HART ISLAND
Book & Lyrics by Michelle Elliott
Music & Lyrics by Danny Haengil Larsen
Directed by Marcela Lorca
The cast includes Shereen Pimentel as ‘Marielena’ and Jason Veasey as ‘Charles’, along with Jonathan Christopher, Dayna Jarae Dantzler, Shadia Fairuz, Rubén Flores, Aline Mayagoitia, Tyrone L. Robinson, Ryan Gregory Thurman. Stage Management by Dakota Silvey. The band includes Chris Ranney (Music Director/Piano), Caitlin Warbelow (Violin), and Agustin Uriburu (cello/guitar).
7pm, Monday, June 30, 2025
Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space
511 W 52nd Street, NY, NY 10019
Hart Island in the East River has served as NYC’s public burial grounds for 150+ years and is the final resting place for 1 million unclaimed and indigent New Yorkers, as well as thousands of still born infants. Set in 1985, Hart Islandfollows the lives of two people who have each lost a child and are unable to move beyond their grief. Charles, an incarcerated Black man at Riker’s Island who is selected to join the Hart Island burial crew, will not allow himself to grieve the death of his young son. Marielena, a recent Dominican immigrant whose stillborn son is buried on Hart Island, feels she cannot properly mourn her child because visitors were not allowed to go to the gravesites at that time.
Hart Island was one of five musicals supported during the inaugural year of the 121 Project, a tailored program of the Lucille Lortel Theatre dedicated to helping writers take their work to the next step.
Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Special thanks to New York City Councilmember Erik Bottcher, whose generous Cultural Immigrant Initiative allocation has provided leadership support for this program.
The Lortel Theatre’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.