Rebecca Kemper Goodheart has been a director, actor, and teacher specializing in Shakespeare and Voice for over 25 years.  She is a designated Linklater Voice teacher who has directed over 30 professional and 50 educational productions.  Currently serving as the Producing Director of Elm Shakespeare Company in New Haven, CT, she has worked with a dozen Shakespeare theaters around the world, and is a proud lifetime member of the Shakespeare Theater Association who chaired the global 2016 Celebration of Shakespeare's Legacy.  Other leadership positions have included Director of Training at SF Shakespeare Festival, Producing Artistic Director for Maryland Shakespeare Festival (an equity theater she founded in 1999), Artistic Director of the Metawhateverphor Theater in NYC, and Director of Education for Baltimore Shakespeare Festival.  She is a classical text and voice teacher at Shakespeare & Co. in Massachusetts and on the theater faculty of Southern CT State University.  She holds a BFA from NYU/Stella Adler Conservatory, a Master of Letters in Shakespeare & Renaissance Literature and an Master of Fine Arts in Directing (both from the American Shakespeare Center). She has presented her research into Shakespeare’s dramatic use of rhetoric at numerous national conferences, and theatrical workshops across the country, as well as having her scholarship published in the Wooden O Journal and Shakespeare Criticism, online. 

Center Stage Theatre’s production of RENT, directed by Liz Muller, captures the timelessness of the original production, reminding us of all the things that truly matter in a world that seems set on actively contributing to the tear in the fabric of humanity. The story, set in New York City’s East Village in the late 80s to early 90s, tackles themes that still resonate today. Themes of love, life, hopelessness, and collective loneliness permeate the production, while characters with vibrant dreams and relatable gripes battle mental and emotional turbulence, as well as addiction and illness.

Hartford Stage presents Tony Award-winning playwright Lisa Kron’s 2.5 Minute Ride, directed by Zoë Golub-Sass. This story fuses a retrospective exploration of Lisa’s history by way of her father’s life with happenings from her family’s present. 2.5 Minute Ride is an emotional rollercoaster that allows us to try on a lens of personalized grief to view stories we only received glimpses of though the histories we’ve heard recounted over and over again— but with an understanding that life goes on despite all those things “we thought we could walk alway from.”

Theaterworks Hartford’s production of Sandra, directed by Jared Mezzocchi, is a masterpiece of a love story, where love, as we know it, is as rare and elusive as the “birds that never show up if you go out looking for it.” Sandra is a one-woman psychological thriller that plays like a cautionary tale of the dangers of the impulsivities surrounding our restlessness.

“Girls without a source of income become women who find money in unfortunate ways.” The life of Marcenia Lyle Stone is laid bare in Playhouse on Park’s biographical production of Toni Stone, written by Lydia R. Diamond and directed by Jamil A.C. Mangan. This play tackles themes of women excelling in a man’s world and the struggles it provides, as well as the plight of the African American in the United States. It reminds us that barriers have been in place from the beginning of time, but “sometimes you have to reach” to get where you’re heading.

“You’re only allowed three great loves in your life” and sometimes, the subject of that love isn’t a who but a where. Seven Angels Theatre of Waterbury, Connecticut, presents a musical production of A Bronx Tale, based on Chazz Palminteri’s 1989 play, set in The Bronx, New York between 1960 and 1968. This production, directed by Joe Barbara and Janine Molinari, dispatches melodious themes of identity, pride versus integrity, good versus evil, love versus fear, and Machiavellian philosophy as characters grapple with different iterations of the Italian-American dream.

Shelton Connecticut’s Center Stage Theatre presents a laugh-out-loud funny production of The Play The Goes Wrong directed by Betsy Kelso. With an Inception-like depth, The Play That Goes Wrong is a play within a play where the cast and crew’s ‘who dun it’ becomes a ‘who’s doing what’ as the lights and sound glitch, the set falls apart, and roles are confused. This production is a picture of Murphy’s Law where everything that could possibly go wrong absolutely did.

“A doctor could make a million dollars if he could figure out a way to bring a boy into the world without a trigger finger.” Hartford Stage gives new life to Arthur Miller’s All My Sons directed by Melia Bensussen. With rivaling themes of ‘for love or for wealth’, ‘man versus machine,’ and ‘God versus man’ with a sprinkle of star dust, this iteration of Miller’s work compellingly unravels the tightly woven fabric of familial duty and asserts that a responsibility to the broader family—to the connection of humanity is just as important, if not more so.

The borrowed lives of American immigrants are honored in the visually stunning and remarkably layered story that is Sanctuary City. TheaterWorks Hartford, in partnership with Long Wharf Theatre, presents Sanctuary City, written by Martyna Majok and directed by Jacob G. Padrón and Pedro Bermúdez.

Set in Newark, New Jersey on the heels of 9/11, this production plays on the non-linear nature of memory, exposing excerpts of two intertwined lives in a fragmented back-and-forth as they recall defining moments of their connection. As Dreamers with an acute awareness of the disconnect that exists between them and the country they call home, B and G are tasked with the impossible—planning for their respective futures in a place that is provisional at best, without the security of belonging.

The delicate coating of truths outlined in Origin, Director Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of  Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste, gives life to the notion that “race is not where the line is drawn.” Wilkerson’s work weaves together the atrocities imposed on Jews at the hand of Nazi Germany, the plight of India’s Dalit, and the lives of descendants of Africa in America in a way that we’ve never seen done before. DuVernay gives visual life to these truths that we’ve all known, in a way that will be branded in our hearts and minds forever.

Representation matters in all things and we all want choices—chief among those options is the desire to choose who and where we call home. Hartford Stage transforms into a house on a journey to becoming a home for the characters of The Hot Wing King. This play, written by Katori Hall and directed by Christopher D. Betts explores themes of Black masculinity, love, identity and home in a heart-warming and comical production that ushers audiences through every emotion from frustration to joy. Hall asks us to set down our ideals and beliefs of what home and love should look like to see the humanity in a twice-marginalized group of people. If you focus enough on the heart of the characters, you might be able to find yourself in their shoes.

Long Wharf Theatre transforms New Haven’s Canal Dock Boat House for their run of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, directed by James Dean Palmer. What we see is a classic tale of hope and betrayal unfolding against the collaborative backdrop of set design and nature. The brilliance of the production is heightened by the choice of venue, and theater goers are in for an incredible experience all around.

One man’s trash is another man’s mongo. Lindsay Joelle’s The Garbologists, set in the streets of New York, brings us through the grime of the other circle of life—the lifespan of a person’s stuff by way of that cycle’s end. This play champions themes of grief, invisibility, and the value of the discarded; from the people that society doesn’t have the eyes to see, to the things that make them luminous. Theaterworks Hartford’s intimate playhouse sets the stage for the unboxing of truths for sanitation workers across the nation as told by Danny and Marlowe.

Simona’s Search is a deep dive into the languages of trauma that inspires us to take a more thorough look at how the pains of our past might be showing up in our present, and against our future. Playwright Martín Zimmerman’s words are the foundation for a beautifully layered production, under the direction of Melia Bensussen, set in the passage of time itself—by way of the lifespan of a memory. Hartford Stage’s theater transforms into what looks like a very simple set, compounded by time-moving projections, to bring us the captivating exposition of Simona’s Search—a story open-ended enough for each audience member to plug themselves into it, walking a mile in Simona’s shoes, or that of her father. This production successfully brings theatergoers into the fold.

Director Kelly O’ Donnell steers West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park’s production of Kate Hamill’s Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson- APT. 2B into success. This hilarious and brilliantly cast show pokes fun at the age old rivalry between Britain and America while quipping through the rigmarole of a day in the life of a deductive consultant or professional hypothesizer. Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson APT. 2B takes on the beloved dynamic of Holmes and Watson’s adventures, but set in today, and also London during a post-Covid spring 2021.Director Kelly O’ Donnell steers West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park’s production of Kate Hamill’s Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson- APT. 2B into success. This hilarious and brilliantly cast show pokes fun at the age old rivalry between Britain and America while quipping through the rigmarole of a day in the life of a deductive consultant or professional hypothesizer. Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson APT. 2B takes on the beloved dynamic of Holmes and Watson’s adventures, but set in today, and also London during a post-Covid spring 2021.

The vintage of Italy meets the vintage of history in Ferrari. The story of Enzo Ferrari unfolds under the direction of Michael Mann and takes audiences behind the scenes of the glory of what the Ferrari brand has been, by way of what it has suffered.

This is what dreams are made of— toy soldiers battling mice, dancing snowflakes, a land of sweets, and a Pas De Deux with a sugar plum fairy. The tradition of The Nutcracker Ballet meets Stamford, Connecticut’s gorgeous Palace Theatre. Under the direction of Brett Raphael, the Connecticut Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker adds another beautifully executed iteration in observance of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s timeless tale. This production brings to life the enchantment of Christmas, the joy of the theater, and the beauty of ballet.

Even the season of perpetual hope is no match for war torn families, as we see in New England Ballet Theatre’s poignant presentation of The Fantastic Toyshop at the Theater of Performing Arts in Hartford. Director and choreographer Rachael Gnatowski skillfully unravels the dichotomy between the wonders of a magical toyshop and the somber reality of war-torn families during the Christmas season.

Hertfordshire descends upon Hartford in this rendition of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice put on by The Hartford Stage. The Regency receives a breathtaking reimagining in this production, fusing the old-world charm of a 1700s parlor with the vibrant Spanish-style decor of this "radical adaptation." Director Tatyana-Marie Carlo’s vision is a theatrical delight as she fortifies Austen’s place among the greats, confirming that the relevance of Pride and Prejudice goes beyond the propriety of the era in which it was first penned— it transcends tradition.

Hope is a waking dream, but every light casts a shadow. The New England ballet Theatre’s production of The Red Shoes at the Aetna Theatre at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art narrates a tale of ambition and obsession, as a ballerina grapples with the shadows that follow her relentless pursuit to replace the fallen Étoile, all while being consumed by her irresistible craving for a sinister pair of blood-red ballet shoes. Gnatowski's vision astoundingly captures the tragic essence of desire and sacrifice, making The Red Shoes a remarkable success that delves into the depths of the human psyche and artistic devotion.