENS THIS WEEK!Trinity’s Department of Theater and Dance proudly presents “Baltimore” on November 21-23 in ...
11/18/2024

“BALTIMORE” OPENS THIS WEEK!

Trinity’s Department of Theater and Dance proudly presents “Baltimore” on November 21-23 in AAC’s Goodwin Theater. Directed by Godfrey Simmons (Artistic Director of HartBeat Ensemble and THDN faculty member), the play is a timely provocation to consider how we are conditioned to see one another. “When you see me, what do you see?”

BALTIMORE
Thurs-Sat, Nov 21-23 (7:30pm)
Sat, Nov 23 (2pm)
Goodwin Theater (AAC)

Written by Kristen Greenidge
Directed by Godfrey Simmons

When a racially-charged incident divides her first-year students, reluctant resident advisor Shelby finds herself in the middle of a conversation she does not want to have. As pressure to address the controversy mounts from residents, the new dean, and even her best friend, Shelby must decide if she will enter the fray or watch her community come apart at the seams. Sharp, funny, and searing, Baltimore is a timely drama about racism on college campuses.

Baltimore is produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc. www.playscripts.com.


NEXT WEEK! Trinity’s Department of Theater and Dance proudly presents “Baltimore” on November 21-23 in AAC’s Goodwin The...
11/12/2024

NEXT WEEK! Trinity’s Department of Theater and Dance proudly presents “Baltimore” on November 21-23 in AAC’s Goodwin Theater. Directed by Godfrey Simmons (Artistic Director of HartBeat Ensemble and THDN faculty member), the play is a timely provocation to consider how we are conditioned to see one another. “When you see me, what do you see?”

BALTIMORE
Thurs-Sat, Nov 21-23 (7:30pm)
Sat, Nov 23 (2pm)
Goodwin Theater (AAC)

Written by Kristen Greenidge
Directed by Godfrey Simmons

When a racially-charged incident divides her first-year students, reluctant resident advisor Shelby finds herself in the middle of a conversation she does not want to have. As pressure to address the controversy mounts from residents, the new dean, and even her best friend, Shelby must decide if she will enter the fray or watch her community come apart at the seams. Sharp, funny, and searing, Baltimore is a timely drama about racism on college campuses.

Baltimore is produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc. www.playscripts.com.


Trinity’s Department of Theater and Dance proudly presents “Baltimore” on November 21-23 in AAC’s Goodwin Theater. Direc...
11/07/2024

Trinity’s Department of Theater and Dance proudly presents “Baltimore” on November 21-23 in AAC’s Goodwin Theater. Directed by Godfrey Simmons (Artistic Director of HartBeat Ensemble and THDN faculty member), the play is a timely provocation to consider how we are conditioned to see one another. Reserve your tickets today!

“When you see me, what do you see?”

BALTIMORE
Thurs-Sat, Nov 21-23 (7:30pm)
Sat, Nov 23 (2pm)
Goodwin Theater (AAC)

Written by Kristen Greenidge
Directed by Godfrey Simmons

When a racially-charged incident divides her first-year students, reluctant resident advisor Shelby finds herself in the middle of a conversation she does not want to have. As pressure to address the controversy mounts from residents, the new dean, and even her best friend, Shelby must decide if she will enter the fray or watch her community come apart at the seams. Sharp, funny, and searing, Baltimore is a timely drama about racism on college campuses.

Baltimore is produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc. www.playscripts.com.


EXPLORING ELIA SULEIMAN: A RETROSPECTIVEThis series of Palestinian films by Elia Suleiman begins at Cinestudio TONIGHT, ...
11/01/2024

EXPLORING ELIA SULEIMAN: A RETROSPECTIVE

This series of Palestinian films by Elia Suleiman begins at Cinestudio TONIGHT, with support from the Trinity Arts Initiative!

“Chronicles of a Disappearance” (1996)
Fri, Nov 1 at 7pm

“Divine Intervention” (2002)
Fri, Nov 8 at 7pm

“The Time That Remains” (2009)
Fri, Nov 15 at 7pm

Posted • 🎬 Tonight Only! Join us for a special FREE screening of Elia Suleiman’s debut feature, Chronicle of a Disappearance. This award-winning film, capturing the restlessness and uncertainty stemming from Palestinian statelessness, offers a rare glimpse into Suleiman’s masterful storytelling. Winner of the Best First Film at the 1996 Venice Film Festival, it’s a must-see for fans of thought-provoking cinema. Showtime is at 7pm—don’t miss this landmark film as part of our series- Elia Suleiman: A Retrospective!

TONIGHT: ENCOUNTERS DIALOGUE!TU, OCT 29 (6-8PM)Garmany Hall, Austin Arts CenterJoin us this evening for this final speci...
10/29/2024

TONIGHT: ENCOUNTERS DIALOGUE!
TU, OCT 29 (6-8PM)
Garmany Hall, Austin Arts Center

Join us this evening for this final special event to amplify HartBeat Ensemble’s production of “Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing” at Trinity College. Encounters is a conversation model run through UConn’s Democracy and Dialogues Initiative project to foster unexpected conversations around divisive issues and obscure knowledge. Through facilitated, small-
group dialogues, we will dive deeply into the themes of Jimmy and Lorraine together. The aim is to strengthen our ability to know ourselves and develop a forum for respectful and challenging dialogues.

Tonight’s event will provide a place to consider the politics of loneliness and how we choose our battles (through the lens of Lorraine Hansberry and James Baldwin). This will be an intimate, generative, and reflective space—an emotional resource for next week’s election.
 
Refreshments will be served.

Tonight’s the night (10/24) to join Sara Smith and the ensemble she’s gathered from our campus to imagine interdependent...
10/24/2024

Tonight’s the night (10/24) to join Sara Smith and the ensemble she’s gathered from our campus to imagine interdependent/interconnected futures in movement and song.

Posted • It’s been such a treat to work with these sweet, thoughtful, insightful students over the past few weeks. I’m excited to share what we’ve been working on with the Trinity College community tomorrow night.

Be sure to join us for the second installation of “Bodies Becoming: Three Evenings of Choreographic Research” in the Per...
10/22/2024

Be sure to join us for the second installation of “Bodies Becoming: Three Evenings of Choreographic Research” in the Performance Lab (Trinity Commons) this Thursday, October 24 (7:30pm). Tickets are free, though reservations are required.

In “Bodies Becoming: Three Evenings of Choreographic Research”, a company of student dancers stretch their minds and bodies, engaging in three distinct models of choreographic inquiry over the course of the semester. Each evening combines embodied experimentation with discussion, highlighting the ongoing choreographic research of artists Rebecca Pappas (September 26), Sara Smith (October 24), and Brandon Couloute (December 5).

In her excerpt of “Inside the Breath (In Network Time),” Sara Smith (10/24) imagines a utopia rooted in ecological and social questions and the theories of Gloria Anzaldúa as modeled by octopuses.




After a fabulous opening weekend, we head into the second (and final) week of “Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing.” If you hav...
10/15/2024

After a fabulous opening weekend, we head into the second (and final) week of “Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing.” If you haven’t already reserved your ticket, DO IT. And, as part of the “Jimmy and Lorraine” engagement series, Austin Arts Center and HartBeat Ensemble offer a screening of “Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart” this Thursday evening followed by a conversation with the film’s director, Tracy Strain.

“Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart” is the first-ever feature documentary about Lorraine Hansberry, the visionary playwright who authored the groundbreaking A Raisin in the Sun. An overnight sensation, the play transformed the American theater and has long been considered a classic, yet the remarkable story of the playwright faded from view. With this documentary, filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain resurrects the Lorraine Hansberry we have forgotten—a passionate artist, committed activist, and sought-after public intellectual who waged an outspoken and defiant battle against injustice in 20th-century America. The film reveals Hansberry’s prescient works tackling race, human rights, women’s equality and sexuality that anticipated social and political movements on the horizon. Lorraine Hansberry lived much of her 34 years guided by a deep sense of responsibility to others, proclaiming: “One cannot live with sighted eyes and feeling heart and not know or react to the miseries which afflict this world.”

(artwork by Andres Chaparro)


Posted  • .ensemble The cast of HartBeat Ensemble’s JIMMY AND LORRAINE: A MUSING is in rehearsal and preparing for our f...
10/06/2024

Posted • .ensemble The cast of HartBeat Ensemble’s JIMMY AND LORRAINE: A MUSING is in rehearsal and preparing for our first performance this Thursday night! Don’t miss our stellar cast - Jon-Michael Reese (on left as James Baldwin), Nick Roesler (various roles) and Vanessa R. Butler (on right as Lorraine Hansberry) - when they start performances at Austin Arts Center at Trinity College on October 10. Tickets for all six shows are FREE, but registration is required: http://q-r.to/JimmyandLorraine to RSVP.

Posted  • .ensemble CAST CLOSE-UP on Nick Roesler Austin Arts Center at Trinity College presents HartBeat Ensemble’s pro...
10/04/2024

Posted • .ensemble CAST CLOSE-UP on Nick Roesler
Austin Arts Center at Trinity College presents HartBeat Ensemble’s production of
JIMMY AND LORRAINE: A MUSING
October 10-19; FREE event, but reservations are required. Click here to reserve: http://q-r.to/JimmyandLorraine

Nick Roesler* (Lucien Happersberger, Norman Mailer, Robert Nemiroff, Robert F. Kennedy…and others) recent roles include Adam in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged (Valley Shakespeare Festival); Karl Lindner/Steve in Clybourne Park (Music Theatre of Connecticut, nominated for Featured Actor CT Critics Circle); Joe in Heaven Can Wait (Saybrook Stage); Jacques in As You Like It and Sir John Fallstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor (Capital Classics Theatre); and Gary in Our Few and Evil Days (Inis Nua Theatre). Nick is also an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Central Connecticut State University. nickroesler.net

Posted  • .ensemble CAST CLOSE-UP on Jon-Michael Reese as James Baldwin in Austin Arts Center at Trinity College present...
10/03/2024

Posted • .ensemble CAST CLOSE-UP on Jon-Michael Reese as James Baldwin in
Austin Arts Center at Trinity College presents HartBeat Ensemble’s production of
JIMMY AND LORRAINE: A MUSING
October 10-19; FREE event, but reservations are required. Click here to reserve: http://q-r.to/JimmyandLorraine

Jon-Michael Reese* (James Baldwin) Favorite roles include The Fires (Soho Rep), A Strange Loop (Broadway), White Girl in Danger (Second Stage), Jimmy and Lorraine (Pillsbury), This Bitter Earth (Penumbra), Theo (Two River), Marry Me a Little (New Ohio), Nikola Tesla Drops The Beat ( ATF), Man of la Mancha, To Let Go and Fall (Theatre Latté Da), Lear (Exit Pursued By Bear); My Heart is the Drum (Village Theatre), Gregory Award for Outstanding Actor). jon-michael.com

Posted  • .ensemble CAST CLOSE-UP on Vanessa R. Butler (Lorraine Hansberry) in Austin Arts Center at Trinity College pre...
10/01/2024

Posted • .ensemble CAST CLOSE-UP on Vanessa R. Butler (Lorraine Hansberry) in
Austin Arts Center at Trinity College presents HartBeat Ensemble’s production of
JIMMY AND LORRAINE: A MUSING
October 10-19; FREE event, but reservations are required. Click here to reserve: http://q-r.to/JimmyandLorraine

Vanessa R Butler* (Lorraine Hansberry) New York credits include The Comedy of Errors, Lear: That Old Man I Used to Know (Smith Street Stage); 48 Hours in Harlem (Harlem 9); Sc******ng (INTAR Theatre); Terminus (NYTW: Next Door); The Colony (Columbia Univ/Signature Theater). Regional credits include The Odyssey (Alley Theatre); Queens for a Year, A Christmas Carol (Hartford Stage); Gross Domestic Product, Jimmy and Lorraine, Possessing Harriet (HartBeat Ensemble); Romeo & Juliet (Capital Classics Theatre Company); Freedom in 3 Acts (Bated Breath Theater Company); Khalas (Collective Consciousness Theater). TV/Film credits include Billions, Law & Order, FBI:Most Wanted, Law & Order SVU(NBC), Holiday for Heroes (Hallmark). Vanessa is the the Connecticut Critics Circle Award 2017 recipient for Outstanding Actress in a Play, Education: California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) MFA in Acting. www.vanessarbutler.com

DON’T MISS these opportunities to engage with our guest artists’ creative processes THIS WEEK!TOMORROW! Tues, October 1 ...
09/30/2024

DON’T MISS these opportunities to engage with our guest artists’ creative processes THIS WEEK!

TOMORROW! Tues, October 1 (6-7pm)
Open Rehearsal of “Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing” in Garmany Hall (AAC).
Join us for a peek into HartBeat Ensemble’s creative process during their residency at AAC and in preparation for the play’s opening in Goodwin Theater next week.

Wed, October 2 (3pm)
Cacophony Walk beginning in Dangremond Family Commons
CACOPHONY is an experiential art excursion series created collaboratively by choreographer Sara Smith and artist Gina Siepel. These walks focus on the act of listening as we move through an environment, and are intended as
introductions to practicing deep awareness and de-habituation from everyday experiences of a place.

We are thrilled to present six performances of HartBeat Ensemble’s acclaimed production of “Jimmy & Lorraine: A Musing” ...
09/28/2024

We are thrilled to present six performances of HartBeat Ensemble’s acclaimed production of “Jimmy & Lorraine: A Musing” in the Austin Arts Center from October 10-19! Talvin Wilk’s poetic and political play focuses on the friendship between two groundbreaking Black American writers and activists, Lorraine Hansberry and James Baldwin. The production kicks off HartBeat Ensemble’s James Baldwin Centennial Season and will launches AAC’s renewed guest artist programming.

(artwork by Andres Chaparro)

JIMMY AND LORRAINE: A MUSING
October 10-19, 2024
Austin Arts Center
Trinity College
Hartford, CT

“Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing” is supported in part by Austin Arts Center and Trinity College, J. Walton Bissell Foundation, Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts, Greater Hartford Council for the Arts, The Roberts Foundation, and Travelers. Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing was originally produced by HartBeat Ensemble in 2016 at the Carriage House Theater in Hartford, CT, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, CT Humanities, the Greater Hartford Arts Council, and the Amistad Center for Arts & Culture.

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300 Summit Street
Hartford, CT
06106

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