Latest Press From Syracuse Stage and

The Syracuse University Drama Department

Syracuse Stage Production of Souvenir to Include
Three Helen Hayes Award Winners

Actors Nancy Robinette and J. Fred Shiffman Set to Reprise Award-Winning Roles
Joined by Award-Winning Costume Designer Reggie Ray

SU Department of Drama Announces 2008/2009 Season
Highlights include Razzle-Dazzle Dancers, Rumor-Spreading Midwesterners and the Rich Salons of England

MAY 13, 2008 - SYRACUSE, NY:  The Department of Drama in Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts announces today their 2008/2009 season.  Titles include Steel Pier by Kander and Ebb, The Rimers of Eldritch by Lanford Wilson, Godspell with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, The Way of the World by William Congreve, Boy Gets Girl by Rebecca Gilman, and The World Goes ‘Round featuring songs by Kander and Ebb.  6-play season subscriptions are now available and can be purchased in person at the Syracuse Stage Box Office at 820 East Genesee Street, or by telephone at 315-443-3275.    

Completing his first year as the Producing Artistic Director for SU Department of Drama and Syracuse Stage, Timothy Bond is impressed by the students’ work.  Said Bond, “The spirit and enthusiasm that students bring to the productions are thrilling to watch and clearly a result of exemplary training at one of the country’s foremost Departments of Drama.” 

"Our next season of plays offers our acting and musical theatre students many opportunities to showcase their skills as performing artists as well as their passion for the theatre," says Ann Clarke, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. "Behind the scenes, our faculty directors, student designers and stage managers will ensure that our audiences are treated to exceptional, memorable productions."

Over the decades, a symbiotic relationship between SU’s Department of Drama and Syracuse Stage has evolved to create one of the most integrated of the eighteen such relationships in the country.  Only four of these programs focus on professional actor training for undergraduate students, and of these, Syracuse University is the largest. 

Bond sees the unique relationship to Syracuse Stage as an integral component to the program at SU.  “Moving forward, my hope is to continue and strengthen what constitutes a ‘training hospital’ environment, giving the students more opportunities to gain professional experience while they are here working towards a degree.  Syracuse University has been wonderful in their support of this relationship, a unique draw for students and theatre professionals alike.”

Already there are multiple points of crossover.  These include the use of students as understudies on Stage productions; an annual co-production between the Department and Stage of a large musical each year; the use of Stage staff as adjunct professors and lecturers in the Department; the use at times of faculty as designers, performers, and directors for Stage; and the use of Drama majors in conjunction with professional actors and faculty in public readings of new plays.  In addition, SU Drama and Syracuse Stage share a box office, front of house staff, administrative support, and production shops which create the scenic, costume, lighting and sound designs for all Department of Drama and Syracuse Stage productions.

The Department of Drama has a student enrollment of approximately 300 and offers BFA programs in acting, musical theatre, design/technical theatre and stage management as well as a BS degree in drama.  Department of Drama productions draw over 20,000 patrons annually.

The College of Visual and Performing Arts is the creative center of Syracuse University.  The college is comprised of five areas: the School of Art and Design; the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies; the Department of Drama; the Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music; and the Department of Transmedia.  Together, students, faculty and staff play a vital role in the academic and cultural life of the University and Syracuse communities.  Learn more about the college at http://vpa.syr.edu.

 SU Department of Drama 2008/2009 Season

Steel Pier
Book by David Thompson
Music and Lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb
Conceived by Scott Ellis, Susan Stroman and David Thompson
Directed by David Wanstreet
October 3 – October 12
When the Great Depression hit the States in the 1930s, many Americans did anything they could to keep from going under. The Steel Pier Marathon Dance emerged around this time, offering performers not only the opportunity to win food, housing, and money, but also a chance to break into show business. Set in 1933 at the Atlantic City amusement park, this 1997 Tony-nominated Broadway production is credited by well-known collaborators Kander and Ebb, who previously teamed up to create Cabaret and the revival of Chicago. Bill Kelly, an adventurous pilot, falls out of the sky and into the arms of Rita Racine, a dancer and the wife of evil Steel Pier manager Mick Hamilton. Entertainment and plenty of razzle-dazzle dancing ensue when Rita and Bill pair up for the marathon.

The Rimers of Eldritch
By Lanford Wilson
Directed by Gerardine Clark
November 14 – November 23
A serious crime has been committed in the tiny Midwestern town of Eldritch. Rumors fly, townspeople mingle, and secrets are exposed. With a mosaic of eccentric characters and an anti-chronological plot, solving the murder mystery turns into a giant puzzle—will anyone ever find out what really happened?

Godspell
Conceived and Originally Directed by John-Michael Tebelak
Music and New Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Directed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj
Choreographed by Anthony Salatino
November 25 – December 28, 2008
**A collaboration with Syracuse Stage
This energetic musical based on the Gospel of St. Matthew is a celebration of worldwide community, filled with popular hit songs and irresistible goodwill.  From the UN to India to China to Darfur to Syracuse, NY, prepare ye the way of hope, brotherhood and sisterhood as the time for tolerance and inclusiveness draws nearer “Day by Day.”  A groundbreaking musical in its time, this colorful update features world dance-inspired choreography and multi-media projections.  

The Way of the World
By William Congreve
Directed by Malcolm Ingram
February 6 – February 15 
Three hundred years ago, love, jealousy, revenge, and greed made the world go round. Today, not much has changed when it comes to matters of money and sex. It’s just the way of the world, as William Congreve proves in his 1700 Restoration piece that’s more of a soap opera than a play. At the heart of the production are young lovers Millamant and Mirabell, whose marriage everyone in society is against. Set in the rich salons of upper-class English society, this witty show highlights the foolish and often malicious tactics employed in issues of romance, marriage and social conventions. Can young love prevail in the end?

Boy Gets Girl
By Rebecca Gilman
Directed by Marie Kemp
March 20 – March 29
Successful magazine writer Theresa is a New Yorker focused more on her career than on her personal life.  Her friends persuade her to go on a blind date with Tony, a seemingly nice guy who works with computer software. After two dates, Theresa puts a halt to the dating, letting Tony politely know that it just isn’t going to work. But suddenly Theresa starts getting bouquets of flowers every day at work, and her voicemail inbox is maxed out. What seemed as innocent flattery quickly escalates into a terrifying stalker situation. First produced at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Rebecca Gilman’s story of a woman’s worst nightmare will leave audiences thinking.

The World Goes ‘Round
Conceived by David Thompson, Jacques Deval and Susan Stroman
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Music by John Kander
Co-Directed by Kim Hale and Nathan Hurwitz
April 24 – May 9
Life – with its glories, indignities, hopes and quiet dreams – is the subject of this stunning revue of the beloved songs of John Kander and Fred Ebb.  Features unforgettable gems from throughout their incredible career in theatre, film and television, spotlighting songs from Cabaret, Chicago, New York, New York, Funny Lady, Kiss Of The Spiderwoman and more.  Filled with humor, romance, drama, nonstop melody and brassy, insightful lyrics, The World Goes ‘Round is a thrilling celebration of life and the fighting spirit that keeps us all going.

Subscription/Ticket Information:
6-play season subscriptions can be purchased in person at the Syracuse Stage Box Office at 820 East Genesee Street, Syracuse NY, or by telephone at 315-443-3275.  The price of a season subscription is $90.  The price of a season subscription for seniors (65+) and students is $80.  There is a $5 processing and handling fee for all subscription orders.  One Wednesday night performance of each play offers a “Pay What You Can Night” for SU students with I.D., available at the door.

Syracuse Stage Announces Appointment of
 Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj as Associate Artistic Director

MAY 9, 2008 - SYRACUSE, NY:  Timothy Bond, Producing Artistic Director of Syracuse Stage, announces today the appointment of Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj as the Associate Artistic Director of Syracuse Stage.  Maharaj is an award-winning director, writer and producer and has been featured in numerous publications including a feature story in American Theatre magazine.  Already slated to direct Godspell for the holiday production in Syracuse Stage’s upcoming 36th season, Maharaj will begin his new appointment at Stage on August 1, 2008. 

As Associate Artistic Director, Maharaj will serve as advisor and proxy for Bond.  His responsibilities will include assisting in the planning of Syracuse Stage seasons, in addition to assisting with planning for The Department of Drama in Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts; directing for both Syracuse Stage and the Department of Drama; assisting in the search for directors, designers, playwrights and actors; acting as an ambassador for Syracuse Stage in developing community partnerships and artistic programs; participation in local and national auditions; mentoring students in the Department of Drama; and serving as Artistic Advisor of the Department of Drama’s Black Box Theatre.

Bond has followed Maharaj’s career and has corresponded with him for a number of years.  “I immediately recognized the work of a rising star in theatre, and I’m simply overjoyed at his acceptance of this position,” said Bond, who sees Maharaj’s appointment as an important step for Stage.  “Rajendra is full of fresh and innovative ideas, with a keen sense of presenting to a wide variety of audiences.  He also offers years of experience directing in New York City and around the country, and his seasoned style and magnetic personality will undoubtedly bring increased exposure to the great work being done here in central New York.”

“I am very thrilled that Tim and Jeff asked me to come on board, as I have respected both of them for many years as artists and activists in the American theatre.  For me, this is a great blessing,” said Maharaj.  “As a New York Theatre Artist it is a wonderful opportunity to be able to work at what I consider to be the premiere regional theatre in the state.  To share my talents and gifts in this unique way and to be connected to this exciting chapter at Syracuse Stage, which has been filled with new energy, excitement and dynamic leadership, is a dream come true.  It’s also a wonderful opportunity to share my craft with young American theatre artists who will hopefully grow into ambassadors for Syracuse University and Syracuse Stage in the future.”

Maharaj is a co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of Rebel Theater in New York City, www.rebeltheater.org.  He will continue holding this position in conjunction with his new appointment at Stage. 

His Directing credits include The Public Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Lark Play Development Center, New Federal Theatre, Second Stage, Making Books Sing, and Here.  He was the Assistant to the Director on the Tony Award Winning Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun at the Royale Theatre, and he is a former director in training of the daytime Emmy Award-winning directing team at ABC’s All My Children.  At Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, he has been a visiting lecturer where he taught directing and acting.  His regional credits include Freedom Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, St. Louis Black Rep, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Prince Musical Theatre, Theatre of the Stars, The Goodman Theatre and New London Barn Playhouse. 

Maharaj has also held artistic residencies with The Public Theater, Freedom Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Crossroads Theatre, Lark Play Development Center, Arkansas Repertory Theatre and Amas Musical Theatre. 

As a writer, Maharaj has penned several plays including It Happened In Little Rock, Mississippi Night, Diss Diss & Diss Dat, Twenty-Five, Gray and BlackfootNotes.  He is the Co-Conceiver of the spoken word plays Exposures, History of the Word and Union Square. 

Maharaj is the recipient of several prestigious grants and awards including National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Program for Directors TCG New Generations Grant in partnership with the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council Grant, Puffin Foundation and Time Warner Diverse Voices Fund, Van Lier Directing Fellowship.  He is also the recipient of the Woodie King Jr. Award for Outstanding Direction and of four AUDELCO (Audience Development Committee, Inc.) awards for his direction and choreography and 14 AUDELCO nominations over his career.  He has been featured in American Theatre Magazine, Yale Review, The New York Times, The NAACP Crisis News, Chicago Sun Times, Ebony, Arkansas Times, Uptown Magazine and Variety for his work in the American theater.

Holding a Masters Degree in Fine Arts in Directing from CUNY Brooklyn College, Maharaj is an alumnus of Lincoln Center Directors Lab, a member of Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Dramatists Guild of America, Negro Ensemble Co., and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  Maharaj has also served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and Theater Communications Group. 

Syracuse Stage is Central New York’s premier professional theatre.  Founded as a nonprofit theatre in 1974 by Arthur Storch, Stage has produced more than 220 plays in 35 seasons including numerous world and American premieres.  Each season upwards of 90,000 patrons enjoy an exciting mix of comedies, dramas and musicals featuring the finest professional theatre artists.  In addition, Stage maintains a vital educational outreach program that annually serves over 30,000 students from 24 counties.  Syracuse Stage is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, and a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT).  In addition to ticket sales, Syracuse Stage performances are made possible by funds from Syracuse University, Central New York Community Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, The Shubert Foundation, Onondaga County, and corporate and individual donors.

Syracuse Stage Announces Winners of
2008 JPMorgan Chase Young Playwrights Festival

Works by Local High School Students Performed
By SU Drama Students at Staged Reading

ARCHBOLD THEATRE at SYRACUSE STAGE
Monday, April 28 at 7:00 p.m.

APRIL 22, 2008 - SYRACUSE, NY:  Six area high school students have been chosen as the winners of the tenth annual JPMorgan Chase Young Playwrights Festival Contest at Syracuse Stage.  Their work will be performed by SU Drama students, at a staged reading hosted by acclaimed Syracuse author and Stage board member Bruce Coville.  The staged reading will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 28 in the Archbold Theatre at Syracuse Stage, 820 East Genesee Street.  This event is free and open to the public.

Winners of the 2008 Young Playwrights Festival were chosen from more than 200 submissions by area high school students.  A panel at Syracuse Stage chose 16 semi-finalists, who presented their work for feedback and rewriting.  Six works, a variety of one-act plays and performance pieces, were then chosen to be performed at the staged reading.

The winners of the 2008 Young Playwrights Festival are:

• Anti-Pink by Shaina Bienvenue, a junior at Camden High School.  This series of monologues that explore our society’s view of beauty has won one of two awards for Performance Writing. 

• Odes to a Boy by Katherine Davis, a senior at Camden High School who plans to major in theatre.  Her play, which combines classic poetry and performance in a celebration of love’s triumphs and tragedies, will be honored with an award for Performance Writing.  This is Davis’ third time winning a prize from the Young Playwrights Festival, and this year she will be honored with a $500 scholarship, presented by Susan A. Basile, Founder & President of the Syracuse Area Live Theatre Scholarship Incorporated (S.A.L.T. Fund).

• The Emo-kateers and the Quest for the Magical Neverfade Hair Dye by Elizabeth Fennessy, a senior at Nottingham High School who will attend SUNY Binghamton in the fall.  Her play creates a satirical world that explores the vagaries of high school social networks, winning a prize for Best Comedy.

• Ghetto Love by De'Shauna Ferrante, a senior at Liverpool High School who will attend Crouse Hospital’s RN program after graduating.  Her play about a woman who finds the strength to leave an abusive boyfriend won Best Script Development.

• Poet's Disease by Jake Luttinger, a senior at Liverpool High School who will attend SUNY Albany or University of Massachusetts and major in French.  His play, in which a meteor crash has somehow caused the world’s population to speak in rhyme, has won a prize for Best Dialogue. 

• For the Love of Terrance by Steven Olson, a senior at Fowler High School who will join the Marine Corps after graduating.  His tale of thwarted high school romance won a prize for Best Character.

Syracuse Stage is committed to providing students with rich theatre experiences that connect to and reveal what it is to be human.  Research shows that young people who participate in or are exposed to the arts demonstrate higher academic achievement, stronger self-esteem and a greater ability to plan and work towards a goal.  Last season more than 34,000 students from 24 counties attended or participated in in-depth integrated arts partnerships with Syracuse Stage. 

Educational Programs at Syracuse Stage:

The Bank of America Children’s Tour: bringing high-energy, interactive and culturally-diverse performances to elementary school audiences.

Carrier Backstory!: an interactive, live, creative history lesson for middle school students through adults in which actors visit classrooms and other venues to bring historic characters to life.

Lockheed Martin Project Blueprint: merging scientific discovery and the arts, as an actor portraying a scientist/mathematician introduces students to the connections between scientific and artistic processes.  Now offering George Washington Carver, the first and greatest chemurgist, who was born into slavery and almost single-handedly revolutionized Southern agriculture.

artsEMERGING: high school students participate in an in-depth exploration of a mainstage play using multiple arts and a multi-cultural approach. This year’s project centered around The Bomb-itty of Errors.

The JPMorgan Chase Young Playwrights Festival: challenging high school students to submit original plays for a chance to see their work performed at Syracuse Stage, as well as a scholarship prize.

Student Matinees with classroom study guides are offered for mainstage productions.  For group rates, please call 315-443-9844.

The Fantastics
The World's Longest Running Musical
Book and Lyrics by Tom Jones, Music by Harvey Schmidt
Directed by Peter Amster
April 23, 2008 - May 17, 2008

APRIL 2, 2008 - SYRACUSE, NY: 

The world’s longest running musical (more than 17,000 performances Off-Broadway), The Fantasticks is charming, funny, and a celebration of the bloom of first love.  A girl and a boy grow up next door to each other.  They are perfect for each other and they fall in love.  To ensure the success of their romance, their oh-so-sly fathers devise every scheme to keep them apart.  Filled with delightful songs.  Tickets can be purchased in person at the Syracuse Stage Box Office at 820 East Genesee Street, or by telephone at 315-443-3275.  Tickets can also be purchased 24/7 at SyracuseStage.org.

A FANTASTICK SUCCESS

The Fantasticks premiered on May 3, 1960 at The Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York City and played 17,162 performances before closing on January 13, 2002.  With over 11,000 productions in the United States in over 3,000 cities and towns, it is both the longest running musical and the most frequently produced.  As further proof that a sunny, funny musical about love has lasting value, consider that the show’s original 44 investors have received a 19,465% return on their $16,500 total investment.  This, in an era when popular culture often seems to dwell on the darker side of life, is a true social phenomenon.

Many have tried to account for the tremendous success of what LIFE Magazine called “a sophisticated story about innocence.”  Writer Tom Jones observed, “The show seemed a sort of balance in a wobbly, wobbly world.”  Director Peter Amster agrees, adding, “It’s sometimes easy to feel war-torn or weary, and then we find ourselves looking for what El Gallo calls ‘the secret place that you remember, where you hide away from the tyranny of time.’”

Amster also notes, “Each time you come back to The Fantasticks you learn more. You follow the journey of different characters, and it offers you different perspectives.”

The delightful music might also be a factor, with memorable songs like Try To Remember, Soon It’s Gonna Rain, and I Can See It.  Amster describes the music as “a leap into the imagination, going back and forth between lush romanticism and cool jazz.  On one hand it’s like The Romanesques—a baroque, fractured fairy tale—and on the other hand it’s like a beat poem, like Ginsberg or Kerouac.”

HISTORY

While at the University of Texas, a professor introduced Jones and Schmidt to The Fantasticks, an obscure play based on an 1894 French play entitled Les Romanesques.

After a failed attempt at creating a large-scale Broadway musical, the two writers threw out everything except the song Try to Remember and, starting from scratch, completed the basis of what is now The Fantasticks in less than three weeks.

Shakespeare served as a model.  “I decided to attempt the whole thing in verse,” Jones said, “to mix open verse with heavy rhyming and even, upon occasion, doggerel.  I tried to let people end scenes with couplets as a sort of flourish.  I followed Shakespeare’s device of using a unifying image to glue the whole thing together.  In this case, it was vegetation.  Seasons.  Gardening.  Fruiting.  Harvest.  Whenever in doubt, I tried to put in something about vegetation and the seasons.”

To create a sense of intimacy, the writers used several aspects of presentational theatre.  A narrator was used to help push the story along, and an “invisible” onstage props person handled changes to the set.  Inspired by a Piccolo Teatro of Milan production of The Servant of Two Masters, Schmidt and Jones decided to stage the production on a crude wooden platform such as might be employed by a Commedia dell’ arte troupe.  The idea for the cutout moon and sun came from a production of Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale directed by John Houseman.

During its initial run at Barnard College, The Fantasticks caught the attention of several Off-Broadway producers.  Lore Noto brought it to the Sullivan Street Playhouse where it opened to mixed reviews on May 3, 1960.  Noto was advised to close immediately, but he believed in the show and after four months The Fantasticks had its first profitable week.

SYNOPSIS

The Fantasticks tells the story of a boy named Matt, a girl next door named Luisa, and a wall their parents have built to keep them apart.  Believing their families do not get along, the youngsters secretly meet and quickly fall in love.  Unbeknownst to them, their fathers are actually best friends who dreamed up a faux-feud to ensure this would happen.

Mission accomplished, the meddling fathers devise an elaborate scheme to cement their children’s love and end the “feud.”  A swordsman named El Gallo is hired to stage an abduction of Luisa so that Matt can heroically save the day.  The scheme is played out, and the night is full of moonlight and romance.

The sun comes up and the day brings an end to dreams.  The dashing El Gallo, who was their guide to romance and illusion, becomes their instructor in disillusionment.  The lovers break up, and the fathers become embroiled in trivial argument.  As noted by El Gallo, “The play is never done/Until we’ve all of us been burned a bit/And burnished by—the sun!”  

Only when Luisa and Matt go their separate ways, do they realize that hurt brings wisdom, and that in order for them to be together they must first learn to be apart.  Said Director Peter Amster, “The show reminds you that ‘without a hurt the heart is hollow.’”

WRITERS

Tom Jones (Book & Lyrics) and Harvey Schmidt (Music) began their creative collaboration as undergraduates at the University of Texas in 1950.  Jones wrote comedy sketches and Schmidt served as musical director for a musical revue called Hipsy-Boo.  At the time neither had plans to pursue careers as writers, but the revue was so successful that the pair began a regular songwriting collaboration. 

Their first Broadway show, 110 in the Shade, was nominated for a Tony Award and was successfully revived by the New York City Opera.  I Do! I Do!, their two character musical starring Mary Martin and Robert Preston, was a success on Broadway and is frequently done around the country and the world.

For several years Jones and Schmidt worked privately at their theatre workshop, concentrating on small-scale musicals in new and often untried forms.  The most notable of these efforts were Celebration, which moved to Broadway, and Philemon, which won an Outer Critics Circle Award.  In 1998, The Show Goes On, a musical revue featuring their theatre songs and starring Jones and Schmidt, was presented at the York Theatre to great acclaim, and Mirette, their musical based on the award-winning children’s book, was premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut.  In addition to an Obie Award and the 1992 Special Tony Award for The Fantasticks, Jones and Schmidt are the recipients of the prestigious ASCAP-Richard Rodgers Award.  In February of 1999, their “stars” were added to the Off-Broadway Walk of Fame outside the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

DIRECTOR

Peter Amster has directed and choreographed for most of Chicago’s professional theaters and opera companies.  He was nominated for Jeff Awards for his direction of Once on This Island, The Rothschilds and The World Goes Round, all for Apple Tree Theatre.  He has been a regular guest director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Indiana Repertory Theatre.  His opera direction credits include the Lyric Opera Center productions of Die Fledermaus, La Traviata, La Cenerentola, and The Magic Flute; and on the main stage at Lyric Opera Center he choreographed The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe, Don Quixotte and La Traviata.  He has also directed for Skylight Opera, Light Opera Works, Chicago Opera Theatre and DuPage Opera.  Other choreography credits include The Grapes of Wrath for Steppenwolf Theatre, LaJolla, London, and Broadway; Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All for Chicago Opera Theatre; The Winter’s Tale, She Always Said Pablo and The Good Person of Setzaun for the Goodman Theatre, all directed by Frank Galati.  He has taught theater, opera and performance studies at Northwestern University, CalArts, LSU, Columbia College and Roosevelt University. 

MUSIC DIRECTOR

David Nelson (Music Director) is a Syracuse native currently residing in Sarasota, Florida.  Previously at Syracuse Stage: music director for Menopause The Musical and My Fair Lady, pianist for Peter Pan; also music director for SU Drama Department productions Der Tisch and The Clowns.  Recently in Florida: Batboy: The Musical at the Berkeley Academy in Tampa, Sophisticated Ladies at the Port Charlotte Performing Arts Center, Nobody: The Bert Williams Story (premiere) at the Glenridge (Sarasota) Performing Arts Center.  Other Florida music direction credits include Smokey Joe’s Café, Starting Here, Starting Now, Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits, and A Brief History of White Music at Florida Studio Theatre, Sophisticated Ladies and Spunk with Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, A Taffeta’s Christmas Reunion, Forever Plaid, West Side Story, Guys & Dolls, 1776, and I Do! I Do! in the Sarasota area, and Smokey Joe’s Café,  La Cage Aux Folles, and Man Of La Mancha in Jacksonville.

CAST

Three of the eight cast members have previously appeared at Syracuse Stage.  Charles Goad (Bellomy) previously appeared in Stage’s All My Sons.  Mark Goetzinger (Hucklebee) previously appeared at Syracuse Stage in Death of a Salesman, King Lear, The Grapes of Wrath and All My Sons.  Robert Johansen (Mortimer) appeared in Stage’s The Grapes of Wrath as Jim Casy, and in Agatha Christie’s The Unexpected Guest as Angel (the Butler.)

There are four newcomers to Syracuse Stage.  William J. Norris (Henry) has worked as an actor, director and writer for thirty-seven years, receiving numerous awards including an Emmy, a Joseph Jefferson, and five Artisans.  David Studwell (El Gallo) was featured in Encores: Applause! directed by Kathleen Marshall, and his roles include Meyer Rothschild in The Rothschilds directed by Peter Amster.  Mackenzie Thomas (Luisa) has appeared in the Broadway production of Mamma Mia! and she was a TV contestant on NBC’s Grease: You’re The One That I Want.  Eric Van Tielen (Matt) performed for three seasons at the Tony Award–winning Utah Shakespearean Festival, appearing as Ralph Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore, Cornelius in Matchmaker, and Sir Lionel in Camelot.

Completing the cast is SU Drama student Alexa Silvaggio (The Mute), who is currently pursuing a BFA in Musical Theatre. 

TICKET INFO

The Fantasticks runs at Syracuse Stage from April 23 – May 17.   Tickets range from $22—$45 and are available at the Syracuse Stage Box Office, 315-443-3275 or at www.SyracuseStage.org.  Students with valid ID may purchase $9 tickets at the Box Office just prior to curtain on the day of performance.  Rush tickets available for $15—$25 depending on performance.  Student and rush tickets are subject to availability.  Group tickets available at 315-443-9844.

Hot Flash:
Menopause The Musical®
Returns This Summer For An Unprecedented Third Run!
By Jeanie Linders
Directed and Choreographed by Patty Bender
May 27, 2008 - June 29, 2008

MARCH 17, 2008 - SYRACUSE, NY:  The first ever extended show in Syracuse Stage history returns to set another record with an unprecedented third run! Back by popular demand, Menopause the Musical will have a limited run of five weeks, May 27 – June 29. Inspired by “a bottle of wine and a hot flash,” Menopause is a hilarious 90-minute celebration of everything from eating binges to night sweats, all to the tune of popular songs from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Tickets are available now for current Syracuse Stage subscribers at a subscriber discount. Tickets go on sale to the general public starting Monday, March 24.

During its previous runs at Syracuse Stage, Menopause consistently filled the Archbold Theatre. “In its first year, Menopause played 12 weeks to 99% capacity, and in the second year it played 8 weeks to 86% capacity,” said James A. Clark, Managing Director at Syracuse Stage. “After conducting a telephone survey, there was a strong indication that people are interested in seeing it again as well as for the first time.”

Said Barbara Beckos, Director of Marketing and Development, “Menopause is truly a phenomenon, clearly, a runaway hit with audiences.” In 2006, the show generated sales of more than 44,000 tickets. This shattered the previous all-time tickets sales record held by West Side Story, which ran in the holiday-musical slot in December 2002 and sold 16,368 tickets over the course of a six-week run.

Writer Jeanie Linders attributes the show’s success to how it normalizes and celebrates what for many has been The Silent Passage. According to Linders, “Most women know intuitively every other woman is experiencing the memory loss or night sweats or hot flashes. They talk about it with their friends and, on occasion, with their spouses. But, when they’re in a theatre with hundreds of women all shouting ‘that’s me!’ then they know that what they are experiencing is normal. They aren’t alone or crazy. It becomes a sisterhood.”

Menopause The Musical® started in a tiny 76-seat perfume-shop-turned-theatre in Orlando, FL on March 28, 2001. Since then, the show’s popularity has grown immensely, earning it an Off-Broadway run at Playhouse 91 that began in September 2002. Menopause has also seen long runs in cities around the country, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco, as well as overseas in Australia, Mexico, the Philippines and South Korea.

The show features a group of four middle-aged women who meet at a lingerie sale at a New York City Bloomingdale’s. Although at first they seem to have no more in common than a shopping addiction, they soon learn of their shared experiences with menopausal symptoms. As they sort through the racks of discount bras, the four types—the Power Woman, the Earth Mother, the Iowa Housewife and the Soap Star— bond over their mutual frustrations with night sweats, wrinkles, memory loss and (of course) those pesky hot flashes.

The show features 25 re-lyricized songs from the ‘60s and ‘70s, including “Help Me, Rhonda” which becomes “Help Me, Doctor,” Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools” recast as “Change of Life,” and the ‘60s folk classic “Puff the Magic Dragon” as an ode to exhaustion: “Puff, My God, I’m Draggin’”.

Show creator Linders has been active in the arts for the past 30 years as an arts development consultant, as well as serving as president and CEO of an advertising agency specializing in entertainment and hospitality. With her events marketing and management firm, Linders has also produced a variety of shows, from A Conversation with Cary Grant to multistage music festivals.

Menopause The Musical will be directed and choreographed by Patty Bender, whose previous directing credits include projects for Walt Disney World, Off-Broadway and numerous regional theatres, as well as film and television. The cast will feature some familiar faces from the previous showings of Menopause at Syracuse Stage. An official casting announcement will be made at a later date.

Menopause The Musical® will have a limited run of five weeks, May 27 – June 29, with eight performances per week. Tickets are available now for current Syracuse Stage subscribers at a subscriber discount. Tickets go on sale to the general public starting Monday, March 24. Tickets range $25-$48, and can be purchased in person at the Syracuse Stage Box Office at 820 East Genesee Street, or by telephone at 315-443-3275. Tickets can also be purchased 24/7 at SyracuseStage.org. For special group discounts (10 or more) call 315-443-9844.

Syracuse University Drama Presents
Servant of Two Masters
A Classic Farce about Love, Intrigue, and Double-Booking
By Carlo Goldoni, Adapted by Tom Cone
Directed by Leslie Noble, Opens: March 21 Closes: March 30

MARCH 5, 2008 - SYRACUSE, NY:  This classic farce tells the story of a man who tries to make his way in life by hiring himself simultaneously to two employers, keeping each unaware of the other. Originally written in 1745, the “man-versus-society” conflict at the core of this play is just as valid today as it was more than two centuries ago. Directed by Leslie Noble, adjunct faculty member at Syracuse University, Servant of Two Masters runs March 21 to March 30. For tickets, please call 315-443-3275 or visit the web
24/7 at www.vpa.syr.edu/drama.

Servant of Two Masters is a comedy written in the style of the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, a theatre tradition characterized by traveling troupes of actors that used improvisation, stock characters (some with masks) and scenario outlines, rather than scripted texts, to perform plays. The tradition originated during the Italian Renaissance and enjoyed popularity from the mid 1500s to the mid 1700s. A fan of the Commedia genre and the author of Meet Me in Cognito, Director Leslie Noble chose Servant of Two Masters for its “irrepressible comic spirit.” “I love the play because it takes unbridled delight in its own subversive silliness,” said Noble. “I think contemporary audiences will relate to this ‘serving two masters’ component, nowadays we call it multi-tasking. But I hope the play works on a purely comedic level, and if all an audience takes away is a good laugh, that will be enough.”

SYNOPSIS
The play tells the story of Truffaldino, a mischievous servant who secretly offers his service simultaneously to two unsuspecting masters. As he runs around Venice trying to fulfill their respective orders, Truffaldino’s attempts to conceal his split loyalty leaves him intertwined in a complicated web of star-crossed lovers, mistaken identities, confused fathers, a duel, a double suicide attempt and several proposals of marriage. Unbeknownst to Truffaldino, his two masters secretly love one another, yet have never met face to face. Filled with wisecracks and adlibs, Goldoni’s zany comedy delivers endless plot twists and multiple misunderstandings.

PLAYWRIGHT
Carlo Goldoni (Playwright, 1707-93) penned more than 260 dramatic works and is widely held as the founder of Italian realistic comedy. His most notable comedies include La locandiera (1753, The Mistress of the Inn), ll ventaglio (1763, The Fan), ll burbero benefico (1771, The Beneficient Bear), and La buona figliuola (1756, The Accomplished Maid). Goldoni first wrote A Servant of Two Masters in 1745 at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, who later took on the role of Truffaldino.

ADAPTATION AUTHOR
Tom Cone (Adaptation Author) originally translated and adapted his version of Servant of Two Masters for the Stratford Festival in Canada. It premiered during the 1980 season and has since had several major productions. His play credits include Beautiful Tigers (recently produced at the Edinburgh Festival), Cubistique (over thirty productions) and Shotglass (premiered at the New Play Festival in Vancouver, B.C.). Tom has received the Canada Council Award for the Arts and a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

DIRECTOR
Leslie Noble is an actor, director and clown. She is a co-founder of Gams on the Lam, a three-woman theatre ensemble that created and toured original clown pieces throughout the US, Mexico and Europe. Leslie’s directing credits include The Coarse Acting Play, Sweet Table at the Richelieu and Mad Forest for LeMoyne College; The Girls, for Full Cast Audio Books; and Twelfth Night and Stone Soup, for the Sterling Renaissance Festival, where she also performed and penned a number of scenarios, including an original Commedia entitled Meet Me in Cognito. For SU Drama, where she works as an administrator and adjunct faculty member, Leslie was the assistant director on Shakespeare’s R&J, and directed the student understudy production of Crimes of the Heart and the Syracuse Stage/SU Drama Children’s Tour The Red Sun and the Green Moon (written by Gam partner and Syracuse Stage Director of Educational Outreach Lauren Unbekant). Later this year, Leslie will direct Evolution, a solo play by (other Gam partner) Patricia Buckley, which will be presented in Syracuse at the Redhouse.

CAST
Ian Michael Austin (Pantalone) is a senior Acting major from Maplewood, NJ. Ida Clay (Brighella) is a senior Acting major from Conroe, TX. Anna Cometa (Smeraldina) is a senior Musical Theatre major from Northborough, MA. John Curtis (Dr. Lombardi) is a senior Acting Major from Greenwich, CT. Kaitlin Dale (Beatrice) is a juniortransfer Musical Theatre major from West Linn, OR. Chris Dall'au (Florindo) is a junior acting major from Miami, FL. Mark Dorenfast (Silvio) is a junior from Northern New Jersey. Sharisse Francisco (Female Zanni) is a sophomore Musical Theatre major from Bedford Hills, NY. John Garry (Nicki) is a sophomore Musical Theatre major from Forestburgh, NY. Jacob Heimer (Truffaldino) is a sophomore Musical Theatre major from CT. Carlos Palencia, Jr., (Vittorio) is a sophomore Acting major from Miami, FL and Columbus, GA. Lauren Port (Clarice) is a senior Acting major from Lincolnshire, IL. Ethan Young (Male Zanni) is a sophomore Acting major from
Monkton, MD.

PRODUCTION TEAM
Sound design for Servant of Two Masters is by Erin M. Ballantine, a 2001 SU alumna. Lighting design is by Christine E. Bernat, a junior Design/Tech major from Albany, NY. Set design is by Lauren Levesque, a junior Set and Costume Designer from Putnam Valley, NY. Assistant set designers are Bridgette Kees Levy, a sophomore Design/Tech Major from Phoenix, AZ and Elizabeth Sarah Hurowitz, a senior from Bayside, NY. Costume design is by Bethany Richards, a senior Costume Design major from Minneapolis, MN. Assistant costume designer is Caroline London, a sophomore Design/Tech major from Sharon, MA. Stage Manager Dimitre Guenov is a junior Stage Management major from Altamonte Springs, FL. Assistant stage managers are John Sumpter, a freshman from Columbia, SC, and Carlie Anne Wilson, a freshman Stage Management major from Pembroke, MA.

TICKETS
Tickets for the Syracuse University Department of Drama’s production of Servant of Two Masters are $15 for adults and $13 for students and seniors. “Pay what you can night” is for valid SU I.D. holders. For tickets and more information, contact the Department of Drama box office at 315-443-3275 or visit the website at http://vpa.syr.edu/drama.

The Bomb-ity of Errors
Hip Hop Show at Syracuse Stage Gives Shakespeare a New Rap

February 22, 2008 - SYRACUSE, NY:  The Bomb-itty of Errors
Hip Hop Show at Syracuse Stage
Gives Shakespeare a New Rap
By Jordan Allen-Dutton (Rodan)
Jason Catalano (Gruff)
Gregory J. Qaiyum (GQ)
Erik Weiner (Red Dragon)
Music by Jeffrey Qaiyum (JAQ)
Directed by Andy Goldberg
ARCHBOLD THEATRE at SYRACUSE STAGE
Previews: March 12 & 13, 2008
Opens: March 14, 2008
Closes: April 12, 2008
“So welcome to a new world that ya never been in…
…Enough rough stuff to make your mind start spinnin’
It’s a new style, it’s whatever we wanna be
So welcome, welcome, welcome to the Bomb-itty”
- Bomb-itty Prologue
Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors comes in for an “ad-rap-tation” as four gifted performers hit the street to launch an assault of non-stop, lightning-paced, sidesplitting comedy. With its origin in the Roman playwright Plautus’ wild comedy The Menaechmi, the play involves quadruplets and multiple cases of mistaken identity. This latest incarnation is a hip-hop, rap romp retelling of the famous comedy. After all, the Bard was a master of “word.” Tickets can be purchased in person at the Syracuse Stage Box Office at 820 East Genesee Street, or by telephone at 315-443-3275. Tickets can also be purchased 24/7 at SyracuseStage.org.

HISTORY
The comedic premise used in Bomb-itty has entertained audiences for centuries. Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus (254-184 BC) first penned The Menaechmi about twins who reunite as adults. When Shakespeare tackled the story in the 1590’s, he wrote The Comedy of Errors and doubled the comedy by adding two sets of twins. For another adaptation, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote the The Boys from Syracuse, a 1930s musical with popular tunes such as Falling In Love With Love, This Can’t Be Love, and Sing For Your Supper. And with Bomb-itty, we now have a rap version—this time with quadruplets—that also incorporates elements from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In Bomb-itty, the four male actors play 16 characters with over 70 costume changes.

The phenomenon of Bomb-itty began as a 1998 senior thesis project at NYU, where performances drew a cult-like following. The writers went in search of financial backers, but not in the conventional way. They left little rap messages on producers’ voicemail in the middle of the night, inviting them to attend a special performance. In the end only a couple of the producers showed, but fortunately someone in the audience introduced the show to Andy Goldberg, the director who ended up developing the piece and moving it to Off-Broadway in 2001. Goldberg is also directing Bomb-itty at Syracuse Stage.

Goldberg was instantly struck by Bomb-itty’s appeal. “I really connected to the material and instantly recognized the genius of combining Hip Hop and Shakespeare,” he said. “With both, there’s so much wordplay, rhythm, and cleverness. The language is alive and malleable—both qualities that are essentially Shakespearean and true to Hip Hop.”

His instincts proved correct. The Bomb-itty of Errors was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and Outer Critic Circle Award, and in 2001 the show won the grand prize at the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. The exposure helped secure an MTV deal for the writers that included a pilot, rights to option a movie of Bomb-itty, and a movie of the week.

Bomb-itty has been performed all over the world to rave reviews in places like Chicago, Edinburgh, Dublin, St. Petersburg, FL and London’s West End. Director Goldberg is thrilled to see the show through its many different productions. He said, “More than anything I’ve ever done, the audiences for this show become impassioned. They all go bananas for it. It’s a real joy to put it up for different audiences and to bring it around the world.”

SYNOPSIS
Bomb-itty is the story of four brothers, quadruplets, who were separated into groups of twos as infants and raised in different towns, Syracuse and Ephesus. Each pair of brothers was given the same two names, Antipholus and Dromio, and neither pair knows the other two brothers exist.

The fun begins when Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse arrive for the first time in the town of Ephesus to make a name for themselves as rap MCs. “Yo, we’re on a mission—everybody listen/We’re representing Syracuse and we’re never quittin’.” But when Dromio of Syracuse leaves to explore the new town, Antipholus of Syracuse stumbles upon Dromio of Ephesus. They mistake each other for the brothers they grew up with, have a confusing conversation, and the meeting ends in a beat down.

Meanwhile, Adriana is complaining to her sister Luciana about her husband, Antipholus of Ephesus: “But sister, I’m still very young/And sister, the jury is hung/And my husband’s not and I’m starting to cry/My heart’s locked in a vault and
I’ll tell you why/’Cause it’s his own fault.” Matters only get worse when Adriana confuses Antipholus of Syracuse for her husband. Antipholus of Syracuse is dumbfounded to say the least, but he decides to go with the flow. “Am I Asleep, awake, mad, or well-advised?/I’m known unto them, but to myself disguised!/This place is pretty freaky, I’m feelin sorta moody/But this is an adventure. Besides, I might get booty.”

From there, the cases of mistaken identity become increasingly outrageous. The Jewish businessman, MC Hendelberg, delivers jewelry to the wrong Antipholus; Dromio of Syracuse has a terrifying experience with a woman named Bertha who claims to be his wife; Antipholus of Syracuse falls in love with Luciana much to Adriana’s horror; Rastafarian Dr. Pinch tries to “cure” Antipholus of his love for Luciana; and the requisite chase scene ensues until finally the quadruplets’ mother surfaces and all is explained.

Along the way, the brothers meet many colorful characters, including a cop who is disturbingly fond of his horse, a trannie prostitute who shows up expecting jewelry from Antipholus of Ephesus, and a Vanilla Ice wannabe who can’t make a rhyme.

COMMONALITIES BETWEEN SHAKESPEARE AND HIP HOP
Believe it or not, there’s a lot to talk about when comparing Shakespeare to Hip Hop. From couplets to insults, vulgarity and even made-up words, it seems that “Willy” and some of the great Hip Hop artists like Mos Def, The Roots, and Talib Kweli have a lot in common. Lewd, crude, and sometimes rude, both styles are written in the language of the people and meant to entertain.

Bomb-itty breathes new life into a century-old story, making it relevant and accessible once again, but some of the basic tools of language have stayed the same. Essential to Shakespeare’s style is the rhyming couplet, a pair of lines in iambic pentameter, alternately stressed and unstressed syllables. The late Tupac Shakur pointed out the same technique used in Hip Hop, saying, “Iambic pentameter is rap. It’s the structure.”

One might also look to the intense rhymes found in Bomb-itty. For example: “Throughout Ephesus I’m knows as a dependable/All rules are bendable, possessions lendable/Debts extendable, all things I do commendable/While you, you’re expendable.” And another excerpt: “I will play the weak wife and you the stronger state/But that only pushes me to communicate/Instigate, emulate, consummate, masturbate/Castrate, dominate, then close the gate.”

Adapting Shakespeare to Hip Hop has been done a number of times. Before forming The Fugees, Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean performed a Hip Hop musical based on Twelth Night. A Hip Hop version of Macbeth debuted in San Francisco (2002), and Britain saw an all-male street-dancing version of Romeo & Juliet. These are just a few notable shout-outs.

REVIEWS
MTV called Bomb-itty “nothing short of brilliant,” pointing out the “clever writing, rhythmic flow, witty musical allusions and intelligent humor.” The New Yorker described Bomb-itty as “witty, lewd and altogether new. Think ‘The Beastie Boys from Syracuse’.” Chicago’s Newcity praised Bomb-itty’s writing team, asking “Who woulda thought a bunch of white boys could give the Bard a little street cred?” And Julie Taymor, director of The Lion King and Titus, said, “If the Bard were alive today, he might well be a rapper…Bomb-itty is rap at its best, theatre at its most compelling.”

WRITERS
Jordan Allen-Dutton (aka Rodan) currently lives in Los Angeles, and his written work includes Nerds (with fellow Bomb-itty alum Erik Weiner), Kiera’s Marbles (a futuristic Hip Hop retelling of the babel myth, with music by JAQ and The Grommits), /joinsolitude, Mud swallow, Top Gun Era, Junkie, Arpanet, and Still Single. Jason Catalano (aka Gruff) fronted the rock band Different Age, was seen in Gizmo Love as Thomas, and worked on an avant-garde puppetry show with the legendary Marvin VinMatt. Gregory J. Qaiyum (aka GQ) is an actor, writer and MC who acted in major features such as Martin Lawrence's What's The Worst That Could Happen? and On The Line starring Lance and Joey of NSYNC. Erik Weiner (aka Red Dragon) made his feature film debut in the 20th Century Fox romantic comedy Brown Sugar, and was a series regular on the HBO series Unscripted. Composer Jeffrey Qaiyum (JAQ) created The Feel Good Album Of The Year with his brother GQ, and credits include The Bombitty of Errors (DJ, composer, co-producer), Scratch and Burn (composer, actor, writer), and Just Another Story (composer, actor, associate producer, music video codirector.)

DIRECTOR
Andy Goldberg’s passion for theatre grew from his education at Stanford University, where he graduated with a BA in English, special honors. He has directed over twenty shows in the last ten years in five different countries, including the world premiere of the Boney M musical Daddy Cool, which opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London in September 2006 and in Berlin last year. Andy also directed and developed the world premiere of The Bomb-itty of Errors, which ran Off-Broadway for over six months and played to sold-out houses at HBO’s Comedy Festival (Jury Prize), Chicago (Jefferson Award), Edinburgh (Stage Award), Dublin, and London’s West End. Recent credits include Love Sucks, a punk rock adaptation of Love’s Labours Lost, and Nerds:A Musical Software Satire, by the creators of Bomb-itty, both for the New York Music Theatre Festival; and the world premiere of Gabba Gabba Hey: The Ramones Musical in Perth, Australia. Selected classical credits include Twelfth Night at La MaMa, Romeo and Juliet at American Stage, and The Fair Maid of the West at Pleasance, London. Andy is working on a new musical, The Ballad of Norah’s Ark, with collaborators Barb Jungr and Russell Churney. From 1996 to 2002 Andy was Associate Artistic Director of The New Group in New York City, working closely with Artistic Director Scott Elliott, where he directed the world premieres of David Cale’s Betwixt and Benjie Aerensen’s Paradise Island. Since 1993, Andy has been a teaching artist for Manhattan Theatre Club, where he teaches theatre craft to high school students.

CAST
Jason Babinsky (Antipholus of Syracuse) recently played Dromio of Ephesus at St. Louis Rep, earning a Kevin Kline Best Actor nomination, and following this show heads to the Huntington and Williamstown Theatres to perform in She Loves Me. James Barry (Antipholus of Ephesus) performed in The Full Monty, Two by Friel after Chekhov, in regional productions of Amadeus, The Misanthrope, Angels in America, Parts 1 and 2, and he plays guitar and sings in the Brooklyn-based rock group Grand Army Arrows. Darian Dauchan (Dromio of Syracuse) has performed in Twentieth Century (Roundabout Theatre Company), Media Madness (Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca, NY), and as a spoken word artist was crowned 2007 Urbana Grand Slam Champion for the Bowery Poetry Club. Griffin Matthews (Dromio of Ephesus) is most recognizable as Patrick on ABC’s new series Cashmere Mafia; his other credits include Love Monkey (ABC), Numb3rs (CBS), and in theatre Best of Both Worlds, Once on this Island (Daniel), and Golden Motors. Kheedim Oh, aka DJO (DJ) was the co-musical director along with DJ TH!NK for the seminal Hip Hop theatre piece A Rhyme Deferred, and he makes music with his band The Beatards.

TICKET INFO
The Bomb-itty of Errors runs at Syracuse Stage from March 12 - April 12. Tickets range from $9—$45 and are available at the Syracuse Stage Box Office, 315-443-3275 or at www.SyracuseStage.org. Students with valid ID may purchase $9 tickets at the Box Office just prior to curtain on the day of performance. Rush tickets available for $15—$25 depending on performance. Student and rush tickets are subject to availability. Group tickets available at 315-443-9844.

Arabian Nights
A Storybook World Comes To Life

February 5, 2008 - SYRACUSE, NY:  Syracuse University’s Department of Drama presents Mary Zimmerman’s Arabian Nights, running February 15 through February 24. Directed by Syracuse University Department of Drama faculty member Stephen Cross, Arabian Nights celebrates the power of storytelling as it follows Scheherezade, bride of the tyrannical caliph Shahryar, as she uses her narrative skills to postpone her execution by telling the caliph elaborate stories of love, lust, comedy, and dreams.

Zimmerman’s script celebrates the transformative power storytelling can have on people. For 1,001 nights, Scheherezade tells a story, each cleverly chosen to treat the king’s sickness and enchant him enough to allow her to live another day. In the end, Shahryar transforms from a brutish despot to a compassionate ruler and husband, freeing the young storyteller and recognizing that even as a powerful king, he is but another servant to a much higher power.

Acts I and II of the play contrast sharply. The stories featured in the first act are aimed at softening the king, resulting in communal laughter at the end of the act. Scheherezade’s tales in Act II bring the king to a much more personal, spiritual change, teaching him the value of learning, empathy, generosity, and ultimately, humility.

Storytelling, especially of folktales, illustrates events and important themes present in everyday life. Arabian Nights is a perfect example of story theatre, that is, using narrative to link several seemingly unrelated tales together. Scheherezade weaves a careful web of purposeful stories, unrelated to each other, but cohesively put together to inspire change in the dangerous caliph.

Director Stephen Cross describes story theatre as “really powerful because it doesn’t tell anything, it just shows, and the audience is free to paint.” He says it is “larger than life, broader, more animated, and not at all naturalistic.”

Experimenting with different styles of theatre is ideal for training programs like Syracuse University’s Department of Drama. The rehearsal process allows students to experience different methods of preparation and performance. For The Arabian Nights, the actors have been trained in “physical theatre”—storytelling through body movement and other stage elements such as music, props, and dance. Everything on the set must be “actor proof” to allow jumping, swinging, and basic tumbling. In preparation for this, actors rigorously trained for three weeks, learning acrobatics, participating in intensive workouts, and experimenting with “work-ups”—improvisational exercises that serve as the basis for scenes throughout the play.

As an adaptation of the 1923 The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Zimmerman’s script sheds light on the very important cultural history engrained in these stories. Over the centuries, Arabian Nights transformed from a low-class Middle Eastern tradition to a more middle and upper-class literary tradition in Western culture. There is much to be said about the application of this narrative to today’s society. The final scene of the play takes audiences to a modern-day Baghdad, shedding light on an important issue in the world today.

Director Cross believes there is an anti-hate message in the play. He said, “Whenever you drop bombs, you’re dropping them on culture, people, history…the military engagement is just the tip of the iceberg. To treat another culture as an enemy is an insane proposal.” Cross looks to the presence of wind in the piece as a reminder “that no matter how powerful we think we are, we won’t outlast the wind or sand.”

Playwright Mary Zimmerman is the recipient of a 1998 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2002 Tony Award for best direction and 10 Joseph Jefferson Awards, including best production and best direction. She is the Manilow Resident Director of Goodman Theatre, a member of The Lookingglass Theatre Company of Chicago, an artistic associate of Seattle Repertory Theatre, and a professor of performance studies at Northwestern University. Works which she has adapted and directed include Silk at the Goodman Theatre; The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci at The Goodman, Brooklyn Academy of Music and Seattle Repertory; The Odyssey at the Goodman, Lookingglass, McCarter Theatre and Seattle Repertory; Arabian Nights at Lookingglass, MTC and BAM; Journey To The West at The Goodman, Huntington Theatre and Berkeley Repertory; Metamorphoses at Lookingglass, Seattle Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Mark Taper Forum and Second Stage; Secret in the Wings at Lookingglass, McCarter and Berkeley Repertory; and Eleven Rooms of Proust at Lookingglass and About Face.

Director Stephen Cross is the founder and artistic director of the Irondale Ensemble Project Canada, an ensemble theatre company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, since 1990. With Irondale he has guided the development of over twenty-five critically acclaimed original works of theatre. Under his leadership Irondale has become Nova Scotia's leading research theatre company, pioneering arts in education programs, community arts practices and an overall vision of theatre for social reform. He is also the director of the Irondale School of Ensemble Theatre, operating through the summer. He is a graduate of the Dell' Arte School of Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre MFA program, and currently teaches movement and acting for the Syracuse University Department of Drama.

Playing the part of the tyrannical Shahryar is senior Steven Hosking, an Acting major from Killingworth, CT. Senior Acting major Jackie Ganz, from Harrison, NY will play Scheherezade, backed up by senior Jessica Mazo, an Acting major from Larchmont, NY, who will portray the role of Dunyazade. An outstanding cast supports them: Justin Conte, a sophomore Musical Theatre major; Brendan Cullen, a sophomore Acting major from Danvers, MA; Hilary Curwen, a sophomore Acting major from Westchester, NY; Lulu Fogarty, a senior Acting major from Greenwich Village, NYC; Brianna Larson, a junior Acting major from Buffalo, NY; Arielle Lever, a sophomore Acting major from Baltimore, MD; Lauren Nolan, a junior Musical Theatre major from Illinois; Frank J. Paparone, a junior Musical Theatre major from Rochester, NY; Meredith Perryman, a sophomore Acting major from Odessa, TX; Naomi Seifter, a sophomore Musical Theatre major from Olympia, WA; Dominique Stasiulis a sophomore Musical Theatre major from Miami, FL; Matthew Tolstoy, a sophomore Musical Theatre major from New Jersey; and Danielle von Gal, a junior Acting major from Miami, FL.

Assisting Mr. Cross in directing this production is sophomore Acting major Holly Hart, from Stamford, CT. Scenic design for The Arabian Nights is by W. Haley Ho, a senior Set Design major from the tropics. Assisting her is sophomore Bethany Post, a Design/Tech Theatre and Psychology major from Belmont, MA. Costume design is by Megan Moriarty, a senior Design/Tech Theatre major from Cleveland, OH. She is assisted by Doreen Sayegh, a sophomore from Los Angeles, CA. Lighting design is by Alok Wadhwani, a junior Design major from San Jose, CA. Assisting him is Robin Dill, a sophomore Design/Tech and Mechanical Engineering major from California. Sound design is by Erin M. Ballantine, a 2001 Drama Alumna. Choreography is by Andrew Leigh Smith, resident choreographer for The Irondale Ensemble Project Theatre Company. Her assistant, Rohan Sheth, is a junior Public Relations major from Pittsburgh, PA. Stage management is by Kristine Schlachter, a Stage Management major from Saratoga Springs, NY. Assisting her are Gabriela Fernandez, an Acting major from San Juan, Puerto Rico and Emily Springer, a freshman Stage Management major from Pittsburgh PA. Literary consultant Nichole Gantshar is responsible for this production’s dramaturgy.

Tickets for the Syracuse University Drama Department’s production of The Arabian Nights are $15 for adults and $13 for students and seniors. “Pay what you can night” is for valid SU I.D. holders. For tickets and more information, contact the Department of Drama box office at 315-443-3275 or visit the Web site at http://vpa.syr.edu/drama.

Doubt: A Parable
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Drama Tackles Moral Uncertainty

January 25, 2008 - SYRACUSE, NY:  “What do you do when you’re not sure?” That’s the opening line of John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer prize-winning Doubt, presented February 13 to March 2 at Syracuse Stage, directed by M. Burke Walker. In this provocative drama about a priest accused of sexual misconduct, playwright Shanley uses a hot-button topic to explore the elusive nature of certainty, and the potential dangers of acting on certitude alone. Tickets can be purchased in person at the Syracuse Stage Box Office at 820 East Genesee Street, or by telephone at 315-443-3275. Tickets can also be purchased online at SyracuseStage.org.

Set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, Doubt explores what happens when a hardheaded, strict principal—a nun named Sister Aloysius—comes to believe that a popular young priest has engaged in inappropriate conduct towards a male student. Sister Aloysius has no evidence, but she is certain that the priest, Father Flynn, is guilty, and she is determined to right the situation by forcing him to resign. What follows is a dynamic mono e mono fueled by Shanley’s thought-provoking, witty dialogue that tests the boundaries of religion, faith, community, and truth. Is Sister Aloysius protecting the children in her care, or is she engaged in an unfair persecution of a wrongly accused man?

Shanley offers no easy answers. “I do not profess to know the end of the play,” he said during an interview with NPR. “The end of the play takes place after the play is over, when you go out and have a drink and you have a fight with your wife about what happened.” He continues with the advice, “You may want to be sure. Look down on that feeling. We’ve got to learn to live with a full measure of uncertainty.” Doubt rejects the viewpoint that everything is black or white—a theme that is reinforced by the nuns’ traditional vestments—leaving the audience with a sense of moral ambiguity.

Director Walker praised Doubt as “an intense, high stakes mystery about the unmasking of an accused sexual predator, and an equally high stakes theological confrontation on the nature of faith, obedience, and the source of power in the Roman Catholic Church.” He likens Doubt to “a house on fire: very compact and very intense.”

The story of Doubt takes place against the backdrop of the Cold War, shortly after the assassination of JFK, during the desegregation of schools, and in the midst of Pope John XXIII’s reformative Vatican II. With great change comes feelings of doubt, and Director Walker believes this was a tough time for Americans. Walker said, “On the one hand is doubt, an openness to questioning, even skepticism, a public struggle with your faith that seeks and finds both strength and community in that very process. On the other hand is the bare light bulb of ruthless, moral certainty.” This conflict may be applied to current events, and Doubt may be read as a warning in unsettling times. Since its 2004 debut at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Doubt quickly moved to Broadway and received numerous awards including the 2005 Pulitzer for Drama, four Tony awards including Best Play, two Obie Awards, and Best Play from the New York Drama Critics’ Circle.

Nicknamed “Bard of the Bronx,” writer Shanley is perhaps best known for penning the film Moonstruck (1987), for which he won an Academy Award. His bio reads: “He was thrown out of St. Helena’s kindergarten. He was banned from St. Anthony’s hot lunch program for life. He was expelled from Cardinal Spellman High School. He was placed on academic probation by New York University and instructed to appear before a tribunal if he wished to return. When asked why he had been treated in this way by all these institutions, he burst into tears and said he had no idea. Then he went into the United States Marine Corps. He did fine. He’s still doing okay.” Shanley’s credits as a playwright include Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Women of Manhattan, Welcome to the Moon and Other Plays, The Big Funk, and Four Dogs and a Bone. His film and television projects include Joe Versus the Volcano (1990, film, which he also
directed), and the Emmy Award-winning Live From Baghdad (2002, TV).

Doubt marks M. Burke Walker’s third directorial project at Syracuse Stage (previously, Stones in His Pockets, 2004, and The Beauty Queen of Leenane, 2000.) Other recent directing credits include Take Me Out (Artists Repertory Theatre); Communion (Origin Theatre-NYC), A Delicate Balance (Seattle Rep); Killer Joe (The Empty Space); The Fever (theatre simple); Truman Capote’s Holiday Memories (TheatreVirginia); Of Mice and Men (Delaware Theatre Company); and The Weir (Merrimack Rep). He was the founding Artistic Director of Seattle’s Empty Space Theatre. He has translated plays from French and adapted works for the stage, including Strindberg in Paris, and Smokey Joe’s Café (an early version of the Lieber & Stoller concert musical.) The cast of four includes three newcomers to Syracuse Stage. Lucy Martin takes on the role of the forbidding Sister Aloysius. Ms. Martin is a native of Manhattan with more than a dozen Broadway shows to her credit including The Constant Wife, Hollywood Arms, Joe Egg, The Sisters Rosenweig, Noises Off, and Marlene. She recently finished work on the Women’s Project WAPATO at the Julia Miles Theatre in Manhattan.

Playing opposite her is Rod Brogan in the role of Father Flynn. Mr. Brogan appeared in the Broadway production of Mauritius and the national tour of Doubt. Regionally, he has acted in King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, As You like It, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Much Ado About Nothing, Pentecost, and The Food Chain. His television credits include One Life To Live, Law & Order, Third Watch, Oz, and series regular on Major Dad.

Devin Preston takes on the role of Sister James. Ms. Preston most recently played Alais in The Lion in Winter at Northern Stages and appeared in the Off-Off Broadway production of Snakebit as Jennifer. A recent graduate from the North Carolina School of the Arts, her favorite roles include Agnes in School for Wives, Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, and Curly’s Wife in Of Mice and Men.

Laiona Michelle is the Syracuse Stage veteran, last seen in Tazewell Thompson’s Constant Star. For Doubt she will play Mrs. Muller, the mother of Father Flynn’s alleged victim. In Yellowman (2004) at Arena Stage Ms. Michelle was nominated Best Leading Actress, and her extensive regional credits include the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Classical Theatre of Harlem. Ms. Michelle is the director and creator of Shakers Performing Arts, where she teaches creative arts to inner city teens in her hometown of Springfield, MA.

The design team includes David Birn (scenic), Katrin Nauman (costumes), Phil Monat (lighting), and Resident Sound Designer Jonathan Herter.

Doubt runs at Syracuse Stage from February 13-March 2. Tickets range from $9—$45 and are available at the Syracuse Stage Box Office, 315-443-3275 or at www.SyracuseStage.org. Students with valid ID may purchase $9 tickets at the Box Office just prior to curtain on the day of performance. Rush tickets available for $15—$25 depending on performance. Student and rush tickets are subject to availability. Group tickets available at 315-443-9844.

JEFFREY WOODWARD NAMED
MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR SYRACUSE STAGE

January 18, 2008 - SYRACUSE, NY: Timothy Bond, Producing Artistic Director of Syracuse Stage and the Syracuse University Department of Drama, and Elizabeth Hartnett, Chair of Syracuse Stage’s Board of Trustees, announced today the appointment of Jeffrey Woodward as Managing Director of Syracuse Stage, effective March 24, 2008.

Woodward, 49, will be Syracuse Stage’s third Managing Director in its 35-year history. As Managing Director, Woodward will report directly to and work closely with Producing Artistic Director Timothy Bond, concentrating on strategic planning and the overall direction of the theatre. He will also oversee the day-to-day business and operations of Syracuse Stage, including fundraising, finance, marketing, board relations, personnel, and he will share oversight of Stage’s production and education departments with Bond. Woodward’s appointment is the result of an extensive international search conducted by a committee of Syracuse Stage and University professionals assisted by Gregory Kandel, a partner in the leading arts executive search firm Management Consultants for the Arts (MCA), headquartered in Cos Cob, Connecticut. The same firm assisted in the placement of Bond as Syracuse Stage Producing Artistic Director in July 2007.

“Jeffrey brings to Syracuse Stage the exceptional skill and talent he honed while working at one of the nation’s preeminent regional theatres,” said Bond. “I am thrilled he has accepted our offer, and I am eager to begin a partnership in the exciting work of building the future for Syracuse Stage and the Syracuse University Department of Drama.”

The McCarter Theatre Center’s Artistic Director Emily Mann praised Woodward’s contribution to the Tony Award-winning theatre in Princeton, NJ. “Jeffrey and I have had an extraordinary partnership for the past 17 years, during which time McCarter has become a world-class institution with national prominence,” Mann said. “In addition to his strong leadership and business acumen, what distinguishes Jeffrey from other managers is his passion for the work on our stages. While he will be missed here, I know that Syracuse Stage will be the happy beneficiary of his transformative leadership.”

Woodward joined McCarter in 1991. During his tenure, the theatre’s operating budget more than doubled, the cash reserve and endowment grew from $300,000 to over $12 million, and ticket and contributed income reached record levels. Woodward also oversaw a campaign to build a $14.1 million addition to McCarter, the Roger S. Berlind Theatre, which was completed in August 2003 and include a 380-seat theatre, two rehearsal halls, and office and support areas.

“This is a wonderful opportunity and a good fit for me,” said Woodward. “During the search process, I quickly became impressed by Tim who is an exceptional and well-regarded artist. I was also taken by the passion and commitment of the Board of Trustees and staff.” “It is an ideal situation when you can replace a valued and experienced leader with a valued and experienced leader,” said Board Chair Hartnett. “Jeffrey’s contribution to the success of The McCarter Theatre proves his ability and his passionate commitment to theatre will mean an exciting time ahead for our patrons, staff and artists.”

In accepting the position at Syracuse Stage, Woodward joins a theatre that enjoys a unique symbiotic relationship with the Syracuse University Department of Drama, one of eighteen such programs in the country. Only four of the programs focus on professional actor training for undergraduate students, and of these, Syracuse University’s Department of Drama is the largest.

“One of Jeff's many strengths is that he already has a real sensibility for the relationship between a professional theater company and a professional training program," says Carole Brzozowski, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. “He is committed to furthering the integration of our drama programs with Syracuse Stage, and this will mean many new and exciting opportunities for our students. I look forward to working with him on our shared vision."

“Our goal is to build upon the accomplishments of Jim Clark and Bob Moss and make Syracuse Stage one of America’s leading theatres,” said Woodward. “That means producing great theatre, launching a new play development program, expanding the audience and the donor bases, and building alliances with the community and the University.”

As the Managing Director of McCarter Theatre Center, Woodward has overseen an $11 million theatre and performing arts center, offering more than 350 performances to an annual audience of 200,000. As a co-partner with Artistic Director Emily Mann he directed all operations of the Theatre since 1991, responsible for all administrative aspects of McCarter's operations including marketing, fund-raising, finance, board relations, Princeton University relations, personnel, and the physical plant. He shared oversight with Ms. Mann of the production and education departments.

During Mr. Woodward and Ms. Mann's tenure, McCarter has transformed into one of the leading regional theatres in the United States. In 1994, McCarter was honored with the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Over forty new plays and adaptations have received their world or American premieres at the Theatre and gone on to productions all over the country, among them Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics, Athol Fugard's Valley Song, Christopher Durang's Miss Witherspoon, Regina Taylor's Crowns and Stephen Wadworth's adaptations of three plays by Pierre Marivaux. Six McCarter productions, Anna in the Tropics, Having Our Say, Electra, Lily Tomlin's The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, Translations and Radio Golf, transferred to critically acclaimed runs on Broadway. McCarter augments its theatre series with diverse and renowned programs of music, dance and special events featuring artists of national and international distinction.

This Friday McCarter Theatre Center opens the world premiere of Edward Albee’s Me, Myself & I, running January 18 through February 17. Directing is McCarter’s Artistic Director Emily Mann, a Tony Award nominee and Obie Award winner. Woodward sees the Albee project as positive for both Princeton and McCarter. “One of our challenges in Syracuse will be to determine how a professional theatre and a university can collaborate so that both benefit,” he said. “One way is to bring leading artists to work at the theatre to teach and interact with the students, faculty and staff. McCarter and Princeton did this with Mr. Albee and I hope we can replicate this experience in Syracuse.”

Mr. Woodward is the past President and a Trustee of ArtPride New Jersey, a statewide lobbying organization for the arts; a trustee and Secretary of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization of non-profit theatres; and the Secretary for the League of Resident Theatres, a national collective bargaining and management association. While President of ArtPride, he successfully led a campaign to restore state funding for the arts after it had been completely eliminated, and helped establish a new hotel/motel tax that now funds the arts in New Jersey. He has served as a panel chair and an onsite evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts, and as a panelist for the NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights, the Leading National Theatre Program of the Duke and Mellon Foundations, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Mr. Woodward was a member of the New Jersey Department of State Transition Team in 2001, the TCG Executive Director Selection Committee in 2006, and the 2007 search committee for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts executive director.

Woodward has worked for the Hartford Stage Company, the Mark Taper Forum, Northlight Theatre and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; has served as a consultant to a number of organizations including the University of Chicago, the Court Theatre, Rider University/Westminster Choir College, Arizona Theatre Company and the Weston Playhouse; and is a trustee of the Princeton Summer Theatre. In the spring of 2001, Mr. Woodward, under the sponsorship of the U.S. State Department, traveled to South Africa to serve as a management consultant to the Baxter Theatre Centre and the Grahamstown Festival.

Mr. Woodward received a B.A. from Pomona College and an M.B.A. from New York University. Woodward and his wife, Lori Ott, have two sons, Owen, 13, and Sam, 12. Woodward assumes the position of Managing Director, currently held by James A. Clark, who resumed this position in July 2007, upon Bond’s arrival. In June 2006, Clark, former Syracuse Stage Producing Director and former Chair of the Syracuse University Department of Drama, along with Robert Moss, former Syracuse Stage Artistic Director, announced their joint decision to step down from their leadership positions. They agreed to stay until their successors were named.

Clark joined Syracuse Stage in 1976 as Managing Director and a faculty member in the Department of Drama. In 1992, Clark was appointed Syracuse Stage’s Producing Director and Chair of the Department of Drama when Arthur Storch resigned as Syracuse Stage’s first Producing Artistic Director and Department Chair. When Clark first came to Syracuse Stage, the operating budget was $1.4 million. The current budget is $4.5 million. Clark will remain one of two Associate Directors of the Department of Drama until the end of the current academic year.

Syracuse Stage is currently in its 35th season. The Lieutenant of Inishmore is running January 16 to February 3; Doubt: A Parable will run February 13 to March 2; The Bomb-itty of Errors will run March 12 to April 12; and The Fantasticks will run April 23 to May 17. An announcement will be made this spring about the upcoming season of shows, set to begin this fall. The 36th season will be the first chosen by Producing Artistic Director Timothy Bond.

ABOUT SYRACUSE STAGE
Syracuse Stage was founded in 1974 when Storch, an acclaimed Broadway director and actor, came to Syracuse as Chairman of the Syracuse University Department of Drama and Producing Artistic Director of the newly-formed Syracuse Stage. Storch undertook the restructuring of the Department and the development of a full professional theatre in Syracuse. During 1974-75—its first full season—Syracuse Stage presented six plays in what was then called the Experimental Theatre in the Regent Theatre Complex, located at the corner of East Genesee Street and Irving Avenue. By 1979, the increase in the number of subscribers necessitated the conversion of the old movie theatre in the complex into the intimate and flexible 499-seat John D. Archbold Theatre.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore Serves up Laughs at Syracuse Stage

December 26, 2007 - SYRACUSE, NY: Take the edge off the cold with laughter as Syracuse Stage presents award-winning playwright Martin McDonagh’s gleeful, gruesome and over-the-top comedy, The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Directed by former artistic director Robert Moss, The Lieutenant of Inishmore runs January 16 through February 3. Constellation Energy and Residence Inn by Marriot are the corporate sponsors.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore is the latest of the London-based Irish playwright’s work to reach American shores and his third Broadway hit, following the The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Pillowman. Like these earlier efforts, The Lieutenant of Inishmore garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Play. It won London’s 2003 Olivier Award for Best Comedy, and McDonagh pocketed an Academy Award last year for his short film Six Shooter.

Set in 1993 on the Aran Island of Inishmore, some ten miles off Ireland’s West coast, this outrageous comedy follows the bloody exploits of Padraic, a self-styled lieutenant in a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army. He was deemed “too mad” a fellow to be allowed into the regular IRA. Padraic blithely tortures drug pushers and bombs chip shops for an “Ireland free,” but when his beloved cat and “only friend in the world” Wee Thomas turns up dead, the bullets really start flying and blood drenches the stage. Some productions have used as much as six gallons of stage blood for each performance.

For this production, Syracuse Stage has enlisted the aid of special effects artist Waldo Warshaw, president of Show Effection Inc., based in New York, who has been designing special effects for theatre and film since 1986. His many credits on and off Broadway include The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, Evil Dead, the musical, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Magician, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Lonesome West and Treasure Island.

The cast includes two veterans of Syracuse Stage productions, a Syracuse University Drama Department alum and one Drama undergraduate. Christian Conn, who appeared as Peter in Tracy Letts’ Bug and as Edgar in King Lear (both in 2005-2006), takes on the role of the mad Padraic. Don Amendolia, memorable as Boolie from last year’s Driving Miss Daisy, plays Padraic’s father, Donny, the caretaker of the cat in question who suddenly finds himself the object of his son’s violent temper. Drama graduate Brent Vimtrup takes on dual roles as a hapless drug dealer who finds himself on Padraic’s wrong side and a would-be assassin. Drama senior TJ Clark plays Joey, another would-be assassin.

Syracuse Stage newcomer Molly Camp takes on the pivotal role of Mairead, a sixteen-year-old wannabe terrorist with a romantic eye for Padraic and a dead-eye with an air gun. Patrick Edgar plays her brother Davey, a dim-witted fellow whose penchant for tearing around the island on his “mam’s” bike lands him a lot of trouble. Sean Tarrant, who plays the third would-be assassin, completes the cast.

The design team includes Adam Stockhausen (set), Camille Assaf (costumes), Matt Richards (lighting) and Resident Sound Designer Jonathan Herter. Director Moss feels that the gratuitous bloodletting is the play’s richest source of humor. It is McDonagh’s way of captivating the audience with spectacle and engaging storytelling while at the same time commenting on the senseless, wasteful violence of terrorism, particularly in Northern Ireland. “To some extent,” he explained, “it (the play) is a cartoon.” He quickly adds, however, that the play demands a completely realistic approach—that’s what makes it so funny. Moss also stresses that no cats will be harmed in the making of this play.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore runs at Syracuse Stage from January 16 through February 3. Tickets range from $22 - $45 and are available at the Syracuse Stage Box Office, (315) 443-3275 or at www.SyracuseStage.org. Students with valid ID may purchase $9 tickets at the Box Office just prior to curtain on the day of performance. Rush tickets available for $15 - $25 depending on performance. Student and rush tickets are subject to availability. Group tickets available at 443-9844.

What is the meaning of life?  Just a useless piece of information

October 30, 2007 - SYRACUSE, NY:  Questions like: Who am I? and What is the meaning of life? can catch us when we're least expecting them, stifling us with their scope and depth.  We can be staring peacefully at the night sky or stumbling through our morning routine and suddenly realize how small our lives--and even planet--are.  What is the meaning of life?  we wonder.  Why am I here?  And why do I force myself out of bed and through the day?  What's the point?       

In his new play, The Meaning of Life and Other Useless Pieces of Information, 2004 SU Drama grad Matte O’Brien begs a slightly different, but profound question: If life does have meaning beyond the immediate and discernible--does it even matter?  Or is the meaning of life actually just a useless piece of information?

The second play to be selected for workshopping in SU Drama’s New Play Development program, a workshop production of The Meaning of Life and Other Useless Pieces of Information will be November 9, 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18 in SU Drama’s Black Box Theater.  Friday performances are at 8:00, Saturdays are at 2:00 and 8:00, Sunday are at 2:00.  All Saturday 2:00 and Sunday 2:00 performances are followed by talkback sessions with the cast and director.

Sitting in the Marshall Street Starbucks on a bright Saturday morning playwright O'Brien seems anything but the tortured philosopher trying to sort out life's deepest mysteries.  O'Brien smiles easily, laughs a lot and sports a pair of incandescently yellow Converse sneakers.  A twenty-something himself, his play profiles six twenty-somethings, each one a newly minted adult transitioning from college to “the real world” struggling to find themselves, love and employment in today’s New York City.  Besides their friendship, they all have one thing in common. "All of them," O'Brien said, "don't know who they are."

SU Drama professor and acting producer of the New Play Development program Marie Kemp said O'Brien's play was a good choice for workshopping on a college campus because the play focuses on issues unique to young people just entering adult life. "What students are experiencing is always our first priority," she said. 

Director and SU Drama graduate Alan Souza will collaborate with O'Brien to workshop the play. Workshopping is a crucial, however, seldom-seen-by-the-public part of the playwriting process.  Plays are three-dimensional works of art meant to be seen and heard.  In order to truly understand how a moment or character or scene will work, playwrights often need to physically see the play.  Souza and a group of student actors will actually stage The Meaning of Life and O'Brien will attend rehearsals and performances, reworking and rewriting parts based on what he sees and hears.  Souza said workshopping a play is an invaluable experience for playwrights and student actors. "Matte is finding his voice while the students find theirs. They’re premiering and realizing a new work." Souza said.  "They're creating these people.  They haven't been spoken yet."

The performances are intended to be sketches, renderings to give the author a feel of the whole work.  The performances will have only a minimal set, no lights or costumes; actors will only use rough props.  Audiences will have the rare and fascinating opportunity to watch not just a cast of characters grow and change, but a new work of drama itself as well.   "You can't hide," Souza said.  "Everyone's just exposed.  There are no lights.  You see everything.  It's a bare boned strategy.  It's the only way to get the essence of this thing."

Both Souza and O'Brien said that it can be difficult to get new plays off the ground in the professional world.  Theaters, Souza said, are hesitant to take on new work for fear that it won’t draw an audience.  Playwrights are looking for places away from the pressures of commercial theater to take their new work. Souza said that many playwrights are turning to programs like SU’s New Play Development Program to workshop new plays in an affordable, but still constructive way.   "The important thing is this program (the New Play Development Program),” Souza said.  “This is exactly the kind of training that needs to happen."       

And it happens fast.  Prior to the workshop production, the director and cast have just three short weeks to rehearse.  The rehearsal process for The Meaning of Life began with table work, during which Souza and the cast simply read the play aloud and discussed it.  Now on its feet, the play is gradually building a physical architecture as students work to recall lines while Souza coaches them through movement and intentions. "We have really intense rehearsals," junior Shannon Tyo, a musical theater major and member of the cast said.  "There is not much time.  But this is what you have and you have to make it work.  It's fast, it’s hardwork and it pays off.  You're finding a character in three weeks."

Souza said that during last year's New Play Development Program workshop production of Little Women, the writer added an entire scene between a mantinee and evening performances.  Similarly this year, O'Brien may at any time change anything about his play. Actors could receive drastic changes to the script at any point. “It’s intimidating to have the writer in the room with you,” Tyo said.  “He knows all the answers.  You have to find your own way and the truth of what Matte wrote.”

An accomplished actor and singer now living in New York, O’Brien is finding a promising theatrical voice as a playwright.  The Meaning of Life and Other Useless Pieces of Information is not an event-driven play.  Rather, the play is character-driven; it is what O'Brien calls "a slice of life play."  It is the story of these six young people as they go from day to day trying to figure out their adult lives. "I think Meaning of Life is about what happens when you hit the real world," O'Brien said.  "It is one of the most stressful times in your life.  All these things just come crashing down on you.  You have no insurance, no job.  I mean, these are things that are right out of my life."

While not autobiographical, O'Brien says the issues and tensions underlying the play are very much inspired by his real life.  Laughing, O'Brien remembers how angry he once got with a roommate for not washing the dishes.  But really, O'Brien said, his anger was not about the dishes.  It was about the stress and uncertainty that accompany being young and just starting out.   “It’s a really scary experience,” O’Brien said, “navigating waters that haven’t been mapped out.” 

One of the major themes of the play is lying.  The play opens with all six characters very frankly admitting to the audience that they lie.  It can be very difficult throughout the play to tell when a character is lying and when they are telling the truth.  But the characters don’t lie out of meanness or aggression. “They lie to themselves and to others just to get by,” O’Brien said, “to make it through to the next day.  There’s a coping element.  We need to tell ourselves we’re ok when we’re not ok.”

Souza feels that the play captures the complexity of honesty--each character having their own story, their own version of the truth. "Nobody's story is the only one," Souza said.  "Everyone's story is truthful and everyone's story is wrong."

O'Brien has a strong, sharp voice as a new playwright.  And he takes a refreshing look at early adulthood.  His play is not a sitcom, Souza said.  It's about commonality of human experience; much deeper and much more affecting than an episode of Friends, the current model for 20-something life in New York. “We should walk away from theater changed,” Souza said, “and thinking about ourselves in this mirror we’ve just seen.”

SU Drama Exposes the Many Faces of Love in
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

October 26, 2007 - SYRACUSE, NY:  Syracuse University Drama brings to life Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a rattling exploration of the psychology of denial and greed. Timeless, beautifully written and profound, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof runs November 9 through the 18.

"The play is an exciting investigation of love in all its forms, its pains, its dysfunctions and its will to triumph in the human spirit," director Gerardine Clark said.  "I don't believe that anyone can watch the play without finding their own deepest questions in it."

As night falls on the steamy Mississppi Delta, the well-to-do Pollitt family gathers to celebrate their grandfather, Big Daddy’s, birthday. The family estate, stretching for acres and cloaked in lacey Spanish moss, hums with seeming happiness: Children dance; sparklers crackle; paper hats wilt in the heavy southern heat.

But upstairs, Brick Pollitt, the family’s oldest son and heir apparent, ignores the party and pours himself another highball, hoping this will be the drink that calms him, makes him “peaceful” as he puts it. Once a golden boy and Ole Miss football hero, Brick’s mind now aches under the weight of secrets and lies. He drinks to soothe the ache—and hasten the end.

Gorgeous and manic, Brick’s wife Maggie escaped a life of miserable poverty by marrying into the wealthy and propertied Pollitt family. Her marriage to Brick was supposed to be a happy one and her life, after a childhood of neglect, was supposed to be easy. But nothing has been easy since Brick’s best friend Skipper died. And now as Brick drinks his own life away, his younger brother Gooper angles aggressively for the contested family fortune. Maggie’s future hangs on that inheritance and she is as nervous, as fearful and as determined as a cat on a hot tin roof.   

Teeming with secrets and rich with fascinating, complex characters, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a classic of American theatre and not to be missed.

Playwright Thomas Lanier Williams penned The Glass Menagerie, what many consider his greatest work, as World War II drew to a close in 1944. Menagerie won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and Williams’ career skyrocketed. He won his first Pulitzer for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and many of his plays made their way to Broadway and the silver screen. Williams won a Tony for his 1952 play The Rose Tattoo and his second Pulitzer for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. He is remembered as one of the most important twentieth century playwrights.  Williams died in 1983 in New York City.

Director Gerardine Clark is a professor of drama at Syracuse University where she has served for twenty-nine years. She was a founding member of the Indiana Repertory Theatre where she acted, taught and served as a director of educational programs over a four-year tenure. She has been a professional actor, director, and playwright for over thirty years. Her scholarly publications include Contesting the Boundaries of Liberal and Professional Education, Practical Poetics and Unnatural Acts. Her original plays, adaptations, and translations include The Final Adventures of Don Juan, The Quack (The Doctor in Spite of Himself), A Christmas Carol and The Wind in the Willows (book and lyrics) commissioned by Syracuse Stage. She has had an Eli Lilly Post-Doctoral Fellowship, was for five years an Andrew Mellon Fellow and is presently a Gateway Fellow and a Laura and Douglas J. Meredith Professor for Excellence in Teaching. She was named the Syracuse University Teacher/Scholar for 2004-2005. 

Holly M. Breuer's, scenic designer, previous credits include the Bayview Music Festival in Michigan as props master; Dutchman, costume designer; The Mandrake, stage manager; The Bald Soprano, set designer and Our Town, set designer, all with SU Drama's Black Box Players. She is a senior Design/Tech major from Kingston, PA.

Costume designer Jenn Murray will also be the assistant costume designer for SU Drama’s upcoming production of Sweeney Todd. Jenn is a junior Design/Tech major from Cohasset, MA, and her previous credits include costume designer for SU Drama's Black Box Players’ production of Our Town; assistant costume designer for Syracuse Stage’s production of Spike Heels, and assistant costume designer for SU Drama’s Rookery Nook.

Michael Nardulli, lighting designer, worked as lighting designer for Annie and Oliver! at the Community House Players and for the Black Box Player’s production of Our Town, and is a junior Design/Tech major from Oak Park, IL. Michael’s previous credits include assistant lighting designer for Fool For Love with SU Drama's Black Box Players, My One and Only with SU Drama and Spike Heels with Syracuse Stage.

Sound designer Erin M. Ballantine is a 2001 graduate of SU Drama with a degree in Design/Tech. She has worked as the assistant sound designer for Absurd Person Singular at the Manhattan Theatre Club and Manic Flight Reaction at the Playwrights Horizons. She was a sound designer for The Antigone Project at the Dallas Theatre Center; Naked Girl on the Appian Way at the Redhouse  and My One and Only, A Winter’s Tale and Mischief Makers, all at SU Drama. 

Playing the role of Daisy, Laura Borgwardt is a sophomore Acting major from Madison, WI. Her previous credits include 365 Plays/365 Days for Syracuse Stage.

Ida Clay, taking on the role of Big Momma, is a senior Acting major from Conroe, TX. Ida has also been seen in Antony and Cleopatra (Cleopatra) at The Globe Theatre in London and in Foreplay and the Art of the Fugue (Alma) in the Sutton Pavillion. Ida’s previous credits include Italian American Reconciliation (Aunt May), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Moth) and The Winter’s Tale (Paulina), all with SU Drama.

Sophomore Acting major and Danvers, MA native Brendan M. Cullen is playing Doctor Baugh. Brendan’s previous credits include Oedipus Rex (Priest, Chorus) at SU Drama, stage manager for Loby Hero at the Paul Robeson Performing Arts Center, and assistant stage manager for Caucasian Chalk Circle, also at SU Drama.

Taking on the role of Brick, Chris Dall'au is a junior Acting major from Miami, FL. Chris’ previous credits include The Bald Soprano (Mr. Smith), Caucasian Chalk Circle (Simon, understudy) and Oedipus Rex (Creon), all with SU Drama's Black Box Players. He has also been seen in 101 (Chris) in Drama’s New Playwright’s Festival, The Winter’s Tale (Lord 4) with SU Drama, Victory or Death (ensemble member), a Syracuse Stage workshop, and Haunted (Andy) at the Manhattan Theatre Club. 

Lulu Fogarty, a senior acting major from Manhattan, NY, plays Mae. Lulu’s previous credits include Dutchman (Lula) and Uncommon Women and Others (Muffet), both with SU Drama's Black Box Players, The Art of Dining (Tony) with SU Drama and Embedded (Jen, Gondola) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Holly Hart, playing Sookie, worked this summer on the FX network drama Rescue Me.  Holly is a sophomore Acting major from Standford, CT whose previous credits include The Glass Menagerie (Laura) with Northstar Playmakers and Ordinary People (Jeanine) with the Pound Ridge Theatre Company. 

Playing Lacey, Steven Hosking’s previous credits include Cardinal Sin (Boy) with SU Drama's New Playwrights' Festival, Caberet (Victor, ensemble member) at Ivoryton Playhouse, The Winter’s Tale (Lord 2) at SU Drama and Oedipus Rex (1^st Messenger ) with SU Drama's Black Box Players.  Steven is a senior Acting major from Killingworth, CT.

Kayla Levitt portrays Dixie. Kayla has studied acting at the Papermill Playhouse, the Stella Adler studio and at the Mason Gross School of Rutgers University; she now a sophomore Acting major from Chatham, NJ.  This is Kayla's first production with SU Drama. 

David-Julian Mendez plays Reverend Tooker. Previous credits include Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd), Cabaret (Ernst Ludwig), Oklahoma! (Ali Hakim) and West Side Story (Pepe), all at the Joseph Anzalone Theatre. David-Julian also appeared in Louder Every Moment (as himself) at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange and The Nightwatchman (the nightwatchman) at the Joseph Papp Theatre.  David-Julian is a sophomore Acting major from Brooklyn, NY. 

Kristian Rodriguez, a sophomore Acting major from Atlanta, GA, plays Big Daddy. Kristian's previous credits include Oedipus Rex (the shepherd) with SU Drama's Black Box Players and 365 Plays/365 Days (ensemble member) with SU Drama.