AUGUST 2 & 3, 2024
PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
PRESENT
CITIZEN JAMES, OR THE YOUNG MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY
BY
Kyle Bass
DIRECTED BY
Joann Maria Yarrow
COSTUME &
SCENIC DESIGN
Kate Laissle
LIGHTING DESIGN
Andy LiDestri
PROJECTION DESIGN
Dean Lyon
Robert Hupp
Artistic Director
Michael McCurdy
Interim Managing Director
SOUND DESIGN
Jacqueline R. Herter
STAGE MANAGER
Erin C Brett
Melissa Crespo
Associate Artistic Director
August 2 & 3, 2024
Kyle Bass
Resident Playwright
CAST
James Alton: James Baldwin
ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Photographs: Wynn Harmon
Compositions: Michael Keck
Stage Manager Substitute: Brian Crotty
Assistant Stage Manager: Sarai Ford
Props Supervisor: Mara Tunnicliff
SPECIAL THANKS
Special thanks to Black Citizens Brigade, Black Cub Productions, Community Folk Art Centre, Syracuse University Library, Our Vegan Corner, Hope Café, DJ Bella J, Zinira Izmir, Brad Beckman, Ella Culligan, Brenna Merritt, Zizi Majid, Ana Diaz-Diez, and Tracey White.
Citizen James is made possible through the CNY Arts Grants for Regional Arts and Cultural Engagement regrant program thanks to a New York State Senate Initiative supported by the NYS Legislature, the Office of the Governor and administered by the New York State Council on the Arts.
CAST
James Alton (he/his) (James Baldwin) is a graduate of University North Carolina School of the Arts (Drama), originally from Hickory, North Carolina, now based in Brooklyn, NY. He’d like to give a special thanks to Syracuse Stage for the opportunity to present such a special piece that holds a monolithic space in his heart. Special thanks to Kyle Bass for these beautiful words. One last special thanks to James Baldwin himself, without whom this wouldn’t be possible. @jamesaltong on IG
PLAYWRIGHT
Kyle Bass, Resident Playwright at Syracuse Stage and curator of Poetry & Play, is the author of Toliver & Wakeman, which premiered at Franklin Stage Company, Tender Rain, which premiered at Syracuse Stage, Salt City Blues, which received its first production at Syracuse Stage, and Possessing Harriet, published by Standing Stone Books, which premiered at Syracuse Stage, and has been produced at Franklin Stage Company, East Lynne Theater Company, and HartBeat Ensemble. Citizen James, or The Young Man Without a Country, about a young James Baldwin, streamed nationally and has been optioned for a feature-length film. With Ping Chong, he is the co-author of Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo, which premiered at Syracuse Stage and was produced at La MaMa Experimental Theatre. A descendant of African people enslaved in colonial New England and in the American South, Kyle lives and writes in central upstate New York where his family has lived free and owned land for nearly 225 years. Kyle is Assistant Professor of Theater at Colgate University.
DIRECTOR
Joann Maria Yarrow is a director and producer who specializes in story development across several platforms and serves as the director of community engagement at Syracuse Stage. She was artistic director of Teatro Prometeo in Miami, FL, where she directed and produced over 80 productions in Spanish, and translated, adapted, and commissioned new works that have toured nationally and internationally in multilingual communities. Joann co-founded A Laboratory for Actor Training with Vernice Miller inspired by their collaborations with Double Edge Theatre, Richard Schechner’s East Coast Artists, Odin Teatret in Denmark and ISTA, the International School of Theatre Anthropology. She worked for Broadway director Hal Prince on the productions of Parade, Whistle Down the Wind, Candide, Show Boat, Kiss of the Spiderwoman and The Phantom of the Opera. At Syracuse Stage she directed the Backstory productions of Commanding Space by Stephanie Leary, Citizen James by Kyle Bass and Our Words Are Seeds by Ty Defoe. She curates community dialogues, addressing topics
that surface from Syracuse Stage’s productions and community projects. She is a featured director in the books: The Art and Practice of Directing in Latin America: Central America and United States; Latinx Actor Training; Inside the Performance Workshop: A sourcebook for Rasaboxes; and A History of Latinx Performing Arts in the U.S. (Routledge 2023). She is passionate about fostering multicultural and multi-disciplinary productions that challenge and shift our thoughts, actions, and perspectives. https://www.joannyarrow.co/
JAMES BALDWIN
James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a writer and civil rights activist who is best known for his semi-autobiographical novels and plays that center on race, politics, and sexuality. James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York, in 1924. He was reared by his mother and stepfather David Baldwin, a Baptist preacher, originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. During his early teen years, Baldwin attended Frederick Douglass Junior High School, where he met his French teacher and mentor Countee Cullen, who achieved prominence as a poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Baldwin went on to DeWitt Clinton High School, where he edited the school newspaper Magpie and participated in the literary club. In 1948, feeling stifled creatively because of the racial discrimination in America, Baldwin traveled to Europe to create what were later acclaimed as masterpieces to the American literature canon. While living in Paris, Baldwin was able to separate himself from American segregated society and better write about his experience in the culture that was prevalent in America. Baldwin took part in the Civil Rights Movement, becoming close friends with Medgar Evers, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Nina Simone, and Lorraine Hansberry. The deaths of many of these friends influenced his novels and plays and his writing about race relations in America. Baldwin’s works helped to raise public awareness of racial and sexual oppression. His honest portrayal of his personal experiences in a national context challenged America to uphold the values it promised on equality and justice. He explored these topics in such works as Go Tell It on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, The Fire Next Time, Giovanni’s Room, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Another Country. Baldwin firmly believed sexuality was fluid and should not be divided into strict categories, an idea that would not be acceptable until modern day. Through his popularity and writings produced at home and abroad, Baldwin contributed as an agent of change to the artistic and intellectual traditions in American society. Baldwin remained an outspoken observer of race relations in American culture. He would branch out into other forms of creative expression, writing poetry and screenplays, including treatments for the Autobiography of Malcolm X that later inspired Spike Lee’s feature film, Malcolm X. He also spent years as a college professor at University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Hampshire College. Baldwin died at this home in St. Paul de Vence, France, on December 1, 1987, of stomach cancer at age 63. Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript Remember This House was the subject of the critically acclaimed 2016 Raoul Peck film, I Am Not Your Negro. –Courtesy of The National Museum of African American History and Culture
Artistic Director.............................................................................................................Robert Hupp
Interim Managing Director....................................................................................Michael McCurdy
Associate Artistic Director............................................................................................Melissa Crespo
Resident Playwright..............................................................................................................Kyle Bass
PRODUCTION STAFF
Director of Production Operations...........................................................................Don Buschmann
Associate Director of Production Operations.......................................................Stuart Plymesser
Company Manager and Production Management Associate......................................Brian Crotty
Stage Management Production Assistant...................................................................Sarai Ford
Technical Director..................................................................................................Randall Steffen
Assistant Technical Director............................................................................Rebecca Schuetz
Scene Shop Foreman...........................................................................................Michael King
Technical Assistant...................................................................................................Liz Daurio
Carpenters...............................................................................John Gamble, Brian McBurney
Student Employees...............................................................Emma Thoms, Gray Westbrook†
Scenic Charge Artist...................................................................................................Emily Holm
Lead Scenic Artist................................................................................................Laurel Arnold
Scenic Painter....................................................................................................Jessica Culligan
Student Employee..........................................................................................Rosario Figueira†
Props Supervisor............................................................................................................Mara Rich
Assistant Prop Supervisor............................................................................Christine Goldman
Craftpersons....................................................................................Alexis Frizzell, Nora Galley
Costume Shop Manager..........................................................................Gretchen Darrow-Crotty
Assistant Costume Shop Manager.....................................................................Amanda Moore
Cutter-Draper...............................................................................Emily King, Kathryn Rauch
First Hand.......................................................................................................Katelyn Yonkers
Stitchers.............................................................................................................Sophie Shahan
Craftsperson/Shopper.........................................................................................Sandra Knapp
Wardrobe Supervisor.........................................................................................Dylinn Andrew
Student Employee...................................................................................................Sofia Pizer†
Electrics and Projection Supervisor...............................................................................Jed Daniels
Associate Electrics and Projection Supervisor......................................................Andy LiDestri
Electricians/Board Operators....................................................................................Alex Malli
Resident Sound Designer/Audio Engineer.....................................................Jacqueline R. Herter
A1/Audio Engineer.........................................................................................Kevin O’Connor
A2/Sound Engineer..............................................................................................Garrett Frink
Stage Managers...............................................Kyra Button, Kristine Schlacter, Victoria Whooper
Stage Management Production Assistants........................................Katie Barnes, Erin C Brett
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
General Manager....................................................................................................Michael McCurdy
Comptroller..............................................................................................Mary Kennett Morreale
Associate General Manager...................................................................................Jacob G. Ellison
Director of Information Management & Technology...................................Garrett Diaz-Wheeler
Director of Development.............................................................................................Ana Díaz-Diez
Development Associate.....................................................................................Candice Bermudez
Development Intern..................................................................................Jakobi Deshun Oliver†
Director of Community Engagement..................................................................Joann Maria Yarrow
Director of Education.......................................................................................................Kate Laissle
Community Engagement and Education Coordinator...................................................Zizi Majid
Education Interns..................................................................Olivia Wernecke†, Cricket Withall†
Director of Marketing and Communications..............................................................Joanna Penalva
Audience Development Manager..............................................................................Tracey White
Creative Director, Marketing..................................................................................Brenna Merritt
Marketing Content and Publications Manager.....................................................Matthew Nerber
Graphic Designer.................................................................................................Jonathan Hudak
Marketing Associate...............................................................................Talia Gabriel-Shenandoah
Box Office Manager.....................................................................................Courtney Richardson
Assistant Box Office Manager.....................................................................Ahmanee Simmons
Box Office Show Supervisor.................................................................................Trevor Miller
Box Office Intern...................................................................................................Ginger Bai†
Audience Services Manager.......................................................................................Korrie Taylor
House Managers.........................................Pat Condello, Ella Lafontant, Alyssa Otoski-Keim, Adam Secor, Donna Stuccio
Bartenders.................................................................................Michelle Cannizzo, Meg Pusey
Audience Services Interns..........................................................Yushan Deng†, Lubeini Yang†
Front of House Work Study Staff...........Nathan Ayotte†, Olivia Busche†, Carolyn Burch†, Christian Elwood†, Sami English†, Henry Herbert, Andrej Humiston†, Henry Jackson, Henry Killbourne†, Violet Lanciloti†, Arieza Mari Martin Magalang, James O’Leary, Lucia Santoro-Velez, Kevin Sene, Eva Spaid, Jakobi Deshun Oliver, Hazel Kinnersley, Delaney Teague
Executive Assistant............................................................................................................Julia Rakus
Sign Language Interpreters.....................................................................Brenda Brown, Sue Freeman
Open Captioning........................................................................Jacob G. Ellison, Michael McCurdy
Audio Description........Kate Laissle, Talia Gabriel-Shenandoah, Ahmanee Simmons, Joseph Whelan
Community Services Officers.......................................................Stacey Emmons, Joseph O'Connor
Custodians...........................................................................................Tony Rogers, Candace Velario
†Student, Syracuse University Department of Drama.
YOUR STAGE. YOURYOURSTORIES. STAGE. YOUR STORIES.
CITIZEN JAMES, OR THE YOUNG MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY
AUGUST 2-3, 2024
FREE TICKETED EVENT
By Kyle Bass | Directed by Joann Yarrow | Produced in partnership with 100 Black Men of Syracuse
Witness a young James Baldwin find his voice in this powerful one-man show about the author and Civil Rights activist.
THE SECOND CITY 65TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW
SEPTEMBER 18 - 29, 2024
Presented by Syracuse Stage
A hysterical touring production.
DIAL M FOR MURDER
OCTOBER 16 – NOVEMBER 3, 2024
Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher | From the original by Frederick Knott | Directed by Robert Hupp
An old-school, edge of-your-seat mystery.
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN’S CINDERELLA
NOVEMBER 22 – JANUARY 5, 2025
Music by Richard Rodgers | Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II | Adapted for the stage by Tom Briggs from the Teleplay by Robert L. Freedman | Directed by Melissa Rain Anderson | Music Direction by Brian Cimmet | Choreographed by Jessica Chen | Co-Produced with the Syracuse University Department of Drama
Glass slippers, pumpkins, and dreamscome-true.
PRIMARY TRUST
JANUARY 22 – FEBRUARY 9, 2025
By Eboni Booth | Directed by Melissa Crespo
Poignant drama about embracing new beginnings.
KING JAMES
FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 16, 2025
By Rajiv Joseph | Directed by Jamil Jude Co-Produced with Indiana Repertory Theatre
A slam dunk of a show about unlikely friends, basketball, and LeBron James. ••••••••••••••••••••••••
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
APRIL 23 – MAY 11, 2025
By Kate Hamill | Based on the novel by Jane Austen Directed by Jason O’Connell
Love triumphs over tradition in this playful adaptation.
THE NATIONAL PASTIME
JUNE 11 – 29, 2025
A Julie Lutz Cold Read World Premiere Written by Rogelio Martinez | Directed by Johanna McKeon
Baseball meets espionage meets psychological intrigue.
