2023 -- S 0452
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LC001898
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S TATE OF RHODE IS LAND
IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2023
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S E N A T E R E S O L U T I O N
EXTENDING DEEPEST CONDOLENCES ON THE P ASSING OF ADRIAN HALL
Introduced By: Senator Joshua Miller
Date Introduced: February 28, 2023
Referred To: Recommended for Immediate Consideration
WHEREAS, It is with sadness that this Senate has learned of the passing of Adrian Hall, 1
a legend in American theater, and the founding artistic director at Trinity Repertory Company; 2
and 3
WHEREAS, Adrian Hall grew up on a farm in the tiny town of Van, Texas, during the 4
Depression. In 1957, together with a group of talented and forward-thinking artists, he started the 5
Phoenicia Playhouse in upstate New York, just outside Woodstock. It was the beginning of what 6
would become a lifetime of innovation and acclaim; and 7
WHEREAS, In the early 1960s, Mr. Hall became the founding artistic director at Trinity 8
Repertory Company in Providence, which he helped establish, and is the person who was most 9
responsible for launching the theatre to national fame and helping to make the City a creative 10
hub. His boundary-breaking vision for the theater as a public square is perhaps his greatest 11
legacy; and 12
WHEREAS, In 1966, the Company received substantial funding from the newly founded 13
National Endowment for the Arts to fund the landmark Project Discovery program, which 14
allowed high school students from all over the State to attend professional live theater for free and 15
brought considerable attention to the Theater; and 16
WHEREAS, Mr. Hall successfully led the efforts to purchase and renovate the Emery's 17
Majestic Theater, providing Trinity with a larger space and in 1973, the company moved to its 18
present location at the Lederer Theater Center. In the late 1970s, Trinity established an actor and 19
director training program, the Trinity Rep Conservatory which evolved into the current 20
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Brown/Trinity Rep MFA program; and 1
WHEREAS, For thirty years, Mr. Hall shaped the theater’s artistic direction with his 2
distinctive and epic style. The audience and its experience became central to the "Trinity 3
aesthetic" and melded with Mr. Hall's creative genius, ultimately earning Trinity a Tony Award in 4
1981; and 5
WHEREAS, From 1983 through 1986, Mr. Hall ran two major theaters simultaneously, 6
Trinity Repertory and the Dallas Theater Center (DTC), which had been founded only three years 7
earlier; and 8
WHEREAS, In 1986, Mr. Hall left Trinity Rep. and moved full-time to Dallas, Texas, 9
where he eventually spent another three years establishing the DTC's first professional acting 10
ensemble and helping to build the Arts District Theater; and 11
WHEREAS, After leaving the Dallas Theater Center in 1989, Mr. Hall found himself in 12
high demand as a freelance director, working in San Diego, Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York; 13
and 14
WHEREAS, With a style that was often described as “visceral, exposed and starkly 15
flamboyant” Adrian Hall collected artists around him, always travelling with a tribe of fellow 16
theater-makers. He was celebrated for working with new American plays and establishing 17
resident acting companies, and for being a major influence in the first- and second-generation 18
regional theater movement of the 1960s through the late 1980s; and 19
WHEREAS, Mr. Hall's genius developed in seamless tandem with the peerless designer 20
Eugene Lee and together their aesthetic focused on what was theatrical, not filmic, and on how 21
individual, visceral gestures could evoke the range of human experience; and 22
WHEREAS, Describing the love of his life, Adrian Hall stated, “The theater is thousands 23
of years old,” and “it has always been man’s attempt to tell the stories that mean something to the 24
people there. And most of all, it’s alive! It’s right in front of them”; and 25
WHEREAS, Mr. Hall was one of the last, living connections to the off-Broadway 26
movement of the 1950s and to the history of the American resident theater movement and his 27
contributions to our State and to the evolution of the Arts and Theater will long be remembered; 28
now, therefore be it 29
RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island hereby extends deepest 30
condolences on the passing of Adrian Hall; and be it further 31
RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to 32
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transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Trinity Repertory Company. 1
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LC001898
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