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.

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.