DEAR FRIENDS, Greetings and Happy New Year from Syracuse Stage. I know we join all of you in wishing for a brighter, saner, and safer 2021. I want to express my gratitude to you for sticking with us during this extended pandemic pause; your support as we navigate the challenges of this ever-changing landscape truly means more than I can say. When we ceased offering live, in person performances in March, we made a promise to continue to engage, to produce, and to create work that furthered our contribution to the quality of life of our city and region in ways that were innovative and safe. Your support has helped us fulfill that promise. Now, as we turn to the New Year and our plans for the months ahead, significant challenges remain. With reported COVID-19 cases remaining quite high and even increasing in some regions, Actors’ Equity Association, which represents professional actors and stage mangers, has issued revised safety guidelines that effectively prevent us from rehearsing and performing the remainder of the shows scheduled for the season. At this point, we cannot bring actors to Syracuse to rehearse in our building or perform on our Stage, even with strict safety precautions and without an audience present. Again, we chart a new course. Rather than give into frustration, associate artistic director Kyle Bass and I prefer to see this latest development as an opportunity. With access to so many titles on Netflix and other on-line platforms, we set ourselves the challenge to find plays that would be exciting discoveries for you and that speak, in different and nuanced ways, to our lives right now. We also believe these plays will work especially well when translated to our on-demand format. We’re confident you will agree.
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BOB HUPP, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR.
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Following February’s on-demand production of Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, we’ll present Sharr White’s irreverent, dark comedy Annapurna (think Showtime’s series Shameless). Featuring Stephan Wolfert (Pride and Prejudice, Cry Havoc) and Dawn Stern and set in a dilapidated trailer in the Colorado Rockies, Annapurna mines the secrets that are revealed when an eccentric poet and professor is unexpectedly reunited with his estranged wife. A married couple in real life, Dawn and Stephan travel the country in a recreational vehicle that will serve as the set for our production. In April, look for I and You, a surprising work from Lauren Gunderson (America’s most produced playwright) and directed by
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Melissa Crespo. Director Crespo reassembles the creative team that brought you Stage’s production of Native Gardens. Now they tackle the play that won the 2014 New Play Award from the American Theatre Critics Association. It is our sincere hope that by the time rehearsals start for I and You we will be able to bring cast and crew to Syracuse and return to our on-demand work in the Archbold Theatre. Wrapping up our (eventful) 48th season is the searing contemporary classic from South African playwright, Athol Fugard: “Master Harold”….and the Boys. Gilbert McCauley directs Fugard’s most celebrated and most autobiographical play. McCauley is new to Stage audiences, but is a longtime collaborator of mine and a director I’m anxious for you to meet. There is more information on the enclosed sheet. We’re so grateful to you for taking this journey with us. We look forward to the day in the not too distant future when we can gather safely again and share the magic of live, in-person theatre. Until that time, please tune in and mask up. Stay safe and please join us as we embark on the second half of our (newly) reimagined season. Thank you! With warmest regards,
We’ve kept busy with exciting projects and encourage you to visit www.syracusestage.org
Bob Hupp Artistic Director
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