Adrian Hall, Trinity Rep's founding director, dies at 95

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — Trinity Repertory Company announced Monday that its founding director, Adrian Hall, passed away at 95-years-old at his Van, Texas home over the weekend.

Hall’s annual production of “A Christmas Carol” has been a classic holiday tradition in Rhode Island for over 40 years.

The company credits him for putting the theater on the map, building it up since he was recruited out of New York in 1963.

Within one year that Hall came to Providence, the theater was performing at Trinity United Methodist Church on Broad Street.

Hall laid the groundwork for finding a larger space to create its current location on Washington Street.

Hall led Trinity’s first production in 1964 and kept directing at the theater until 1989.

Staff at Trinity said Hall's leadership brought local and national recognition when Trinity became the first American theater company to perform at Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland in 1968.

Hall also led the efforts for the theater’s commitment to actor and director training, starting the Trinity Rep Conservatory in 1977.

The program is now recognized as the Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA program.

Curt Columbus, the current artistic director at Trinity, provided a statement on Hall’s legacy at the theater:

“Adrian Hall was a visionary artist, not only in the way he challenged the aesthetic limits of the stage, but also in the challenging subject matter he produced as artistic director. With Adrian at the helm of Trinity from the late 1960s onward, the work onstage addressed topics that were rarely discussed in public forums at the time - the persecution of gays and lesbians, the legacy of slavery and its impact on how we deal with race in America, the limits of democracy and freedom, and so much more. His boundary-breaking vision for the theater as a public square is the greatest legacy that he left us, one that we will continue to carry forward.”

Hall became the artistic leader of the Dallas Theater Center in Texas during his last six years at Trinity.

He went on to freelance directing and teaching in 1989, where he stayed involved in theater for decades.