40th Anniversary Book

c e l e b r at i n g 4 0 s e a s o n s 1

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c e l e b r at i n g 4 0 s e a s o n s text: Joseph Whelan

| design: Jonathan Hudak

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CYRANO de bergerac John Cullum as Cyrano, seated, with Lisabeth Bartlett as Roxane and Marcus Smythe as Christian above in Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, adapted

by Emily Frankel. Season: 1983 – 1984. Director: Arthur Storch. Photo: Susan Piper Kublick.

Aside: John Cullum performed the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac, his first of two appearances at Syracuse Stage. He would return in the 1988 – 1989 season for Look Homeward, Angel, also directed by Arthur Storch. Cyrano enjoyed a successful national tour drawing critical acclaim from Atlanta to Richmond to Boston.

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Curtain Raiser In 1958, Syracuse University acquired the Regent Theatre building located at 820 East Genesee Street in Syracuse. At the time Alexander N. Charters was Dean of University College. As Charters recalls, he was asked one day by Hugh Gregg, then vice president and treasurer of the University, to take a walk along East Genesee. They stopped in front of the Regent. “Have you ever done anything in the theatre?”

Gregg asked. “No,” Charters replied. “Why?” “Because we’ve bought this building and you’re going to run it,” said Gregg. Like the opening lines of a good play, this brief exchange signaled the beginning of a great story to come.

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THE NEW PLAYHOUSE The marquee of the Regent Theatre advertises The New Playhouse’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s A Touch of the Poet.

Aside: The New Playhouse presented its first summer season in 1961. The company used professional actors with some roles played by Syracuse University Drama students. The presence of professionals in the Regent led to the formation of the S.U. Theatre Corporation to negotiate with Actors’ Equity Association.

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Gerald F. Reidenbaugh, artistic director of the Syracuse Repertory Theatre and chair of Syracuse University Drama Department, gives notes to student actors during a rehearsal.

Prologue The Regent had been a movie house since 1914. It was built by Myron Kallet as the first in the Kallet Theatre chain. The University had acquired the building without a clear plan of how it would be used.

University College assumed full responsibility for the budget, the building, and the programming. The Regent Theatre became a unit of University College and was administered as one of the numerous UC programs. The goal that emerged, as Charters later noted, “was to develop a comprehensive program in education and culture for the Syracuse community’s taste in music, drama, and film.” Fulfilling that goal became the job of Robert Bergeron, who set about scheduling programs for what eventually became known as the University Regent Theatre.

Although the auditorium was fairly large with a seating capacity of 1100, the theatre was not built for live performance. The stage was small with very little room behind the movie screen. The hall was long and narrow with a small balcony and a projectionist’s booth.

Nonetheless, the University Regent Theatre hosted a wide variety of local companies and visiting performers.

Marcel Marceau performed. Hal Holbrook brought his Mark Twain Tonight to the tiny stage. Over time other performances included The Salzburg Marionettes, The Buffalo Philharmonic, James Whitmore in Will Rogers’ USA, Jose Greco Dance, Doyle Carter Opera, The Modern Jazz Quartet, and The Acting Company. Some of the local groups included Skaneateles Lyric Company (the first to use the space), Syracuse Little Theatre, Syra-

cuse Musical Drama Company, Onondaga Hill Players, Town and Country Players, and the Center Players. In 1961, the first “community-oriented” professional group premiered in the space when the newly-formed The New Playhouse presented a summer season. It was a first step in an evolutionary process toward creating a thriving professional theatre in Syracuse.

The artistic director of The New Playhouse was Drama Department chair Gerald F. Reidenbaugh, who had a clear vision for the company. The New Playhouse would serve two purposes: one, to bring professional theatre to the Syracuse community, and two, to provide an educational tie-in for Drama students. Advanced students, Reidenbaugh believed, could gain valuable professional

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SYRACUSE REPERTORY The Regent marquee announces performance dates for Syracuse Repertory Theatre’s production of Dear Liar by Jerome Kilty.

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Aside: The first fulltime professional theatre company in the Regent, Syracuse Repertory Theatre presented a total of eight seasons, including a trial season in 1964.

The first official season was in 1967. SRT’s final season was 1973.

“A play closes some Saturday night, but a theatre continues on,” Henriot said. “The theatre must not stand or fall on one play or one season. We can’t sell one play to the community we live in. We sell an institution that a community can be proud of.” experience by performing supporting roles in New Playhouse productions. These goals, first articulated

by Reidenbaugh in 1961, have since helped define the mission and direction of professional theatre at 820 East Genesee Street.

The use of professional actors by The New Playhouse created a need for an administrative apparatus to manage relations with Actors’ Equity Association, the union for actors and stage managers. On January 25, 1962, the New York State Education Department approved a provisional charter for the S.U. Theatre Corporation.

The charter established a five member board of trustees: Clark D. Ahlberg, president; Francis A. Wingate, vice president; Alexander N. Charters, secretary; Victor J. Conway, treasurer; and Clifford L. Winters. As noted in the charter, “The purposes for which such corporation is formed are to promote and further the education of the general public by producing, sponsoring, and fostering literary, musical, and dramatic productions of high artistic and cultural value and to develop in the public an enhanced appreciation of art, drama, and music.”

At around this same time, the University provided $120,000 to finance the first of what would be a series of upgrades and renovations to the University Regent Theatre. This initial improvement expanded the stage area and increased lighting capacity. The inaugural pro-

left: Gary Gage as Glas

and Roger Robinson as Randall in Slow Dance on the Killing Ground by William Hanley. Season: Syracuse Repertory Theatre, 1967. Director: Rex Henriot.

duction of The New Playhouse was Eugene O’Neill’s A Touch of the Poet, directed by Reidenbaugh. Summer seasons continued through 1964 and featured similarly challenging material, including Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. Marlow G. Burt replaced Bergeron as program administrator and the Regent became the home space for Drama Department productions as well as hosting performances by a local amateur group, The Civic Company. Management of the Drama Department’s Children’s Theatre also came under the University Regent umbrella. At around the same time, The Rosamond Gifford Charitable Foundation awarded Burt a $70,000 grant for the development of a professional resident theatre company.

Regent Theatre. The plan called for construction of an L-shaped building that would adjoin the Regent Theatre structure and form an integrated complex. The new structure would contain a new theatre—the 200 seat “Experimental Theatre,” today’s Storch—rehearsal halls, scene shops, dressing rooms, and office space.

Completed in 1966, the new facility hosted a variety of performances including a chamber music series, a Cleveland Play House production, Carlos Montoya, SU Drama and SU Children’s Theatre productions, a travelogue film series, and a Sunday evening film series.

That same year, Rex Henriot arrived from Minneapolis to replace Burt as general manger of the Regent and to become managing director of SRT.

The new company took the name Syracuse Repertory Theatre (SRT). Reidenbaugh became artistic director and launched a five-week trial season in 1964. The ambitious line-up included George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman, Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, performed in repertory with a company cast in New York. The season proved instructive as Reidenbaugh was able to determine “what the hard-core Syracuse theatre-goers liked,” as well as to examine the structure and operations of the company.

Before SRT could begin in earnest, however, the University undertook a $1 million renovation of the

The Syracuse Repertory Theatre kicked-off its first official season on January 26, 1967 in the Experimental Theatre. What better way to begin than with Shakespeare: Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,/Live registered upon our brazen Tombs . . . The opening lines of Love’s Labour’s Lost introduced a theatrical endeavor that would last seven seasons and bring 37 productions to the Syracuse community. The Devil’s Disciple, Tiger at the Gates, and Slow Dance on the Killing Grounds rounded out the first season and contained hints of what was ahead. The company employed 16 professional actors with 12 SU Drama students performing minor roles. In addition, 30 students appeared in a 7

Love’s Labour’s Lost Laura MacFarlane as the Princess of France, Gerard Moses as Lord Boyet with ladies in waiting Adale O’Brien, Katherine Manney, and Shirley Fenner in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. Season: Syracuse Repertory Theatre, 1967. Director: Rod Alexander.

crowd scene in The Devil’s Disciple, and 30 more gained experience working backstage in lights, props, sound, costumes, and set construction. Slow Dance on the Killing Grounds, directed by Henriot, featured a young actor named Roger Robinson, who would later be nominated for a Tony Award and who would return to Syracuse to take the lead in Syracuse Stage’s production of Death and the King’s Horseman in 1999.

Reidenbaugh and Henriot were happy with the first season. They sold more tickets than they anticipated, 1026 season subscriptions, and were especially proud that 9000 area students attended the four plays. Reidenbaugh was also pleased that SU Drama students benefitted from their work with the professionals in the company. “It’s the best education we can give our students,” he said. Still,

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the pair knew that one season did not make a success.

“A play closes some Saturday night, but a theatre continues on,” Henriot said. “The theatre must not stand or fall on one play or one season. We can’t sell one play to the community we live in. We sell an institution that a community can be proud of.”

For six more seasons Syracuse Repertory Theatre tried to deliver on that vision by continuing to present a variety of challenging and entertaining fare: TheThreepenny Opera, Lysistrada, The Play’s the Thing, Hamlet, The Hostage, The Fantasticks, The Time of Your Life, Room Service, among many others. But keeping a repertory company proved costly and budget deficits plagued the theatre. Artistic differences surfaced as well and in 1971 Reidenbaugh resigned. The following year SRT scored

THE MODERN JAZZ QUARTET

A flyer promoting a performance

by The Modern Jazz Quartet.

In many respects, the formation and development of The New Playhouse and later the Syracuse Repertory Theatre established the model for the future Syracuse Stage and its connection to the Drama Department. From the outset, Reidenbaugh and Henriot were governed by a desire to create a professional theatre company in Syracuse that would benefit the community and serve an educational function for SU Drama students as well as area school children. In articles for various publications, Reidenbaugh explained that the professional theatre would present a variety of material from classics to new work to children’s theatre and become an anchor for revitalizing the community and instilling in it a sense of cultural pride. He saw the potential for productions to originate in Syracuse and tour to venues near and far. He also envisioned a theatre training program that would take aspiring theatre artists from beginner to paid professional through a series of clearly defined stages and that might culminate in providing students an opportunity to work with a resident professional company. It is a measure of success that the leaders of Syracuse Stage continued to build on these ideas.

Aside: Beginning in 1958 when Syracuse University acquired The Regent Theatre, the venue hosted many nationally and internationally renowned artists including Marcel Marceau, The Salzburg Marionettes, José Greco Dance, Doyle Carter Opera, and Hal Holbrook, among others.

its biggest hit with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and achieved a coup d’ theatre in its final season when Broadway star Howard da Silva played the title role in Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo. Anticipating a development almost 30 years in the future, Galileo was co-produced with SU Drama.

It may also be counted a measure of success that once gone, Syracuse Repertory Theatre was missed. There was a void that needed to be filled. The search was on for someone to fill it.

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EDWARD ALBEE’S WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? Alan Mixon as George and Meg Myles as Martha in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Season: 1979 – 1980.

Director: Terry Schreiber. Photo: Robert Lorenz.

Aside: Terry Schreiber’s production was a critical and popular success.

Schreiber directed several times at Syracuse Stage, including Betrayal

by Harold Pinter and K2 by Patrick Meyers in the 1981 – 1982 season.

Stage again produced Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in the 2004 – 2005 season, directed by Michael Donald Edwards.

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WAITING FOR LEFTY Barry Snider (l) and John Carpenter (c) and members of the company in Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty.

Season: 1974. Director: Arthur Storch. Photo: Robert Lorenz.

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Aside: The doublebill of Waiting for Lefty and Terrance McNally’s Noon marks the beginning of Syracuse Stage and the beginning of Arthur Storch’s tenure as producing artistic director.

You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant . . .

So sang Arlo Guthrie in 1967. Six years later, those words proved remarkably prophetic when Syracuse theatre found a new leader in Stockbridge’s famous eatery. Syracuse Repertory Theatre may have ended, but the University saw the value in maintaining a professional theatre that would be affiliated with the Drama Department. A search commenced to find one person who would serve as artistic director of the new theatre as well as chair of the Drama Department. Arthur Storch, a well-known New York actor and director with a resumé that included six Broadway plays, four films, and more than 100 television shows, was chosen for the job. His appointment was announced at a press conference at Lubin House in New York City. In what may have been seen as an indication of things

Arthur Storch

Act I: 1974 - 1980 to come, the announcement was attended by Actors Studio artistic director Lee Strasberg, and actors Eli Wallach, Pat Hingle, Joseph Bologna, and Rene Taylor. In an interview in 1997 to mark Stage’s 25th anniversary, Storch recalled some of the process that brought him to Syracuse.

There were so many combined things going on. I was directing on Broadway, and part of the whole showbiz/New York scene.

At the same time I had been very active in the Actors Studio and part of the philosophic discussions about what theatre should be.

By sheer coincidence, and oddly enough, it all started here, where I am speaking from, which is Stockbridge. The Syracuse University Drama Department had an apprentice program right here with the Berkshire Theatre Festival, and I was invited in to direct something on the main stage. And Leonard Dryansky

was the faculty person in charge of the apprentice program. And he said to me, would I be interested in talking to the apprentice group under a tree one morning here on the grounds, about life in the big, bad city as a theatre person, an actor/director or what have you, and I said of course I would. I spoke to this group of probably 16 to 18 students, and after that he invited me to breakfast at Alice’s Restaurant, that famous Alice’s Restaurant which no longer exists. And at that breakfast he told me there had been a theatre in Syracuse, working in the same area as the [Syracuse] University Department of Drama, and the University at that time was interested in putting together a professional component with a teaching component, and someone up there came up with the idea of possibly having one person head up both units. Dryansky asked me if I was interested in being that person. Could he submit my name?

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OF MICE AND MEN

Ron Frazier as George and Barry Snider as Lennie in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Season: 1974. Director: Arthur Storch. Photo: Robert Lorenz.

Aside: Of Mice and Men closed the first season, which Storch always considered a half season because it contained just three offerings: the double-bill Waiting for Lefty and Noon, Arthur Miller’s version of An Enemy of the People, and Of Mice and Men. Storch again directed Of Mice and Men in the 1986 – 1987 season.

Of course, there was an enormous thought process: at that time I was married, had a new baby who was a year, a year and a half old; my entire life was centered around New York City, where I was directing, or in London, or in Italy. Suddenly to think of leaving, of pulling up my roots and going to Syracuse—and it was a moment of truth for me, because I had been thinking, philosophizing about what a theatre should be; I had a lot of big ideas about what that should be. I then faced a moment of saying, well, you’ve expressed yourself vehemently on all of these subjects for years; here’s your opportunity to—the saying didn’t

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exist then—to walk the walk and talk the talk. And I decided to take a shot at it, thinking, well, let’s see if I can do it, let’s try it for a year or two, and see what happens. It ended up to be 18 years that I was there. And that’s how it started. I actually arrived in Syracuse on January 1, 1974, and decided to get the season up and running by March 1.

“You’re so wrong I ain’t laughing. Any guy with eyes to read knows it”

–Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets

He did. On March 1, 1974 an actor named John Carpenter playing Harry Fatt in Waiting for Lefty delivered the quoted line, and Syracuse Stage began. Storch paired Clifford Odets’ wellknown one-act with Noon by Terrance McNally as the company’s first offering. He thought it a risky way to begin. He feared one-acts might not be popular with audiences, but “as a child of the 30s” he wanted to do political theatre and intended to signal that interest from the outset.

Arthur Miller’s adaptation of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People followed, and John Steinbeck’s Of

James A. Clark. Photo: James Scherzi Photography.

Mice and Men completed the short season. “It created quite a stir,” Storch recalled of the initial season. Subscriptions jumped from 300 to 1800 by the start of the next. Syracuse Stage was on the ascent artistically and its popularity grew accordingly.

This same year Syracuse Stage became a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT).

The largest association of non-profit professional theatres in the country, LORT establishes collective bargaining agreements with various professional unions including Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), and United Scenic Artists (USA). In practical terms, membership in LORT streamlines contractual arrangements with performers, directors, and designers by establishing uniform pay scales and benefits. In 1974, there were just 28 LORT theatres. Today, LORT is the largest employer of Equity actors with 74 affiliate theatres around the country.

Syracuse Stage’s second season, or first full season as Storch referred to it, again opened with risky fare. To start the 1974/75 season, Storch adapted

In the 1976/77 season, James A. Clark replaced Karl Gevecker as general manager, and the Board of Trustees welcomed its first non-University, community members, Charles Schoeneck and Sandy Dietz. Clark’s tenure with Stage would span 30 years, during which he would partner with four artistic directors and eventually be named Stage’s producing director and chair of SU Drama (1992 - 2006).

and directed Arthur Schnitzler’s sexual romp La Ronde, which featured full male and female nudity. If the highly politicized first season hadn’t sent a message, this play certainly did: theatre in Syracuse was headed in a new and more daring direction. New York–based actor Mitchell McGuire played the role of the playwright in La Ronde. He told The Daily Orange at the time about one patron’s reaction to the play: “One woman said, ‘I had the feeling Syracuse finally grew up.’” Gerard Moses, who was on the Drama faculty at the time and had performed in many SRT productions, recalled of La Ronde, “some people liked it, some people didn’t, but everyone knew something exciting was happening.”

season in order to accommodate the new play. Gibson came to Syracuse to attend some rehearsals, generating excitement and interest in Syracuse Stage. Writing about the world premiere in The New Times, David Feldman noted: “And for Syracuse, the concept of regional theatre comes alive with this production.” Storch, he noted further, “has turned the old Regent into an exciting place for theatre of all sorts to happen.” An article in CNY Magazine summarized the change as follows: “Syracuse Stage has not only undertaken a change in name, but a whole new image in its transformation from the Syracuse Repertory Theatre. At the pinnacle of that change is Arthur Storch.”

Shortly thereafter Storch scored a coup d’ theatre when he presented the world premiere of a play that would become long associated with Syracuse Stage, William Gibson’s The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut, and the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree.

Storch knew Gibson from the Berkshire Theatre Festival. The Butterfingers Angel was one of two scripts the playwright offered for consideration to Storch, who had to rearrange the announced

With Storch at the helm and Karl Gevecker serving as general manager, audiences continued to grow. The 1800 subscribers turned into 3000 for season three, and Storch rewarded their patronage with challenging plays by Luigi Pirandello, Paul Osborne, Noel Coward, Anton Chekhov, Eugene O’Neill, and Georges Feydeau. Through subsequent years familiar names and faces from Broadway, television, and film would appear at Syracuse Stage in seasons

Season 1: 1974

Waiting for Lefty, Clifford Odets & Noon, Terrence McNally An Enemy of the People, Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Arthur Miller Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck Season 2: 1974-1975

La Ronde, Arthur Schnitzler Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen The Butterfingers Angel*, William Gibson The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde Arms and the Man, George Bernard Shaw The Little Foxes, Lillian Hellman

Season 3: 1975-1976

Mornings At Seven, Paul Osborne No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre Man with the Flower in his Mouth, Luigi Pirandello An Evening with Chekhov, Anton Chekhov Blithe Spirit, Noel Coward Dynamo, Eugene O’Neill A Flea in Her Ear, George Feydeau

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THE SEA GULL Rita Gam as Arkadina and Mark Winkworth as Trepleff in Anton Chekhov’s The Sea Gull. Season: 1976 – 1977. Director: Arthur Storch. Photo: Robert Lorenz.

Aside: Noted New York actor Trish Hawkins played Nina in Storch’s production of The Sea Gull. Hawkins would return in the 1996 – 1997 season for Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, directed

by Ken Albers. Chekhov was represented again in the 1990 – 1991 season when John Going staged The Three Sisters. The 1975 - 1976 season featured An Evening with Chekhov that comprised the one-act plays The Bear, The Marriage Proposal, and The Harmfulness of Tobacco.

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Haskell Gordon as Sir Toby Belch, Alan Krass as Malvolio and Bobo Lewis as Maria in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Season: 1976 – 1977. Director: Bill Ludel.

Photo: Robert Lorenz. far left:

left: William

Gibson and Arthur Storch on the opening night of the second production of The Butterfingers Angel.

that mixed classic and contemporary work, comedy and drama. George Bernard Shaw, Sean O’Casey and Tennessee Williams were favorites.

In 1976, Joseph Regalbuto (later of Murphy Brown fame) played Orsino in the company’s first Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Noted New York actor Trish Hawkins played Nina in Chekhov’s The Sea Gull. Two decades later she would return to appear in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. David Canary of TV’s Bonanza and later a star of daytime soaps took on Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire opposite Storch’s wife Virginia Kiser, who balanced a TV and film career with appearances at Syracuse Stage. In 1977, Emmy Award-winner Myra Carter appeared in two one-acts, Love Letters on Blue Paper and The End of the Beginning. The former drew attention from The New York Times’ Mel Gussow who called the production “a definite coup for an enterprising company.” Carter would appear numerous times at Stage over the years.

Dina Merrill closed out the 1978/79 season with Olwen Wymark’s Loved, which garnered a review not only from Gussow in the Times but from Newsweek’s Jack Kroll as well. While performing at Stage, Merrill, wife of actor Cliff

Robertson and daughter of financier E. F. Hutton, stayed at the residence of Chancellor Melvin Eggars and his wife Mildred. Earlier in that same season, Storch revived The Butterfingers Angel with the well-known character actor Mike Kellin as Joseph and a young actor named Tazewell Thompson as Third King and Third Lout.

Thompson would eventually succeed Storch and become Stage’s second artistic director.

During the 1979/80 season, New York–based director Terry Schreiber staged an acclaimed production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Meg Myles and Alan Mixon. The onstage sparks that flew between George and Martha were matched by an off stage firestorm that surrounded another play, Damnée Manon, Sacrée Sandra by Quebecois playwright Michel Tremblay. “It created the greatest stir of anything I had ever done. It was blasphemous,” Storch recalled. “There is anti-Catholicism that runs through the play, and that infuriated people.” Stage survived the controversy unscathed enough for Storch to try his luck again with Tremblay a few seasons later when he produced The Impromptu of Outremont, with similar results. “That was

something I could have moved away from,” he later said.

Three offstage developments in the mid-70s would have long range impact on the stability and continued success of Syracuse Stage. In the 1976/77 season, James A. Clark replaced Karl Gevecker as general manager, and the Board of Trustees welcomed its first non-University, community members, Charles Schoeneck and Sandy Dietz. Clark’s tenure with Stage would span 30 years, during which he would partner with four artistic directors and eventually be named Stage’s producing director and chair of SU Drama (1992 - 2006). The addition of community members to the Board of Trustees redefined the Board’s function while introducing a wealth of resources and talent to work on Stage’s behalf. The move also helped Stage establish ongoing relationships with important corporate and private partners in the community. The value of this would become immediately apparent when the third major off stage development took shape in 1978.

Storch’s continuing success attracted more patrons to the theatre. By 1977, the number

Season 4: 1976-1977

A Quality of Mercy*, Roma Greth What the Butler Saw, Joe Orton Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare The Sea Gull, Anton Chekhov Sleuth, Anthony Shaffer A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams

Season 5: 1977-1978

Love Letters on Blue Paper†, Arnold Wesker & The End of the Beginning†, Sean O’Casey The Plough and the Stars, Sean O’Casey Tartuffe, Moliere That Championship Season, Jason Miller Candida, George Bernand Shaw Vanities, Jack Heifner Season 6: 1978-1979

She Stoops to Conquer, Oliver Goldsmith The World of Sholom Aleichem, Arnold Perl The Butterfingers Angel, William Gibson The Blood Knot, Anthol Fugard Otherwise Engaged, Simon Gray The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams Loved*, Olwen Wymark

Season 7: 1979-1980

Naked, Luigi Pirandello Side by Side by Sondheim, Stephen Sondheim Damnee Manon, Sacree Sandra†, Michael Tremblay Man and Superman, George Bernard Shaw Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?, Edward Albee Old World, Alesksei Arbuzov * World Premiere

†

American Premiere

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THE BUTTERFINGERS ANGEL

Virgil Roberson, Tazewell Thompson, Lisa Pelikan, and David Wohl in William Gibson’s The Butterfingers Angel. Season: 1978 – 1979. Director: Arthur Storch.

Photo: Robert Lorenz.

Aside: This was the second of three productions of Gibson’s The Butterfingers Angel, Mary, Joseph, Herod the Nut, and the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree. Storch directed the play’s world premiere at Syracuse Stage in the 1974 – 1975 season. Tazewell Thompson would stage it in the 1994 – 1995 season during his tenure as artistic director. His performance in the 1978 – 1979 production was his first appearance at Syracuse Stage.

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of subscribers had jumped to 5000 and single ticket sales were brisk for most shows. Good news for any theatre, of course, except that the demand for tickets frequently surpassed the capacity of the 200-seat Experimental Theatre. Patrons were routinely turned away, much to Storch’s dismay. The Regent held 800, but Storch thought it unsuitable for Syracuse Stage productions. “I detest the big theatre,” he told The Daily Orange.

What he wanted was greater seating capacity without losing the performance intimacy

of the Experimental Theatre. His goal was a new theatre in which no seat would be more than 30 feet from the stage. By contrast, in the old Regent, the closest seat to the stage was 35 feet away.

The estimated cost for gutting and renovating the Regent was put at $800,000. One of the new community Board members, Daniel C. Sutton, agreed to chair a capital campaign to raise the necessary funds. The plan called for the Syracuse Stage Board to raise

half the money with half coming from the University. Eventually, a total of $1,230,000 was raised, with the largest single contribution, $450,000, coming from John Dana Archbold, for whom the theatre is named and whose family had long and deep ties to Syracuse University. Archbold’s grandfather, John Dustin Archbold, had donated generously for the construction of Archbold Stadium and Archbold Gymnasium. “It is very fitting to continue the Archbold name,” Chancellor Eggars noted at the time. “It

reflects the wide-ranging interest and great beneficence of the Archbold family toward Syracuse University.”

Groundbreaking took place on March 3, 1980. As befit the theatrical nature of the endeavor, the traditional spade in the dirt was dismissed in favor of a small explosion to mark the beginning of construction. The principal participants in the ceremony were Storch, SU vice chancellor for administrative operations Clifford L. Winters, and common councilor Armand Magnarelli, who stood in for Mayor Lee Alexander. Following the detonation, Magnarelli quipped: “I hope that’s the last ‘bomb’ you have in this theatre.”

Daniel Sutton passed away before the renovated theatre opened for the 1980/81 season. The atrium lobby that was built to connect the newly christened Archbold with the Experimental theatre bears his name. Funding for its construction came from a $150,000 anonymous donation plus $100,000 from the Kresge Foundation.

Storch paid tribute to Sutton in the program for that season’s production of Man and Superman, writing in part: “Dan’s life-energy which I felt in his presence was palpable. It was an energy that made me more aware of the excitement, the commitment, the passion of what it is to be fully alive in this world.”

Dorothy Fielding as Stella, Virginia Kiser as Blanche Dubois, and David Canary as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Season: 1976 – 1977.

Director: John Going. Photo: Robert Lorenz. left:

above: Le

Clanché du Rand as Cissy in Loved by Olwen Wymark. Season: 1978 – 1979.

Director: Arthur Storch. Photo: Robert Lorenz.

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Pictures of the renovation process to convert the old Regent movie house into the John D. Archbold Theatre, which opened in time for the 1980 – 1981 season. At a star-studded gala celebrating the theatre’s opening on November 13, 1980, Arthur Storch told the crowd: “You see before you a man whose dream has come true.”

JOHN D. ARCHBOLD THEATRE

Aside: The Archbold Theatre was designed by Roger Morgan who had frequently served as lighting designer for Syracuse Stage productions.

Newton Wiley of Schleicher – Soper was the chief architect and Nate Podkaminer of the construction firm Hueber – Breuer served as project manager.

The theatre’s opening marked the culmination of Syracuse Stage Week as officially proclaimed by Onondaga County Executive John H. Mulroy and Syracuse Mayor Lee Alexander.

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THE COMEDY OF ERRORS Members of the company in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors.

Season: 1980 – 1981. Director: Arthur Storch. Photo: Robert Lorenz.

Aside: The Comedy of Errors was the inaugural production in the new John D. Archbold Theatre.

Designer Roger Morgan combined the best features of proscenium and thrust stages to design a space “tailor-made for Arthur Storch.”

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Act II: 1980 – 1992 Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall, And by the doom of death end woes and all.

greatest popularity characterized by a very high level of artistic achievement.

These lines spoken by Learie Peter Callender as the character Egeon in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors christened the Archbold Theatre and marked, as Jim Clark once noted, “the beginning of Syracuse Stage as we know it.” The new auditorium was designed by Roger Morgan, who in earlier seasons had frequently served as a lighting designer for Stage and who had also designed a new theatre for Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE. With 499 seats, the Archbold more than doubled the seating capacity of the Experimental Theatre, without losing the intimacy Storch desired.

No longer would patrons be turned away, and the increased capacity expanded the potential for revenue without a corresponding increase in ticket prices. The success built in the early seasons would continue as Stage moved into the new theatre and the period of its

And it all began with a great party. Searchlights coursed the skies over Syracuse on November 13, 1980, the night before the opening of The Comedy of Errors. Celebrities Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, Dina Merrill, and Cliff Robertson attended a gala dedication ceremony. Designer Morgan and John D. Archbold were on hand as well to hear rave reviews for the new theatre from those in attendance. “You see before you a man whose dream has come true,” Storch told the crowd.

The fulfillment of that dream involved the “combined talents of some very special individuals,” as noted in the program for The Comedy of Errors. In addition to acknowledging the generosity of John D. Archbold and pointing out that Morgan’s design had been

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right: Sylvia

Gassell as Linda and Stephen Lang as Biff in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Season: 1982 -1983.

Director: Steven Schachter.

Photo: Susan Piper Kublick. far right: Robert Gentry as

Brick and Kate Mulgrew as Maggie in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Season: 1982 – 1983. Director: John Going.

Photo: Susan Piper Kublick.

“tailor-made for Arthur Storch, combining the best features of proscenium and thrust stages,” words of appreciation were extended to the architectural firm Schleicher – Soper and project architect Newton Wiley; the construction company HueberBreuer and project manager Nate Podkaminer; and the assistant director of the SU Office of Facilities Planning Virginia Denton.

The Thursday dedication ceremony and the Friday opening marked the culmination of Syracuse Stage Week, which was established by a joint proclamation issued by Onondaga County Executive John H. Mulroy and Syracuse Mayor Lee Alexander.

The program also contained congratulations from many of Storch’s professional colleagues. In 1978, Storch had directed a successful Broadway production of Bernard Slade’s Tribute starring Jack Lemmon. On this occasion Lemmon wrote, “My love and gratitude always, and my congratulations on the great job you’ve done with Syracuse Stage.” Joseph Papp, founder The Public Theatre in New York, noted: “In these times, the opening of the John D. Archbold Theatre represents an act of affirmation and boldness.” And Kitty Carlisle Hart added, “We are all looking forward to many wonderful productions in this marvelous new facility.” Hart would in fact appear twice at the theatre in Old Time Radio fundraisers.

Several others who sent their congratulations would later appear in full productions in the new Archbold Theatre, including Jean Stapleton, Eli Wallach, and Anne Jackson.

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As the Archbold’s inaugural season progressed, Syracuse Stage again drew attention from the New York press when Mel Gussow reviewed the world premiere of the South African play Paradise is Closing Down by Pieter-Dirk Uys. The cast included Le Clanché du Rand, and the show and du Rand received favorable notices from Gussow. Storch was then poised to spring a coup d’ theatre when he cast Broadway star Sam Levine in the play Goodnight Grandpa by Walter Landau.

Levine, probably best known for creating the role of Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, died suddenly before rehearsals started. Veteran actor Joe De Santis stepped in to fill the role.

Through the years there would be other occasions of tragedy and near misses for various reasons. Professionalism always prevailed. Always, most remarkably, the show went on.

The last two shows of the Archbold’s first season were Ntozake Shange’s poetic drama for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf directed by Judith Haskell and A Doll’s House directed by Terry Schreiber. Season subscriptions were at an all-time high, exceeding 10,000. So when Dick Cavett came to The Hotel Syracuse to tape a show on the state of the arts in Syracuse, Storch could report that as far as theatre was concerned, it was a healthy state indeed.

Schreiber returned to open the 1981/82 season with Harold Pinter’s Betrayal and close it with a memorable produc-

tion of K2 by Patrick Meyers. Stage was one of several regional theatres to introduce this work to audiences that season, and Schreiber would direct the Broadway production. Actor Jay Patterson, who appeared in Stage’s K2, would reprise his role there. A Christmas Carol made its first of six Syracuse Stage appearances in a production adapted and directed by Stephen Willems. Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice followed with Yusef Bulos as Antonio and a young student named Aaron Sorkin in the role of The Jailer. The splashiest show of the

season, however, featured Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, longtime friends of Storch. The show was Twice Around the Park, and following the Syracuse Stage run, it moved to The Kennedy Center for five weeks before transferring to Broadway’s Cort Theatre in November of 1982.

Kate Mulgrew (TV’s Mrs. Colombo) opened the1982-83 season as Maggie the Cat in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by John Going. A Christmas Carol

the show-off John Newton as Mr. Fisher, Lloyd Brass as Joe, Orson Bean as Aubrey Piper, and Jean Stapleton as Mrs. Fisher in The Show-Off by George Kelly.

Season: 1983 – 1984. Director: William H. Putch. Photo: Susan Piper Kublick.

Aside: Jean Stapleton’s husband and show director William H. Putch passed away suddenly just before opening. Ms. Stapleton called the company together and explained the best way to honor her late husband would be for the show to continue.

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Aside: Syracuse Stage’s production of The Tooth of Crime transferred to New York where it enjoyed a successful run at the famed La MaMa E.T.C. In 2006, the production was revived as part of La MaMa’s 45th anniversary celebration with Wise and Raul Aranus reprising their roles as Hoss and Doc. Wise has enjoyed success on the big and small screens notably as Leland Palmer in the David Lynch series Twin Peaks and as Vice President Hal Gardner in the series 24.

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THE TOOTH OF CRIME Ray Wise as Hoss, Benmio Easterling as Referee, and Stephen Mellor as Crow in Sam Shepard’s The Tooth of Crime.

Season: 1982 – 1983. Director: George Ferencz. Photo: Susan Piper Kublick.

James Whitmore and Audra Lindley in William Gibson’s Handy Dandy. Season: 1984 – 1985. Director: Arthur Storch. Photo: Susan Piper Kublick. right:

as Taylor and Jay Patterson as Harold in K2 by Patrick Meyers. Season: 1981 – 1982. Director: Terry Schreiber. Photo: Susan Piper Kublick. far right: Michael Tolaydo

Terri White and Doug Eskew in Ain’t Misbehavin’, based on an idea by Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby, Jr. and conceived and originally directed by Richard Maltby, Jr. Season: 1985 – 1986. Director: Arthur Faria. Photo: Susan Piper Kublick. opposite:

Often, as was certainly evident in Stage’s early years, a performer might appear in a variety of roles over the course of several seasons.

Sometimes decades might pass before a performer returned. In the 1985/86 season, an actor named Doug Eskew appeared in Ain’t Misbehavin’. Twenty-two years later, Eskew would return in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the first show directed by Timothy Bond for Stage.

Season 8: 1980-1981

The Comedy of Errors, William Shakespeare Dames at Sea, George Halmson & Robin Miller Paradise is Closing Down, Peter-Dirk Usy Goodnight, Grandpa, Walter Landau for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Ntozake Shange A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen Season 9: 1981-1982

was revived and performed at The Landmark Theatre to accommodate demand for tickets.

John Carpenter took the lead as Willie Loman in Arthur Miller’s classic Death of a Salesman in a production that featured a young actor named Stephen Lang as Biff. Lang’s career would take him to Broadway and far beyond to the distant moon Pandora in James Cameron’s Academy Award-winning film Avatar in which he played the never-say-die bad guy, Colonel Miles Quaritch. For many, though, the highlight of the season was George Ferencz’s rock concertinspired production of Sam Shepard’s The Tooth of Crime. Starring Ray Wise as the charismatic Hoss, the production transferred to the famed La MaMa E.T.C. in New York. It was revived in 2006 as the centerpiece of La MaMa’s 45th anniversary celebration. Wise reprised his role as did Raul Aranus, who played Doc. The 1983/84 season proved memorable for extraordinary events on stage and exceptional courage off. Two-time Tony Award-winner John Cullum dazzled audiences and critics with his portrayal of Cyrano de Bergerac in a production directed by Storch that later enjoyed a

successful national tour. “John Cullum’s Cyrano bestrides each scene like a Colossus, revealing the full range of emotions raging inside this epic figure,” wrote William West in a review for The Post Standard. Acclaim was not confined to Syracuse. From Richmond to Atlanta to Boston, critics praised Cullum’s performance.

Boston Globe critic Kevin Kelly went as far as to proclaim: “The recent Royal Shakespeare Company version of Cyrano de Bergerac has been bested.” No small feat considering the RSC featured Derek Jacobi in the title role.

The oft-repeated cliché “the show must go on” assumed tangible significance when Syracuse Stage and the cast of George Kelly’s The Show-Off were struck by the sudden death of director William H. Putch on the Monday before opening night. Complicating an already difficult situation was the presence in the cast of two-time Emmy Award-winner, and Putch’s wife, Jean Stapleton, suddenly and unbelievably his widow. Jim Clark recalls that for obvious reasons a great deal of uncertainty shrouded the production. No one knew whether to cancel the opening, or even the entire run of the show,

until Stapleton settled the matter. Asking to meet with the cast and staff in the theatre before the first scheduled preview, she explained the best way to honor her late husband would be to carry on. It was what he would have wanted, she explained. The Show-Off sold out its entire run.

Playwright William Gibson received another first-class production in the 1984/85 season when Storch directed well-known film and television actors Audra Lindley and James Whitmore in Handy Dandy. Gibson originally penned the play as part of an event to raise awareness and funds in support of a verifiable nuclear freeze between the United States and the then Soviet Union. On October 14 and 15, 1984, the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign sponsored more than 100 staged readings of the play from London to Los Angeles with such stars as Edward Asner, Colleen Dewhurst, Julie Harris, Ben Vereen, Paul Newman, and Joanne Woodward participating. Lindley and Whitmore found significant success with the play, not only in Syracuse, but in New York and regional theatres throughout the country, including the Pasadena Playhouse.

Betrayal, Harold Pinter A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, adapted by Stephen Willems The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare Twice Around the Park*, Murray Schisgal Talley’s Folly, Landford Wilson K2, Patrick Meyers Season 10: 1982-1983

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!, Dario Fo, North American version by R.G. Davis A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens The Tooth of Crime, Sam Shepard The Impromptu of Outremont, Michael Tremblay, translation by John Van Burek Deathtrap, Ira Levin Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller Season 11: 1983-1984

The Shadow of a Gunman, Sean O’Casey The Show-Off, George Kelly Cyrano deBergerac, Edmond Rostand, adapted by Emily Frankel ‘Night, Mother, Marsha Norman The Dining Room, A.R. Gurney, Jr The Double Bass†, Patrick Suskind

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Raul Aranas in Shepard Sets: Angel City, Back Bog Beast Bait, Suicide in Bb. Season: 1984 – 1985.

Director: George Ferencz. Photo: Susan Piper Kublick.

SHEPARD SETS

Aside: The music for Shepard Sets was composed and directed by legendary jazz percussionist Max Roach. Roach was an innovative drummer whose career began among the greats of bebop. He played with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, and many others.

ROMEO AND JULIET J. Smith-Cameron as Juliet and James Clow as Romeo in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Season: 1984 – 1985.

Director: Arthur Storch. Photo: Susan Piper Kublick.

Aside: Arthur Storch had always used SU Drama students in supporting roles when appropriate. In casting SU Drama senior James Clow as Romeo, he signaled his confidence in the program. J. SmithCameron has enjoyed success in New York with Broadway, film, and television credits.

She won an Outer Circle Critics Award for Lend me a Tenor in 1989 and an Obie Award for As Bees Drown in Honey in 1997.

That same season director George Ferencz returned for more Sam Shepard as Stage presented three of the playwright’s early oneacts—Angel City, Back Bog Beast Bait, and Suicide in Bb—under the collective title Shepard Sets. With music composed and directed by legendary jazz drummer Max Roach, the show was co-produced with La MaMa E.T.C. and featured Peter Jay Fernandez, Raul Aranas, and S. Epatha Merkerson, later to play Lt. Anita Van Buren on Law & Order.

Twenty-two years later, Eskew would return in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the first show directed

by Timothy Bond for Stage. Then in 2012, Eskew electrified audiences as The Dryer in Marcela Lorca’s rousing production of the Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori musical Caroline, or Change. Throughout the 40 seasons, many performers, like Eskew, have passed through Syracuse Stage, some multiple times. It is their work that has truly sustained the artistic integrity of the performances on stage at Stage.

If the 1985/86 season lacked the star power of previous seasons, it was notable for a number of firsts that in different respects reflect important aspects of regional theatre in general and of Syracuse Stage specifically. Arthur Storch’s New York connections and his ties to the television and film industries enabled him to attract well-established and well-known talents to Syracuse Stage with some frequency. Yet, as with most regional theatres, the majority of the actors and designers came from the ranks of the hard-working and much-traveled professionals whose careers are spent in theatres large and small throughout the country. Often, as was certainly evident in Stage’s early years, a performer might appear in a variety of roles over the course of several seasons. Sometimes decades might pass before a performer returned. In the 1985/86 season, an actor named Doug Eskew appeared in Ain’t Misbehavin’.

Ain’t Misbehavin’ was co-produced by Stage with Rochester’s Geva Theatre and Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo. This was the first time the region’s three major professional companies had combined resources to produce a play that would have been too costly for each to produce alone. Such co-productions with theatres from coast-to-coast have since become a regular and integral part of Stage’s success.

In this same season, Storch also achieved a first for the Stage/Drama partnership when he cast SU senior James Clow as one of the leads in Romeo and Juliet. While students had played supporting roles in the past, Clow’s Romeo marked the first time a student had undertaken such an important role. J. Smith-Cameron, who originated the role of Babe in Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart on Broadway, played Juliet. Stage’s

Season 12: 1984-1985

longtime production manager Don Buschmann served as the stage manager on Romeo and Juliet and recalls Smith-Cameron’s performance as “stunning.” In 1991, she would earn a Tony nomination for Our Country’s Good.

Students also appeared in Martin Sherman’s Bent and Larry Shue’s The Foreigner. One of those who appeared in The Foreigner was Neal McDonough, later of Captain America and Desperate Housewives fame. In a way Bent, too, represented a first as dramaturg Tom Walsh made his Stage directorial debut. Walsh would later become Syracuse University’s executive vice president for advancement and external affairs.

The 1986/87 season featured the American acting debut of Irish performer Roma Downey.

Downey appeared as Eliza Doolittle in John Going’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. Downey would later star in the popular TV series Touched by an Angel. The Pygmalion cast included Downey’s fellow Irishman Brendan Burke and a return appearance by Myra Carter.

A powerful production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge directed by Tony Giordano was one of two hard-hitting American classics in the season. For the second classic, Storch revived John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men with Ron Perkins as George and Matthew Kimbrough as Lenny. A successful ten-city tour followed the

Arms and the Man, George Bernard Shaw Clarence, Booth Tarkington Handy Dandy*, William Gibson Shepardsets, Sam Shepard, created by Cement A Lesson From Aloes, Athol Fugard Passion, Peter Nichols

Season 13: 1985-1986

The Foreigner, Larry Shue Glengarry Glen Ross, David Manet Ain’t Misbehavin’, conceived by Richard Maltby Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare Luv, Murray Schisgal Bent, Martin Sherman Season 14: 1986-1987

Little Shop of Horrors, book & lyrics by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menkin A View from the Bridge, Arthur Miller Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck Stage Struck, Simon Gray On the Verge, or The Geography of Yearning, Eric Overmyer Season 15: 1987-1988

Stepping Out, Richard Harris Fugue*, Leonara Thuna The Miser, Moliere Hizzoner!, Paul Shyre 7 by Beckett, Samuel Beckett Frankie and Johnny in the Clair deLune, Terrence McNally

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OF MICE AND MEN

Matthew Kimbrough as Lennie and Alexandra Neil as Curley’s Wife in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Season: 1986 – 1987. Director: Arthur Storch.

Photo: Lawrence Mason, Jr.

Aside: Arthur Storch’s second production of Of Mice and Men had a successful 10city tour following its run at Syracuse Stage. John Steinbeck would be represented again at Syracuse Stage when Michael Donald Edwards directed The Grapes of Wrath in the 2004 – 2005 season.

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Syracuse run. The program for Of Mice and Men carried a brief memorial for Rex Henriot who passed away in 1986: “We mourn the death of Rex, whose love and dedication to theatre enriched the Central New York Community.”

Johnny in the Clair de Lune, and the cast of The Miser included two young actors destined for success beyond Syracuse, Stephen Spinella and Mary-Louise Parker. Spinella also appeared in the memorable 7 by Beckett. (Or was it six?)

The 1987/88 season marked Stage’s fifteenth anniversary. Barbara Barrie starred in The Fugue

by Leonora Thuna. Tony Lo Bianco portrayed Fiorello LaGuardia in the one-man show Hizzoner! Jacqueline Knapp and John Spencer caused a stir in Terrence McNally’s Frankie and

Barrie and Lo Bianco were established and wellknown veteran performers. Lo Bianco had just won an Emmy Award for WNET’s video version of Hizzoner! called Hizzoner-The Mayor, and Barrie had many Broadway, film, and television credits, although she was probably best known as

Mrs. Barney Miller. Spencer would move onto recurring roles on two popular TV series, L.A. Law and The West Wing. The nudity and subject matter of Frankie and Johnny set off a little controversy that mostly played out on the letters to the editor page of The Post Standard. Parker’s career would take off a few years later when she made her Broadway debut in Craig Lucas’s Prelude to a Kiss. She would win a Tony Award for David Auburn’s Proof and enjoy considerable success in film and television. Like Spencer, she would have a recurring role on The West Wing. In 2006 she won

Season 16: 1988-1989

her second Golden Globe Award for the series Weeds. She dedicated that award to Spencer who had recently passed away. Parker’s first Golden Globe and her Emmy Award came for the same role, Harper Pitt, in the mini-series version of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. Angels would figure prominently in Spinella’s career. He earned two Tony Awards as the original Prior Walter in Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches and Angels in America, Part II: Perestroika.

“Regional theatre doesn’t get any better,” wrote longtime Herald-Journal and Post-Standard columnist Joan E. Vadeboncoeur about the 1988/89 season’s Long Day’s Journey into Night and Look Homeward, Angel. The latter featured the return of John Cullum to Stage, joined by his wife Emily Frankel Cullum and son John David Cullum to portray three members of the Gant family. Storch directed the play fulfilling an ambition he had had since he created the role of Luke Gant in the 1957 Broadway production, which was directed by George Roy Hill and featured Anthony Perkins as Eugene, the character based on Thomas Wolfe. William Woodman helmed O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night with a cast that featured DeAnn Mears, Tony Mockus, P.J. Benjamin, and Steven Dennis.

Tazewell Thompson also returned to Stage, but this time as a director to guide what at

the time was described as “an adventurous step in non-traditional casting.” Thompson directed British playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy How the Other Half Loves in a production that featured an African American cast. Stage also sponsored a symposium on the subject with Storch, Thompson, and Harry Newman, then executive director of the New York-based Non-Traditional Casting Project. The chief goal of the Project was to “increase the participation of ethnic, female and [artists with disabilities] in the performing arts in ways that are not token or stereotypical.” Storch and Thompson settled on Ayckbourn’s comedy because they believed it was strong enough to benefit from a cross-cultural switch. “Members of our cast are not trying to act like Englishmen,” Thompson explained at the time. “The situations these characters run into are common to all humanity. Whenever you have a really well-written play like this one, it is adaptable to many different cultures.” The laughter of How the Other Half Loves gave way to spinetingling chills as Frederick Knott’s Wait Until Dark concluded the season.

Traditionally, Syracuse Stage had always been dark during the summer months. However, in the summer of 1989, Stage offered patrons Oil City Symphony. This musical revue succeeded at Stage and then transferred to Michigan’s Birmingham

Theatre. In the meantime, Storch took an assignment away from Stage directing Rudolph Nureyev in a national tour of The King and I. Subscriptions reached a new high in 1989/90 as a total of 10,500 subscribers signed up for the season. Storch began the season with the expectation that he would score another coup for Syracuse Stage when Oscar-winning film star Anthony Quinn agreed to play the Russian diplomat Andrey Botvinnik in Lee Blessing’s A Walk in the Woods. Unfortunately, Quinn fell ill the week before opening and couldn’t perform. Veteran actor Ben Hammer stepped in as his replacement. Hammer had played the part before, and the show opened without a hitch. The season also featured a western take on Shekespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and David Mamet’s Speed the Plow with Canadian actor Jim Mezon.

Mezon would move on to an impressive career as a longtime member of The Shaw Festival company. Myra Carter returned for two productions: Tennessee Williams’ The Rose Tattoo and J. B. Priestley’s Dangerous Corner, which marked the 100th production in Stage’s history.

The 1990/91 season mixed comedy and classics as Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters and Shakespeare’s As You Like It opened back-toback. Charles Ludlam’s The Mystery of Irma Vep and Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing also offered plenty of laughs. For many, though,

Steel Magnolias, Robert Harling Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Eugene O’Neill Look Homeward, Angel, Ketti Frings, based on the novel by Thomas Wolfe Another Antigone, A.R. Gurney, Jr How the Other Half Loves, Alan Aychbourn Wait Until Dark, Frederick Knott

Season 17: 1989-1990

Oil City Symphony, Craver, Harkwick, Mork & Murfitt The Rose Tattoo, Tennessee Williams A Walk in the Woods, Lee Blessing The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare Finding Donis Anne*, Hal Corley Speed-the-Plow, David Mamet Dangerous Corner, J.B. Priestly Season 18: 1990-1991

Closer Than Ever, lyrics by Richard Maltby, music

by David Shire, conceived by Steven Scott Smith The Three Sisters, Anton Chekhov The Cocktail Hour, A.R. Gurney, Jr As You Like It, William Shakespeare The Mystery of Irma Vep, Charles Ludlam Fences, August Wilson Rough Crossing, Tom Stoppard

Season 19: 1991-1992

Pump Boys & Dinnettes, John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel & Jim Wann The Country Wife, William Wycherley Tea, Velina Vasu Houston Androcles and the Lion, George Bernard Shaw The Sum of Us, David Stevens The Immigrant, Mark Harelik Love Letters, A.R. Gurney, Jr * World Premiere

†

American Premiere

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AUGUST WILSON’S FENCES

Delores Mitchell as Rose, Willis Burks II as Bono, and John Henry Redwood as Troy in August Wilson’s Fences. Season: 1990 – 1991.

Director: Claude Purdy. Photo: Lawrence Mason, Jr.

Before he left town, however, there was one matter that needed to be addressed. Staff members recall that throughout his tenure, Storch had periodically “threatened” to act in a play. At the time of his retirement announcement he had not done so. He finally made good on that threat when he appeared with Virginia Kiser in A. R. Gurney’s Love Letters, which he also directed.

Aside: Claude Purdy’s production of August Wilson’s Fences was the first Wilson play performed at Syracuse Stage. Timothy Bond staged the play again in the 2009 – 2010 season as part of his commitment to complete Wilson’s entire Century Cycle at Stage.

Storch had enduring impact on theatre in Syracuse. The quality of the productions and high standard of professionalism made Syracuse Stage a vital cultural force in Central New York and theatre an important part of the cultural fabric. Storch mixed the classic works of Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov, Shaw, Miller, and Williams with daring and at times controversial productions of Shepard, Beckett, Tremblay, and an array of well and lesser-known contemporary writers from America and abroad. Without always being serious, he made people consider theatre seriously. By any standard, his record as a producer, director, and artistic director is impressive. In short, “he brought a little class to Syracuse,” as one admirer noted when he announced his retirement. the highlight of the season was August Wilson’s Fences. Starring John Henry Redwood and directed by Claude Purdy, the cast also featured Delores Mitchell and Marion McClinton, who would return to direct Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman eight years later. Fences was the first Wilson play produced at Stage.

In October of 1991, Arthur Storch announced his retirement from Syracuse

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Stage and SU Drama saying simply that it was “time to stop and smell the flowers.” At a press conference, he reflected on his tenure at Stage: “I think what I am most proud of, as far as Syracuse Stage is concerned, is that we created a standard of quality that does not cater to the lowest common denominator. The bottom line has always been: This is the best play and these are the best people, not this play will sell the most tickets.”

In addition, Storch made Syracuse theatre a vibrant part of a broader theatrical community by producing world and American premieres, by taking productions on tour or transferring them to New York or elsewhere, and by supporting the careers of many directors, actors, and designers who found Syracuse Stage an exciting place to work. During his tenure, Syracuse Stage fulfilled the goal of regional theatre. The man who wondered if he could “walk the walk” certainly left a significant impression on East Genesee Street.

Storch also had a transforming and lasting impact on SU Drama. As longtime Drama faculty member Gerard Moses recalled, Storch’s arrival was a significant turning point for the Department: “He gave it focus. By introducing ‘The Method’ and training from the Actors Studio he moved the Department forward and shaped it into what it is today.”

LOVE LETTERS Arthur Storch and Virginia Kiser in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters. Season: 1991 – 1992. Director: Arthur Storch. Photo: Lawrence Mason, Jr.

Aside: Love Letters marked a first and last for Arthur Storch. It was his acting debut at Stage and the last production he would direct as producing artistic director of the company.

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Jonathan Fisher as John Pai and Twyla Hafermann as Carrie with members of the cast in N. Scott Momaday’s The Indolent Boys. Season: 1993 – 1994. Director: Tazewell Thompson. Photo: Douglas Wonders.

THE INDOLENT BOYS

Aside: This world premiere production is based on the true story of three Kiowa boys who froze to death after running away from a governmentrun boarding school in the Oklahoma Territory in 1891.

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JAR THE FLOOR Irma P. Hall as MaDear, Susan Payne as Vennie, Crystal Laws Green as Lola, Brenda Pressley as MayDee, and Stephanie Silverman as Raisa, in Cheryl L. West’s Jar the Floor. Season: 1992 – 1993. Director: Tazewell Thompson. Photo: Douglas Wonders.

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Aside: Jar the Floor marked Tazewell Thompson’s directorial debut as Syracuse Stage’s new artistic director.

Previously at Stage, Thompson had appeared in the second production of The Butterfingers Angel (1978/79) and he had directed How the Other Half Loves (1988/89). Thompson would direct a third production of The Butterfingers Angel in the 1994 – 1995 season.

Tazewell Thompson

Act III: 1992 - 1995 The announcement of Storch’s departure initiated significant change. Jim Clark assumed greater responsibility for Stage and was given the title producing director.

At the same time he replaced Storch as chair of the Drama Department. After a six month search a new artistic leader was announced as 38-year-old Tazewell Thompson became Syracuse Stage’s second artistic director. Thompson was not a stranger to Syracuse Stage audiences having appeared in the second production of The Butterfingers Angel and having directed How the Other Half Loves. For four years prior to accepting the position, Thompson had served as an artistic associate at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage where he scored popular and artistic triumphs with such productions as August Wilson’s Fences starring Yaphet Kotto and The Glass Menagerie with Ruby Dee. His other direct-

ing credits included Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, The Cleveland Play House, The Huntington Theatre Company, and the Goodspeed Opera House. With his appointment, Thompson became one of only three African American artistic directors among the 65 professional regional theatres nationwide. In a speech given when he was introduced to the Syracuse community, Thompson directly addressed that point: “It needs to be said out loud and so I am saying it, out loud. You have done a remarkable thing by appointing a black artistic director to run your theatre.

You may not even think you have done a remarkable thing, and if that is so, it is even more remarkable.

You have done what they call in the theatre these days, the buzzword, ‘non-traditional casting.’

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AUGUST WILSON’S THE PIANO LESSON

Jim Ponds as Wining Boy and Robert Colston as Doaker in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. Season: 1995 – 1996. Director: Claude Purdy. Photo: Douglas Wonders.

Aside: August Wilson won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for The Piano Lesson. It was his second Pulitzer, having received the 1987 Prize for Fences. In addition, Wilson won a Tony Award for Fences and eight New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. He was awarded posthumously the Dramatist Guild Award for Lifetime Achievement. On October 16, 2005, the Broadway theatre located at 245 West 52nd St. was named in his honor.

“You are saying we have looked for the best person we could find to run our theatre and we have found him and we have chosen him, and we are naming and claiming him, regardless of his color or because of it. You are saying that we at Syracuse are aware that the world is moving and turning and that you have decided to move and turn with it and not stand alone, as the parade passes you by.”

He added: “I cannot promise to deliver success but I can commit to the pur-

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suit of excellence. I can commit myself to making Syracuse Stage fulfill every iota of its potential as an art and social service. I vow to commit to the creation of a variety of theatrical experiences for a culturally, politically, and socially diverse audience. To provide an atmosphere in which artists can create compelling work. I commit myself to the research and development of new work as well as the presentation of contemporary and classical plays.”

In the first edition of the new newsletter, StageView, Storch weighed in on Thompson’s appointment: “I couldn’t be more pleased that Tazewell Thompson has accepted the position. He is a serious artist without taking himself seriously. He has a sense of irony and wit. He is visionary with his head in the clouds but his feet on the ground.”

Thompson still had to fulfill commitments to direct two shows at Arena Stage, so Storch remained a strong presence through

“Arthur Storch staged its [The Butterfingers Angel] first professional production in the small theatre that now bears his name. Some years later a second production in the old Regent movie house adjoining served as the kickoff of the funding campaign to convert the Regent into the present theatre. And last month the play enjoyed the happy distinction of having come to life in each of the three theatres that have housed Syracuse Stage.” – William Gibson the 1992/93 season, directing the first show, Ken Ludwig’s broad comedy Lend Me a Tenor, and Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing. The playwright that Storch first presented twenty seasons earlier provided his final directorial effort for Syracuse Stage. In March of 1993, Syracuse Stage and SU Drama paid tribute to Storch by renaming the Experimental Theatre in his honor. Since then it has been known as The Arthur Storch Theatre.

Thompson made his directorial debut as artistic director with the final show of the season, Jar the Floor by Cheryl L. West. The play was a clear reflection of Thompson’s artistic aspirations: “My choice of plays will be based on who I am and how I was brought up. You can’t leave the real world and step over a threshold when you go into the theatre,” he told The Post Standard.

That vision carried through on the stage: “Thompson’s triumph is building and maintaining that universal sense of reality,” wrote Suzanne Connelly in her review of the play in The Herald Journal.

The 1993/94 season was the first full season selected by Thompson. In making the season announcement, he noted: “A theatre that does not take risks, that is safe, is stale and selfish. It is in the dark of the theatre that we do not lose, but find ourselves and celebrate ourselves.” Though reflecting Thompson’s own beliefs and goals, his words echoed the guiding principles of his predecessor Storch. In 1989, Storch told The Post Standard: “I always felt that theatre should reflect what is going on in the world, not just provide escapist entertainment. Theatre should give us clarity, not just pleasure, to make us think about phenomena in new ways. It’s part of theatre’s job.”

Thompson included two world premieres in the season, N. Scott Momaday’s The Indolent Boys and Cheryl L. West’s Holiday Heart.

With a cast that included Keith Randolph Smith and Ron Cephas Jones, Holiday Heart transferred to New York where it enjoyed a successful run at The Manhattan Theatre Club. The play’s transfer to New York and its reception there prompted an editorial in

The Post-Standard acknowledging the wider impact of the production: “The New York production brings prestige to Syracuse Stage.

By extension, Syracuse Stage has brought prestige to this region.” The editorial also noted that The Wall Street Journal had urged members of Congress “to see the drama . . . before trying to reform welfare.” Overall, the Post-Standard editorial encouraged the community to take pride in the work of Syracuse Stage: “The theatre proved it can compete with the best productions in the world, before the toughest critics anywhere.”

A part of history lost and a part revisited marked the 1994/95 season. Before the season opened, in the summer of 1994, Gerald F. Reidenbaugh, who had first dreamed of a professional theatre at 820 East Genesee Street, passed away. After opening the season with A Midsummer Night’s Dream and From the Mississippi Delta, Thompson revived The Butterfingers Angel in a production featuring Ron Palillo of Welcome Back Kotter fame.

Playwright William Gibson attended a per-

left: Members of the company of The Butterfingers Angel. Season: 1994 – 1995.

Director: Tazewell Thompson.

Photo: Douglas Wonders.

Season 20: 1992-1993

Lend Me A Tenor, Ken Ludwig A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, adapted by Gerardine Clark Hysterics, Le Clanché du Rand Master Harold....and the boys, Athol Fugard Awake And Sing!, Clifford Odets Jar The Floor, Cheryl L West Season 21: 1993-1994

Woody’s Gurthrie’s American Song, Conceived by Peter Glazer If We Are Women, Joanna McClelland Glass A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, adapted by Gerardine Clark Holiday Heart*, Cheryl L West The Indolent Boys*, N. Scott Momaday Our Town, Thorton Wilder Avner, the Eccentric, Avner Eisenberg

Season 22: 1994-1995

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare From the Mississippi Delta, Dr Endesha Ida Mae Holland The Butterfingers Angel, William Gibson The Last Adam†, Vittorio Rossi Tintypes, conceived by Mary Kyte Dragonwings, Laurence Yep All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Robert Fulghum, adapted by Ernest Zulia * World Premiere

†

American Premiere

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DRAGONWINGS

Chris Tashima in Laurence Yep’s Dragonwings. Season: 1994 – 1995.

Director: Phyllis S. K. Look. Photo: Douglas Wonders.

Aside: Playwright Laurence Yep adapted Dragonwings from his own children’s story, which was a 1966 Newbery Honor book. In this and in other books, he drew on stories passed down through the generations from early Chinese immigrants to the San Francisco area.

of 1995 before the start of the 1995/96 season. Thompson would find continued success as a freelance director of opera and theatre. He has directed frequently at Glimmerglass Opera and his production of Porgy and Bess for the New York City Opera was filmed for PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center and earned him an Emmy nomination. He returned to Syracuse Stage during the 2003/04 Season to direct his play Constant Star.

formance and wrote to The Post-Standard to express his pleasure with the production and to note the play’s unique place in Stage history: “Arthur Storch staged its first professional production in the small theatre that now bears his name. Some years later a second production in the old Regent movie house adjoining served as the kickoff of the funding campaign to convert the Regent into the present theatre. And last month the play enjoyed the happy distinction of having come to life in each of the three theatres that have housed Syracuse Stage. For

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what it’s worth, my personal pleasure in these productions has been unqualified, and never more glowing than with Taz Thompson’s, whose directorial hand so captured the spirit in which I wrote the play he might have been spying over my shoulder.” The season also included the American premiere of Canadian playwright Vittorio Rossi’s The Last Adam and Lawrence Yep’s Dragonwings.

Thompson’s tenure at Syracuse Stage was short. He resigned in the summer

With Thompson’s abrupt departure from Syracuse Stage, Jim Clark stepped in to fill the gap in artistic leadership. As a search commenced for a new artistic director, some favorite directors from past seasons returned to keep the 1995/96 season on track. Libby Appel took on Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound and Claude Purdy directed August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. William Woodman, who had previously directed Long Day’s Journey into Night and A.R. Gurney’s The Cocktail Hour, staged Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night for the holidays. Sadly, Woodman passed away in New York shortly after the play opened. New to Syracuse Stage that season was John Rando who directed David Ives’ riotously funny All in the Timing. Rando would find success with several Broadway productions and win a Tony for his direction of Urinetown, The Musical.

The search for Thompson’s successor continued well into the season with more than 170 candidates from around the country and abroad expressing interest.

In the end, the search committee settled on a candidate close to home.

ALL IN THE TIMING Stephen DeRosa as Trotsky and Sue Brady as Mrs. Trotsky in “Variations on the Death of Trotsky”, part of All in the Timing by David Ives. Season: 1995 – 1996. Director: John Rando. Photo: Douglas Wonders.

Aside: This was director John Rando’s only work at Syracuse Stage. He has won a Tony Award as director of the musical Urinetown and also helmed The Wedding Singer, A Thousand Clowns and Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party on Broadway. Rando directed the 20th anniversary production of All in the Timing at Primary Stages in New York this past February.

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Amanda Butterbaugh as Peter and Rodney Scott Hudson as Captain Hook in the musical version of Peter Pan, based on the play by J.M. Barrie, music by Mark Charlap, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, additional music by Jule Styne and additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Season: 2000 – 2001. Director and Choreographer: Anthony Salatino. Photo: Douglas Wonders.

PETER PAN

Aside: Peter Pan was the first co-production between Syracuse Stage and Syracuse University Drama. The co-production has since become an annual part of the season. In a first for Stage and Drama, the 2012 – 2013 season featured two co-productions, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

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Michael Malone as Howard, Mark Mineart as Kendrick, Graham Winton as Kaffee, Richard Topol as Weinberg, and Shona Tucker as Joanne Galloway in Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men. Season: 1997 – 1998.

Director: Robert Moss. Photo: Doug Wonders.

A FEW GOOD MEN

Aside: A 1983 graduate of the SU Drama Department, Aaron Sorkin attended the opening night performance of A Few Good Men, which was the first production of Syracuse Stage’s 25th anniversary season.

For fifteen seasons Robert Moss had been the artistic director of the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, New York. The Hangar was just the latest stop in a career that stretched back to the legendary APA Repertory Company headed by Ellis Rabb and starring such luminaries of the stage as Helen Hayes, Rosemary Harris, Donald Moffat, and Nancy Marchand. Moss was also the founder of Playwrights Horizons in New York serving as producing director for ten years and then as director of the Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, an affiliate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. During his tenure as producing director, Playwrights Horizons produced new works by more than 150

writers including Wendy Wasserstein, Albert Innaurato, James Lapine, and William Finn. Moss was also the founder of the Forty-Second Street Gang, the agency behind the renovation and creation of 42nd Street’s Theatre Row. In addition, Moss had directed at such regional theatres as The McCarter, The Old Globe, and Equity Library Theatre, and had served on boards and panels from The Theatre Communications Group to the National Endowment for the Arts. In what could certainly qualify as an understatement, search committee chair Lowell Seifter told The Daily Orange, “Moss’ professional experience, enthusiasm, and New York connections were part of what got him hired at Syracuse Stage.”

Robert Moss. Photo: James Scherzi Photography.

Act IV: 1996 - 2007

It didn’t take long for the Syracuse community to get a good sense of that enthusiasm. Ever-approachable and eager to talk shop, Moss regularly stopped to chat with patrons in the lobby, on the street, or most famously, in the aisles of Wegmans.

He was a natural ambassador of theatrical good will and an effortless and tireless champion of Syracuse Stage. Seemingly overnight, the phrase “I saw Bob Moss at Wegmans and he said . . .” became commonplace in casual conversation.

Moss’ directorial debut in the 1996/97 season was Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine, starring Leslie Lyles. In an interview with artistic associate Carlyn Ann Aqualine,

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DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMEN

The women of the village in Wole Soyinka’s Death and the Kings Horseman. Season: 1998 – 1999. Director: Marion McClinton. Photo: Douglas Wonders.

Aside: The 1986 Nobel Laureate for Literature, Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka attended a performance of Death and the King’s Horseman. Soyinka spoke on campus and a held a question and answer session with Drama students in the Storch Theatre.

Moss explained why the play appealed to him, and in doing so, expressed the optimism that characterized his approach to theatre. “It’s one of Bob’s rules. Don’t waste your life. I think what this play says is: At any single moment in your life, you can reinvent your life. You can reinvent if you want to. Sometimes it takes a herculean act of will, but, I mean, Shirley talks about how we’re given this life and we waste it, and so she resolves not to waste any more of it. So, I think it has an enormous amount to say and I’m very moved by it.”

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The season also included strong productions of To Kill a Mockingbird and Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, directed by Ken Albers.

It concluded with an original theatre for young audiences musical production of The Wind in the Willows, adapted by longtime SU Drama faculty member Gerardine Clark with music by frequent Stage musical director Dianne Adams McDowell and her husband James. Clark and Anthony Salatino directed. The McDowells provided the musical direction, vocal arrangements,

and orchestrations with additional lyrics by Katharine Clark. The cast was composed of SU Drama students who, in addition to the on stage experience, had an opportunity to record a CD produced by the McDowells. A year later the show would move to The New Victory Theatre on 42nd Street where it enjoyed a successful run. Writing in The New York Times, Lawrence Van Gelder called it “. . . a colorful, cheery, tuneful and spirited return to Ratty’s river, Toad Hall and the unfriendly confines of the Wild Wood.”

Jeffrey J. Izant as Dill, Carrie Manolakos as Scout, and Jeremy Pickard as Jem in To Kill a Mockingbird, adapted by Christopher Sergel and based on the novel by Harper Lee. Season: 1996 – 1997. Director: Amy Saltz.

Photo: Douglas Wonders. far left:

left: Michael

Malone as Prior Walter and Caroline Clay as the Angel in Angels in America, Part 1: Millenium Approaches by Tony Kushner. Season: 1997 – 1998.

Director: Robert Moss. Photo: Irene Haupt.

The 1997/98 season marked Stage’s 25th anniversary and kicked-off with the return of a favorite son, Aaron Sorkin who had graduated from SU Drama in 1983. Moss directed Sorkin’s hit play A Few Good Men, and the playwright attended opening night. In a special note in the program, he recalled his ties to SU Drama and Syracuse Stage: “My freshman year, Syracuse Stage was in the 200 seat theatre, which was always sold out so the ushers had us sit on the steps. One night the ushers told us we couldn’t sit on the steps anymore, but if we waited until curtain time, an usher would come out and tell us if there were any no-shows.

Finally we decided to get jobs as ushers.

“I’m proud of my connection to Syracuse Stage and grateful for the experience, education and fraternity that it’s given me. I’m reminded of that whenever I cross paths with actors and actresses who share its history. When Stephen Lang knocked me out in Death of a Salesman and Ed Genest knocked me out in Betrayal, it was beyond my wildest dreams that only a few years later they’d be knocking me out on Broadway in A Few Good Men. . .

“. . . I’m honored that Bob Moss and Jim Clark have chosen my play to open the 25th Anniversary Season. It’s nice to be home.

Thanks for the seats.”

In the cast that opening night, in several supporting roles, was an actor named Michael Malone who would return a few months later to turn in a memorable performance as Prior Walter in Moss’ production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches. In order to give audiences the chance to experience the entire sweep of Kushner’s work, Moss also staged a limited-run workshop production of Angels in America, Part 2: Peristroika. Later in the season, Michael Donald Edwards would make his Stage directing debut with Wendy Wasserstein’s The Sisters Rosensweig.

Edwards would return numerous times to Stage and eventually be named associate artistic director, a position he held from 2002 – 2006.

Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman was the centerpiece of the 1998/99 season. Directed by Marion McClinton, who had appeared in August

Wilson’s Fences in 1991, the play featured Roger Robinson in the lead role of Elesin. Robinson had been a member of the Syracuse Repertory Theatre in 1967 when he appeared in William Hanley’s Slow Dance on the Killing Ground. He returned for much of the 1968 season as well.

The large cast of Death and the King’s Horseman included a troupe of local dancers who portrayed the women of the village and performed choreography by Emmy-nominated Dianne McIntyre. ASCAP Award-winner Kysia Bostic composed and arranged the music, some of which was performed by master drummer Adebisi Adeleke and drummer Adesina Odukoya.

Soyinka, who was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature in 1986, attended a performance and met with SU Drama students for a lengthy question and answer session.

The 98/99 season also introduced Stage audiences to actor Jim True-Frost who appeared as Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol. True-Frost was a member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre and had appeared in the Broadway production of The Grapes of Wrath. His film credits included Affliction

Season 23: 1995-1996

Dear*, Rosalyn Drexler Broadway Bound, Neil Simon Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Moony’s Kid Don’t Cry. Something Unspoken. I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow, Tennessee Williams The Piano Lesson, August Wilson All in the Timing, David Ives Banjo Dancing, Stephen Wade The Dragonslayers, story & lyrics by Bruce Coville, music by Angela Petersen

Season 24: 1996-1997

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, production conception, English lyrics, and additional materials by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman. based on Jacques Brel’s lyrics, commentary and music.

To Kill a Mockingbird, based on the novel by Harper Lee, adapted by Christopher Segel Blues in the Night, conceived by Sheldon Epps Shirley Valentine, Willy Russell Golf With Alan Shepard, Carter W. Lewis Sylvia, A.R. Gurney All My Sons, Arthur Miller The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame, adapted by Gerardine Clark

Season 25: 1997-1998

A Few Good Men, Aaron Sorkin The Sunshine Boys, Neil Simon A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, adapted by Gerardine Clark Angels in America: Millenium Approaches, Angels in America: Perestroika, Tony Kushner Three Tall Women, Edward Albee Macbeth, William Shakespeare The Sisters Rosensweig, Wendy Wasserstein A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle, adapted by E. Duffy Adams

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Long Day’s Journey into Night Elizabeth Franz as Mary Tyrone and Sam Waterston as James Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey into Night. Season: 1999 – 2000. Director: Kent Paul. Photo: Doug Wonders.

Charles Parnell and Charles Weldon in August Wilson’s Jitney. Season: 2002 -2003. Director: Timothy Douglas. Photo: Alex Ottaviano.

Aside: Elizabeth Franz had just won the Tony Award for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Linda Loman in Death of Salesman. Also featured in the cast were James Waterston as Edmund, John Slattery as Jamie, and Kim Gatewood, who had just completed her BFA in the SU Drama Department.

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top:

and Nancy Snyder in Micheal Frayn’s Copenhagen. Season: 2002 – 2003. Director: Michael Donald Edwards. Photo: Alex Ottaviano. above: Paul Whitworth

and The Hudsucker Proxy. He would create the role of Roland ‘Prez’ Pryzbylewski in the hit TV series The Wire.

True-Frost returned for two shows in the 1999/2000 season. He portrayed school teacher Bertram Cates in the season opener Inherit the Wind and turned in a comic gem of a performance in Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane in a cast that included Daniel Freedom Stewart (son of Patrick), Celia Howard, and Tod Randolph. Michael Edwards, too, returned to helm Michele Lowe’s darkly comic fantasy The Smell of the Kill. Claude Purdy also came back to direct Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun with a cast led by Delores Mitchell, Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., and Tonye Patano, a familiar presence in Syracuse Stage productions. Raisin was supposed to conclude the season, but an unexpected opportunity came to Syracuse Stage through lighting designer Phil Monat.

Monat had frequently worked at Stage and was the designer for A Raisin in the Sun. One day during rehearsal he mentioned to Moss that actor Sam Waterston was interested in mounting a production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night. Monat wondered if Moss might be interested in producing it at Syracuse Stage. It would mean adding a show to the season on short notice, but the opportunity seemed too good to pass up. Moss and Clark pursued it.

At the time Monat first mentioned the project to Moss, certain aspects of the production had already been determined. Waterston would play James Tyrone, the character based on James O’Neill, the playwright’s father. Waterston’s son

James would play Edmund, the character based on Eugene O’Neill himself. New York-based director Kent Paul was also on board, but the pivotal roles of Mary and elder son Jamie had not been cast. For a couple of weeks the search to fill those roles created an exciting buzz around Syracuse Stage as rumor fed speculation about who might join the cast. Then Broadway veteran Elizabeth Franz agreed to play Mary.

Franz had won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Linda Loman in the 1999 revival of Death of Salesman starring Brian Dennehy. An actor’s actor, she was a performer known for her fearlessness, a quality she would need to portray Mary Tyrone. That left Jamie.

At the time, Waterston was still playing Jack McCoy on Law & Order. While on a break one day, his colleague Jerry Orbach asked if Waterston had cast the role of Jamie. Waterston said he hadn’t, but, pointing across the green room added, “I’m thinking of that guy right there.” “That guy” turned out to be John Slattery, who was making a guest appearance on the show and who would later star in the Emmy Award-winning series Mad Men. Slattery took the role and the Tyrone family was set. Recent SU Drama graduate Kim Gatewood completed the cast by portraying the maid, Cathleen.

More than 12,000 patrons turned out during the five-week run to “gobble up O’Neill’s four hours of gut-wrenching drama,” as then Gifford Foundation director Kathryn Goldfarb noted in The Post-Standard. Many came more than once, drawn no doubt by the star power, but also by the power of the production and the performances.

Syracuse Stage broke new ground and soared to new heights in the 2000/01 season, both

accomplished with the same play. For many seasons, a constant frustration had been the theatre’s inability to mount a large, full-scale musical. Costs were simply prohibitive.

Then Clark and Moss hit upon a solution that would not only make such musicals possible, but enhance the collaboration between Stage and SU Drama.

As a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), Stage had operated since 1974 under a series of guidelines that stipulated contract terms with Actors’ Equity. This included pay scale as well as the ratio of professional actors to non-pros that might be used in a season. Typically at Stage, the few allowed non-professional roles would be cast with students, local children, or sometimes local non-union actors. However, Equity granted Stage permission to produce a show under a less restrictive contract called URTA, or University Resident Theatre Association. This meant Stage could cast more students and tap into the rich talent pool of SU Drama without incurring the expense of employing a full Equity company. The plan worked to everyone’s benefit as Stage audiences were now able to enjoy big book musicals, and students had an opportunity to perform alongside working professionals. The co-production has since become an annual event usually, though not always, in the form of a holiday, family musical.

The inaugural co-production took off when Peter Pan opened on November 28, 2000. Directed and choreographed by Anthony Salatino with musical direction by Dianne Adams McDowell, the cast featured Amanda Butterbaugh as the high-flying (courtesy of ZFX Flying Illusions, Inc.) boy who won’t grow-up and Drama faculty member Rodney Scott Hudson as Cap-

Season 26: 1998-1999

Dracula, Steven Dietz, based on the novel by Bram Stoker Travels With My Aunt, Giles Havergal, adapted from the novel by Graham Greene A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, adapted by Gerardine Clark Burn This, Lanford Wilson Death and the King’s Horseman, Wole Soyinka The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams You Never Can Tell, George Bernard Shaw Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling, adapted by David Zellnik

Season 27: 1999-2000

Inherit the Wind, Jerome Lawrence & Robert E Lee A Life in the Theatre, David Mamet The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Alfred Uhry The Smell of the Kill, Michele Lowe The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Martin McDonagh A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry Long Day’s Journey into Night, Eugene O’Neill Season 28: 2000-2001

Born Yesterday, Garson Kanin Eleanor: Her Secret Journey, Rhoda Lerman Peter Pan, based on the play by J.M. Barrie, lyrics

by Carolyn Leigh, music by Mark Charlap Blues for an Alabama Sky, Pearl Cleage Wit, Margaret Edson Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare Art, Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton Season 29: 2001-2002

A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams Brighton Beach Memoirs, Neil Simon Oliver!, book, music & lyrics by Lionel Bart. based on the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens Betrayal, Harold Pinter A Lesson Before Dying, Romulus Linney, based on the novel by Ernest J Gaines The Dybbuk*, S Ansky, adapted by Joachim Neugroschel Chesapeake, Lee Blessing

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WEST SIDE STORY Izetta Fang as Anita, David Villella as Bernardo, and members of the company of West Side Story, based on a conception of Jerome Robbins, book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Season: 2002 – 2003. Director and Choreographer: Anthony Salatino. Photo: Alex Ottaviano.

Ben Gazzara as Yogi Berra in Nobody Don’t Like Yogi by Tom Lysaght.

Season: 2003 – 2004. Director: Paul Linke. Photo: Alex Ottaviano.

Lindsay as Ma Joad, Andrew Ahern as Al, and Craig Mathers as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, based on the novel by John Steinbeck and adapted by Frank Galati. Season: 2004 – 2005. Director: Michael Donald Edwards.

Photo: Alex Ottaviano. far right: Priscilla

Aside: West Side Story was one of the most popular shows in Syracuse Stage history.

The show was directed and choreographed

by Anthony Salatino who also directed and choreographed the Syracuse Stage/SU Drama co-productions of Rent, Little Women, Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music, and Peter Pan. In addition he also served as choreographer for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Wizard of Oz, and Oliver!.

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right:

tain Hook. Twenty Drama students, additional Equity performers, and local children filled out the large cast. “There never has been anything like it in 28 seasons of Syracuse Stage—a lavish musical with Broadway-size sets and cast,” wrote Joan E. Vadeboncoeur in The Post Standard.

Every now and then fairy dust still drifts down from some odd corner of the catwalks.

The 2000/01 season also marked the return of three-time Emmy Award-winner Jean Stapleton who portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt in the one-woman show Eleanor: Her Secret Journey by Rhoda Lerman. As with her previous visit to Stage, all performances of the show were sold out before opening night.

In playing the role, Stapleton portrayed a woman she clearly admired, as she noted in an interview: “She had such humanitarian objectives and feelings, and she used the power that came to her through her marriage and her entrance into the political scene to be of help to people . . . She’ such a towering figure and, you know, in my opinion, today, maybe she’d agree to run for President, and she’d win.”

The season also introduced director Timothy Douglas to Stage audiences. Douglas directed Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky. He would return in 2001/02 season to direct Romulus Linney’s A Lesson Before Dying and in the 2002/2003 season to direct August Wilson’s Jitney and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. The 2001/2002 season also featured Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, directed by Moss with choreography

by Anthony Salatino, and an adaptation of S. Ansky’s The Dybbuk adapted and directed by Tony Award-nominee Barbara Damashek.

Michael Donald Edwards was appointed associate artistic director in 2002/03 and staged an engrossing production of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, featuring Paul Whitworth. The Australian-born Edwards became a U.S. citizen this same year. His final interview took place in Los Angeles. The experience reminded him of Miller’s The Crucible when he had to respond to his interviewer’s first question: “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”

In this same season Moss directed two world premieres, Michele Lowe’s Backsliding in the Promised Land and Tina Howe’s such small hands, which featured the return of Elizabeth Franz. The runaway hit of the season, though, was Anthony Salatino’s production of West Side Story. Co-produced with SU Drama, the famous musical became one of the most popular shows in Stage history.

Leading off and playing catcher for the 2003/04 season was baseball legend Yogi Berra as portrayed by veteran actor Ben Gazzara in the oneman show Nobody Don’t Like Yogi, written by Tom Lysaght. Gazzara’s presence and the show’s subject prompted the first Syracuse Stage night at a Syracuse Chiefs home game. Gazzara threw out the game’s ceremonial first pitch.

Stage achieved another first when the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, directed by Edwards, inaugurated a second performance space in the theatre next door at the Hutchings Psychiatric Center. The idea of having a second and smaller space, suitable for presenting experimental work, had intrigued Syracuse Stage leadership since Arthur Storch’s tenure. For a few seasons, Hutchings offered a solution.

The 2003/04 season also marked the return to Syracuse of Tazewell Thompson, who staged his original play Constant Star. Thompson wove 20 Spirituals through a narrative of the life of civil rights and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells.

In addition to Hedwig, Edwards directed Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus and Noel Coward’s Private Lives. Moss took on two very different classics when he directed The Wizard of Oz during the holidays and Hamlet in the spring.

In the 2004/05 season, the popular local actor Frank Fiumano appeared on the Hutching’s stage in Becky Mode’s one-man comedy Fully Committed, directed by Edwards. Californiabased Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Herbert Siguenza, aka Culture Clash, brought their blend of comedy and commentary to Stage with Culture Clash in AmeriCCa. Moss directed a version of My Fair Lady scored for two pianos with a cast that included Broadway veteran Ken Jennings as Alfred Doolittle. Edwards turned his attention to American classics with productions of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.

The 2005/06 season introduced a number of playwrights whose work had never before been produced at Stage. Timothy Douglas directed Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel. Melissa Kievman staged Tracy Letts’ wild play Bug, and Nance Wiliamson starred in Theresa Rebeck’s one-woman comedy Bad Dates. Also new to Stage that season were Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, whose musical The Sound of Music was the holiday co-production, directed and choreographed by Anthony Salatino. Later in the season, Edwards directed Ken Albers in the title role of King Lear and Moss

Season 30: 2002-2003

M. Butterfly, David Henry Hwang Jitney, August Wilson West Side Story, based on a concept of Jerome Robbins, book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Backsliding in the Promised Land*, Michelle Lowe The Crucible, Arthur Miller Copenhagen, Michael Frayn such small hands*, Tina Howe Season 31: 2003-2004

Nobody Don’t Like Yogi, Tom Lysaght Amadeus, Peter Shaffer Constant Star, Tazewell Thompson The Wizard of Oz, L Frank Baum, music & lyrics by Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell, music & lyrics by Stephen Trask Stones in His Pockets, Marie Jones Hamlet, William Shakespeare Private Lives, Noel Coward Season 32: 2004-2005

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee Fully Committed, Becky Mode Crimes of the Heart, Beth Henley Big River, adapted from the novel by Mark Twain, book

by William Hauptman, music & lyrics by Roger Miller Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, written and performed by Culture Clash: Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, & Herbert Siguenza Visiting Mr. Green, Jeff Baron The Grapes of Wrath, adapted by Frank Galati from the novel by John Steinbeck My Fair Lady, book & lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe, adpated from the play Pygmanlion by George Bernard Shaw

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CONSTANT STAR

The ensemble in Tazewell Thompson’s Constant Star: Laiona Michelle, Nadiyah S. Dorsey, Quanda Johnson, Tracey Conyer Lee, and Gayle Turner. Season: 2003 – 2004. Director: Tazewell Thompson. Photo: Alex Ottaviano.

Aside: Constant Star marked the return of Tazewell Thompson to Syracuse Stage with this musical play based on the life of activist Ida B. Wells. Constant Star has been produced at numerous theatres including Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Florida Stage, City Theatre, PlayMakers Rep., Virginia Stage, Dobama Theatre, and Delaware Theatre Company.

directed Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing. The season also marked the first of three runs of the extravagantly popular Menopause the Musical.

For all the activity on stage, though, the big news of 2006 occurred after the season when Jim Clark and Robert Moss announced that they were retiring from Syracuse Stage. Michael Donald Edwards also moved on, accepting the position of producing artistic director at Florida’s Asolo Repertory Theatre. Although Clark had been at Stage for 30 years and Moss for ten, the announcement still took many by surprise.

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“Bob and I had been talking to each other about our future plans for some time now,” Clark said at the time. “Over the course of those private conversations, we began to realize that we were thinking along the same timeline.”

Moss concurred. “Jim’s thinking absolutely dovetailed with mine. I’ve been here for ten years and in professional theatre for nearly fifty.

Jim has been with Syracuse Stage for thirty years. We shared the sense that it was time. I’m proud of what Syracuse Stage is, and what it means to the Central New York community.”

Moss and Clark agreed to stay until searches had been completed for their replacements.

This commitment guaranteed artistic continuity through the upcoming seasons and eased the transition to new leadership. One of the goals of that transition was to reorganize the leadership structure and turn two positions into three.

Clark had served as producing director of Stage and chair of SU Drama. Moss had been the artistic director of Stage. In this structure, Clark was responsible for the day-to-day operations of Stage and the academic and artistic direction of SU Drama, while Moss was the artistic leader

The Loman family: Priscilla Lindsay as Linda, Ken Albers as Willy, Ryan Artzberger as Biff, and Andrew Aherns as Happy in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Season: 2006 – 2007. Director: Tim Ocel. Photo: Alex Ottaviano. far left:

left: Brent Vimtrup as James and Christian Conn as Padraic in Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore.Season: 2007 – 2008. Director: Robert Moss.

Photo: Michael Davis.

Season 33: 2005-2006

for Stage. The new model proposed one person to serve as producing artistic director for Stage and Drama and provide artistic leadership for both entities, much as Arthur Storch had done.

A second person would become the managing director for Stage and assume responsibility for day-to-day operations and administration.

The third position would be a new chair of SU Drama to oversee curricula and academic matters. If transition sometimes comes with a degree of uncertainty, the keynote for Moss and Clark was optimism for Stage’s future.

“Change is a good thing,” said Moss, “and I’m enthused by what the future holds for Syracuse Stage.”

“It’s been—and is—a wonderful journey,” Clark said. “Working with dedicated staff,

talented artists, energetic students and smart, supportive, appreciative audiences over the years has been challenging, rewarding and just terrific. And there’s still work to be done. It’s that work I’ll continue and savor until the transition is complete.”

In truth, it was work they both had to do.

In the course of the next two seasons, Moss would direct five plays beginning with a beautifully realized production of Driving Miss Daisy starring Elizabeth Franz and William Charles Mitchell. Later in the 2006/07 season he undertook Theresa Rebeck’s Spike Heels and the Agatha Christie mystery The Unexpected Guest. The season also included August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean directed

by Timothy Douglas and Death of Salesman featuring Ken Albers in the title role.

As the search continued for a successor, Moss planned the 2007/2008 season. To open, he directed Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses and later Martin McDonagh’s comic bloodbath The Lieutenant of Inishmore.

Anthony Salatino staged Fiddler on the Roof with Stuart Zagnit as Tevye, and Peter Amster made his Stage directorial debut with The Fantasticks, which closed the season.

Lost in Yonkers, Neil Simon Bug, Tracey Letts The Sound of Music, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse The Real Thing, Tom Stoppard Intimate Apparel, Lynn Nottage Bad Dates, Theresa Rebeck King Lear, William Shakespeare Menopause the Musical ®, Jeanie Linders

Season 34: 2006-2007

Then, with a successor in place and the theatre in good hands, Moss made his exit, as graciously as he had entered: “As artistic director and as a director, I’ve wanted to bring hope and optimism to the Syracuse Stage audience.

I think I’ve done that. And creating theatre for the wonderfully smart, open-minded and receptive Syracuse Stage audience has been one of the great joys of my career.”

Around the World in 80 Days, a play by Mark Brown, based on the novel by Jules Verne Driving Miss Daisy, Alfred Uhry A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, adapted by Gerardine Clark Spike Heels, Theresa Rebeck Gem of the Ocean, August Wilson Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller The Unexpected Guest, Agatha Christie Menopause the Musical ®, Jeanie Linders * World Premiere

†

American Premiere

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Richard McWilliams as Victor, Kenneth Tigar as Solomon, Tony DeBruno as Walter, and Carmen Roman as Esther in Arthur Miller’s The Price. Season: 2009 – 2010. Director: Timothy Bond. Photo: Michael Davis.

THE PRICE

Aside: The attic for The Price contained more than 200 individual set pieces and props, according to properties coordinator Sam Sheehan.

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AUGUST WILSON’S MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM Warner Miller as Levee, Doug Eskew as Slow Drag, Ebony Jo-Ann as Ma Rainey, and Cortez Nance at Cutler in August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Season: 2008 – 2009. Director: Timothy Bond. Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

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Aside: August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom marked Timothy Bond’s directorial debut with Syracuse Stage and was his first step in staging the entirety of Wilson’s Century Cycle at Syracuse Stage.

Timothy Bond. Photo: James Scherzi Photography.

Act V: 2007-2013 The good hands entrusted with the artistic future of Syracuse Stage belonged to Timothy Bond, a twentyfour year veteran of regional theatre. Bond had served as artistic director of Seattle’s Group Theatre, and for the 11 years prior to his arrival at Stage as an associate artistic director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Bond’s career had brought him to many of the country’s leading regional theatres including The Guthrie, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, ACT, and Indiana Repertory Theatre, among others. In fact, even as Bond assumed his artistic responsibilities at Stage, he was committed to directing a production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage as part of that theatre’s Arthur Miller Festival. Bond’s

directorial experience was extensive and wide-ranging, embracing classical and contemporary work, including plays by Shakespeare, August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, Edward Albee, Lorraine Hansberry, Lynn Nottage, Octavio Soliz, Pearl Cleage, and many others.

“We were impressed with Tim’s enthusiasm and desire to build a truly collaborative relationship between the community, the University, and Stage,” said Larry Leatherman, Syracuse Stage Board member and chair of the search committee. “After several sessions with him we were very much drawn to his style, character, and personal qualities: he is sincere, charming, and magnetic. Tim has the ability to immediately put one at ease in any interaction or setting. The more time we

spent with Tim, the more the committee felt that his experience, temperament, ambition, honesty, and quiet confidence make him perfect for the position.”

For his part, Bond expressed a keen eagerness to begin his work at Stage and Drama. “I look forward to engaging what I know to be the generous Syracuse Stage audience and community. The opportunity to lead a professional theatre as well as a strong university drama program is an exciting chance to develop new work, reach new audiences, and infuse the next generation of theatre artists with a firm sense of purpose and professionalism. During the interview process, I sensed a strong interest in further raising the bar artistically, and assuring that the SU Drama program has a

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TALES FROM THE SALT CITY

Emad Rahim, Gordana Dudevski, José Miguel Hernández, Albert Marshall, Lino T. Ariloka, Rebecca Isabel Fuentes, and Jeanne Shenandoah in Tales From the Salt City, conceived and directed by Ping Chong. Season: 2008 – 2009. Director: Ping Chong. Photo: Michael Davis.

Aside: Tales From the Salt City marked Syracuse Stage’s first collaboration with Ping Chong. Part of Chong’s ongoing series of interview-based theatre works called Undesirable Elements, Tales From the Salt City featured the stories of real Central New Yorkers who also performed the piece. Chong returned to Syracuse Stage in the 2012 – 2013 season for Cry For Peace: Voices of the Congo, which he co-authored with Syracuse Stage dramaturg Kyle Bass and developed in collaboration with the Syracuse Congolese Community. Cry for Peace was supported by SU Arts Engage.

significant impact in the country through its training efforts. I believe in the power of theatre to be a transformative force in our society. It brings people from diverse backgrounds together under one roof to be engaged in democratic dialogue about important societal and interpersonal concerns in theatrical and entertaining ways.”

The first task for the new producing artistic director was to begin the selection process for the 2008/09 season, which he promised

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would be “a mix of classical plays, contemporary plays, new plays and plays with music.” Bond’s influences derived from a broad spectrum of theatrical performance, what he called “the wonderful mélange of styles and ideas” that have shaped theatre through time and across cultures, and he wanted Stage’s season to reflect that richness. He had a good idea of how he wanted to start.

Bond had been friends with playwright August Wilson. While at the Oregon Shake-

speare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, Bond had opportunities to visit with Wilson when the playwright would attend OSF productions. On occasion, Bond had the chance to hear the playwright’s work in progress, described by Wilson himself, as if relating an event he had witnessed or a conversation overheard. In addition to this strong personal connection, Bond has been and remains an avid champion of Wilson’s Century Cycle, the series of ten plays that form a decade-by-decade chronicle of African

American life through the last century. Bond calls the Cycle one of the most extraordinary achievements in playwriting. “It’s about all our histories no matter what your cultural background,” he said in a StageView interview. “These plays speak to you as a human being.”

As he became familiar with Stage’s production history, Bond noticed that four Wilson plays had been produced and that they had been well received— Fences, The Piano Lesson, Jitney and Gem of the Ocean.

Recognizing there was an audience for Wilson’s work, it occurred to him that he might build on Stage’s

production history and complete the Cycle. It had been an ambition he harbored since Wilson’s passing in 2005. He knew just where to begin, where Wilson had, with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Thus, the 2008/09 season began with Bond’s Stage directorial debut, and audiences were treated to a production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom with Ebony Jo–Ann in the title role (a role she had played at The Kennedy Center) and Thomas Jefferson Byrd as Toledo (a role for which he received a Tony nomination in 2003). That was followed by the world premiere of the

SU Drama student Arielle Lever as Anne in The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, adapted by Wendy Kesselman. Season: 2008 – 2009.

Director: Timothy Bond. Photo: T. Charles Erickson. far left:

left: Molly

Brennan as the Red Queen and Lindsey Noel Whiting as Alice in Lookingglass Alice by David Catlin. Season: 2009 – 2010. Director: David Catlin. Photo: Ken Huth. above: David Studwell as Professor Fritz Bhaer and Sarah Sha-

hinian as Jo in Little Women with music by Kim Oler, lyrics by Alison Hubbard and book by Sean Hartley. Based on the novel

by Louisa May Alcott. Season: 2009 – 2010. Directed and Choreographed by: Anthony Salatino. Photo: Michael Davis.

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AUGUST WILSON’S FENCES

James A. Williams as Troy, Kim Staunton as Rose, Craig Alan Edwards as Gabriel, and William Hall Jr. as Jim Bono in August Wilson’s Fences. Season: 2009 – 2010. Director: Timothy Bond. Photo: Chris Bennion.

Aside: August Wilson’s Fences was co-produced with Seattle Repertory Theatre.

The costumes were designed

by Constanza Romero, the playwright’s widow, who also designed the costumes for the Broadway production starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis.

exceptional Tales from the Salt City, conceived and directed by renowned theatre artist Ping Chong, also a friend of Bond’s.

Chong’s process was to interview dozens of Central New Yorkers–some immigrants, some life-long residents. He collected their stories and selected seven. Chong then took these personal stories and wove them into an intertwined narrative performed by the individuals themselves on a set that featured slide projections of historic Syracuse. The individuals in the cast reflected a sampling

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of the various cultural influences in Central New York and represented Sudan, Macedonia, Mexico, Cuba, Cambodia, The Onondaga Nation, and Syracuse. Tales from the Salt City is now part of Chong’s extraordinary body of interview-based theatre pieces collectively called Undesirable Elements, a series of more than 40 works dating back to 1992. Chong returned in 2010 and 2012 to work on Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo, co-authored by Stage dramaturg Kyle Bass and developed in collaboration with

Cyprien Mihigo and the Congolese Community of Central New York. The world premiere full production of Cry for Peace opened Stage’s 40th anniversary season in 2012 and was included in the 20th anniversary celebration of the Undesirable Elements series at New York’s La MaMa E.T.C. Music and top-shelf singing talent featured prominently in the 2008/2009 season as Tony Award-winners Lillias White and Chuck Cooper appeared in Stephen Sond-

Jeffrey Woodward. Photo: James Scherzi Photography.

heim’s Putting It Together and American Idol finalist Anwar Robinson played the lead in Godspell at the holidays. The holiday season featured a second show, an adaptation of David Sedaris’ The Santaland Diaries, which was performed in the Storch Theatre. Since his arrival, Bond had thought it would be advantageous for Stage and Drama to use the Archbold and the Storch with greater flexibility. For years, Stage had used the Archbold exclusively and Drama the Storch. Initiating an exchange of spaces would allow Stage to produce smaller, more intimate shows in the Storch, while giving Drama the opportunity to use the bigger Archbold for large-scale musicals and plays.

Each season since has featured flexible use of the spaces. In addition, the Storch has been adapted to accommodate different seating configurations including seating on three sides and avenue-style seating.

Later in the 2008/09 season, Bond’s longtime colleague from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Penny Metropulos, made her Stage debut, directing Bridget

The other major story of 2008 occurred off stage as Jeffrey Woodward was hired as Stage’s managing director. The official announcement was made in January of 2008 with Woodward slated to take up his responsibilities in March. As with Bond, Woodward brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to his new job having worked at such theatres as Hartford Stage Company, the Mark Taper Forum, Northlight Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (not concurrent with Bond) and for seventeen years as the managing director of the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey.

Carpenter’s Up. Bond directed his second Stage show, The Diary of Anne Frank, with SU Drama student Arielle Lever in the title role. The season concluded with a rousing production of Regina Taylor’s Gospelinspired musical Crowns, directed and choreographed by Patdro Harris.

The other major story of 2008 occurred off stage as Jeffrey Woodward was hired as Stage’s managing director. The official announcement was made in January of 2008 with Woodward slated to take up his responsibilities in March. As with Bond, Woodward brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to his new job having worked at such theatres as Hartford Stage, the Mark Taper Forum, Northlight Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (not concurrent with Bond), and for seventeen years as the managing director of the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey.

During Woodward’s tenure at the McCarter with artistic director Emily Mann, the company became one of the leading regional theatres in the United States, and in 1994

was honored with the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

“It is an ideal situation when you can replace a valued and experienced leader with a valued and experienced leader,” said Board of Trustees chair Elizabeth 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.”

Producing artistic director Bond concurred: “Jeff brings to Syracuse Stage the exceptional skill and talent he honed while working at one of the nation’s preeminent regional theatres. 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.”

Woodward’s arrival meant the time had come for Jim Clark to bid farewell to the organization he had helped guide for 30 years.

Season 35: 2007-2008

Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Christopher Hampton, from the novel by Choderlos de Laclos Misery, Stephen King, adapted for the stage by Simon Moore Fiddler on the Roof, based on Sholom Aleichem stories by special permission of Arnold Perl, book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Martin McDonagh Doubt, a parable, John Patrick Shanley The Bomb-itty of Errors, Jordan Allen-Dutton, Jason Catalano, Gregory J Qaiyum & Erik Weiner The Fantasticks, music by Harvey Schmidt, book & lyrics by Tom Jones Menopause the Musical ®, Jeanie Linders

Season 36: 2008-2009

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, August Wilson Tales from the Salt City, Ping Chong & Sara Zatz Godspell, Book: John Michael Tebelak, Lyrics & Music: Michael Schwartz The Santaland Diaries, David Sedaris, adapted by Joe Mantello Putting It Together, Stephen Sondheim Up, Bridget Carpenter The Diary of Anne Frank, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, adapted by Wendy Kesselman Crowns, Regina Taylor

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Aside: Director Paul Barnes and Jacqueline Baum were reunited for the 2012 – 2013 production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Baum also appeared on an episode of the hit TV series 30 Rock .

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THE MIRACLE WORKER Aliyah A. Kilpatrick as Martha and Jacqueline Baum as Helen Keller (foreground) and James Lloyd Reynolds as Captain Keller, Regan Thompson as Kate Keller, and Celia Madeoy as Aunt Ev in William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker. Season: 2010 – 2011. Director: Paul Barnes. Photo: Michael Davis.

right: Linda

Marie Larson as Virginia, Carol Halstead as Lane, Alma Cuervo as Ana, and Gisela Chípe as Matilde in The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl. Season: 2010 – 2011.

Director: Michael Barakiva.

Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

Joe Foust and Rob Johansen played multiple roles in Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps adapted by Patrick Barlow. Season: 2010 – 2011. Director: Peter Amster.

Photo: Roger Mastroianni. far right:

far left: Sean

Patrick Fawcett as Norman and Alanna Rogers as Sheila in The Boys Next Door.

Season: 2011 – 2012. Director: Timothy Bond. Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

LEFT: Jenaha McClearn as Lucy and

Maclain W. Dassatti as Mr. Tumnus in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis, dramatized

by Adrian Mitchell, and music composed by Shaun Davey. Season: 2011 – 2012. Director: Linda Hartzell.

Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

It wasn’t exactly a farewell because, in typical Jim Clark fashion, he quietly moved down the hall to a new office to pick up a new set of responsibilities in the Drama Department and College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Having stayed on as managing director of Stage and co-chair of the Drama Department with Maria Marrero, Clark initially returned to the Drama faculty. A year later he became the associate dean for Assessment and Accreditation. Currently, he is serving temporarily as senior associate dean for Academic Affairs. Among the tasks he is setting his talents to is the development of a new arts management curriculum in the Department of Drama.

Clark was honored at a gathering in the Archbold theatre where Jeff Woodward presented him with the official LORT antlers, a traditional gift for outgoing managing directors. Speakers noted Jim’s accomplishments and his willingness to be supportive in matters personal or professional. Longtime faculty members Anthony Salatino and Rodney Hudson echoed much of what

was said: Jim’s door was always open, his encouragement generously proffered, and his initial inclination toward new ideas or projects was inevitably “yes.”

The 2009/10 season kicked-off with Steve Martin’s wild comedy Picasso at the Lapine Agile, directed by Penny Metropulos. For the holidays, a new musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, directed and choreographed by Salatino, played in the Archbold while This Wonderful Life, based on the famous film and directed by Peter Amster, played in the Storch. Little Women was a full production of a musical that had received a workshop presentation in the Drama Department two years earlier as a step in the play’s development process.

Tim Bond directed Arthur Miller’s The Price with a cast that featured veteran character actor Ken Tigar as the used furniture dealer Solomon. Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company brought their high-flying Lookingglass Alice to the Archbold complete with acrobatics, stilt-walking, and the greatest fall

in Syracuse Stage history, a twenty-foot drop from a ladder through a trapdoor in the stage floor executed by actor Samuel Taylor. John Carinai’s gentle comedy Almost, Maine and Bond’s powerhouse production of August Wilson’s Fences rounded out the season.

Originally, Bond had not intended to direct Fences as part of completing Wilson’s Cycle. Stage had already produced it in 1991. Circumstances and opportunity, however, deemed otherwise. The year 2010 marked the play’s 25th anniversary.

In recognition of that, The Seattle Repertory Theatre scheduled a production and asked Constanza Romero, August Wilson’s widow, to design the costumes. (That same year, Romero designed the costumes for the Broadway production starring Denzel Washington.) Romero and Bond were personal friends, and when the offer came from Seattle Rep, she requested that he direct. At first Bond hesitated. Then Jeff Woodward urged him to accept, and the play became a co-production between Seattle Rep and Stage. Anchored by stellar

Season 37: 2009-2010

Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Steve Martin Little Women, Kim Oler, Alison Hubbard, Sean Harley, based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott This Wonderful Life, Steve Murray, conceived by Mark Setlock The Price, Arthur Miller Lookingglass Alice, David Catlin Almost, Maine, John Cariani Fences, August Wilson Season 38: 2010-2011

No Child, Nilaja Sun The 39 Steps, Adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan from the movie by Alfred Hitchcock A Christmas Story, Based on the motion picture

by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark.

Adapted by Philip Grecian Rent, Jonathan Larson Radio Golf, August Wilson The Miracle Worker, William Gibson The Clean House, Sarah Ruhl

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CAROLINE, OR CHANGE

Danielle K. Thomas as The Washing Machine, Gabrielle Porter as Radio 3, Caitlainne Rose Gurreri as Radio 1, Greta Oglesby as Caroline, and Christina Acosta Robinson as Radio 2 in Caroline, or Change, book and lyrics by Tony Kushner and music by Jeanine Tesori. Season: 2011 – 2012. Director: Marcela Lorca. Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

Aside: Greta Oglesby, who played the title role, had previously portrayed Caroline at The Guthrie Theatre. Jeanine Tesori was so impressed with her performance that she invited Oglesby to perform at Lincoln Center at an evening honoring the composer and her work.

performances by James A. Williams as Troy, Kim Staunton as Rose, and Stephen Tyrone Williams as Cory, Fences again proved a critical and popular success at Stage.

In 2010, Ralph Zito was named chair of the Department of Drama, thereby completing the restructuring of leadership at Stage and Drama. Zito’s distinguished career in the academic and professional theatre worlds included 18 years at the Juilliard School, serving as chair of the Voice

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and Speech Department for nine. He had served as a voice, text, and dialect consultant for numerous productions on and off Broadway and at many regional theatres.

With Zito’s appointment came new opportunities to explore and expand the collaboration between Stage and Drama.

The 2010/11 season opened in the Storch Theatre with Nilaja Sun’s one-person show No Child . . ., starring Rochester’s Rena L. Golden and directed by Bond. Peter Amster

returned to direct the wild comedy The 39 Steps and Anthony Salatino directed and choreographed the co-production Rent.

August Wilson’s Radio Golf, the last play Wilson wrote, became the next installment in The Century Cycle and featured the return of Thomas Jefferson Byrd and the first appearance at Stage for veteran television actor Richard Brooks of early Law & Order fame.

Eleven-year-old Jacqueline Baum and Anna O’Donoghue turned in stunning performances as Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan

Ralph Zito

In 2010, Ralph Zito was named chair of the Department of Drama, thereby completing the restructuring of leadership at Stage and Drama.

Zito’s distinguished career in the academic and professional theatre worlds included 18 years at the Juilliard School, serving as chair of the Voice and Speech Department for nine. He had served as a voice, text and dialect consultant for numerous productions on and off Broadway and at many regional theatres. With Zito’s appointment came new opportunities to explore and expand the collaboration between Stage and Drama.

in William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker, directed by Paul Barnes. Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House closed out the season buoyed by strong performances from Alma Cuervo and Gisela Chípe. Fall of 2010 also marked the beginning of the development of Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo. With support from the Office of the University Arts Presenter (now Arts Engage), Ping Chong and Kyle Bass conducted their initial interviews and developed a script. Workshop productions were performed in the Storch Theatre, The Samuel Beckett Theatre in New York, and at Georgetown University.

The 2011/12 season saw Syracuse Stage cast its artistic net far and wide in a variety of ways. Most of the cast of Tom Griffin’s comedy The Boys Next Door came from Chicago. Linda Hartzell came from a continent away and the Children’s Theatre of Seattle to direct the holiday presentation of The

Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a show originally commissioned and staged by The Royal Shakespeare Company. Director Marcela Lorca and the outstanding Greta Oglesby arrived from the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis for the acclaimed production of Caroline, or Change, written by Tony Kushner with music by Jeanine Tesori.

Composer Tesori attended a performance of the show and afterward congratulated the cast for their superb performances, including young Séamus Gailor who played 8-year-old Noah Gelman. Tesori knew Oglesby, having seen her in the role of Caroline at the Guthrie. In fact, Tesori was so impressed with that performance that she asked Oglesby to sing the song “Lot’s Wife” from the show when Lincoln Center honored the composer with an evening dedicated to her music. Anyone who saw Caroline, or Change at Syracuse Stage could easily understand Tesori’s decision. To bor-

row the old cliché, Ogelsby stopped the show with her rendition of “Lot’s Wife.”

The longest journey of the season was made by veteran actor Joseph Graves, who traveled from Beijing, China to take on the role of Mark Rothko in John Logan’s Red. The most notable journey, however, belonged to Bond and the cast of the season’s final show, The Brothers Size, by Tarell Alvin McCraney. Following the show’s successful run in the Storch Theatre, newly reconfigured into a three-quarter thrust space, Bond and the cast, along with stage manager Stuart Plymesser and managing director Jeff Woodward, journeyed to South Africa to inaugurate the first international transfer of a Syracuse Stage production. The Brothers Size performed at two leading South African theatres, The Baxter Theatre in Cape Town and the famed Market Theatre in Johannesburg. The Market is well-known for its

Season 39: 2011-2012

The Turn of the Screw, Based on the novella by Henry James. Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher The Boys Next Door, Tom Griffin The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Based on the series by C.S. Lewis. Adapted by Adrian Mitchell Caroline, Or Change, Tony Kushner Red, John Logan The Brothers Size, Tarell Alvin McCraney Season 40: 2012-2013

Moby Dick, Adapted for the stage by Julian Rad from the book by Herman Melville White Christmas, Based on the Paramount Pictures film, Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin, Book by David Ives and Paul Blake Two Trains Running, August Wilson A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare Good People, David Lindsay-Abaire An Iliad, Adapted from Homer by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare, Translation by Robert Fagles * World Premiere

†

American Premiere

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role in opposing the policies of apartheid and for having staged the world premieres of many Athol Fugard plays. The Brothers Size and cast members Rodrick Covington, Joshua Elijah Reese, and Sam Encarnación earned accolades at both theatres. Typical of the critical response was this review by Tanya Farber of Cape Town’s Sunday Independent: “As I write this, I am a more culturally enriched human being . . .The story, and the performances that sculpted it on stage, have hung over me since I saw it a few days ago.”

She adds: “[The Brothers Size] takes us back to the beginning of what we learnt centuries ago: that brilliant theatre is about a story you can invest in, characters you can suffer with and dialogue that makes your skin prickle with recognition.” If McCraney was littleor un-known in South Africa previously, the Syracuse Stage production provided an inspiring introduction.

right: Joseph

Graves as Mark Rothko and Matthew Amendt as Ken in Red by John Logan. Season: 2011 – 2012. Director: Penny Metropulos. Photo: Michael Davis.

The journey was also an opportunity to introduce Syracuse Stage to new audiences far beyond the familiar geographic and cultural confines of Central New York, as

The most notable journey, however, belonged to Bond and the cast of the season’s final show, The Brothers Size, by Tarell Alvin McCraney.

Following the show’s successful run in the Storch Theatre, newly reconfigured into a three-quarter thrust space, Bond and the cast, along with stage manager Stuart Plymesser and managing director Jeff Woodward, journeyed to South Africa to inaugurate the first international transfer of a Syracuse Stage production.

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well as to open a new chapter in the theatre’s history. Under Tim Bond’s stewardship, the theatre has pursued a vision of inclusion and a mission to celebrate the global village that is Central New York. The journey to South Africa represents an important step because it signals the possibility of developing a continuing exchange whereby Stage productions may again move to South Africa and productions from South Africa might perform here. Moreover, the transfer to South Africa continues and expands one of the founding principles of the New Playhouse and The Syracuse Repertory Theatre, which was to tour productions to places near and far.

whose better days had passed, has grown a theatre that has become a cultural hub for Central New Yorkers, and that is moving toward an increasingly prominent place on national and international stages; a company that is ready and eager to contribute to an artistic discourse with renowned artists and audiences and to celebrate our cultural richness and witness the many truths of our common humanity through the transformative power of live theatre.

THE BROTHERS SIZE Joshua Elijah Reese as Ogun in The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney.

Season: 2011 – 2012. Director: Timothy Bond. Photo: Michael Davis.

Aside: The Brothers Size became the first Syracuse Stage production to transfer internationally when the play was moved to The Baxter Theatre in Cape Town and The Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa.

It is interesting to speculate whether anyone would have ever imagined a play originating in Syracuse reaching quite as far as South Africa, or for that matter, the theatre itself lasting quite so long and growing quite so strong. In what was once an aging movie house, in a declining neighborhood, in a city

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Syracuse Stage costumer Gretchen Darrow-Crotty explains the workings of the costume shop to members of the community at the Stage Open House. Backstage tours and free performances are part of this annual event held in the fall at the beginning of the season.

Post-Show Discussion Setting the record straight.

Is Syracuse Stage a community theatre?

What is a regional theatre?

Syracuse Stage launched its first season in 1974. That should make the current season, 2012 – 2013, our 39th, but it’s not. It’s our 40th. The discrepancy derives from the first season. Arthur Storch arrived as producing artistic director of Syracuse Stage in January of 1974. So eager was he to get started that he produced his first play (which was actually two one-act plays) just two months later.

So the first season was really half a season, three shows produced between March and May of 1974. Season II began the following fall, October 1974, and ran until April of 1975, establishing the basic timeframe for succeeding seasons.

No. Syracuse Stage is a League of Resident Theatres (LORT) professional regional theatre. We are Central New York’s only LORT theatre and one of 74 such theatres in the United States. LORT is the largest and most prestigious nonprofit professional theatre association in the country. The LORT designation determines the terms of Syracuse Stage’s contracts with the professional artists we employ. This is the main difference between Syracuse Stage and community theatres. We are fully professional. The actors, designers, and directors who work at Syracuse Stage are among the leading theatre professionals in the country.

The regional theatre movement dates back to the mid-1950s with the founding of theatres such as Houston’s Alley Theatre and Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. The idea behind the movement was to establish what might be thought of as home-grown professional theatres in communities and cities throughout the country. The goal was to give people access to high-quality, professional theatre without having to travel to New York or wait for touring productions to come to town. Regional theatres would be part of the local community and cultivate and serve a local audiences. Free from the commercial demands of Broadway, or even Off-Broadway, regional theatres could

offer their audiences a range of material, from classics and musicals to forgotten gems and riskier new work. The most successful regional theatres have become indispensable parts of the cultural life of the communities they serve. Such is the case with Syracuse Stage.

By the end of this 40th anniversary season, Syracuse Stage will have produced more than 300 plays for Central New York audiences. In addition, Syracuse Stage has been an active educational partner with area teachers and students, offering an array of educational services throughout the years.

Currently, Syracuse Stage’s educational programs serve more than 20,000 students annually. Through the years, Syracuse Stage 69

Syracuse Stage Staff The 2012-2013 Syracuse Stage Staff on the set of Moby Dick, Fall 2012.

Photo: James Scherzi Photography.

has also partnered with many community and civic organizations by supporting fundraising events and facilitating opportunities to discuss and explore issues of significance to the community. Since Waiting for Lefty and Noon opened in 1974, Central New Yorkers have been to Syracuse Stage more than 2 million times, even by conservative estimates.

Is Syracuse Stage like the touring shows that appear at The Landmark or the Civic Center?

While touring companies frequently employ professionals, the shows are rehearsed and built in one location, usually

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New York, and then performed in many places. The scenery and costumes are loaded on trucks, the cast on buses, and the companies perform in different cities while on tour. Once they are done in Syracuse, for instance, they move on. Syracuse Stage productions are built, rehearsed, and performed here for our audience. The scenery, costumes, and props on our stage are made in our building by our artisans and craftspeople. We have sewing machines and saws.

Another difference is that touring productions are usually only popular musicals that go out on tour after lengthy Broadway runs. Syracuse Stage productions are selected

with a six or seven show season in mind. This means we can offer great variety drawn from classic and contemporary comedy and drama, as well as musicals and new plays. Individually each production is rewarding; collectively, the theatrical experience is much richer.

Syracuse Stage offers audiences a chance to experience the full breadth of theatre.

Are Syracuse Stage actors local?

As with almost all regional theatres, Syracuse Stage hires actors, designers, and directors on a per show basis. Most of the actors are based in New York, although in recent years we have increasingly used actors from Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Seattle. Typically, these actors also work on and off-Broadway, in television and film, and at other leading regional theatres around the country. The same is true for our directors and designers. At times, Syracuse Stage uses local professional actors, often faculty members in the Department of Drama, and in recent seasons local children have featured prominently in productions.

What is the relationship between Syracuse Stage and Syracuse University Drama?

Syracuse Stage is a professional theatre in residence at Syracuse University. Syracuse Stage is the “dba” for the S.U. Theatre Corporation, which has an independent board of trustees comprising representatives from Syracuse University and businesses and organizations in the community. Syracuse Stage receives support from the University, especially concerning

facilities and physical plant. Drama and Stage are both housed at 820 E. Genesee Street.

The artistic and pedagogical link between the organizations was solidified in 1974 when Arthur Storch was named producing artistic director of Syracuse Stage and chair of the Drama Department. Since then the organizations have worked in various ways to maximize mutually beneficial aspects of their partnership. For instance, many members of the Syracuse Stage professional staff also teach in the Drama Department. In addition, the costumes, sets, and props for Drama shows are built by the professionals in the Syracuse Stage shops. Students benefit from having the opportunity to work with professional designers and directors and appear in professional shows. Frequently, Drama Department faculty members lend their expertise and talent to Syracuse Stage productions as actors, directors, designers, choreographers, vocal coaches, fight choreographers, and music directors.

How many people work at Syracuse Stage?

The number of employees varies depending on the time of the year and the demands of any given show. Essentially, there are three types of employees: year-round, seasonal, and those hired on a per show basis. The people in the last category, as mentioned earlier, are usually the visiting artists—actors, directors, and designers—who work on individual plays.

Sometimes, additional technical support is needed for the shops or run crews on a per show basis.

Is this why Drama students appear in some Syracuse Stage shows?

Seasonal employees work on contracts that coincide roughly with beginning and end of the Syracuse Stage season, usually starting a few weeks before the first show opens. Most of these employees are on the technical and production side of the theatre: scene shop, costumes, props, lighting, and stage management. Seasonal employees also include front-of-house staff and a number of part-time, Box Office staff (usually students). Year-round employees are usually administrative staff: business, marketing, education, development, full time Box Office, and heads of production and technical departments.

Yes. The contracts that govern Syracuse Stage’s terms with Actors’ Equity Association performers and stage managers stipulate not only compensation and benefits, but determine the ratio of professionals to non-professionals Syracuse Stage may use in given season. However, Stage’s association with SU Drama allows it to produce some shows on what is known as a University Resident Theatre Association (URTA) contract. This contract is specifically designed for productions that have students and professionals in the cast.

At peak employment, Syracuse Stage may have upwards of 65 people on staff. This number does not include visiting artists (actors, directors, designers), but refers to people employed

by Stage who make their homes here in Central New York. As with any local business, most Stage employees are part of this community. In the off-season, the number of employees drops to about 25. Most seasonal employees leave temporarily to find work at summer theatres, but return to resume their work at Stage.

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Special 10:30 a.m. matinees have long been a part of Syracuse Stage’s educational programs.

Each year thousands of area middle and high school students attend these performances and/ or participate in Stage’s outreach programs.

STUDENT MATINEE

Education “Every time I see all those high school and even grade school kids coming into the theatre for matinees, I know we’re on our way to something great.”

–Arthur Storch In the final scene of William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker, Helen Keller experiences a life-changing breakthrough; she recognizes that the symbols repeatedly tapped into her hand by her teacher Annie Sullivan are a kind of language that corresponds to physical objects. Closed off for so long, the world is now open to her, and she eagerly moves about touching anything near—the ground, steps, her parents— indicating that she wants to know what words, what symbols, refer to each. Finally she comes to Annie Sullivan who takes Helen’s hand and spells “teacher.”

In the Syracuse Stage production, Helen responded by reaching up to Annie’s face, removing her glasses, and very softly, kissing her cheek. It was a touching and tender moment that often drew an audible

response from the audience, especially one student matinee when a capacity crowd of middle school children let out a collective sound along the lines of “ooooha.” It was a sweet and spontaneous sound, the kind that can only come from young children.

To experience such a moment is to understand the value of Syracuse Stage’s educational programs as well as to understand why educational programs have been an important part of the theatre throughout its history. Theatre has a singular capacity to engage intellect and emotion through the immediacy of live performance. This moment for instance required the young audience to understand Helen’s isolation, Annie’s determination, and the struggle that defined

students in Central Tech’s journalism class participate in ArtsEmerging. Photo: Brenna Merritt. above:

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their relationship to that point. The children’s response contained more than sentiment; it bespoke comprehension and understanding.

Moreover, it was a moment shared among 500 peers, a communal experience in which common humanity was revealed and recognized.

Such moments make it easy to understand why theatre is often cited for its singular capacity to teach empathy. That alone is reason enough to bring children to Syracuse Stage. But of course, theatre offers so much more. Some of the world’s greatest literature is found in the theatre: ideas worthy of the deepest thinkers, language as vivid as the finest poetry, and characters as vibrant and memorable as any in Tolstoy or Dickens or Twain. Further still, plays concern any and every topic imaginable and therefore offer curricula tieins to virtually every academic subject. Henrik Ibsen believed that plays should be sources of insight, creators of discussion, and conveyors of ideas. A good play is all that and more. What an asset to the education and development of young hearts and minds.

A THOUSAND CRANES Niwani Rattry as The Actor and Jamie Olin as Sadako in A Thousand Cranes by Kathryn Schultz Miller. Season: 2008.

Director: Lauren Unbekant. Photo: Michael Davis.

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Aside: Each year Syracuse Stage produces a children’s play that tours to area elementary schools and is cast with SU Drama students. Following each performance the elementary students are given an opportunity to question the actors about the show.

Moreover, introducing children to theatre is crucial for the long-term health of the theatre itself. A theatre cannot survive without an audience. Studies and surveys have proven that cultivating a habit of theatre-going at an early age is the best way to develop an audience for the future. In return students develop an appreciation for an experience that offers lifelong enrichment.

Theatre has been an educational resource for area students and teachers for as long there has been a professional company at 820 E. Genesee St. In the first full season of SRT in 1967, more than 9000 area students attended productions.

Gerald Reidenbaugh and Rex Henriot often visited classrooms to discuss plays with students after performances. In subsequent years, classes from many schools became subscribers and attended every play in a season.

This practice continued in the early seasons of Syracuse Stage as Arthur Storch’s productions proved to be as popular with students and teachers as with the general public. The introduction of special 10:30 a.m. matinees of main stage productions made it easier and more convenient for students and teachers to attend Syracuse Stage.

The special morning matinee program is Stage’s oldest educational program and has been highly successful. During the season it is quite common to see yellow school buses lined up along East Genesee Street. How many Central New Yorkers have had their first experience of live theatre at one of these special performances?

In addition to bringing students to the theatre, over the years Stage has developed several outreach programs to serve students in their schools. Chief among these is the annual Children’s Tour. This typically is a 50-minute play, suitable for elementary and/or middle school students, that is performed on site at area schools. Directed and designed by professional

theatre artists, the plays are usually cast with students from the Syracuse University Drama Department. As with the student matinees, the Children’s Tour has been a great success.

Throughout the seasons, a variety of programs have been introduced to engage students in the theatre. Tazewell Thompson initiated a poster contest for local students who could submit designs for particular shows. During Robert Moss’ tenure, Stage presented a special Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) production at the conclusion of four consecutive seasons: The Dragonslayers (1996), The Wind in the Willows (1997), A Wrinkle in Time (1998) and Just So Stories (1998). The Wind in the Willows, an original musical created by Gerardine Clark and Dianne Adams McDowell and James McDowell in collaboration with Anthony Salatino, scored a triumph not only in Syracuse but in New York at The New Victory Theatre.

It was during Moss’ tenure as well that Stage introduced the Young Playwrights Festival. This annual event invites high school students to submit original short plays and/or performance pieces. The submissions are read by a panel of judges who select finalists. The finalists have an opportunity to rework their plays in professionally run workshops. At the end of the process, chosen plays are given staged readings during an evening event at Syracuse Stage. Additionally, guided by current director of educational outreach Lauren Unbekant, Stage has intro-

duced an in-depth, multi-disciplinary program called ArtsEmerging. This experience employs a variety of disciplines to encourage students to explore the themes of a given play. Guided by professionals in various artistic disciplines, past student projects have included making short documentary films, creating photographic essays, and writing poetry. In addition, Stage has developed the Backstory! program for performances in schools. Backstory! combines theatre and history by having an actor portray a historical figure in a short one-character play.

Students are encouraged to question the actoras-character following the performance. These original pieces have included short works about Anne Frank, George Washington Carver, and Nikola Tesla among others.

Under Timothy Bond’s leadership, Syracuse Stage educational programs continue to flourish and have expanded to include two additional initiatives: evening acting classes for Syracuse city high school students taken for college credit, and a summer camp for middle school students. In partnership with Syracuse City Parks and Recreation Department, the summer camp offers students one week of intensive acting classes taught by faculty members from the Department of Drama.

Through 40 seasons, hundreds of thousands of area students have participated in Syracuse Stage educational programs. Currently, these programs serve more than 20,000 students each year.

children’s touring productions

Musical Mirage Express (1977) There’s a Lion Inside Me (1978) The Griffin and the Minor Canon (1979) Where the Sidewalk Ends (1980) Magical Faces (1981) Flashback (1982) Johnny Moonbeam & The Silver Arrow (1983) I Didn’t Know That! (1985) Reynard the Fox (1986) Story Theatre (1987) Alphabet Soup (1988) Androcles and the Lion (1989) The Adventures of Narnia (1990) I Never Saw Another Butterfly (1991) Really Rosie (1992) Manu and the Red, Red Flower (1993) The Jungle Book (1994) I Didn’t Know That! (1995) Androcles and the Lion (1996) Aladdin (1997) Nightingale (1999) Alice (2000) Schoolhouse Rock! (2001) Really Rosie (2002) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2003) The Great Peanut Butter Radio Hour (2004) Fractured Fairy Tales (2005) The Red Sun and the Green Moon (2006) The Mischief Makers (2007) A Thousand Cranes (2008) The Song from the Sea (2009) Annabel Drudge . . . and the Second Day of School (2010) New Kid (2011) A Thousand Cranes (2012)

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stage gala Jane Monheit and her band perform at the 2012 Stage Gala in Syracuse University’s Schine Center.

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the syracuse Stage guild “I have often said that our theatre could not operate in the way we do without the help of our Guild. You continue to be the backbone of community support for the theatre.”

–Arthur Storch The organization that became the Syracuse Stage Guild grew out of a very basic need—the need for actors to eat. Along about the time that professional actors first became involved with performances in the Regent Theatre complex, Eleanor Ludwig organized a group of women to provide meals for performers when required by the regulations of Actors’ Equity. The group of volunteers Ludwig organized was initially known as the Women’s Auxiliary, later called the Onondaga Theatre Guild, then the Syracuse Repertory Guild, and eventually the Syracuse Stage Guild.

While food has always been a part of the Guild’s contribution—from

welcome packages to luncheons to between show dinners to buffet-style spreads for company Meet & Greets— this remarkable volunteer organization has nourished the theatre in a variety of ways and with a creativity and flair matched only by the unwavering dedication of its membership.

A prime example of the Guild in action is the Beaux Arts Ball. Started in 1985, this formal and themed ball quickly became known as the “Best Party in Town” where patrons dined and danced the night away while raising funds for Syracuse Stage’s artistic and educational programs. Former

Guild president Marilyn Sims recalls that Janet and Carl Wentzel proposed the idea for the Ball to the Guild Board and they participated actively in the first six. Originally held in the Old University Club, which quickly became too small to accommodate growing popularity, the Ball moved first to the Hotel Syracuse and then to the Oncenter, where it continued as the Beaux Arts Ball until 2010. In 2011, the name was changed to the Syracuse Stage Ball, and in 2012, the Ball transformed into an elegant evening of cabaret featuring Jane Monheit and her band held in Syracuse University’s Schine Center.

The annual Guild Fashion Show is a great evening of fun and the latest fashions and an important fundraiser for Syracuse Stage. above:

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Through the seasons there have been a number of different parties, activities and events organized by the Guild. In the Syracuse Repertory Theatre days, the Bal Masque, a Mardi Gras inspired evening was held at the Everson Museum. SRT Guild members also provided direct support of the theatre by working in the Box Office, building props, and developing audience. The Syracuse Stage Guild hosted several Costume Collection Fashion Shows featuring costumes from Syracuse Stage productions modeled by Guild members. A Fashion Show of a different sort is still an important event each fall as local retailers display the latest fashion in an evening of finery and good food. In the past few seasons, the Guild has also sponsored an annual Kentucky Derby Party where participants can enjoy the Run for the Roses while supporting Syracuse Stage.

The Guild, too, has helped to cultivate an interest in the theatre beyond Syracuse by sponsoring theatre-related trips. Past and con-

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tinuing trips include London, New York City, and Canada’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

The Guild’s current mission statement reads as follows: Syracuse Stage Guild is a voluntary organization, the purpose of which is to promote Syracuse Stage in the community and to support, be of service to and to raise funds for the theatre. Guild members, their families and their friends are encouraged to take part in all activities sponsored by the Guild.

For more than forty seasons the many volunteers who have given generously of their time, creative energy, good will, and financial support have played a major role in the success of theatre in Syracuse and specifically of Syracuse Stage. Arthur Storch summed up the Guild’s contribution accurately and succinctly when he noted: “I like to think Syracuse would not be the same without Syracuse Stage. I know Syracuse Stage would not be the same without the Guild.”

Syracuse Stage guild Presidents

1974 Marilyn Pinsky

1987 – 1989 Sarah Myers

2004 – 2006 Nancy Bottar

1974 – 1976 Joan Good

1989 – 1991 Charleen Smith

2006 – 2008 Terry Delevan

1976 – 1978 June Potash

1991 – 1993 Patti Haggerty

2008 – 2010 Deborah Borenstein

1978 – 1979 Sally McDonald

1993 – 1995 Debra Delduchetto

2010 – 2011 Terry Delevan

1979 – 1981 Sheila Goldie

1995 – 1997 Lynda Wheat

2011 – 2012 Justin Sawyers

1981 – 1983 Nan Gartner

1997 – 1999 Diana Corrigan

2012 – 2013 Linda Pitonzo

1983 – 1985 Marilyn Sims

1999 – 2002 Fran Vensel

1985 – 1987 Karen Goodman

2002 – 2004 Patricia Borer

For Our Benefit

Arthur Storch and Jack Lemmon. above:

From the “pay the rent” party to “Old Time Radio Theatre” performances to elegant evenings of dinner and music, Syracuse Stage fundraisers have featured performers and celebrities from the stage, screen, and music worlds. Over the years, the list of those who have lent their talents on behalf of Stage includes: Dina Merrill and Cliff Robertson Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach Jack Lemmon Joel Grey Josh Logan Dixie Carter Bobby Short Andrea Marcovicci Steve Ross Nancy Wilson Blackstone Carol Burnett Gregory Peck Kitty Carlisle Hart Olympia Dukakis Loretta Swit Doris Roberts Phylicia Rashad Jane Monheit

Dr. Steven Scheinman, of Upstate Medical University, performs onstage with Olympia Dukakis in an Old Time Radio Theatre adaptation of Auntie Mame. far left:

left:

Carol Burnett

A Guild sponsored London theatre trip group takes in the sights at Hampton Court before visiting with Dame Judi Dench backstage after All’s Well That Ends Well. facing:

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1978-1981 Rebecca Livengood, Chair Frank Funk, President 1981-1983 Dr. Herbert Lourie, Chair Frank Funk, President 1983-1984 Jed Dietz, Chair Frank Funk, President 1984-1986 Edward W. McNeil, Chair Frank Funk, President 1986-1988 William Richardson, Chair Frank Funk, President 1988-1990 Charles E. Chappell, Jr., Chair Lucius Kempton, President

1990-1993 Joan Green, Chair Lucius Kempton, President

2003-2005 Larry Leatherman, Chair Louis Marcoccia, President

1993-1995 Robert J. Bennett, Chair Lucius Kempton, President

2005-2007 James Smith, Chair Louis Marcoccia, President

1995-1997 Anne Messenger, Chair Lucius Kempton, President

2008 – 2010 Elizabeth Hartnett, Chair Louis Maroccia, President

1997-1999 Lowell Seifter, Chair Lucius Kempton, President

2010 – 2013 Bea Gonzalez, Chair Louis Marcoccia, President

1999-2001 Jack Webb, Chair Louis Marcoccia, President 2001-2003 Mark Russell, Chair Louis Marcoccia, President

special thanks Barbara Beckos, Alexander Charters, James A. Clark, Patrick Finlon, Ann Mullin, Anne “Jigger” Roth, Marilyn Sims, Kelundra Smith, Jeffrey Woodward.

Research assistant:

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Kathryn Whelan

40th anniversary supporters

1974-1978 Frank Funk, President

Storch. Photo: Rayburn Beale.

Presidents & Chairs

facing: Arthur

Syracuse Stage Board of Trustees

Janet M. Audunson Frank & Patti Borer Jim & Cathy Breuer Bill & Nancy Byrne Margaret, Amy & Robert Currier James Eagen & Ellen Kimatian Eagen John & Marya Frantz Helene & Neil Gold Sidney & Winifred Greenberg M. Daniel Bingham & M. Gail Hamner Ann & Larry Harris Claude & Donna Incaudo Randy & Elizabeth Kalish Mary & Larry Leatherman Bea Gonzalez & Michael Leonard Betty Lourie, In memory of Dr. Herbert Lourie Marshall & Sharon Magee Louis & Susan Marcoccia Margaret & Don Martin Michael J. & Sheri A. Masse Suzanne & Kevin McAuliffe Jana & Rod McDonald John F.X. Mannion & Mayor Stephanie A. Miner Sally Lou & Fran Nichols Frederick & Virginia Parker Mrs. Selma Radin Sandra Lee Fenske & Joe Silberlicht S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication Melvin & Patricia Stith Paul Phillips & Sharon Sullivan Cindy Sutton & Family Linda L. & Jack H. Webb Laurie & Michael Zoanetti

arthur storch | 1925 - 2013

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