About THT Rep

DYNAMIC THEATRICAL EVENTS MADE IN AND FOR WORCESTER

Given The Hanover Theatre’s mission to ignite and nurture a passion for the performing arts in audiences and artists of today and tomorrow, it’s only fitting we created THT Rep to fill the void, especially in light of the opening of the BrickBox Theater in the heart of downtown Worcester.

THT Rep’s Mission, Vision and Values

THT Rep’s mission is to engage, entertain and energize audiences with dynamic theatrical events made in and for Worcester, focusing on classics, modern classics and classics-inspired works.

We have identified the following as our chief guiding principles:

• We hire actors, directors, stage managers, designers, technicians and other theatre professionals who share a commitment to rigorous practice, have achieved a level of training commensurate with the demands of their role on or off the stage and represent a wide range of ages, gender identities, race, ethnicities and lived experiences.
• We create professional development opportunities for students from our conservatory and individuals from the greater Worcester area.
• We cultivate an environment of the utmost respect, striving to be our colleagues’ favorite place to work.
• We seek out co-productions and collaborations to encourage the cross-pollination of artistic practices, to share the enormous costs associated with producing live theatre and to engage other cultural organizations in Worcester and beyond.
• We practice radical transparency with our audience, from shining a light on how we select material to unpacking the truth about the fiscal demands of bringing them high quality live theatre.
• We aggressively identify and break down any perceived or actual elitism clouding the theatre-going experience.
• We cultivate an audience that is diverse across all demographics, including but not limited to age, gender identity, race, ethnicity and socioeconomic class.
• We innovate every aspect of audience development, from how we price tickets and how we activate the time before, after and between performances, to how we conduct outreach.

Artistic Director, Livy Scanlon

Olivia Scanlon—or Livy—is a versatile theatre professional working as a producer, director, actor and teaching artist.

Before joining The Hanover Theatre, she served in these capacities with organizations including The Nora@CentralSquareTheatre, New Rep, Commonwealth Shakespeare, Trinity Rep, Asolo Rep, Paper Mill Playhouse, Hartford Stage and Bridge Rep, which she founded and helmed for five years. During her tenure at Bridge Rep, Livy was featured in the Boston Globe and on WGBH, among other news outlets and had a short essay published on the HowlRound Theatre Commons. She also received an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director (Dark Room) and an IRNE Award for Best Actress (Mrs. Packard). 

Livy teaches Acting in the Department of Humanities and Arts at WPI, and the Department of Music and Theatre Arts at MIT, where she received a Levitan Teaching Award. She is a Board Member emeritus of StageSource and the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund. She has been included in Worcester Magazine’s list of Women to Watch and in the Worcester Business Journal’s Power 50.  

A card-carrying member of Actors’ Equity Association, Livy earned her MFA in Acting from Brown University / Trinity Rep and her BA in Theatre and Dance from Amherst College (summa cum laude), where she was a 4-year varsity athlete.

Livy lives in Worcester with her wife Rachel and their rescue chihuahua Rusty. The couple owns Canal District Wines, a small business in the Worcester Public Market.

Worc at Play 

Offered in partnership with The Hanover Theatre Conservatory, Worc at Play offers no-cost professional actor training and performance opportunities for adults ages 18+, including absolute beginners.

Admission to Worc at Play is by invitation and audition only. Selected students take part in weekly acting class with THT Rep’s artistic director, Livy Scanlon, before performing in a THT Rep production alongside professionals.

Ideal Worc at Play candidates are:

• Residents of greater Worcester
• 18 or older
• Diverse in age, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, gender, sexual orientation, immigrant status and lived experience
• Not affiliated with or a member of Actors’ Equity Association
• Comfortable speaking and reading English as a first, second or subsequent language (accents welcome)
• Disciplined, rigorous and reliable
• Joyful
• Available for and eager to commit to a demanding schedule

Worc at Play welcomes applicants ages 18+ for a tuition-free classical actor training and performance program, offered in partnership with The Hanover Theatre Conservatory. Applicants of all backgrounds and skill levels are warmly encouraged to apply, including absolute beginners.

Tiered Ticket Pricing

To cultivate community and equity, THT Rep offers an innovative tiered ticket pricing model.

Choose what you pay based on the honor system and the following information:

Subsidized Tickets. Because the performing arts should be accessible to everyone, we offer this lowest price point for students, seniors or anyone else served by this option.

Full Price Tickets. We believe people are honest and honorable, and that those who can pay this standard price of admission will do so as a gesture of support for our work.

True Cost Tickets. For ticket sales to recoup all direct costs associated with producing our season of work, we’d have to sell every seat to every performance at this price point.

Angel Tickets. For ticket sales to cover direct costs and overhead costs, we’d have to sell every seat to every performance at this price point.

Angel Plus Tickets. All the same magic as an Angel Ticket, plus a tax-deductible gift to THT Rep’s $1.5 million matching grant challenge.

Why the BrickBox Theater? 

Located around the corner from The Hanover Theatre, the BrickBox is THT Rep’s home base.

Between its intimate seating and industrial aesthetic, the BrickBox is perfect for fresh, sophisticated stagings of classic texts written before 1900 (think Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet), modern classics written between 1900 to 2000 (think Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun) and contemporary works that are somehow classics-inspired (think Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa’s Abigail/1702, inspired by Arthur Miller’s The Crucible).