HartBeat Ensemble

Performances
HartBeat is dedicated to creating new works which challenge the status quo. Our mainstage plays tell universal stories of everyday people who take action to better their world. Through these stories we hope not only to entertain, but to stir in people the desire to create meaningful change in their own lives and the lives of others. Our street theater performances are generally physical in nature, comic and satirical.

Educational Programs
Our educational workshops teach youths and adults to use theater as a tool for social and political change. Through ensemble building games, movement exercises, and improvisation, participants learn to express their joy and air their grievances creatively. Through work inspired by Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed, we explore ways to alter current situations, external or internal, which are adversely affecting our lives. These workshops are used in schools, community centers and professional conferences and vary in structure according to the needs of the particular event or organization.

Today is the day to be, live, love, listen, understand, sing, dance, laugh - change. Theater is a meeting ground for human connection beyond the barriers of gender, class and race. Our desire is to gather on that meeting ground and ask the question; how can we make justice possible in our community, country and our world? We work as an ensemble, without hierarchy - as equals. Our artistic endeavor is to use beauty as a revolutionary tool, awakening hope and compassion in the hearts of our audience. Our home is Hartford. Our goal is a better world. Our commitment is to act.

HartBeat Ensemble
Mission Statement

Description:
HartBeat Ensemble uses theater to create active social change. Through our educational programs, corporate workshops and mainstage plays, we strive to achieve ideals such as racial equality, peace, and an end to poverty. Our first priority is to to serve the city of Hartford.

History:
COMPANY HISTORY

Gregory Tate, Julia Rosenblatt and Steven Ginsburg founded HartBeat Ensemble in September of 2001. Julia, a native of Hartford CT, suggested that Hartford was ripe for political theater because of its economic contradiction: Hartford is at the same time the second-poorest city in the nation and the capitol of the richest per-capita state in the nation.

HartBeat is dedicated to creating new works that challenge the status quo. Our mainstage plays tell universal stories of everyday people who take action to better their world. Through these stories we hope not only to entertain, but also to stir in people the desire to create meaningful change in their own lives and the lives of others. Our street theater performances, generally comic in nature, add a cultural component to marches and demonstrations. Our educational workshops teach both youth and adults to use theater as a tool for social and political change. Through work inspired by Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed, we help participants explore ways to alter current situations, external or internal, which adversely affect their lives.

In our first four years, HartBeat has lead workshops at over thirty institutions including Trinity College, World Fellowship Center, Central Connecticut State University, University of Hartford Magnet Elementary School and the Association for Union Democracy. Our street theater has been a part of actions for peace and justice throughout Hartford, Washington DC, New York City and New Haven, CT. Our first mainstage play, Graves, has enjoyed three tours at venues such as the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Oddfellows Playhouse, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Eastern Connecticut State University, the University of Massachusetts and the Mateel Community Center in Redway, CA. HartBeat received a Best Of Hartford Award in the 2004 Hartford Advocate Readers Poll.

Now in our fifth year, HartBeat has developed our second mainstage play, News To Me. News To Me tells the real stories of youth struggling against the No Child Left Behind Act. HartBeat performed a workshop series of News To Me in the spring of 2005 at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Liberty Christian Church and the Hartford Stage Company.

HartBeat Ensemble is the Resident Theater company of the Charter Oak Cultural Center in downtown Hartford.

Contact person: Steve Ginsburg, Co-Director, (phone), (email)
Office fax number: (860) 727-9822

Address:

233 Pearl St. #20 Hartford, CT 06103 (See a map)