Capital Classics Breaks Attendance Records with Much Ado About Nothing

Capital Classics Theatre Company Breaks Attendance Records with 2022 hit Much Ado About Nothing

The West Hartford-based Theatre Company Celebrates 20 years of performing at the
University of Saint Joseph AND Releases Love's Labour's Won, a 30-year Retrospective Book

University of Saint Joseph President Rhona Free and Capital Classics Board President Ben Engel welcomed our audience to the campus noting that this production marks the 20th anniversary of the Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival's residency at USJ.

West Hartford, CT - Capital Classics Theatre Company announced the centerpiece of the company's 2022 Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival, Much Ado About Nothing, broke all previous attendance records. The production, which ran July 14 through 31, 2022 on the grounds of the University of Saint Joseph, welcomed enthusiastic audiences from across the region. This year attendance was up 14% over last year's As You Like It and up 10% over the previous record high, Love's Labour's Lost set in 2017.

In celebration of 20 years of "Bringing the Classics Back to Life" on the campus of the University of Saint Joseph, University President Rhona Free issued a proclamation in recognition of the milestone. She was joined by Capital Classics Board President Ben Engel for the opening night address.

In conjunction with the production of Much Ado About Nothing, Capital Classics released the brand new book, Love's Labour's Won: Capital Classics Theatre Company - The First 30 Years. This retrospective book, written by Kathleen Fischer and Edwin Thrower, is written in the style of a play and features copious images drawn from the Company's three-decade history.

All 2022 performances of the Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival were held out at the University of Saint Joseph (USJ), 1678 Asylum Avenue in West Hartford, Connecticut.

Covering the troupe's scrappy beginnings presenting Shakespeare in Hartford's Bushnell Park to the creation of the Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival at the University of Saint Joseph, Love's Labour's Won: Capital Classics Theatre Company - The First 30 Years is a 213-page retrospective written by Kathleen Fischer and Edwin Thrower. A project two years in the making, the book includes highlights from more than 40 interviews with the co-founders, past cast members, and past and current members of the production staff. Co-founders Geoffrey and Laura Sheehan's 30-year history with the Company is explored in the book -- and it even includes interviews with their four children on what it was like growing up in a home so deeply connected to staging Shakespeare productions. The book is composed as a play, with a prologue, five acts, epilogue, and even an intermission. The book also includes production photos from the Company’s first production in 1991 to today.

The book, sold at the Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival as well as at future productions, is also available for purchase online via Capital Classics' website and social media pages. The book costs $20 plus shipping with the net proceeds benefiting the non-profit.

About the Authors

Kathleen Fischer is an education writer, editor, and publisher, and Secretary of Capital Classics Theatre Company. She is the co-author of several books of Readers Theatre plays and has created Pre-K through college curriculum materials in the fields of literature, language arts, social studies, and reading. She currently resides in West Hartford, Connecticut, with her husband, Ben.

Edwin Thrower, Ph. D., CMPP is a Scientific Director at the Lockwood Group, Stamford, Connecticut, and Vice-President of Capital Classics Theatre Company. He is originally from England, where he studied biochemistry and obtained his Ph. D. at the University of East Anglia. He currently resides in South Glastonbury, Connecticut, with his wife, Rachel, and daughter, Christi.