19 minute read

Cast & Artistic Staff Bios

CAST

Drew Hirshfield (Eli) is delighted to make his Syracuse Stage debut having acted in new and old plays at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, Huntington Theatre Company, Geva Theatre Center, Alley Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, New Harmony Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, Marin Shakespeare Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York Stage & Film, and many others. He was once even nominated for a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award. And he once played a lemur, professionally. He is on the teaching faculty at New York Film Academy. He holds an M.F.A. in acting from American Conservatory Theater.

LeeAnne Hutchison

(Suzanne) is thrilled to be at Syracuse Stage, sharing this play at this time! Selected credits Off-Broadway: God in God Shows Up; A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (Dir. Austin Pendleton); Ellen McLaughlin’s Septimus and Clarissa. Regional: August: Osage County (Directed by Robert Hupp at Arkansas Rep); Clybourne Park (also at Arkansas Rep); Sex With Strangers (at The Kitchen Theater and Geva); Caliban in The Tempest (Saratoga Shakespeare); Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire (with Joe Manganiello at West Virginia Public Theater; Frankie in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Shaker Bridge Theater, NH). Off-Off-Broadway: The Third Policeman (La Mama); Euridice in Orpheus (at HERE, with Taylor Mac) Television: Jessica Jones, Law & Order: SVU, The Other F Word, and the upcoming HBO miniseries: White House Plumbers.

Tanisha Jackson (Winter). A native of Columbus, OH, Dr. Tanisha M. Jackson recently arrived in Syracuse, NY, at the beginning of 2019. She is an alumna of The Ohio State University with a doctorate degree in art education, policy, and administration. Dr. Jackson is the executive director of the Community Folk Art Center and a professor in the department of African American Studies at Syracuse University. Outside of her professional role, Tanisha enjoys engaging with people through community-based arts, traveling, and painting on canvas. She is currently writing a manuscript that highlights the work of contemporary Black women artists whose artwork centers on health, wellness, and social justice.

Jason O’Connell (Don) is thrilled to be returning to Syracuse Stage, where he was last seen with his wife Kate Hamill in 2020’s streaming production of Talley’s Folly, and where he had the privilege of performing for Stage’s last in-person audience as Sal-

CAST

ieri in Amadeus. (He also directed Stage’s 2019 production of Kate’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.) Off-Broadway: Judgment Day (Park Avenue Armory); Happy Birthday, Wanda June (The Duke on 42nd St); Pride and Prejudice (Primary Stages); Sense and Sensibility (The Gym at Judson); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Pearl); The Saintliness of Margery Kempe (The Duke); The Seagull (Sheen Center); and Jason’s own solo show, The Dork Knight (Primary Stages, Joe’s Pub and Abingdon Theatre Company). Regional: 11 seasons at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (including Caliban in 2021’s The Tempest), Jason’s own adaptation (with Brenda Withers) of Cyrano at Two River Theater and HVSF, and seasons with American Players Theatre, Great Lakes Theater, Peterborough Players, Florida Studio Theatre, Northern Stage, Arkansas Rep, Delaware Theatre Company, etc. TV: Search Party, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Laura Yumi Snell

(Meiko) is thrilled to be celebrating the return of live theatre with her Syracuse Stage debut! As a Japanese American actress-singer-pianist hailing from LA, she’s committed to telling her story and helping others tell theirs in unique and innovative ways. After traveling around the world with the Broadway tour of Avenue Q as an actor-puppeteer, she became an artist-in-residence at the cell theatre and developed a genre-bending twowoman show called Murakami Music, where the worlds of literature, music, and theatre collided into a critically-acclaimed performance piece that continues to tour to this day. Select theatre credits: Arts for Autism (Gershwin Theatre with Kelli O’Hara), Murakami Music (Symphony Space), Oliver! (Signature), Boys Will Be Boys (59E59), New Creation (Dixon Place), After the Storm (Kennedy Center with Lea Salonga), The Great Capitulation (Moscow Art Theatre). Film: Quarantine Horror Story, Blood, Keiko’s Hands, Followers (upcoming). Fun facts: Regionally, she played Marcy Park in ...Spelling Bee three times, she loves performing in cabarets, and she can sometimes be seen on the DailyBurn 365 workout videos. As executive director/producer of SoHo Shakespeare Company, she regularly produces theatre/Zoom shows and teaches dozens of actors from around the world. Masters in acting from Harvard University/Moscow Art Theatre. Endless gratitude to Joe, Diamond, my family, and the incredible cast and creative team. www.LauraYumiSnell.com

Stephanie Weeks (Carina) is delighted to be making her Syracuse Stage debut. Stephanie is an award winning actor and director. She has performed at renowned theatres including Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, among others. With Target

CAST

Margin Theater, she was awarded for her years of dedication, the OBIE for Recognition of Artistic Achievement and Commitment to Excellence in Theater as an Associate Artist. Stephanie also starred in the film Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted-Mutha, official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival and directed by acclaimed director Melvin Van Peebles. Television credits include Tales of The City starring Laura Linney on Netflix and The Good Fight (CBS). In her directing work, she just recently directed A Boy and His Soul by Colman Domingo at the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca, Eclipsed by Danai Gurira at University of Utah, awarded Outstanding Performance and Production Ensemble by the Kennedy Center (Festivention Series). Other productions include After Midnight for the Target Margin Yiddish Theater Lab and Machinal by Sophie Treadwell at New York University, to name a few. She holds an M.F.A. from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and has a certificate of study from London Academy of Music and Drama.

Theorri London (u/s Winter) is very excited to be on the stage with Syracuse Stage. She is currently working as the community engagement and education coordinator at Syracuse Stage. She recently worked with The Black Rep as a professional acting and education intern. She is originally from Arkansas but attended the University of Memphis and graduated with a B.F.A. in theatre. Some of her favorite roles include: Jane Doe (Shaming Jane Doe), Engineer (Elephant’s Graveyard), and Kaliope (She Kills Monster).

Thom Miller (u/s Don) is an actor, dialect coach, librettist, and teacher living in Syracuse, NY, where he is a professor of voice and verse in the Department of Drama at Syracuse University. Most recently he was seen playing Guy in Once: The Musical at Northern Stage in Vermont and in the professional premiere of the new musical Fly More Than You Fall at the NOORDA Center for the Performing Arts in Utah. Other favorite regional credits include: Company (Writer’s Theatre in Chicago), Reasons To Be Pretty (Studio Theatre), The Last Five Years (Denver Center for the Performing Arts), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Richard II (Illinois Shakespeare Festival), My Fair Lady (Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre), Hair (Prince Music Theater) Macbeth and Cymbeline (Texas Shakespeare Festival), Mad Love, Boeing Boeing, Deathtrap, and Dancing at Lughnasa (Northern Stage), The Music Man and Picasso at the Lapin Agile (New London Barn Playhouse). Off-Broadway: Camp Wanatachi (La Mama), Mental: The Musical (Cherry Lane), and Only A Lad (NY Fringe). Thom received a B.F.A. in acting from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and an M.F.A. in acting from the University of Illinois where he also

CAST

received the award for Departmental Distinction. A proud member of AEA and SAG/AFTRA, he has acted in independent films, regional commercials, and skits on the David Letterman Show. He sends love and thanks to his unbelievably supportive wife Kate and his son Forrest.

Sarah Sakita Mozeson

(u/s Meiko) is thrilled to be returning to Syracuse! Film: Your Labs Are Normal, Sid Is Dead. Theatre: Triskelion Arts, New York Stage and Film/Powerhouse Theater. Sarah is an associate director and teaching artist for the DreamStreet Theatre Company, a Brooklyn-based non-profit organization providing theatrical education and production opportunities to developmentally disabled adults with a passion for the performing and creative arts. B.F.A.: Syracuse University. Special thanks to Syracuse Stage, Bass/Valle Casting, and the Luedtke Agency. Go ‘Cuse! Twitter/Instagram: @sarahmozeson. Web: sarahmozeson.com

Roslyn Seale (u/s Carina). A Brooklyn, NY, native and an Syracuse University alum, Roslyn has performed all over the country and is excited to make her debut at Syracuse Stage! National Tour: The Color Purple. Favorite credits include: Evil Lies Here (ID Discovery), Ragtime (Sarah), Beehive: The 60’s Musical (Gina), Hair (Dionne), Little Shop of Horrors (Crystal), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Charlaine), 42nd Street (Lorraine). Thanks to my village of cheerleaders and especially Mom for all the support. www.roslynseale. com @RozyRos66

Blake Segal (u/s Eli) is thrilled to return for another Syracuse Stage production, having previously appeared in Noises Off and Amadeus. National Tour: Mary Poppins; Regional: Williamstown, The Old Globe, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Yale Rep, Paper Mill Playhouse, PlayMakers Rep, Connecticut Rep, Chautauqua Theater Company, Tantrum Theater, The Public Theatre, Heritage Rep; NYC: Noor Theatre, The Araca Project, NYMF, Fault Line Theatre, Three Day Hangover; TV: Blue Bloods; Awards: Barrymore Award nominee; Training: University of Virginia (B.A.) and Yale School of Drama (M.F.A.); Faculty: Syracuse University Department of Drama. Please visit www. blakesegal.com for more.

April Sweeney (u/s Suzanne). April Sweeney’s most recent pre-pandemic project was appearing in the North American premiere of Dea Lohr’s At Black Lake directed by Ashley Tata (TANK, NYC). New York theatre credits: The Rover (New York Classical Theater); This Place is a Desert (UTR/Public The-

CAST

ater); Bellona, Destroyer of Cities (The Kitchen); Women Dreamt Horses and MARS: This title may change (P.S. 122); The Irresistible (Immersive Gallery); The Idiot (Manhattan Ensemble Theater). Regional credits: A Streetcar Named Desire (U.S. National Tour); LONEtheater (Boom Arts, Portland, OR); The World is Round is Round is Round (Averill Park, NY); Evolutions of a Masterpiece (Montana Repertory Theater), and The Grapes of Wrath (Arkansas Repertory Theater). Internationally, she has performed in theatre and festivals in Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Colombia, France, and Hungary. Film and TV includes: Any Other Normal, Devil’s Prey, Castro, A Crime to Remember, and Julia, She Cried Alone. As a director she has created intimate chamber works in NYC (Dixon Place, undergroundzero festival, SFX Festival); an immersive play in Maine (Stonington Opera); staged readings for regional theatre (Syracuse Stage); a political performance lecture (Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium); and created theatre with communities outside of Buenos Aires; in Villa Traful, Patagonia; and the Bolivian selva. She has directed large-scale new works with college students at Colgate University and curated local theatre engagement projects with Central New York audiences. Her newest piece is a transmedia performance memoir with Sauda Jackson entitled I DIGRESS. April is a member of Actors Equity Association, holds an M.F.A. from Columbia University, and is currently a professor of theatre at Colgate University.

ARTISTIC STAFF

Junghyun Georgia Lee (Scenic and Costume Design) is a Korean born, NYC based designer. Her last design at Syracuse Stage was scenic and costume design for 12 Angry Men. Previously, she designed for Ma-Yi, Public, Soho Rep, The Play Co., Alley Theatre, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Huntington Theatre Company, Indiana Repertory Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Alliance, and Children’s Theatre Company. She is a member of New Neighborhood. M.F.A.: Yale School of Drama. junghyungeorgialeedesign.com

Dawn Chiang (Lighting Design) designed the lighting for the Syracuse Stage productions of I and You, Talley’s Folly, Amadeus, Native Gardens, Next to Normal, To Kill A Mockingbird, Other Desert Cities, The Glass Menagerie, August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, Rent, Blithe Spirit, The Boys Next Door, Little Women, Fiddler on the Roof, A Christmas Carol, Hamlet, M. Butterfly and The Dybbuk. She has designed the lighting at numerous regional theatres including Denver Center Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, South Coast Repertory, Alliance Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Guthrie Theater, Arena Theatre, and Geva Theatre. On Broadway, Dawn designed the lighting for Zoot Suit and was co-de-

ARTISTIC STAFF

signer for Tango Pasion. Off Broadway, she has designed for the Roundabout Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, and co-designed the first two seasons of the Encores! concert musical series at City Center. Dawn was resident lighting designer for New York City Opera, where her designs included A Little Night Music and Fanciulla del West. Awards include two Lighting Designer of the Year Awards (SALT), two Dramalogue awards, a THEA award (Themed Entertainment Association) and nominations for the Maharam Design Award (American Theatre Wing), Lighting Designer of the Year (SALT), plus Los Angeles Drama Critics’ and San Francisco Bay Area Critics’ awards. She serves as a mentor to New York City high school students for Theatre Development Fund’s Wendy Wasserstein Project, and has served on the board of directors for Theatre Communications Group, Themed Entertainment Association, and Behind the Scenes Foundation.

Jacqueline R. Herter (Sound Design) has served as resident sound designer at Syracuse Stage and Syracuse University’s Department of Drama since 1997. She shifted and combined theatrical design with video/film design for last year’s season. Herter has designed for Indiana Repertory Theatre, Studio Arena, the Wilma, Geva, Round House, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Virginia Stage and the Hangar Theater as well as other theatres across the nation. Some favorite designs have been: Annapurna, Beauty and the Beast, Next to Normal, Mary Poppins, Nine, Hairspray, The Overwhelming, Caroline, or Change, The Miracle Worker, The Wolves, The Day Room, The Christians, Radio Golf, Parade, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Red Noses, The Real Thing, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, M. Butterfly, A Raisin in the Sun, A Lesson Before Dying, Copenhagen, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Inherit the Wind, and Big River.

Lisa Renkel (Projection Design) is an award winning projection designer based in New York City. Her passion for collaborative design has allowed her the opportunities to work on a wide variety of productions ranging from Broadway to music world tours. Select video designs include: Off-Broadway: Emojiland The Musical (The Duke – New 42) (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Award), The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll’d (The Duke – New 42), She Persisted (Sheen Center). New York/Regional: Reefer Madness (New 42), Drama League Gala with Nathan Lane (The Plaza Hotel), Broadway Bares (Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids), Pedro Pan (Theatre Row), Village Orpheus (Wild Project), Boundless and Merrily We Roll Along (Cape Rep Theatre), Learn to Speak Doll (Peppercorn Theatre). Select associate designs include: Music: Ariana Grande – Sweetener/thank u next (World Tour and Coachella Headline), Childish Gambino (Coachella Headline), Lady Gaga – Enigma (Las Vegas Park MGM). Broadway: Tina – The Tina Turner Musical (Lunt-Fontanne), JUNK (Lincoln Center), Ruben and Clay’s Christmas Show (Imperial Theatre). Off-Broadway: Broadway Bounty Hunter (Green-

ARTISTIC STAFF

wich House Theatre), The Stone Witch (Westside Theatre Upstairs). Regional: MTV Movie & TV Awards (Los Angeles), Billboard Music Awards 2019 (Las Vegas), How to Succeed… (Kennedy Center), A Perfect Harmony (Smithsonian Museum). Lisa is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a proud member of USA829. lisarenkeldesign.com

Stuart Plymesser (Production Stage Manager) is in his 25th season at Syracuse Stage where he has stage managed over 100 plays, musicals, and special events, working with such talents as Jason Alexander, Olympia Dukakis, Frank Langella, Elizabeth Franz, and Phylicia Rashad. Stuart has worked at numerous regional theatres around the country and in Cape Town, South Africa, and has toured nationally. Locally, he has also stage managed events for Syracuse Fashion Week. In addition, Stuart is adjunct faculty for Syracuse University’s Department of Drama and has been a guest speaker/lecturer for Ithaca College, Wells College, SUNY Oswego, SUNY Fredonia, and the Zabalaza Festival in Cape Town. Outside of theatre, Stuart has trained at Aikido of Central New York for over a decade and holds the rank of Shodan (first degree black belt.) Stuart is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers.

PLAYWRIGHT

Jonathan Spector is a playwright and screenwriter based in Oakland, CA. His play Eureka Day premiered at Aurora Theater in Berkeley, where it received all of the San Francisco Bay Area’s new play awards: Glickman Award, Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Award, Theater Bay Area Award, and Rella Lossy Award. It was subsequently produced by Colt Coeur where it was a New York Times Critics’ Pick, an Honorable Mention in Time Out New York’s Best Plays of 2019 list, and nominated for a New York Drama Critics Circle Award. It has been or will be produced by InterAct Theater, Mosaic Theater, Asolo Theater, Syracuse Stage, Spreckles Theater, and the State Theater of South Australia. Jonathan’s play This Much I Know will premiere next year at Aurora Theater, and was developed in the Playwrights Center’s Ruth Easton Series, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, New Harmony Project, and Playwrights Foundation’s Rough Reading Series. Other plays include Good. Better. Best. Bested. (Custom Made Theater, Bay Area Playwrights Festival), Siesta Key (Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Crowded Fire Matchbox Series), What Comes Next (Portland Stage’s Little Festival of The Unexpected, SF PlayGround Festival), and In From the Cold (Just Theater, Aurora Theater’s Global Age Prize). He has written two audio dramas: The Flats (Aurora Theater, cowritten with Lauren Gunderson and Cleavon Smith) and Owner Occupy (Playing On Air). Jonathan is a re-

PLAYWRIGHT

cipient of South Coast Rep’s Elizabeth George Commission, and has been a MacDowell Fellow, a PlayPenn Haas Fellow, an Ithaca College New Voices Fellow, a Resident Playwright at Playwrights Foundation, and is currently a Core Writer at The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. He is co-artistic director of Just Theater and a former associate artistic director of Playwrights Foundation/Bay Area Playwrights Festival. He has taught at San Jose State University, Sonoma State University, A.C.T Studio, Berkeley Rep School of Theater, and his alma mater, New College of Florida. Jonathan is represented by ICM Partners and Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment.

DIRECTOR/ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Robert Hupp is in his sixth season as artistic director of Syracuse Stage. He recently directed Annapurna, Talley’s Folly, Amadeus, Noises Off, Next to Normal, and The Three Musketeers for Stage. Prior to coming to central New York, Robert spent seventeen seasons as the producing artistic director of Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock. He directed over 30 productions for Arkansas Rep ranging from Hamlet to Les Miserables to The Grapes of Wrath. In New York City, Robert directed the American premieres of Glyn Maxwell’s The Lifeblood and Wolfpit for the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble. He also served for nine seasons as the artistic director of the Obie Award-winning Jean Cocteau Repertory. At the Cocteau, Robert’s directing credits include works by Buchner, Wilder, Cocteau, Shaw, Wedekind and the premieres of the Bentley/Milhaud version of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy, and Eduardo de Filippo’s Napoli Millionaria. He has held faculty positions at Pennsylvania’s Dickinson College and, in Arkansas, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Hendrix College. Robert served as vice president of the Board of Directors of the Theatre Communications Group and has served on funding panels for the New York State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, the Theatre Communications Group, the New Jersey State Council of the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. While in Arkansas, Robert was named both Non-Profit Executive of the Year by the Arkansas Business Publishing Group, and Individual Artist of the year by the Arkansas Arts Council. He and his wife Clea ride herd over a blended family of five children, one dog, and two cats.

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Jill A. Anderson has served as managing director of Syracuse Stage since 2016. Jill is responsible for Stage’s nearly $6.5 million operating budget and has oversight of fundraising, marketing, and operational matters within the organization. Prior to joining Stage, Jill spent a decade as general manager at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. During her tenure, the O’Neill completed a $7 million capital campaign and campus expansion, doubled its operating budget, and was honored with a 2015 National Medal of Arts and the 2010 Regional Theatre Tony Award. Under the O’Neill’s aegis, Jill also developed the Baltic Playwrights Conference, an annual international new play development retreat held in Hiiumaa, Estonia. Previously, Jill spent five years in the production office at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage, after working as a stage manager in Minnesota, New Mexico, and Massachusetts. In addition to her work at Stage, Jill is an instructor in the Theater Management program of the Syracuse University Department of Drama, building on her work with high school and college students elsewhere, including at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Jill was recognized as part of the Central New York Business Journal’s “40 Under Forty” awards in 2017 and has served on numerous municipal and non-profit boards. Jill is delighted to call Central New York home, but will always be a proud cheesehead, originally hailing from Marshfield, Wisconsin.

ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Melissa Crespo is a director of new plays, musicals and opera. Upcoming: world premiere of Selena Maria Sings by Miriam Gonzalez, music by Daniel J. French (Childsplay & Magik Theatre) and Yoga Play by Dipika Guha (Syracuse Stage). As a playwright, her play Egress, co-written with Sarah Saltwick, will receive an NNPN rolling world premiere starting this Fall. Fellowships and residencies include: Time Warner Fellow (WP Theatre), Usual Suspect (NYTW), The Director’s Project (Drama League), Van Lier Directing Fellow (Second Stage Theatre), and the Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow (Arena Stage). Melissa received her M.F.A. in directing from The New School for Drama. She is a founding editor of 3Views on Theater and was featured in the 2020 Broadway Women’s Fund “Women to Watch on Broadway”. https://www.melissacrespo.com

RESIDENT PLAYWRIGHT

Kyle Bass is the author of the play Possessing Harriet, commissioned by the Onondaga Historical Association, which received its world premiere at Syracuse Stage in 2018, was subsequently produced at Franklin Stage Company, and will be produced at the East Lynn Theater Company in 2022. His new plays are salt/city/blues, which will have its world premiere at Syracuse Stage in 2022, Citizen James, or The Young Man Without A Country, a one-man show on James Baldwin, commissioned by Syracuse Stage, which streamed in 2021 and will tour live in 2022, and the libretto for Libba Cotton: Here This Day, a new opera based on the life of American folk music legend Libba Cotten, commissioned by The Society for New Music. Kyle’s other full-length plays include Tender Rain, Bleecker Street, Baldwin vs. Buckley: The Faith of Our Fathers, which has been presented at Cornell University, Colgate University, the University of Delaware, and will be presented at Syracuse University in September 2021, and Separated, a documentary theatre piece about the student military veterans at Syracuse University, which was presented at Syracuse Stage and the Paley Center in New York. With National Medal of Arts recipient Ping Chong, Kyle is the co-author of Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo, which had its world premiere at Syracuse Stage and was subsequently produced at La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York. Kyle has also written for Noh theatre under commission by Theatre Nohgaku. Kyle is the co-author of the original screenplay for the film Day of Days (Broad Green Pictures, 2017), which stars award-winning veteran actor Tom Skerritt, and the author of the screenplay Abundance, an adaptation of the novel Milk by Darcy Steinke. As dramaturg Kyle worked with acclaimed visual artist and Mac- Arthur Fellow Carrie Mae Weems on her theatre piece Grace Notes: Reflections for Now, which had its world premiere at the 2016 Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, subsequently produced at Yale Rep and the Kennedy Center, and he was script consulted on the Broadwaybound Thoughts of a Colored Man, which premiered at Syracuse Stage in 2019. Kyle’s plays and other writings have appeared in the journals Callaloo, Folio, and Stone Canoe, among others, and in the essay anthology, Alchemy of the Word: Writers Talk about Writing. Kyle is the founding curator of Syracuse Stage’s annual Cold Read Festival of New Plays, which has hosted some of the country’s mostproduced playwrights, including Larissa FastHorse and Kate Hamill. He has also served Syracuse Stage as literary manager and resident dramaturg and received the 2021 Impact Award as Artist as Manager, presented by the Arts Administration Program at Le Moyne College. After five seasons as associate artistic director at Syracuse Stage, Kyle was recently announced as the theatre’s first-ever resident playwright. Kyle is assistant professor in the Department of Theater at Colgate University, where he previously served as the Burke Endowed Chair

This article is from: