Hartford’s TheaterWorks is a crown jewel in New England’s cultural scene, known for over 30 years as a theatre company that showcases non-traditional plays and new works that are far from mainstream. At TheaterWorks this past season, Richard Dreyfuss starred in Relativity, a new Mark St. Germain play about Albert Einstein; food chef Rossi was profiled in Jacques Lamarre’s deliciously funny Raging Skillet; and audiences were treated to a sensitive production of the award-winning musical Next to Normal, a poignant story of a family’s dealing with bipolar disorders. Even the holidays get a different twist with the annual Christmas On The Rocks, a series of playlets that turn traditional Christmas tales into hysterically funny non-traditional laughs.

Rob Ruggiero, the visionary producing director of TheaterWorks since 2012, and a member of the theater’s artistic leadership for 24 years, has put the intimate downtown Hartford theater on the national map. He’s directed over 50 productions for TheaterWorks, and stewards the theater’s other plays and musicals.

The road to TheaterWorks began in Milford, Massachusetts, where Ruggiero grew up. He attended Stonehill College. After school, he started as an actor, but held a variety of jobs, from running a frame shop to working at a nursing home, to starting a non-professional theatre. But, he wanted to direct, so he went to Rutgers. He was teaching at Rutgers and directing in regional theatres, building a solid free-lance career, when he met TheaterWorks’ founder, Steve Campo. He was invited to Hartford. He kept coming back, until he moved to Hartford in 2010.

Rob Ruggiero on the set of Next to Normal, photo by Lanny Nagler.

Ruggiero’s artistry extends beyond Hartford. His Broadway credits include Looped (starring Valerie Harper in a Tony-nominated performance) and High (starring Kathleen Turner). Off-Broadway, he conceived and directed the original musical revue Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn. Ruggiero conceived and directed the world premiere musical portrait of Ella Fitzgerald entitled Ella, which has been seen on more than 24 regional theater stages nationally. His production of Stephen Sondheim’s landmark musical Follies won awards in St. Louis this year.

Ruggiero is also a familiar face at Goodspeed Musicals, down river from Hartford in East Haddam, Connecticut, where he’s staged La Cage Aux Folles, Fiddler on The Roof, The Most Happy Fella, Carousel, and Showboat. He received Connecticut Critics Circle Awards and Broadway World Awards for those musicals. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization now licenses his version of Showboat for regional theater productions.

The cast of Goodspeed’s The Most Happy Fella, directed by Rob Ruggiero. Photo by Diane Sobolewski.,

Currently, Ruggiero is working on his 10th production at Goodspeed, a revival of Rags, the famous musical flop of 1986. Featuring a book by Joseph Stein, who wrote Fiddler On The Roof, music by Charles Strouse of Bye Bye, Birdie fame, and lyrics by Wicked’s Stephen Schwartz, Rags told the story of European Jews trying to make a new life in America, after arriving on Ellis Island. The musical starred Teresa Stratas, an acclaimed Metropolitan Opera star making her Broadway debut, alongside veteran Broadway actor Larry Kert, and up-and-coming star Terrence Mann, who’s now Artistic Director of Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s Nutmeg Summer Series. Rags closed after a handful of performances, but a cast recording was made. The musical developed a cult following because of its exquisite score, and Goodspeed, masters of reviving musicals that deserve a second chance, are reworking Rags, with Ruggiero at the helm.

“We are completely revisiting Rags, with Stephen Schwartz and Charles Strouse actively involved in the process. David Thompson is revising the script penned by the late Joseph Stein. We’ve refocused the role of the leading lady, dropped some characters, rewritten or added others,” says Ruggiero, who added that Goodspeed, known for giving neglected musicals a second chance, has been working on it for months. Rags runs October 6 through December 10.

Rob Ruggiero–Artistic Director, TheaterWorks
Hartford, Connecticut
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Goodspeed Musicals
Haddam, Connecticut
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Top image: Christiane Noll and David Harris from Ruggiero’s production of Next to Normal, photo by Lanny Nagler

The post The Man Behind the Curtain appeared first on Take Magazine.

In his studio, Jason Werner is surrounded by stars. The walls contain his paintings of the night sky and deep space, subjects that have fascinated the artist for decades. Several of his latest works, entitled Starfield 3-6, were recently displayed at EBK Gallery in Hartford.

Werner has been drawing since a young age. From the beginning, he says, “the simple act of making black dots on white paper was fascinating to me.” Transfixed by deep field images from the Hubble Space telescope, he has worked to capture scenes at the furthest limit of human perception. Like the those images, his Starfield paintings at first seem deceptively simple: points of color on a dark background.

Yet it is immediately apparent that these works aren’t meant to reproduce photographs. These large, mesmerizing canvases possess an incredible depth of field and a subtle variance in color. More than simple documents of far-off places, they are human creations that capture a sense of wonder.

EBK Gallery owner Eric Ben-Kiki with Jason Werner, Starfield series

This quality was what attracted EBK Gallery owner Eric Ben-Kiki to the works. “There’s a pretty cool substance to them,” he says. “They’re very minimal, but very dense.” The paintings seemed to exert a gravitational pull in the gallery, frequently drawing viewers in off the street. Ben-Kiki, a pioneer in the Hartford gallery scene, amplified this effect by keeping the pieces lit until midnight each evening.

Starfield 3-6 may or may not contain identifiable parts of the night sky—though viewers looking for Orion or the Big Dipper will come up short. “I want people to kind of not know where they are in the sky,” Werner says. He believes this disorientation emphasizes the images’ abstract nature, which helps viewers focus on the spaces in between the points of color.

Although the subjects of the Starfield paintings are light years away, New England remains the center of Werner’s creative universe. He thrives on proximity to the natural environments that shaped writers like Emerson and Thoreau, and these places not only fuel his creativity, but also directly inform his landscapes.

Twisting Trees Rocks, Jason Werner

Unlike his long-standing fascination with the cosmos, it took Werner years to find his own path to painting landscapes. It was only when he began working on fully abstracted pieces alongside his landscapes that he felt a unique approach develop. The two styles began to gradually merge until, according to Werner, “I felt it was me on the canvas.” Thick underbrush and choked trails are palpable in his landscapes, which feature slashing, angular strokes and muted palettes. The scenes are often unruly, which Werner says is part of his goal. “I like chaos,” he says. Werner plans to exhibit some landscapes in November at a show at Northwestern Community College in Winsted, Connecticut.

It’s perhaps fitting that so much of Werner’s work deals with celestial and terrestrial themes, as his paintings provide an apt encapsulation of the artist himself—feet firmly planted in New England, but reaching for the stars.

Jason Werner–artist
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Top image: Starfield 4, Jason Werner, photo courtesy of Jason Werner

The post Hartford’s Star Painter appeared first on Take Magazine.

It started as many of life’s greatest moments do: with the smell of bacon. Jacques Lamarre was at a book expo in New York City, browsing the new releases. And there he was, just hanging around in the small- and academic-press aisle—the best aisle—when he smelled it. Bacon.

“I was like, ‘That’s always of interest,’” says Lamarre. He followed the aroma to a feminist-press booth and it was fronted by the mono-monikered celebrity Chef Rossi, with a tray of peanut butter bacon sandwiches. She was signing her memoir, The Raging Skillet: The True Life Story of Chef Rossi, a Memoir with Recipes.

“I was standing in line with the book, reading the back of it,” Lamarre says. “And by the time I got up to talk to her, I said, ‘Would you be interested in seeing this become a play?’”

Chef Rossi, the muse behind Lamarre’s new play, The Raging Skillet.

When Lamarre moved to Hartford in 1990—he’d been offered a job at Hartford Stage—he fell in love with Hartford’s “tremendous art scene,” he says. Since then, he’s become a staple of that scene. In addition to Hartford Stage, he’s worked with the Hartford Symphony, the Mark Twain House, Real Art Ways, The Wadsworth Atheneum, among others. And he’s an accomplished playwright—The Raging Skillet is his 12th full-length play, and his third for TheaterWorks, where it will premiere on July 20.

Photo of (l to r) Ronn Carroll and Harry Bouvy in Christmas on the Rocks, photo by Lanny Nagler.

Lamarre calls his latest play “the first punk-rock, lesbian, Jewish catering show.” The Raging Skillet, which Lamarre worked on closely with Chef Rossi (and which will star Mary Testa and Barbara Rosenblat, whom you’ll recognize from Netflix’s Orange is the New Black), honors the book’s quirky format, with recipes actually being made on stage.

“It’s going to be very fun,” says Lamarre. “There’s going to be a lot of music, cooking on stage, comedy, and mama drama.” Chef Rossi herself is coming to Hartford to see her story on the big stage, too. (“She is beyond excited about this,” Lamarre says.)

Jacques Lamarre

“I love Hartford,” he continues. “It’s been so good for me and so good to me. I’ve been able to make an impact in the cultural scene here that I don’t think I would be able to do in a place like New York. But also I just find the people in the region to be so wonderful. I’m so lucky to have this community.”

Jacques Lamarre–playwright
Hartford, Connecticut
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Top image Antoinette LaVecchia in I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti at TheaterWorks. Photo by Lanny Nagler.

The post A Life in Recipes appeared first on Take Magazine.

After graduating from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, Jeffrey Devereux could’ve gone anywhere. A highly motivated and enterprising 20-something, Devereux could’ve followed his ambition to New York, Chicago, L.A., or any of the other major markets in the country. Instead he created the Know Good Market in Hartford’s Parkville neighborhood.

“I saw opportunity in Hartford where other people would see opportunity in New York or Boston,” Devereux says. “There’s a lot of places where there’s a need to create new things and create more value in a place. That’s what I saw in Hartford. As an entrepreneur, that’s how I stubbornly chose to think about it.”

The Know Good Market is a monthly food and craft festival celebrating the local food, art and music scene. Devereux started it more than a year ago to give entrepreneurs and ambitious chefs an opportunity and space to test their enterprises.

Know Good Market, photo by Erik Williams, Black Frame Vision

So far, so very good. “We’ve gotten [Know Good] to a place where the vendors are doing really great and the community seems to like it,” Devereux says. When the first one launched in the fall of 2015, it was just a couple of food trucks and craft vendors, and a couple hundred people in attendance. Now, the festival, comprising about eight food trucks, about as many craft vendors, craft brewers and, most recently, a live music stage, draws between 500 and 600 people. That’s good for the local businesses operating out of trucks and from behind tables each month at Know Good.

“One of the things we always wanted to do is make sure there’s strong pathways for local people who wanted to start a food business,” Devereux says. He’s a founder and partner of Breakfast Lunch and Dinner, the venture-building firm behind Know Good, which located in an adjacent building to the market. Breakfast Lunch and Dinner specializes in social enterprise, public art projects, community events, and other forms of entrepreneurship in Hartford. “We’re a place where businesses can be incubated,” he says.

Photo by Erik Williams

“That’s what we’re in the middle of creating now,” Devereux says. “We’re really excited about creating that economic pathway. We’re not going to make people lots of money overnight. But the food business is a good business if you can figure out what you’re doing and find your market. If our vendors are doing well, then we’re doing well.”

Know Good Market
Hartford, Connecticut
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Top image by Erik Williams, Black Frame Vision

The post The Good Stuff appeared first on Take Magazine.

Toni Johnson’s radiant energy cannot be missed. Adorned in bright colors and multiple pieces of jewelry, she emits warmth with a glance and a joyous laugh. Now residing in Hartford, Connecticut, with her “twin-flame” and love, Azua Echevarria (owner of Age Into Beauty), Johnson’s healing creativity is seen in her unique jewelry, Rework Creative, and several projects with her partner including the Wild Women’s Collective.

Johnson has lived many lives: as a hairdresser post high school, a singer with a record deal at Capitol Records, a photography stylist, and now as a jewelry designer who uses the power of stones for both aesthetic beauty and healing. “You know I have always been a healer. Whether through singing or counseling friends, it has always flowed naturally from me,” Johnson says. “I have always held a lot of healing joy for the world around me.”

Johnson’s journey into metalsmithing and jewelry design began as part of her own self healing after experiencing a lull in her music career and leaving California to become a photo studio stylist in New York City in the early 2000s. “I moved to New York to take a break from music and found a career that I felt I could do full-time until I found another path in music,” she says. “But then I realized that my music path had just come to an end and I turned to making jewelry to help with my own grief—the grief of losing my music career, the grief of losing a lover—and it became something of my own.”

Toni Johnson, Rework Creative, photo by Roy Photography

Channeling her creativity to heal isn’t that surprising. After all, Johnson has been creative since early childhood. “My grandmother would always say, ‘There is nothing new under the sun,’ and it’s true. Everything we do is just a reworking and reinterpretation of the things we experience around us,” Johnson says. The concept of “reworking” is at the heart of Rework Creative, where Johnson incorporates the healing powers of earthbound metals, minerals, and stones to reimagine and reinvent their beauty through jewelry.

Toni Johnson, Rework Creative, photo by Steve Ben-Shalom

After experiencing a life-changing car accident, Johnson says her body began to undergo physical and psychic changes. At that time, her jewelry shifted from beadwork to increased use of crystals and copper metals, both conduits for energetic healing. As friends and strangers expressed interest in her work, she decided to begin selling her work in 2008. “Crystals are very reactive to mental energy, so as I create, it is all about implementing love vibrations,” she says. “And I get responses from clients and customers that they can feel this in their pieces, so it reinstates and validates the work that I am doing.”

Toni Johnson, Rework Creative, photo by Roy Photography

Although Johnson has been offered a chance to mass produce her designs and sell in larger retail stores, she has decided to stay grassroots with her work. “I have turned down the opportunity to sell my work to larger vendors because I want my jewelry to always be from my hands. It is my baby,” she says. “I charge all of the pieces myself through song and touch, and that is what makes the work so special, because I am energetically connected to those who wear my jewelry, and I try to bring joy directly to them.”

Johnson has sold her work to artists and musicians all over the world, including pieces commissioned for Lily Tomlin for her role in the Netflix series, Grace and Frankie. She is currently a part of Brunch of Art, put on by the Wild Women’s Collective, as well as collaborating with Echevarria and Hartford-based dancer Arien Wilkerson on a play called Universal Womb that is still in process. Besides creating jewelry, Johnson also works as a healer doing mineral prescriptions and collaborating on artwork with her partner.

Toni Johnson–jewelry designer, Rework Creative
New Haven, Connecticut
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Top image by Roy Photography

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