8 minute read
Dramaturgical
salt/city/blues
WHO LIVES THERE?
BY JOSEPH WHELAN
Playwright Kyle Bass says the Salt City of salt/city/ blues is a kind of a fraternal twin to the Salt City whose official name is Syracuse, NY. The play, he says, is grounded in this community; it is infused with and inspired by the city he has called home since 1993. But the city that is home to Tipsy’s Pub on the stage of the Archbold Theatre is not the Syracuse of E. Genesee St. and beyond—though tangible reference points may be found.
One such point is a downtown pub called The Penny. Housed in a red brick, three-story stand-alone building that looks like it belongs in an Edward Hopper painting, The Penny occupies what is believed to be the oldest storefront in Armory Square. For a time, the building was a boarding house for railroad workers. At street level, to the right of the pub, is a single door that leads to apartments above. That door posed a question for Bass and that question became his entrance to salt/ city/blues. Who lives there?
The process of answering this question traces the writer’s eye-opening and
SCHOR’S MEATS AT 604 HARRISON IN 1963.
PHOTO: ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
emotional journey toward creating the play. Prof D appears as the upstairs occupant and the other characters the citizens of a parallel city and the denizens of a fictional pub. Syracuse morphs into Salt City, The Penny into Tipsy’s Pub.
Another substantive reference lies beyond the confines of Tipsy’s—the elevated highway. Sound designer Gregory Robinson says it should feel like a constant presence for the characters and present for the audience. Every time a door or window opens, sounds of the city, sounds “We had about six bakeries in our little area, we had a fish market, we had a place where you can go get fresh chickens, we had the drugstore, the five-and-dime, we had liquor stores, we had cleaners, and just about everything right here in the 15th Ward. You didn’t have to go very far to get anything.”
of the highway pour in as constant reminders of a troubled past and harbingers of an uncertain future. Director Gilbert McCauley says salt/city/ blues is about people and a place at crossroads. It is time to choose a direction, which way to go.
The neighborhood outside of Tipsy’s, like the neighborhood outside of Syracuse Stage, has had a troubled if not uncommon history in the annals of urban renewal, or as James Baldwin bluntly put it “Negro removal.” The 15th Ward, once a thriving downtown community which was home to roughly 90 percent of Black Syracusians in the 1940s and 1950s, was obliterated to make way for the construction of the elevated highway Interstate 81 in the 1960s. The community and the neighborhood never quite recovered.
In the early 20th century, the 15th Ward was mostly a Jewish community. Theatre fans might know that the Shubert family came from the neighborhood. As Black families, fleeing the violence and prejudice of the Jim Crow south, began to arrive in the city, they were barred by housing covenants from settling in many areas. The 15th Ward was their only option, and it became a hub of community life with many Black owned businesses to support it.
Read through any of the fine articles about the 15th Ward and the names of many family run businesses repeat: Mr. Calafaro’s Beauty Shop, Frank’s Bar and Grill, George’s Bar, Mama Craig’s Restaurant, Jackson’s Paper, Aunt Edith’s Restaurant. Photos of Grant Malone’s Barbershop and Schor’s Meats are easy to find.
This description recorded in Visualizing 81, an excellent website produced by The Newshouse, offers a personal perspective. “‘The 15th Ward was close-knit. It was like a melting pot,’ remembers Eloise Currie, who moved to Syracuse from Georgia when she was 7 years old in 1947. ‘We had about six bakeries in our little area, we had a fish market, we had a place where you can go get fresh chickens, we had the drugstore, the five-and-dime, we had liquor stores, we had cleaners, and just about
GRANT MALONE’S BARBER SHOP AT 718 MCBRIDE STREET.
PHOTO: ONONDAGA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
The writer John A. Williams grew up in the 15th Ward and recalled a sense of comradery and responsibility that defined the community: “If both parents were away at work or shopping, you could bet your life that some old man whittling on a stick had their eyes on you. If you misbehaved, the folks had the report as soon as their feet hit the steps. Ours was a community, despite everything else, in which survival of the other fellow or his children meant survival for yours.” (“The Destruction of Syracuse’s 15th Ward,” Onondaga Historical Association).
When it came, the destruction of the 15th Ward was total: 90 percent of the structures were demolished, up to 500 businesses were lost, and possibly as many as 2,200 families were displaced. Many moved to neighborhoods south and east of the Ward where they were not wanted. As Black families moved in, white families moved out to the suburbs fulfilling the familiar story of white flight. In the immediate future, work will begin to tear down the I-81 overpass and replace it with a community grid. Some current residents in the area will be displaced but the plan calls for developing a range of new housing that will be affordable to all income levels. If, or to what degree, that happens will reveal which direction a city at a crossroads chose, and the measure of that choice will lie in the answer to the playwright’s question. Who lives there?
salt/city/blues
NURTURING NEW WORK
BY JOSEPH WHELAN
The opening of salt/city/ blues marks the fourth world premiere on the Syracuse Stage mainstage in as many years. First came Possessing Harriet (2018/2019), followed by Thoughts of a Colored Man (2019/2020) and then this season’s Somewhere Over the Border, and our current production.
While many world and American premieres are part of Stage’s long history, renewed emphasis on not only producing new work but developing and nurturing new work began with the launch of the Cold Read Festival of New Plays in the 2017/2018 season. Not surprisingly, the idea for Cold Read came from a playwright, Kyle Bass, who until recently served as curator of the Festival. New associate artistic director Melissa Crespo has taken over the job.
At the time of the inaugural Cold Read, Bass was Stage’s associate artistic director. He is now the theatre’s first ever resident playwright. He relinquishes his curatorial responsibility for Cold Read having achieved an important goal–bringing new work to the mainstage.
PLAYWRIGHT IN RESIDENCE KYLE BASS ON THE SET OF POSSESSING HARRIET .
Off the mainstage, too, the nurturing of new work has had an impact, especially on Stage’s educational programming. Recent commissioned work for the middle and high school program Backstory includes Airborn by local author Evan Starling-Davis, So Journey to the Truth by Nambi E. Kelley and Daniel Carlton based on the artwork of Robert Shetterley, Commanding Space: The Rise of Annie Easley and the Centaur Rocket by Stephanie Leary, and Citizen James, or the Young Man without a Country by Kyle Bass. Commanding Space and Citizen James have been performed (or streamed in video-on-demand versions) in numerous places around the country. Add to the tally of recent new work Bass’ Separated, created with Syracuse University student military veterans, this season’s staged reading of Baldwin vs. Buckley: The Faith of Our Fathers, also by Bass, and notably The Most Beautiful Home . . . Maybe by Mark Valdez and ashley sparks, which runs concurrently for three performances with salt/city/blues.
Next season promises more exciting new work. The season opener How to Dance in Ohio, a musical based on the HBO documentary of the same name, receives its world premiere here in anticipation of a future life in the American theatre. Bass’ third world premiere Tender Rain is set for the second half of the season, and Ojibwe and Oneida performance artist, activist, and writer Ty Defoe has been commissioned to create a Backstory program working with students and community members of the Onondaga Nation.
[ABOVE] LUCY LAVELY, DANIEL MORGAN SHELLEY, NICOLE KING, AND WYNN HARMON IN THE WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION OF POSSESSING HARRIET. PHOTO: BRENNA MERRITT. [ABOVE RIGHT] ENSEMBLE IN THE WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION OF THOUGHTS OF A COLORED MAN. PHOTO: MICHAEL DAVIS.
“Significantly, the new work produced here has extended Stage’s reach beyond Central New York. Keenan Scott II’s Thoughts of a Colored Man ran on Broadway for three months last fall. Brian Quijada’s musical Somewhere Over the Border is currently playing at Chicago’s Teatro Vista, and Possessing Harriet has had several productions including one at Franklin Stage.”
