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SEPTEMBER 2018 - JANUARY 2019 SYRACUSE STAGE: [1] NOISES OFF [5] POSSESSING HARRIET [9] ELF THE MUSICAL n PHOTO: KATE HAMILL, OF NOISES OFF

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WHO HAS NOT BEEN A POPPY? ACTOR/WRITER KATE HAMILL PORTRAYS POPPY NORTONTAYLOR IN NOISES OFF

BY JOSEPH WHELAN n COVER: KATE HAMILL. PHOTO: SUB/ URBAN PHOTOGRAPHY.

A snippet of received theatrical wisdom warns: never do a comedy with someone who has no sense of humor.

Artistic director Robert Hupp, who helms the season opener Noises Off, certainly won’t have that worry with actor Kate Hamill. In conversation Hamill laughs—a lot. She also says a lot of funny things, as befits someone who is not only adept at performing comedy, but has also written critically acclaimed adaptations of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, the latter of which runs March 20 – April 7 at Syracuse Stage.

Hamill is also very keen on Noises Off and is very enthusiastic about performing it. “I love Noises Off,” she says. “I’m giddy about having this opportunity.”

Some of her giddiness may be due to the role she will be playing.

Hamill has been cast as Poppy NortonTaylor, the much put-upon stage manager of Nothing On, the farce within

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n KATE HAMILL. PHOTO: ASHLEY GARRETT. the farce in Noises Off. Like the other characters, Poppy struggles desperately to keep Nothing On afloat and on course as the ever-growing tempest of offstage romance threatens to sink it. It is the part Hamill says she has wanted to play since she first saw Noises Off when she was nineteen.

“I was way too young to play Poppy then, but I said, ‘Oh, I want to play that part,” she says. “There’s something that is so funny about stage management. It seems like such an inherently stressful job, so much so that it impinges on you.

They deal with incredible stress, so when you put on that the pressure cooker that

she is also having this affair and everything is going wrong—comedy is such high stakes, high stakes, high stakes—so to have high stakes in a person who is trying really hard to repress them all the time just cracks me up.”

The high stakes inherent in theatre appealed to playwright Michael Frayn as a rich subject for farce. The stakes are always high in public performance and subject to a myriad of mishaps. A missed line, a blown entrance, a wayward plate of sardines can send a performance spiraling out of control. Moreover, many people, he believes, have deep fears about speaking in public, which makes

“There’s something that is so funny about stage management. It seems like such an inherently stressful job, so much so that it impinges on you.

They deal with incredible stress, so when you put on that the pressure cooker that she is also having this affair and everything is going wrong— comedy is such high stakes, high stakes, high stakes—so to have high stakes in a person who is trying really hard to repress them all the time just cracks me up.”

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n RIGHT: KATE HAMILL AS BECKY SHARP IN VANITY FAIR AT THE PEARL THEATRE. PHOTO: RUSS ROWLAND. FACING FROM TOP: KATE HAMILL AS MARIANNE DASHWOOD IN SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AT THE BEDLAM THEATRE. KATE HAMILL IN THE GENERAL FROM AMERICA AT THE HUDSON VALLEY SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL. ANASTASIA MUNOZ AND KATE HAMILL IN CYRANO AT AMPHIBIAN STAGE PRODUCTIONS. PHOTO: AMPHIBIAN PRODUCTIONS.

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the increasingly frantic efforts of the cast and crew of Nothing On recognizable.

Hamill agrees. “When I went into the audition I felt like ‘who has not been a Poppy?’ trying desperately to keep it together when everything is going down in flames.”

Hamill welcomes the opportunity to work just as an actor in Noises Off. Such occasions have had to be carefully scheduled in recent years with her success as a writer who also performs in her own work. She played Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, and Becky

Sharp in her adaptation of William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. Sense and Sensibility originated at New York’s Bedlam Theatre, where a revival ran for more than a year. Pride and Prejudice opened at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival before moving to the Primary Stages in the City.

Vanity Fair enjoyed a good run at the now defunct Pearl Theatre.

With the attention garnered by these productions (she was named the Wall Street Journal’s Playwright of the Year in 2017), Hamill has become widely produced in regional theatres. She was one of the top 10 most-produced playwrights in the country in 2017-2018, and plans

“I played Cinderella’s wicked stepmother when I was in first grade, and I was just like the smallest kid in the world, so there was something about suddenly being in a position where you have agency, or you’re being looked at in a different way other than this small girl, that was very addictive.” are in place for productions of her work in Israel and Australia. In addition, she is working on adaptions of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and The Odyssey (with an emphasis on Penelope). It should be noted, too, that Hamill does not confine herself to adaptations but has several original plays to her credit.

In coming to Syracuse Stage, though, Hamill finds a welcome close to home. She grew up on a farm in Lansing, near Ithaca, and earned her B.F.A. at Ithaca College. She credits her childhood teacher (K-12) Cynthia Howell with sparking and encouraging her interest in theatre. “I got into it. I thought, ‘Oh, this is where a

small, high-energy child like me pretty much belongs.” An early experience reaffirmed her conclusion: “I played Cinderella’s wicked step-mother when I was in first grade, and I was just like the smallest kid in the world, so there was something about suddenly being in a position where you have agency, or you’re being looked at in a different way other than this small girl, that was very addictive.”

Asked if she thinks Syracuse Stage should schedule a Lansing Night in her honor, Hamill, not surprisingly responds with a big laugh.

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September 26

OPEN HOUSE: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 9 AM - 1 PM

You're invited to join Syracuse Stage for a community open house. This free event will feature: backstage tours; a one-of-a kind yard sale featuring Syracuse Stage props, costumes, scripts, and more; delicious food available for purchase from food trucks, including That’s What’s Up, Cue Dogs, Conundrum, and Skippy’s Ice Cream; a free performance of the Bank of America Children's Touring production of Miss Electricity; panel discussions with Jill Anderson (managing director), Robert Hupp (artistic director), and Joann Yarrow (our new community engagement and education director); kid-oriented activities; giveaways and much more! No tickets or RSVP needed.

We look forward to seeing you there.

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POSSESSING HARRIET THE CONVERSATION IS STILL RELEVANT: AN INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT KYLE BASS

BY JOSEPH WHELAN

n KYLE BASS. PHOTO: BRENNA MERRITT. 5

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About five years ago, Gregg Tripoli, executive director of the Onondaga Historical Association (OHA), approached Kyle Bass, Syracuse Stage associate artistic director, with an idea for a commissioned play. The story was of a young woman named Harriet Powell, who was enslaved to a family named Davenport, and who escaped to freedom during a visit to Syracuse in 1839.

OHA had certain artifacts related to Harriet’s time in Syracuse, such as newspaper clippings and the advertisement for the reward for her capture and return. Bass expressed interest in the story, but found a deeper connection when he was able to relate Harriet’s story to his own family history. The resulting play, Possessing Harriet, unfolds, says Bass, “in two conversations and three arguments” in one room, an attic in the Peterboro, NY, home of abolitionist Gerrit Smith where Harriet meets Elizabeth Cady while she awaits her departure on the final leg of her journey to freedom.

JW: What is the historical record of the story as far as you understand it?

KB: In September of 1839, John Davenport, formerly of Syracuse, then living in Mississippi, returned to Syracuse with his wife and their small baby and Harriet Powell. Harriet Powell would go on to be dubbed the “Fair Lady Fugitive,” her complexion was so fair she might have been mistaken for white, taken for white.

People thought she was a member of the Davenport's family, but she was in fact enslaved to the service of the Davenports.

They were making a return to Syracuse and there were parties and there was kind of a buzz: the Davenports were returning!

While she was staying with the Davenports at a hotel called the Syracuse House, no longer standing, a hotel worker, a black man (Thomas Leonard) came up to her and said, “Are you a slave?” And so began Harriet’s odyssey to freedom.

JW: Your play, though, is set in one room at the Peterboro home of Gerrit Smith.

KB: Harriet was on the run for I think maybe ten days, different houses of refuge, different area towns, Manlius, Lebanon, NY, and then finally she ends up in Peterboro. I condense this all in the play. While she’s there, awaiting her journey to Oswego to cross the lake to Canada, she has occasion to meet and spend time in conversation with Elizabeth Cady, who writes

about their meeting in her autobiography.

But Cady’s very coy. It’s half a paragraph.

She does say their meeting was profound, but she doesn’t go into details at all. It’s like, “Oh, reader, you can imagine what life might have been like for such a young girl as this in such a situation as that.” She leaves it to your imagination. So I was interested in, “What did they have to say?

Why aren’t you telling us?” It was also an opportunity to do what I like to do, which is to make stuff up, to make stuff up in order to get at a truth, if I can.

JW: Is there any record of what became of Harriet Powell?

KB: There is. She goes to Canada and marries this well-established “colored” man and has many children, I don’t know how many survived, she may have had seven or eight. She died, I think, at age maybe 40, so she lived 16 years as a free women. Not as long as she had been enslaved. She’s buried in Kingston, Ontario. She went there and a family took her in . . . She was given religious instruction—religious fervor and saving souls was an aspect of abolitionism—and she was taught to read and she lived her life there. Her children went on to be successful people, as did her grandchildren as far as I can ascertain.

“I wondered, what would I want to hear them talk about?

How would that go?

Elizabeth Cady, free white woman, an uncommonly welleducated woman for her time, and Harriet Powell, enslaved, you know, essentially the same skin complexion as Elizabeth Cady, but oh, how different their lives.

Oh, how different their dilemmas.”

JW: You once mentioned there was some discrepancy about her name?

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“I know in the history of my family, enslavement in my family, that my great-great-grandfather used his name as a cloak, changing his name so that he could not be identified as someone’s property. His given name was Toliver, but for a while he went by Oliver.” n POSSESSING HARRIET WORKSHOP, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY’S FISHER CENTER, NYC, AUGUST 26 - 29.

PHOTOS: EMMA ETTINGER. LEFT: LUCY LAVELY AND TAZEWELL THOMPSON. MIDDLE: DANIEL MORGAN SHELLEY, TAZEWELL THOMPSON, AND KYLE BASS. RIGHT: NICOLE KING AND WYNN HARMON. FACING: TAZEWELL THOMPSON AND KYLE BASS.

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KB: In some records it’s Powell, and in some it’s Powel. Her headstone reads Powel. I know in the history of my family, enslavement in my family, that my great-great-grandfather used his name as a cloak, changing his name so that he could not be identified as someone’s property. His given name was Toliver, but for a while he went by Oliver. So, did Harriet drop the ‘l’ as a way to say I am not Harriett Powell? I don’t know.

This is just me thinking.

JW: Your way into the play is through your connection to your own family’s history. How does that inform the conversation between Harriett and Elizabeth Cady? Are there direct threads? Is it associative?

KB: It really doesn’t. It’s when Thomas (Leonard) enters the conversation. That’s where I have inlaid some of my family’s history on the play. He brings it in. He also brings in the contemporary issues of

our time to that time, 1839. The things he wants to talk about, the things that are deemed not the proper things to talk about over tea, are exactly what he talks about.

JW: And those are?

KB: Thomas presents a theory that slavery—blacks held in bondage by whites—was born out of the white man’s fear of the “other”—people of color, black people especially. He depicts northern prejudice and the limits of freedom for blacks in a free state, in New York. He foretells the necessary bloodshed required to bring about the end of slavery. He invokes Nat Turner’s name and the rebellion Turner led. He conveys his experience as a man living in a marginalized—black—body. All prompted

by Elizabeth’s naïve and blind-spotted injury: “What’s it like, Thomas, to be a colored man and free?” And beyond that my own thoughts and ideas about the ongoing impact of America’s original

sin, the original sin of slavery, how that is still with us. It’s in this room right now, in this very conversation.

JW: How did the conversation with Harriet and Elizabeth become such a crucial part of the play?

KB: That’s what I was handed: Harriet Powell met Elizabeth Cady. That was the story. There was no research about that conversation. But that was a starting point. Elizabeth Cady and Harriet were the same age when they met, 24. That’s approximate for Harriet. She thought herself to be 24—this withholding of information as basic as your birthday was a condition of enslavement—power. In my play, they’re both 24. Young women of their time, in very different circumstances, I wondered, what would I want to hear them talk about? How would that go? Elizabeth Cady, free white woman, an uncommonly welleducated woman for her time, and Harriet Powell, enslaved, you know, essentially the same skin complexion as Elizabeth Cady, but oh, how different their lives. Oh, how different their dilemmas.

JW: How does that inform their conversation?

KB: I knew that Elizabeth Cady had met Harry Stanton at Peterboro. In

the play, she is debating whether to marry or not, and that feels so kind of trivial in way to Harriet’s be free or not. And yet, Elizabeth Cady, to some degree, sees an equivalent argument: yes, slavery is wrong, she says, but what about women in their own households, white women in their own households? And that would go on to be Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s great activist bifurcation. And should black men be given the vote before white women? She held racist ideas to her death. In the play I invest her with the blind spots that would have led to her more mature thinking on things, and the drama exposes them. The emotional stakes are high.

They’re high for Harriet; they’re high for Elizabeth. But she doesn’t quite see that Harriet’s reach for freedom might trump her “shall I marry, shall I not” dilemma. But I get it: for her to marry, she would give up a lot. Harriet, to be free, must give up a lot: her family—the price the heart pays. We can only imagine being in that situation. But the millions that were! It was real, and that can get lost in the myth and morass of history. These were real people, “the slaves”. Individuals who were enslaved. I say to people, imagine somebody came to your house and took your grandmother—today!

Or your child. How that would feel.

That’s how it feels, that’s how it felt.

JW: You’ve said that though these characters have the same names as historical people, they are not the same. They are characters who populate a fictive universe of your creation.

Why is that important?

KB: I didn’t want to write a museum piece. I didn’t want to write an education piece. I wanted to write a drama, and it is a fictional drama of invented conversation. And the only reason I’m writing about 1839 in 2018 is because the conversation is still relevant.

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October 31

PRESENTED BY

Nancy and Bill Byrne PRESENTING SPONSORS

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FROM BROADWAY TO SYRACUSE STAGE: A PERSONAL HISTORY

BY JERALD RAYMOND PIERCE

“A friendship that started in a chorus of a Broadway show led, years later, to this professional relationship.”

When Broadway director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw calls and asks you to be in a show, you say yes. A series of such calls and affirmative responses landed Syracuse University professor and choreographer Brian J. Marcum a job as the associate choreographer on Nicholaw’s Broadway production of Elf The Musical. Now, Marcum has a chance to bring that and the rest of his Broadway experience to Syracuse Stage for this holiday season’s production of Elf. Looking at Nicholaw’s storied Broadway career, it’s easy to see why he’d be hard to

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Their friendship dates back to 1999 when the two met while performing in the Broadway production of Saturday Night Fever. By 2005, Nicholaw had transitioned from performer to choreographer and director and had been hired as the choreographer for Spamalot on Broadway and then as director and choreographer for The Drowsy Chaperone the next year. At that point, Marcum’s phone began to ring.

With two shows on Broadway simultaneously, Nicholaw offered Marcum the chance to perform in both. Marcum joined The Drowsy Chaperone as a vacation swing and joined Spamalot as its dance captain prepared to leave the Broadway production for the London mounting.

“Through our friendship, he just called and said, ‘here’s a Broadway show,’ and I took it,” Marcum said. “So for a few months, I was bouncing back and forth through Shubert Alley between two Broadway shows, pinching myself and going ‘what is this life?’”

After Spamalot closed in 2009, Marcum received another call from Nicholaw, this time about a new adaptation of the movie Elf. Nicholaw would be directing and choreographing the show and he needed an associate choreographer. Marcum was asked

n BRIAN J. MARCUM.

deny. After choreographing the Broadway production of Spamalot, Nicholaw went on to direct and choreograph many shows including The Drowsy Chaperone, The Book of Mormon (for which he won a Tony award as the co-director), Aladdin, Something Rotten!, and, most recently, Mean Girls. So, in 2009, when Nicholaw asked Marcum to be a part of Elf the Musical, Marcum’s decision was simple.

to join the production for a 2009 workshop.

“I thought for a millisecond and said, ‘Yes,’” Marcum said. “A friendship that started in a chorus of a Broadway show led, years later, to this professional relationship.”

As associate choreographer, Marcum’s job was to help turn Nicholaw’s ideas into movement and action on stage— how to find a certain feel or look for a dance number or how to make a candy cane transform into a stanchion that children line up behind. Marcum was there to help solve those problems.

“For a few months, I was bouncing back and forth through Shubert Alley between two Broadway shows, pinching myself and going ‘what is this life?”

Much of this type of experimentation happened during the workshop. Creators and producers had a chance to see what worked, what didn’t, and what simply needed to be rewritten. Once the show was ready to move to preparations for its 2010 Broadway premiere, Marcum was charged with teaching the

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“Performing is awesome, but it’s really the community of people that’s so wonderful.

When you leave that business and move to academia, you realize that’s the part that you miss the most. Luckily, I get to be in another community of creative people in the Syracuse Stage building and pass that joy onto another generation of young emerging artists.” four big production numbers to the Broadway cast.

“His experience with the production of Elf is invaluable to me,” said Donna Drake, who returns to Syracuse Stage to direct Elf The Musical after directing last year’s The Wizard of Oz. “It is a gift to be able to rely on Brian for techni-

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n LEFT: ELF THE MUSICAL AT THE AL HIRSCHFELD THEATER, 2010. PHOTO: JOAN MARCUS.

doing these things, you are amongst the cream of the crop. For me to be able to tell those stories and to have the knowledge of the show and how it was created, I think that’s a pretty important lesson for these students to understand.”

cal, choreographic, and a knowledge of this show.”

Marcum’s history with the show also allows him to educate the involved students through anecdotes he has from working with Broadway-level talent.

One of Marcum’s most vivid memories, he said, was working with arranger David Chase, whose name appears in numerous Broadway playbills including Seussical, Billy Elliot: The Musical, Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, and Frozen. Chase, as he has done for many musicals, came in to write the dance music for Elf. Marcum recalls Chase sitting at a piano and pitching options to Nicholaw. One minute Chase could play the music in the style of a 1920’s rag and then seconds later it could be 1950’s rock and roll.

“It was unbelievable to be able to hear the same music played by the same person in 50 different ways,” Marcum said. “That’s when you realize, when you’re in New York and you’re

Marcum also acknowledges that as part of his role choreographing Syracuse Stage’s production of Elf The Musical, he’s also around to assist Drake in other ways. He’s creating all the dance numbers, but he and Drake are also working very closely on the scenes and transitions.

This will be a fully Donna Drake version of the musical, Marcum said, not simply a recreation of Marcum’s time working on the Broadway version. Even the choreography is more him paying homage to the Broadway choreography than replicating it, Marcum said.

“That’s more fun,” Marcum said, “not having to recreate something that’s already been done before.”

Marcum said it’s been a joy just to hear the show’s music again because the songs are so vivid for him. He offered the assurance that anyone who enjoyed the movie is going to love the musical because of how close it is to its source material. With this family show, it’s appropriate that Marcum is able to bring his deep personal history from his days on Broadway to his current Syracuse family.

“Performing is awesome, but it’s really the community of people that’s so wonderful,” Marcum said. “When you leave that business and move to academia, you realize that’s the part that you miss the most. Luckily, I get to be in another community of creative people in the Syracuse Stage building and pass that joy onto another generation of young emerging artists.”

ELF THE MUSICAL 22 thu

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CHRISTMAS

NEW YEAR’S DAY

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PR = preview OP = opening D = discussion S = ASL interpreted O = open captioning A = audio description P = prologue H = happy hour W = Wed@1 T = to be announced L = last call Fridays R/SF = relaxed/sensory friendly performance

DINNER & SHOW:

December 12

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WELCOME JOANN YARROW

BACKSTORY: ANNIE EASLEY

With more than 30 years’ experience as a director and producer, Yarrow most recently served as the executive artistic director of Teatro Prometeo in Miami, Florida, the only Spanish language theatre conservatory in the country. She has also co-hosted the International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami and produced Play Time! An International Theatre Festival for Children.

She spent three years working with Harold Prince on the Broadway productions of Parade, Whistle Down the Wind, Candide, Show Boat, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, and Phantom of the Opera.

“I’m really excited about coming to Syracuse because the community is so rich and so diverse,” said Yarrow. “The ground is so fertile and people are very excited about what can happen here. There are amazing people in Syracuse.”

Syracuse Stage artistic director Robert Hupp said, “Jill Anderson (managing director) and I are thrilled that Joann Yarrow has accepted our newly created position of director of community engagement and education. We know she will bring dynamic ideas to Syracuse Stage as we expand educational opportunities and seek to engage more people in the life of our theatre.”

Yarrow joins Syracuse Stage at a time when the theatre’s education programs are serving more students than ever. “The new position

n JOANN YARROW.

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Joann Maria Yarrow to the newly created position of director of community engagement and education.

is the centerpiece of a restructuring of our community outreach activities,” explained Hupp. “Emerging as a priority of Stage’s yearlong strategic planning initiative, the theatre is committed to making its work accessible to citizens of all ages and backgrounds. The work is about expanding our audience base, taking the work beyond our home on East Genesee St. and learning how we can make our community a better place to call home.”

Yarrow has extensive experience in community engagement as well as education. She produced and directed the ARTrepreneur Program in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a collaboration with ArtServe that offers young artists business and marketing tools. She also created the Miami Hispanic Showcase, a networking event for bilingual performers to meet agents and casting directors.

She created and produced programming for the Miami Book Fair International for 10 seasons and through her company, Distinctive Voices, she works with entrepreneurs on creativity and team building.

SYRACUSE STAGE GALA 2018 “Syracuse Stage’s 2018 Gala was a smashing success,” declared Tina Morgan, Syracuse Stage director of development.

During the Gala, Stage honored Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud and Dr. Ruth Chen for their commitment to a sustained arts culture for the campus and the community, and for their belief that art and scholarship can affect change.

The Gala, Syracuse Stage’s largest fundraiser, celebrates the partnership between the Stage and Syracuse University. A near capacity audience enjoyed cocktails, dinner, a silent auction, and an energizing performance by RANGE, an a capella group founded by SU Department of Drama alumni.

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The Chancellor and Dr. Chen were recognized and presented with a beautiful, custom plate created by celebrated local ceramic artist David MacDonald.

The silent auction featured fabulous items up for bid like the very popular ‘Stage Manager for a Night’ opportunity, as well as box tickets to a Yankees game, a necklace from Henry Wilson Jewelers, subscription packages to Syracuse Stage productions, several ‘dining extravaganza’ packages featuring gift certificates to several local restaurants and shops, and much more.

The event raised nearly $165,000 which will support artistic and educational programming at Syracuse Stage.

"When people have their biases and prejudices, yes, I am aware. My head is not in the sand. But my thing is, if I can't work with you, I will work around you. I was not about to be discouraged that I'd walk away. That may be a solution for some people, but it's not mine."

Spoken by Annie Easley, those words defined how a young woman of color worked and studied and struggled to break gender and color boundaries while excelling in a field dominated by white men during the second half of the last century.

With a career spanning more than 30 years, Easley was a ground-breaking computer scientist, mathematician, and a rocket scientist. Her story, like those captured in the recent film Hidden Figures, is inspiring and through Syracuse Stage’s Backstory program, one that will continue to influence thousands of local students.

“For years, the Backstory program has brought important stories to life,” says Kate Laissle, associate director of education. “When students interact with our artist-in-residence portraying Annie Easley, they will encounter her life through an immediate living, breathing experience. It won’t just be another recounting in a book, but history coming to life before their eyes.”

Touring February 2 - April 25, 2019, Backstory is a live, interactive, and creative history lesson for upper elementary students through adults. Actors visit classrooms and other venues to bring historical characters to life. Audiences have the unique opportunity to interact with the character following the performance. Roughly 45 minutes in length, each performance includes a “talkback” with the actor(s). Pre-or post-show sessions with our talented teaching artists can also be arranged. A helpful study guide supports further classroom exploration. For more information contact: Kate Laissle, associate director of education, 315-442-7755, kmlaissl@syr.edu.

New This Season The Syracuse Stage bar will remain open following performances Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Please join us.

Parking Vouchers Parking vouchers for the Madison-Irving garage will be available at the Box Office.

Holiday Food Drive In support of the food pantry at Grace Episcopal Church, we will be collecting non-perishable food items in the lobby throughout the run of Elf The Musical. Please give generously.

EVENTS SEPTEMBER 2018 - JANUARY 2019 SYRACUSE STAGE Noises Off

By Michael Frayn | Directed by Robert Hupp September 12 - 30

Possessing Harriet

By Kyle Bass | Directed by Tazewell Thompson Commissioned by the Onondaga Historical Association | Presented by Nancy and Bill Byrne October 17 - November 4

Elf The Musical

Book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin Music by Matthew Sklar | Lyrics by Chad Beguelin Directed by Donna Drake | Musical Direction by Brian Cimmet | Choreographed by Brian J. Marcum Based on the New Line Cinema film | by David Berenbaum | Co-produced with the Syracuse University Department of Drama November 23 - January 6 OPEN HOUSE

Saturday, September 22, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Free event, no tickets or RSVP needed.

See page 4 for details.

PROLOGUE

During the run of each show, join us for free, intimate, pre-show talks led by a member of the cast. One hour prior to curtain, three times during the run of each show.

Noises Off Sunday, September 16 at 1 p.m.

Saturday, September 22 at 2 p.m.

Thursday, September 27 at 6:30 p.m.

Possessing Harriet Sunday, October 21 at 1 p.m.

Saturday, October 27 at 2 p.m.

Thursday, November 1 at 6:30 p.m.

Elf The Musical Sunday, December 2 at 1 p.m.

Saturday, December 8 at 2 p.m.

Thursday, December 13 at 6 p.m.

WEDNESDAY@1 LECTURES

Pre-show lecture at 1 p.m. in the Sutton Pavilion before the 2 p.m. matinee performance.

Noises Off Wednesday, September 19 @ 1 p.m.

Before going behind-the-scenes of a comedy gone awry in Noises Off, join David Bisaha, assistant professor of theatre history and theory at Binghamton University, for our Wed@1 lecture. Bisaha's research studies theatre artists' studio and collaborative practices and their relationship to technologies and institutions of performance. He specializes in American theatre history and the history of scenic and lighting design.

Possessing Harriet Wednesday, October 24 @ 1 p.m.

Join Gerrit Smith scholar and abolition expert Norman K. Dann for a special Wed@1 lecture. Dann is the author of several books on Gerrit Smith, including Practical Dreamer: Gerrit Smith and the Crusade for Social Reform, which was released at the Underground Railroad History Conference where Dann was the keynote speaker. He is also a founder and member of the Cabinet of Freedom for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, head docent of the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, a 25-year member of the Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend Committee, and Treasurer of the Peterboro Area Museum.

Elf The Musical Wednesday, December 5 @ 1 p.m.

Join us for a fun and festive Wed@1 lecture with Dr. Miles Taylor, English professor at Le Moyne College. Taylor teaches courses on comedy, the Catholic imagination, C.S. Lewis, and language and linguistics. His current research interests focus on depictions of theatre in early modern drama and the forms comedy has taken since antiquity. *Speakers and topics subject to change ACTOR TALKBACK SERIES

A lively discussion with the actors following the 7 p.m. Sunday night performance.

Noises Off Sunday, September 16 Possessing Harriet Sunday, October 21 Elf The Musical Sunday, December 2 HAPPY HOUR SERIES

Warm up before the show with half-priced drinks, signature cocktails, and complimentary appetizers from fine local restaurants. Located in the Sutton Pavilion at Syracuse Stage.

Noises Off Thursday, September 20, 6 p.m.

Possessing Harriet Thursday, October 25, 6 p.m.

Elf The Musical Thursday, December 6, 5:30 p.m.

DINNER & SHOW

Possessing Harriet Wednesday, October 31 at 6 p.m.

Elf The Musical Wednesday, December 12 at 5:30 p.m.

OPEN CAPTIONING

Noises Off Wednesday, September 19 at 2 p.m.

Saturday, September 29 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, September 30 at 2 p.m.

Possessing Harriet Wednesday, October 24 at 2 p.m.

Saturday, November 3 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, November 4 at 2 p.m.

Elf The Musical Wednesday, December 5 at 2 p.m.

Saturday, December 15 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, December 16 at 2 p.m.

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETED

Noises Off Saturday, September 22 at 3 p.m.

Possessing Harriet Saturday, October 27 at 3 p.m.

Elf The Musical Saturday, December 8 at 3 p.m.

AUDIO DESCRIPTION

Noises Off Saturday, September 29 at 3 p.m.

Possessing Harriet Saturday, November 3 at 3 p.m.

Elf The Musical Saturday, December 8 at 3 p.m.

RELAXED/SENSORY FRIENDLY

Elf The Musical Saturday, December 29 at 3 p.m.

POST-SHOW CONVERSATIONS

Events including meet the playwright and scholar talks following select evening performances.

Possessing Harriet Saturday, October 20 Friday, October 26 Saturday, October 27 Thursday, November 1 Friday, November 2

Enjoy a buffet dinner with fellow theatre lovers in the Sutton Pavilion. Seasonal fare prepared by Phoebe’s Restaurant followed by great theatre.

Noises Off Wednesday, September 26 at 6 p.m.

is published by Syracuse Stage throughout the season for its subscribers. Editor: Joseph Whelan (jmwhelan@ syr.edu). Designers: Brenna Merritt & Jonathan Hudak.

ROBERT HUPP, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR; JILL A. ANDERSON, MANAGING DIRECTOR; KYLE BASS, ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR; SYRACUSE STAGE.

SYRACUSE STAGE |

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Nonprofit Organization US POSTAGE PAID Syracuse Stage Syracuse, NY

820 East Genesee Street

Syracuse, NY 13210-1508 www.SyracuseStage.org

n THE CAST OF NOISES OFF. BACK ROW: BRAD BELLAMY, MICHAEL KEYLOUN. MIDDLE ROW: ANDREW RAMCHARAN GUILARTE, GINA DANIELS, SETH ANDREW BRIDGES, DORI LEGG. FRONT ROW: ELIZA HUBERTH, KATE HAMILL, BLAKE SEGAL. PHOTO: BRENNA MERRITT.

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SYRACUSE STAGE |