Cast and Creative Team Announced For TheaterWorks Hartford’s 24/25 Production of Primary Trust

Performances of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize Winner by Eboni Booth begin April 10th, 2025 at TheaterWorks Hartford

PRESS IS WELCOME STARTING WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2025!

HARTFORD CONN., TheaterWorks Hartford, under the leadership of Artistic Director Rob Ruggiero and Managing Director Jeff Griffin, announces the cast and creative team for its upcoming 2024-2025 production of Primary Trust. The Connecticut Premiere of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Eboni Booth begins April 10, and runs through May 11, 2025 at TheaterWorks Hartford.

Meet Kenneth, a 38-year old bookstore worker who spends his evenings sipping mai tais at the local tiki bar. When he’s suddenly laid off, Kenneth finally begins to face a world he’s long avoided - with powerful and even comical results. The 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Eboni Booth is a touching and inventive play about new beginnings, old friends, and seeing the world again for the first time.

The cast of Primary Trust includes Justin Weaks (Kenneth), Samuel Stricklen (Bert), Hilary Ward (Corrina/Wally’s Waiter/Bank Customers), and Ricardo Chavira (Clay/Sam/Le Pousselet Bartender), all making their TheaterWorks Hartford debuts. The production is directed by Jennifer Chang.

The creative team for Primary Trust includes Nicholas Ponting (Set Design), Danielle Preston (Costume Design), Bryan Ealey (Lighting Design), Frederick Kennedy (Sound Design), Moira O’Sullivan (Associate Director), and Tom Kosis (Stage Manager).

"I'm thrilled to include this 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning play in our 39th season, and to welcome this amazing group of artists to Hartford,” says TheaterWorks Hartford’s Artistic Director, Rob Ruggiero. “At its core Primary Trust is a beautiful and simple story that delivers a powerful and authentic message. I believe it will resonate deeply with our audiences."

Primary Trust runs from April 10 - May 11, 2025 at TheaterWorks Hartford. Performances are Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2:30pm & 8pm, and Sundays at 2:30pm. The run time is approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission. Tickets are priced at $25 - $70 (fees not included). All tickets can be purchased online at twhartford.org or by calling the box office at 860.527.7838.

About the Primary Trust Artists:

Eboni Booth (Playwright): Eboni Booth is an American playwright and actress. She is a graduate of the University of Vermont, and of the Juilliard Playwrighting Fellowship. She has been a resident playwright at New Dramatists and was a recipient of the Steinberg Playwright Grant in 2021. In 2021, she was awarded the Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting. She was awarded the John Gassner Award For New American Plays by the Outer Critics Circle Awards for her play Paris. She also studied playwrighting at the Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts. Her play Primary Trust debuted Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre to critical success, including nominations for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Play.] The play was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2024.

Jennifer Chang (Director): Select directing: A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Pasadena Playhouse, upcoming), Primary Trust (Barrington Stage – Berkshire Theatre Critics Circle Outstanding Direction Award), What Became of Us (World Premiere, Atlantic Theater Company), The Far Country (Berkeley Rep, Excellence in Direction nomination), King of the Yees (Signature Theatre DC, Helen Hayes nom Best Production), On Gold Mountain (LA Opera), The Heart Sellers (World Premiere, Milwaukee Rep), Vietgone (LADCC AWARD Best Direction). Select Development: Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, The Mercury Store, The Geffen Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ashland New Plays Festival, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Center Theatre Group, Theatre Mu, Chance Theater, Boston Court, Circle X, Artists at Play. Associate Professor UCLA. Member: SDC, AGMA, SAG-AFTRA, AEA. Drama League New York Fellow, Classical Directing Fellow at The Old Globe. BFA – NYU, MFA – UCSD. More info: www.changinator.com.

About the Primary Trust Cast:

Justin Weaks: TheaterWorks Hartford Debut. Off Broadway: i need space (The New Group). Regional credits include: Primary Trust (co-production with Barrington Stage); Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (Arena Stage); There’s Always the Hudson, BLKS, Describe the Night, Gloria (Woolly Mammoth Theater, Company Member); Long Way Down, Watsons Go To Birmingham-1964, Bud, Not Buddy (The Kennedy Center); Pipeline, Curve of Departure (Studio Theater). Education: Greensboro College. @keithweaks

Samuel Stricklen: Samuel is thrilled to be making his TWH debut! Select theater credits include: Superior Donuts (Broadway, Music Box Theater), Six Degrees of Separation (The Old Globe), Clybourne Park (Premiere Stages), and Current Nobody (La Jolla Playhouse). Samuel is an Emeritus Artist of SITI Company. Some credits with the company include: The Bacchae (Getty Villa/BAM), bobrauschenbergamerica (Dublin Theatre Festival), and Under Construction (Actors Theatre of Louisville). TV/Film credits: Marlon, Six Degrees, The Mysteries of Laura, Law & Order, The Good Wife, Bosch, Mozart in the Jungle, High Maintenance, and The Visit. Samuel holds an MFA in Acting from the University of California, San Diego, and is an Assistant Professor of Acting and Movement at the University of Cincinnati (CCM).

Hilary Ward: Hilary Ward (she/hers) Corinna et. al, : TWH Debut. Theater: Primary Trust (Barrington Stage Company), American Fast (City Theatre), Those Days are Over (Ashland New Play Festival), Sense and Sensibility (South Coast Rep), Ripe Frenzy (Ojai Playwrights Conference), Mother Courage (La Jolla Playhouse), Macbeth, King Lear, Madea (Classical Theatre of Harlem). Television/Film: Station 19, Law & Order, Bull, Sharp Objects, All the Way, NCIS, The Fosters, Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family, Other People, Like You Mean It. Hilary’s image and voice has been featured in over four dozen national commercials. In 2008, she co-founded the award-winning Chalk Repertory Theatre. She is the CEO of Apian, Inc., specializing in audition preparation and career coaching for professional actors. Proud member of SAG-AFTRA, AEA and the Television Academy. MFA: University of California-San Diego.

Ricardo Chavira (Clay/Sam/Le Pousselet Bartender): Ricardo Chavira is a South Texas native whose acting career spans theater, film and television. His stage highlights include The Motherf**ker with the Hat at the National Theatre in London and the Off-Broadway production of Jesus Hopped the A Train. U.S. regional theater credits include Shane, An Enemy of the People and A Streetcar Named Desire at the Guthrie Theater; also regionally Living Out, Tracers, Three Sisters, Dogeaters, ¡Bandido! and Macbeth. His television credits include the upcoming Amazon Prime series Ballard, current series Selena the Series and Glamorous for Netflix, and Apple TV+’s Truth Be Told opposite Octavia Spencer. Past TV credits include Scandal, Jane the Virgin; Santa Clarita Diet; Hawaii 5-0; Castle; Burn Notice; Welcome to the Family; Desperate Housewives, garnering two SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series; George Lopez; 24; JAG; NYPD Blue; and Six Feet Under. On the film side, he has appeared in Being Charlie, Powder and Gold, Don’t Let Me Drown, The Alamo, Piranha 3-D and Saving God. Chavira holds an M.F.A. in acting from the University of California, San Diego. For T and B, always.

About TheaterWorks Hartford:
TheaterWorks Hartford led by Artistic Director Rob Ruggiero and Managing Director Jeff Griffin, produces engaging contemporary theater and is committed to the power of storytelling in creating community at their historic Pearl Street home in downtown Hartford. Founded in 1985, TWH has produced over 200 plays including world premieres of Mathew Lombardo’s High (with Kathleen Turner), Mark St Germain’s Relativity (with Richard Dreyfuss) and William Finn’s Make Me A Song, among others. For updates on TheaterWorks Hartford, visit twhartford.org. Follow on Instagram, Facebook, or Youtube.

Primary Trust Producing Partners:
Suzanne Hopgood in Memory of Frank Lord

Season Partners
NANCY & JEFFREY HOFFMAN
RICHARD P. GARMANY FUND
at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
MARJORIE E. MORRISSEY
BURRY FREDRIK FOUNDATION
BANK OF AMERICA

Support:
TheaterWorks Hartford is supported by CT Office of the Arts, Richard P. Garmany Fund, Travelers, Marjorie E. Morrissey, The Shubert Foundation, Burry Fredrik Foundation, Greater Hartford Arts Council, Bank of America, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, HSB, RTX, Lincoln Financial Foundation, J. Walton Bissell Foundation, John and Kelly Hartman Foundation, CT Humanities, Gawlicki Family Foundation, Nassau, Liberty Bank, Ensworth Charitable Foundation, George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation, William and Alice Mortensen Foundation, The Elizabeth M. Landon and Harriette M. Landon Charitable Trust, The Katherine K. McLane and Henry R. McLane Charitable Trust, M&T Bank.

The 24/25 Season Continues:
TheaterWorks Hartford’s 39th season will close with YOUR NAME MEANS DREAM which runs June 3 - July 6, 2025. We’re in the not too distant future. Aislin is old, and isolated, in her messy New York City walk-up. She pines for a simpler, analog past, when her son sends a sensational new caretaker who is not quite human…but she’s getting there. The newest work from Academy Award-nominee José Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries, A Hundred Years of Solitude on Netflix) is an intimate look in the digital age.