Curated by Peter Albano;
In Correspondence with TWH’s Production of ENGLISH by Sanaz Toossi

TheaterWorks Hartford, under the direction of Artistic Director Rob Ruggiero and Managing Director Jeff Griffin, announces a gallery exhibition featuring work by local artist Mahsa Attaran titled, My Heart Is Tight For You. This exhibition is in conjunction with the theater’s Fall production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play English by Sanaz Toossi. The exhibition consists of multimedia installations, photography, and videography. This exhibition is on view from October 2 - November 2, 2025. There will be an opening reception with the artist on Wednesday, October 8 from 6:30pm - 7:30pm (pre-show). Admission to the gallery is free. 

About the Exhibition:

Formed from love and distance, Mahsa Attaran's exhibition My Heart Is Tight For You offers meditations of family, home, and language shaped by life apart from Iran. The details within Mahsa's work linger: the smell of a mother’s cooking, the touch of a father’s hands, moments that hold both comfort and longing. Persian, with its rhythm and tenderness, runs through the work, carrying meaning that can’t always be translated. These gaps in language echo the experience of living between cultures. In this space, art becomes a way to hold grief and love side by side, to honor resilience, and to celebrate beauty. Each piece asks to be seen and heard, offering presence, tenderness, and connection. 

Artist Statement:

“My practice is rooted in love-for my homeland, my family, and the quiet strength of women’s labor. Shaped by distance from Iran, I draw from memory and intimacy, using the gestures and materials of daily life as both personal and political acts. My work honors the care and resilience of the women around me, critiques patriarchy, and treats critique itself as a form of care. I am fascinated by language, particularly Persian, and the ways in which words resist translation, reflecting the complexities of living between cultures. Through my work, I explore memory, belonging, and grief, using art as both resistance and devotion, a way to confront injustice, nurture empathy, and hold space for presence. Even in its most critical moments, my practice remains grounded in tenderness, celebrating resilience and insisting: I am here. See me. Hear me.” 

About the Artist:

Mahsa Attaran is an Iranian-born visual artist and photographer whose work navigates culture, identity, and feminism. A self-taught photographer in both fine art and advertising, she works across multimedia and has exhibited internationally, including at the Iranian Artists Forum, Iranian Art Museum, and Windsor Art Center. Featured in Hyperallergic, Attaran has taught and mentored over 500 students worldwide. She holds an MFA from the University of Connecticut and is faculty in the Visual Arts Department at the Loomis Chaffee School. 

About the Curator:

Peter Albano is a Hartford-based artist, curator, and gallerist. After receiving his BFA, Albano spent 18 months spelunking Hartford’s underground Park River and producing documentative/interpretive work mapping the riverway, under a project titled The Hog River Revival. Later, Albano became a resident muralist/sculpture artist at Wild Bill’s Nostalgia in Middletown, CT. In 2021, Albano founded The Arts Industry and Loading Dock Gallery in West Hartford, eventually becoming the Visual Arts Manager at Real Art Ways in Hartford. Albano is a recipient of a 2014 Hartford Arts Catalyze Placemaking Grant, 2016 Regional Initiative Grant from the Shoreline Arts Alliance, and 2023 Artist Fellowship Grant from the city of Hartford. 

About ENGLISH:

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play, English is a powerful exploration of how language shapes identity, belonging, and connection. Sanaz Toossi’s celebrated work reveals both the humor and heartache in finding one's voice. 

“English Only” is the mantra that rules one classroom in Iran, where four adults are preparing for the TOEFL - the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Together with their teacher, they leapfrog through a linguistic playground that is a funny, stunning triumph about the universal foibles of language and miscommunication. English is a powerful exploration of how language shapes identity, belonging, and connection. Directed by Arya Shahi, this production runs October 2 - November 2, 2025 at TheaterWorks Hartford, before it moves to Long Wharf Theatre January 16 - February 1, 2026. 

The performance schedule is Tuesdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30pm, with special performances Saturday 10/25 at 12pm and 4pm and Wednesday 10/29 & Thursday 10/30 at 1pm. The run time is approximately 100 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are priced between $25 - $70. All tickets can be purchased online at twhartford.org or by calling the box office at 860.527.7838. Admission to TWH’s gallery is free.