Stageview 3

FEBRUARY - MAY 2018

SYRACUSE STAGE: [2] A RAISIN IN THE SUN [6] THE MAGIC PLAY DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA: [10] THE BALTIMORE WALTZ [12] LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

n PHOTO: CHIKÉ JOHNSON IN IRT’S

2018 PRODUCTION OF A RAISIN IN THE SUN. PHOTO BY ZACH ROSING.

AN ENDURING GIFT TO THE AMERICAN STAGE

SHE WAS 28 YEARS OLD IN 1959 WHEN SHE BECAME THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN EVER TO HAVE A PLAY PRODUCED ON BROADWAY. THREE YEARS EARLIER, AFTER A DISAPPOINTING EVENING AT THE THEATRE, SHE HAD BECOME “DISGUSTED WITH A WHOLE BODY OF MATERIAL ABOUT NEGROES.” SHE DETERMINED AT ONCE “TO WRITE A SOCIAL DRAMA ABOUT NEGROES THAT WILL BE GOOD ART.” THE DETERMINED YOUNG WOMAN WAS LORRAINE HANSBERRY. THE PLAY SHE WROTE WAS A RAISIN IN THE SUN.

n AUTHOR LORRAINE HANSBERRY

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t opened on Broadway on March 11, 1959, after enormously successful tryouts in New Haven and Philadelphia. Since most traditional backers were convinced that a white audience would not pay to see a drama about black people, the show’s neophyte producer Philip Rose, a music publisher and friend of Hansberry’s husband, financed the play by soliciting small contributions from 147 investors. It took 15 months to raise the needed capital.

The response of the opening night audience made it clear the effort had been worth it. As Michael Anderson noted in a New York Times article, the audience in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre was “on its feet and willing to applaud, it seemed, for eternity.” As the cast, including Sidney Poitier, and director Lloyd Richards took their bows, a call of “Author! Author! Author!” erupted from the crowd.

Prior to Raisin, portrayals of black life on Broadway were limited to musicals and comedies replete with “cardboard characters, cute dialect bits, or hip-swinging musicals from exotic scenes,” as Hansberry once explained, the kinds of plays that drove her to her typewriter in 1956.

“never before had so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen onstage.”

Raisin broke new ground. As James Baldwin commented: “Never before had so much of the truth of black people’s lives been seen onstage.”

n FACING: DORCAS SOWUNMI

A deeply affecting human drama, A Raisin in the Sun is the story of the Younger

AND LEX LUMPKIN IN IRT’S 2018 PRODUCTION OF A RAISIN IN THE SUN. PHOTO BY ZACH ROSING.

It was indeed a night of firsts, for not only was this first the Broadway play by a black woman, it was also the first show since 1907 to have a black director. Significantly, as Anderson reported, it was also the first commercially produced drama about black life.

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family, three generations living in cramped quarters on Chicago’s South Side. As the play begins, the family, or more specifically the family matriarch Lena Younger, awaits the arrival of a $10,000 insurance check, the only legacy of Lena’s late husband. Tied up in the much-anticipated sum are the dreams and aspirations of each family member.

Lena’s daughter Beneatha, a free-spirited college student, wants part of the money to be put aside so she can attend medical school.

Walter Lee, Lena’s son, frustrated in his job as a chauffeur, wants to use the entire amount as a start-up investment for a liquor store he hopes to open with two friends.

The money, however, is Lena’s and she remains tight-lipped about her intentions.

In the meantime, the family, which also includes Walter Lee’s wife Ruth and their young son Travis, bickers and squabbles, lobbying for their respective desires and exposing underlying familial tension.

Walter Lee feels trapped and unsupported. Beneatha adamantly demands her chance for a bright future. Ruth suffers the isolation and alienation of her strained relationship with Walter Lee. Lena sees her family falling apart.

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In an attempt to unify the family and relieve the tension of living in close quarters, Lena uses a portion of the money to buy a small home in an all-white suburb, bringing new strife to an already tumultuous situation.

Lorrriane Hansberry experienced firsthand the intense ugliness of racism. While A Raisin in the Sun is not autobiographical, the story emerges from a slice of the playwright’s childhood.

Hansberry’s parents, Carl and Nannie, were politically and socially prominent members of Chicago’s black upper-middle class. Nannie was the college educated daughter of a minister and Carl was a successful real estate businessman, an inventor, and a politician who once ran for Congress. Both were active in challenging Jim Crow laws.

In 1938, the Hansberrys initiated a challenge to housing segregation by purchasing a home in an all-white neighborhood near the University of Chicago. Hansberry recalled that as an 8-year-old she was “spat at, cursed and pummeled in the daily trek to and from school.” She also recalled nights when her mother patrolled the house with a loaded pistol fearful of the “howling mobs” outside. Once, bricks were hurled through the windows of their home.

Hansberry became a civil rights activist, making speeches, raising funds and writing for the Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois newspaper Freedom. Yet in turning her hand to drama, and in particular with Raisin, she chose to focus on the basic human desire to make a better life for oneself and one’s family. In her own words, A Raisin in the Sun is “a play that tells the truth about people . . . that we have among our miserable and downtrodden ranks people who are the very essence of human dignity.”

Still, she was well aware that dignity can be hard to maintain in the face of the insidious and debilitating destructiveness of racism. In Raisin, she explores this particular struggle most effectively through Walter Lee, as he at first seems willing if not eager to let his dignity slip away. It is only when he recognizes and accepts his obligation to his family, especially to his son, that Walter recaptures his self-respect and the respect of his family.

Toward the end of the play, Walter confronts a representative from the white neighborhood who has “generously offered” to buy back the house Lena has purchased: “What I am telling you is that we called you over here to tell you that we are very proud and that this is—this is my son, who makes the sixth generation of our family in this country, and we have

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thought about your offer and we have decided to move into our house because my father—my father—he earned it.”

Lorraine Hansberry died of cancer in 1964 at the age of 34, two days after her second play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, closed on Broadway. Her late husband, the songwriter Robert Nemiroff, developed two unfinished works after her death, To Be Young, Gifted and Black and Les Blancs Her life was short, her career was short, but her great gift to the American stage endures.

P = preview OP = opening D = discussion S = ASL interpreted O = open captioning AD = audio description SF = sensory friendly PL = prologue H = happy hour W = Wed@1

POETRY & PLAY: March 4 DINNER & SHOW: March 7

SPONSORS

MEDIA SPONSORS

-Joseph Whelan

OPENING NIGHT CHAMPAGNE TOAST SPONSOR

n PHOTOS BY ZACH, ABOVE L TO R: CHIKÉ JOHNSON, DORCAS SOWUNMI AND KIM STAUNTON IN IRT'S 2018 PRODUCTION OF A RAISIN IN THE SUN.

SEASON SPONSORS

DORCAS SOWUNMI AND STORI AYERS IN IRT’S 2018 PRODUCTION OF A RAISIN IN THE SUN. DORCAS SOWUNMI AND CHIKÉ JOHNSON IN IRT’S 2018 PRODUCTION OF A RAISIN IN THE SUN.

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LIKE NOThing you've seen before “Magic sort of raises the bar for what you can expect from a piece of theatre,” says playwright Andrew Hinderaker. “I’ve been to magic shows where people are gasping out loud, or where they’ve just burst into tears.

And I can’t help but ask: why doesn’t theatre feel like that more often?”

Certainly, a question worth asking.

Pursuit of the answer led Hinderaker to seek out magician and actor Brett Schneider. Initially, Hinderaker wanted discuss magic and Schneider’s attraction to performing it. By the end of their first meet-

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ing, Hinderaker knew he wanted to write a role and play for and with Schneider. The result is The Magic Play, which closes the 17/18 season.

It is a theatrical experience, promises Schneider, “like nothing you’ve seen before.”

What distinguishes The Magic Play from conventional plays is the “wow” factor provided by Schneider’s sleight-of-hand and magic tricks. They truly amaze, and, what’s equally important, they are an integral part of the play’s action.

Schneider’s character is a very successful entertainer identified simply as Magician.

As the play opens, he is performing his act, and as magicians frequently do, he calls volunteers from the audience to participate in his act. He speaks with them, jokes with them, and establishes a rapport and intimacy that dissolves the so-called fourth

n BRETT SCHNEIDER wall of the stage. It’s exciting. Something different can happen every night, and the audience is part of the show—overseen and managed by the always-in-control Magician.

Offstage, however, it is a different show, and the relationships in Magician’s life are more complicated and difficult to control.

Magician has recently broken up with his lover, an aspiring Olympian called Diver, played by Sean Parris at Syracuse Stage. It has left him deeply unsettled.

“Magician is extremely talented in his craft,” says Hinderaker. “When he loses the person he cares most about, he begins to question what is important. What has he given up to become so good?”

As he struggles in the aftermath of the breakup, Magician considers another important connection in his life: his relation-

ship with his father. Played by Jack Bronis, Father, as he is identified, is a hack magician plying his trade in low-tiered venues.

His work has none of the elegant sophistication of his son’s act, and the two have endured a long estrangement. No magic trick, no matter how astonishing, can repair these sawn in half relationships.

“We see [Magician] question and grapple with the idea of trust, what real trust is both in an interpersonal relationship and when dealing with the world as a whole,” says director Halena Kays. “In its essence, it is about love and how you connect with someone, how you can be truthful and trust. How can you do that if you have been hurt in the past?”

Schneider’s magic has been a part of the play’s process since the very beginning. In addition to the excitement and intrigue it adds to the show, Kays says the magic

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serves as a kind of metaphor for the relationships explored in the scenes. Hinderaker notes: “To perform magic, he must be in complete control of the audience—control of what they see, what they think, what they feel. What happens if in real life you can’t relinquish that control?”

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Schneider and Hinderaker believe The Magic Play could give audiences a “whole new idea of what is possible in the theatre.” Hinderaker says, “My one hope is that people will come away and say, ‘I didn’t know theatre could look like that, feel like that.’”

- Joseph Whelan

PHOTOS: BILL BRYMER COURTESY OF THE ACTORS THEATRE OF LOUISVILLE.

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P = preview OP = opening D = discussion S = ASL interpreted O = open captioning AD = audio description PL = prologue H = happy hour W = Wed@1

MEDIA SPONSORS

OPENING NIGHT CHAMPAGNE TOAST SPONSOR

DINNER & SHOW: May 9 SEASON SPONSORS

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n EVAN A. STARLING-DAVIS 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.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Young Playwrights Festival. Since it’s inception, there have been nearly 4,000 plays written and submitted by Central New York high school students. Each year between 200 to 300 plays are submitted and finalists see their plays performed as staged readings by Syracuse University Department of Drama students.

This year the Young Playwrights Festival is May 1st, 2018 at 7 P.M. at Syracuse Stage and is free and open to the public. Evan A. Starling-Davis was a winner of the competition in 2009 and has continued his connection with Syracuse Stage over the years.

Airborn is set in the midst of World War II. At odds with a racially segregated military and the Jim Crow South, a squadron of AfricanAmerican pilots trains at an overpopulated base in Tuskegee, Alabama. When they’re called to fly out on their first mission, a mix of personalities transforms into a historic beginning. Backstory is currently booking for performances of Airborn and Anne Frank, touring February 26th through April 26th.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Kate Laissle Interim Director of Education 315-442-7755 kmlaissl@syr.edu

This season Evan wrote Airborn for the educational touring program Backstory, a live, interactive, and creative history lesson for SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION |

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DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA

n PLAYWRIGHT PAULA VOGEL

“Well, I want a good show, even though my role has been reduced involuntarily from player to prop.”

So begins a letter sent to Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel from her brother Carl in the late 1980s. Carl was dying from AIDS. The letter became a source of inspiration for Vogel’s play The Baltimore Waltz, which opens in the Department of Drama on March 31.

The Baltimore Waltz premiered Off Broadway in 1992 where it won an Obie Award for Best New American Play. Charles Isherwood at The New York Times called The Baltimore Waltz “a deeply personal, even idiosyncratic expression of sorrow and love: the playwright transmuted her anguish at the loss of her cherished brother into a whimsy-spiked satire that held a funhouse mirror up to the awful absurdities of the times.”

In 1986, Vogel’s brother, Carl, invited her on a trip to Europe. She declined, citing time and money constraints, unaware that her brother was HIV positive. On Jan. 9, 1988, Carl died.

After his first bout with pneumonia, he wrote his sister the letter detailing, as he indicated, “the (shall we say) production values of my ceremony.”

Vogel began writing The Baltimore Waltz the next year at the McDowell Colony in New Hampshire.

Still, as Department of Drama director Katherine McGerr points out, The Baltimore Waltz is a fictionalization and a comedy.

“It’s not a memoir,” McGerr said.

“It is, for all kinds of reasons, a departure from her own experience and her brother’s actual experience.

It was inspired by those things.” The comedy, for instance, follows in the same vein as Carl’s deeply sincere, yet light-hearted letter.

The play makes Anna, the sister, the one who is stricken by a mysterious disease known as Acquired Toilet Disease (ATD), which Anna con-

tracted by using the bathrooms at the elementary school where she teaches.

After learning about her disease, Anna and her brother Carl go on a farcical adventure through Europe. Their European romp is a combination of a search for a cure for Anna’s disease and a last hurrah for Anna to experience as much pleasure as possible while she still can.

As McGerr worked on the play, she was careful about how much emphasis was put on the real people behind this comedic story.

“I think that where it's useful to know that is to understand how personal the pain is underneath this madcap comedy,” McGerr said. “It is, at times, really ridiculous and really funny.

In particular there's a lot of physical comedy. That comedy is fueled by a wish to escape something painful.”

This pairing of comedy and tragedy is a reflection of real life, according to McGerr, and she’s learned that the juxtaposition of the two seem to be her theatrical aesthetic.

“There are so many moments in life where you're sort of walking on this edge being highly ridiculous and also incredibly depressing or sad or tragic,” McGerr said. “You don't deny one or the other, they just sort of coexist in this very vulnerable, profound way. I think of them of actually feeding and raising the stakes for each other rather than being in opposition.”

This play also includes a poignant message about society that McGerr finds relevant today.

“It is a satire of society’s incredibly awful response to the AIDS crisis in the country and, in particular, the public health response,” McGerr said. “I also think it's a timely look at what has and what hasn't changed in terms of our perception of disease and our perception of homosexuality.”

medical advances, the play has to be treated, in a way, “of its time.” Especially with some audience members too young to remember the panic of the AIDS epidemic in the 80’s and early 90’s, McGerr has approached this play as a bit of a period piece.

“The way, at the time, people felt about AIDS,” McGerr said, “there was a lot of fear in part because we didn't know how it spread. We didn't know how it was contracted. That fear spiraled out of control. There really isn't any counterpart to that today.”

When it comes to handling all of these difficult subjects tucked under a comedic veil, McGerr might be the perfect director to tackle the challenge.

She studied under Vogel her first year of graduate school at the Yale School of Drama. McGerr also worked as the assistant director on the premiere of Vogel’s play “A Civil War Christmas” at Long Wharf Theatre. This, however, will be McGerr’s first time directing one of Vogel’s plays.

“It's a little daunting,” McGerr said. “I think that anytime you direct something, you have to respect the material, but you also have to not be too precious with it.”

To find that balance, Vogel left a hint in her script courtesy of her brother.

The letter, filled with love and levity, serves as the beacon for all productions to follow. There’s an acceptance of the pain to come, but an acknowledgement that a sullen attitude is not a requirement.

“Well, my dear,” Carl’s letter concludes, “that’s that. Should I be lain with Grandma and Papa Ben, do stop by for a visit from year to year. And feel free to chat. You’ll find me a good listener. Love, Brother”

When looking at how the play has aged, McGerr admitted that, with

Presented by Syracuse University’s Department of Drama in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel | Directed by Katherine McGerr | Mar 30 – Apr 8 | Opening Night Mar 31 Tickets are $16-$18, available at 315-443-3275 or by visiting vpa.syr.edu/dramatickets DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA |

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Little Shop opened on May 6, 1982 at the WPA Theatre, a 99seat house on the third floor of a building on lower 5th Avenue.

The brainchild of the late Howard Ashman, then WPA artistic director, the show was an instant hit as seemingly overnight patrons eager for tickets formed lines extending around the block.

"There is no experience quite like the birth of a hit musical. And Little Shop of Horrors was like an explosion."

This is how composer Alan Menken recalls the original Off-Off-Broadway production of the offbeat musical based on an off-the-wall B-movie about a now famous man-eating plant named Audrey II.

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Equally excited were some high-powered producers, including the Shubert Organization, David Geffen, and Cameron Mackintosh, who quickly arranged for a transfer to Off-Broadway’s Orpheum Theatre. The run lasted five years and eventually spawned national and international tours, a star-studded movie musical, a Broadway production, and countless community and high school productions. Menken’s description of the show’s success as an “explosion” proved to be an understatement.

Menken and Ashman had worked together previously on an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, which had enjoyed a successful run at the WPA but faltered in a move to a larger theatre. Disappointed, Ashman determined the pair’s next project would be something fun.

acters, the 1960s-inspired score, and the sincere absurdity of the universe.

“I love an awkward, goofy comedy in which the characters take their situations quite seriously and sincerely,” he explains. “I love the exploration of a human psyche struggling to balance what he thinks is good in the world against what he wants most.”

Cimmet intends to follow the look and feel of Ashman’s original WPA production. The Broadway revival took some hits for its glitzy production values, which Cimmet says didn’t match the reality of the play.

“I suddenly remembered that when I was 16, I had written a terrible musical about a man who fell in love with a flower that had opiate powers,” Ashman recalled in a 1982 interview. “I realized that I had subconsciously ripped off The Little Shop of Horrors.”

Ashman first encountered Roger Corman’s low budget, sci-fi spoof as a 14-year-old watching late night TV in his Baltimore bedroom. The film had little to distinguish it, except that it was shot in five (some reports say two) days on a budget of $15,000 and featured a very young Jack Nicholson in a cameo role. It was once included in a festival of 100 Worst Films Ever Made. Rumor had it Corman shot it on a dare. Nonetheless, young Ashman was “hooked.”

Menken didn’t know the film when Ashman approached him with the idea, but found it on cable TV and immediately struck musical inspiration. “It reeked of 1960s.”

“Howard came up with the idea of writing the show as the ‘dark side of Grease using doo-wop, R&B, and rock and roll as the main vocabulary for the score,” Menken recalled.

It took the pair about eight months to complete the show with Ashman supplying the book and lyrics and serving as director.

Resident music director and faculty member Brian Cimmet directs the Department’s production of Little Shop of Horrors. Cimmet likes the play’s simplicity of storytelling, the purity of the char-

“It shouldn’t be clean. It should be dark and grimy and rough and difficult,” he says. “These characters live and work in the poorest part of town.” Like the original production, Cimmet intends to feature a nine person cast and a five person band.

Though dating from the 1980s, Cimmet contends that Little Shop of Horrors “speaks volumes” in 2018. “It addresses the power of greed and corruption. Right now, there’s a tremendous amount of greed influencing America, greed that pushes people to do corrupt, immoral, and unethical things,” he explains. “Perhaps the message of Little Shop will serve to remind people to reject the evils of the world.”

- Joseph Whelan

n ALAN MENKEN (L) AND HOWARD ASHMAN (R)

SEASON SPONSOR

Presented by Syracuse University’s Department of Drama in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Little Shop of Horrors | Book by Howard Ashman | Music by Alan Menken | Lyrics by Howard Ashman | Based on the Film by Roger Corman, Screenplay by Charles Griffith | Directed by Brian Cimmet | Choreography by Andrea Leigh-Smith | May 4 - 12 Opening Night May 5 | Tickets are $16-$18, available at 315-443-3275 or by visiting vpa.syr.edu/dramatickets

DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA |

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GALA 2018 Honors

CHANCELLOR KENT SYVERUD & DR. RUTH CHEN

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ark your calendars to reserve Friday, June 8 at 6 pm for Syracuse Stage’s 2018 Gala. The Gala is Stage’s largest fundraiser, benefitting artistic and educational programming. Syracuse Stage is pleased to announce the Gala will honor Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud and his wife Dr. Ruth Chen. Syracuse Stage looks forward to celebrating the Stage/Syracuse University Department of Drama partnership that uniquely benefits the students, the University and the community!

This year’s gala includes cocktails, dinner, and a silent auction and will take

Syracuse Stage and Rain Lounge present the inaugural Salt City Drag Battle on Friday, March 23 in the Archbold Theatre at the Syracuse Stage.

Who will be named the first-ever Salt City Queen or King and win a $1,000 cash prize?

Participants will be selected through a video application process on the Syracuse Stage website, which is open now.

Interested participants should provide video of themselves performing in drag. Deadline for submissions is March 5.

Hosted by “RuPaul’s Drag

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place at the University’s Schine Student Center. To further capture the Orange Spirit, entertainment for the evening will feature RANGE, an a capella group founded by Department of Drama alumni. Invitations will be mailed out in April, but tickets and tables are on sale now for what we anticipate will be a sell-out event.

6:00 P.M. COCKTAILS & SILENT AUCTION

7:30 P.M. DINNER

9:00 P.M. RANGE A CAPELLA

Race” alumni Mrs. Kasha Davis and Miss Darienne Lake, proceeds from the Salt City Drag Battle will benefit Syracuse Stage artistic programming. The pageant will feature seven or eight contestants, who will showcase two looks and one talent performance.

Finalists will then compete in a lip-sync battle for a winnertake-all grand prize.

EVENTS FEBRUARY - MAY 2018 SYRACUSE STAGE A Raisin in the Sun

By Lorraine Hansberry Directed by Timothy Douglas Co-produced with Indiana Repertory Theatre February 21 - March 11

Cold Read Festival Calendar of Events THURSDAY, APRIL 5 COLD READ KICK-OFF. A cast of Stage stakeholders, board members, local celebrities, and community leaders put the fun in Fundraiser as they “cold read” a comedy script.

Former Syracuse Stage artistic director Bob Moss is our honorary director!

FRIDAY, APRIL 6 UNDER CONSIDERATION. Join us for a reading of an exciting new play under consideration for an upcoming season. Audience talkback follows.

SATURDAY, APRIL 7 SOLO ACT. A workshop production of a new piece by Liza Jessie Peterson. Presented at an exciting alternative venue. Moderated talkback follows.

WEDNESDAY@1 LECTURES

A Raisin in the Sun Saturday, March 10 at 3 p.m.

A Raisin in the Sun Wednesday, February 28 @ 1 p.m.

Speaker: Explore the external forces shaping the Youngers’ experiences trying to build a better life in the mid-20th century on Chicago’s South Side with Jeffrey Gonda, an assistant professor of History in the Maxwell School and the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University.

The Magic Play Saturday, May 12 at 3 p.m.

The Magic Play Wednesday, May 2 @ 1 p.m.

Speaker: Take a closer look at the illusions in The Magic Play with magician James Warren. He is a distinguished illusionist who has performed hundreds of times at the famous private club for magicians in Hollywood, The Magic Castle. He has performed for and delighted celebrities such as Michelle Pfeiffer, Goldie Hawn, Warren Beatty, Smokey Robinson, and Sinbad.

Speakers and topics subject to change

SUNDAY, APRIL 8 “DRAFT/PAGES.” A first-ever reading of a brand new play in-progress

by Maurice Decaul. Local craft beers will be available. A talkback with the playwright follows. Come lend an ear and raise a glass to the daring first draft of a new play.

ACTOR TALKBACK SERIES

The Magic Play

The Magic Play Sunday, April 29

By Andrew Hinderaker Directed by Halena Kays Co-produced with Actors Theatre of Louisville and Portland Center Stage April 25 - May 13 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.

A Raisin in the Sun Sunday, Februay 25 at 1 p.m.

Saturday, March 3 at 2 p.m.

Thursday, March 8 at 6:30 p.m.

The Magic Play Sunday, April 29 at 1 p.m.

Saturday, May 5 at 2 p.m.

Thursday, May 10 at 6:30 p.m.

OPENING NIGHT PARTY

Join us for a post-show party with live music and complimentary food following each opening night performance. Performances at 8 p.m.

AUDIO DESCRIPTION

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

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

A Raisin in the Sun Sunday, February 25

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.

A Raisin in the Sun Thursday, March 1, 6 p.m.

DINNER & SHOW

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

A Raisin in the Sun Wednesday, March 7 at 6 p.m.

The Magic Play Wednesday, May 9 at 6 p.m.

POETRY & PLAY

A reading series that connects the literary arts to the work on our stage. Featured Poets: Marissa Joy Mims and Dana Spiotta A Raisin in the Sun Sunday, March 4 at 1 p.m.

DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA The Baltimore Waltz

By Paula Vogel | Directed by Katherine McGerr Mar 30 – Apr 8 | Opening Night Mar 31

Little Shop of Horrors

Book by Howard Ashman | Music by Alan Menken Lyrics by Howard Ashman | Based on the Film by Roger Corman, Screenplay by Charles Griffith Directed by Brian Cimmet | Choreography by Andrea Leigh-Smith | May 4 - 12 Opening Night May 5

The Magic Play Thursday, May 3, 6 p.m.

OPEN CAPTIONING

A Raisin in the Sun Wednesday, February 28 at 2 p.m.

Saturday, March 10 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, March 11 at 2 p.m.

The Magic Play Wednesday, May 2 at 2 p.m.

Saturday, May 12 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, May 13 at 2 p.m.

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETED

A Raisin in the Sun Friday, February 23

A Raisin in the Sun Saturday, March 3 at 3 p.m.

Magic Play Friday, April 27

The Magic Play Saturday, May 5 at 3 p.m. is published by Syracuse Stage and Department of Drama throughout the season for their subscribers and alumni. 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. RALPH ZITO, CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA.

SYRACUSE STAGE |

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820 East Genesee Street Syracuse, NY 13210-1508 www.SyracuseStage.org

n 2018 GALA HONORS CHANCELLOR KENT SEVYRUD AND DR. RUTH CHEN AND FEATURES THE MUSIC OF RANGE a capella