Stageview 1 201617 issuu

SEPTEMBER 2016- JANUARY 2017 SYRACUSE STAGE: [1] A MESSAGE FROM LEADERSHIP [3] GREAT EXPECTATIONS [6] MARY POPPINS DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA: [14] NINE [17] LAURA AND THE SEA

FROM

STAGE'S LEADE

PHOTOS: COVER PHOTO AND OPPOSITE BY MARC SAFRAN PHOTOGRAPHY

Greetings from

820

East Genesee!

While this missive purports to be a note welcoming you to our 2016-2017 season, I must note with gratitude the incredible welcome that the community has extended to me and to my family. My husband, two-year-old daughter, and I arrived in July and spent the end of the summer acclimating to life in Syracuse, with all it has to offer. As you might imagine, that means we’ve spent our share of time at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, the gorgeously renovated Central Library, and at nearly every playground in Onondaga County. We’re looking forward to our share of winter explorations, too! I’m trusting that my Wisconsin roots will serve me well in Central New York winters.

Along with getting to know our community, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the Syracuse Stage staff and board. There is a team of generous, dedicated, talented professionals and trustees at Stage, making sure every element of our organization is functioning at a high level. Stage’s productions, educational outreach programs, administrative efforts, and patron experiences are all vital to our success, and I am eager to learn what’s working well and where we may have room to grow.

You’ll see some new faces when you visit Stage this year, as well as a few new initiatives we’re putting in place. I think you’ll love our new ticketing system, which allows for more flexibility and even the potential to have an e-ticket on your mobile device in lieu of a paper ticket. With support from The Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation, we’ll hold our first “sensory-friendly” performance, with one matinee of Mary Poppins modified to better meet the needs of families and patrons on the Autism spectrum or with other sensory processing concerns.

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SYRACUSE STAGE

This spring, we’ll relaunch the Backstory! educational program, taking the stories of Harriet Tubman and child garment worker Rosalie Randazzo into local schools. We’ll continue to seek out ways in which we can partner with our neighbors, our region, and our peers to bring the finest programming to life in Syracuse. We even have craft beer nights scheduled throughout the season. There’s a great deal to be excited about as we kick off the 2016-17 season!

We’re grateful for the longstanding support so many of you have given to the organization, and for the opportunity to forge new relationships in the months and years ahead. I look forward to meeting you this season, and to hearing your Syracuse Stage stories.

All best –

NEW ERSHIP 20

It’s a -hour drive from Little Rock to Syracuse: across the Mississippi, to Cincinnati

via Tennessee and Kentucky, north and east to Buffalo and then straight east, along the Thruway. We were leaving Arkansas, the place we called home for the past 17 years, and returning to New York. I moved to the Empire State for the first time in 1981. Now, after almost two decades in the South, it was time to move back. This time to Syracuse. Our five children are grown and live in four states; one lives in Africa.

Clea and I were ready for a new adventure. Part of the adventure involved parsing the contents of our suburban home to cull just what we needed for our new, downtown apartment. But the real adventure has been meeting new colleagues and making new friends. We’re exploring the lakes and the theatres, the restaurants and the festivals. We’re discovering a place that already feels like home.

At the same time, I’m discovering the powerful legacy that is the four-decade history of Syracuse Stage. Our rich legacy is the starting point for how we plan and dream for the theatre’s future. I’m excited for the journey we’ll take together. The theatre has a way of crafting amazing stories from all the ideas, issues and events that swirl through our lives.

Theatre helps shape how we understand our community and offers fresh perspectives on this place we call home. It’s fitting perhaps, in this season that begins with such “Great Expectations”, to linger on these words by Charles Dickens: “Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.” Clea and I are happy to conjure our new lives here. And I’m thrilled to call Syracuse Stage my new artistic home. I promise it is a home that welcomes you. Come over any time.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ROBERT M. HUPP AND MANAGING DIRECTOR JILL A. ANDERSON

A COMING OF AGE STORY

Syracuse Stage opens the 2016/2017 season with an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ famous novel Great Expectations. Adaptor Gale Childs Daly has transformed this Dickens’ classic into a fast-paced and engaging theatrical work that showcases the talents of six versatile actors. The production marks the Syracuse Stage debut of acclaimed veteran director Michael Bloom, who spoke with Madison Flavin.

MADISON FLAVIN: What is the appeal of directing Great Expectations for Syracuse Stage?

MICHAEL BLOOM: I think it’s one of the great novels.

It’s not only a fantastic coming-of-age story but also a cautionary tale about what having money means, and the differences between those who have it and those who don’t.

That’s a powerful theme in much of Dickens and couldn’t be more pertinent. And directing at a theatre affiliated with a university will be a pleasure because I suspect it will be taught and known by much of the audience.

MF: What do you like about this adaptation by Gale Childs Daly?

MB: It really does an excellent job of getting the basic storyline across in a very fleet way. And it has a lot of humor, which is true to the novel as well. I think it’s very clever.

MF: In this adaptation one actor plays Pip and five others play the rest of the roles. What is the fun side of this and what are the more challenging aspects?

MB: The enjoyable side is that audiences get to experience the quick-change artistry of actors and their versatility.

The challenge is that you have to make these changes very quickly. Character identification is a key challenge. Making sure that the audience knows which character is speaking, because there will be some small costume changes but not a lot of major ones. Different dialects will help the audience identify the different characters.

DICKENS READS TO HIS DAUGHTERS MAMEY AND KATEY ON THE LAWN OF GAD'S HILL PRESENTING SPONSOR

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SEASON SPONSORS

ILLUSTRATION OF HOBART TOWN CHAIN GANG.

MF: What kind of atmosphere do you create in rehearsal?

MB: I think it’s important that everybody enjoys working with each other because that’s one of the keys to an ensemble piece: that actors really get to trust one another and know that each will be there for the other. I like to give actors a wide berth early in rehearsals to see what their first impulses are.

Then we can shape those impulses as we continue to refine the characters.

MF: In terms of creating the characters, how much of it is your input and how much of it is the actors’ input, and how much of it is the script?

MB: That’s a very good question. I would answer with the metaphor of building a house. The script is like the blueprint for a house. It’s the basic foundation for what you’re doing.

But there are many ways of achieving that blueprint. I may have certain ideas about each character but I want the input of the actor, and I want to make sure that we’re creating a character that fits on each actor like a very good suit. Building the play is a collaboration of all the craftspeople involved, not just the actors, but the designers as well.

MF: What do you hope that the audience experiences from this production at Syracuse Stage?

MB: I hope they’re greatly entertained because it’s such an entertaining story. I hope they’re moved by the artistry of the actors, the designers, and the extraordinary craftspeople that make Syracuse Stage the superb theatre that it is. And I hope they experience the rich humanity of Dickens’ writing—a gift that encourages us to look at others as fully dimensional.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS OCT 19 - NOV 6 wed. OCT 19 7:30 pm p thur. OCT 20 7:30 pm p fri. OCT 21 8 pm op sat. OCT 22 3 pm, 8 pm sun. OCT 23 2 pm pl, 7:00 d

MF: What do you find most engaging about the characters in Great Expectations?

wed. OCT 26

7:30 pm

MB: Their humor, their generosity. Even a character like Magwitch, who starts out as criminal, carries a bible with him. Pip is such a beautifully realized character. Dickens has written him in such great depth and given him an extraordinary arc. A boy coming of age who, on the one hand is naïve, and on the other hand is—when he learns that he will have ‘expectations'—is quite arrogant. His journey is one so many of us take as we grow up. With its characters of multiple generations, it’s a wonderful story for families.

sat. OCT 29

3 pm s, pl, 8 pm

sun. OCT 30

2 pm

thur. OCT 27

7:30 pm h

fri. OCT 28

8 pm

tues. NOV 1 7:30 pm wed. NOV 2 2 pm, o,w, 7:30 pm thur. NOV 3 7:30 pm pl fri. NOV 4 8 pm sat. NOV 5

3 pm ad, 8 pm

sun. NOV 6 2 pm o p = preview op = opening d = discussion s = ASL interpreted o = open captioning ad = audio described h = happy hour pl = prologue w = Wed@1

SYRACUSE STAGE | 4

WE WILL TAKE YOU TO THIS

THE PLAYWRIGHT GALE CHILDS DALY

Every single word is important.”

As a child, playwright Gale Childs Daly received this sage advice from her mother. She took it to heart and it has served her well.

“I was maybe 12 years old and I was reading a Dickens novel, and I said, ‘Oh, it’s too many words! There’s too many words!’” Daly recently recalled. “[My mother] said, ‘No, you have to read every single word. Every single word is important.’”

Daly says heeding her mother’s advice encouraged her to delve into the text and “chew it up intellectually." She developed a passion for close reading and called on it when she adapted Great Expectations for the stage.

“Being able to go inside that novel and just really read every single word, choose the words to use, who’s going to say what when where, was delightful,” she explains. “It was a joy. It took me two years to write the complete piece and I would like to do it again.”

As an avid reader and a multi-faceted theatre artist (she is also an actor, director, and dialect coach), Daly firmly understands the differences between experiencing a story in book form and engaging the same story on stage.

“I love to read. I read constantly. It’s like meditating. It gives my brain the same kind of rest, gives my brain the same kind of joy, the relaxation,” she says. “Whereas, the theatre is alive. It’s electric being in the room with the characters and being part of the story.”

Daly’s adaptation of Dickens’ classic makes the most of that live performance electricity. Told by six actors—one of whom plays Pip while the rest cover all the other characters—the pace is fast, the action lively, and the versatility of the talented cast on full display.

“The actors are right there and talk immediately to you, and they say, ‘This is what’s going to happen. Come with us into this story, and we will take you to this wonderful place,’” Daly

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SYRACUSE STAGE

By Madison Flavin

explains. And so with super quick costume changes and a multiplicity of accents, the wonderful world of Great Expectations comes vividly to life.

Great Expectations first appeared in 1860 as a serial in the periodical All the Year Round. For some critics it represents “the most completely unified work of art that Dickens ever produced". The story traces the fortunes and misfortunes of Pip, an orphan apprenticed to a blacksmith who with the support of a secretive benefactor rises in social rank to become a young gentleman. Dickens populates the tale with intriguing and memorable characters: Magwitch, the escaped convict whose encounter with the child Pip sets the action forward; Miss Havisham, eternally broken-hearted and bitter and for whom time stopped the day she was jilted at the altar; Estella, Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter raised to break men’s hearts; Joe, the kind and good-hearted blacksmith; and Herbert, Pip’s loving and loyal friend; among many others. The action shifts from the desolate marshes of Pip’s youth, to Miss Havisham’s crumbling mansion, to various locations in and around London including the Thames River.

“It’s such an entertaining story. I think it’s one of the great novels,” says Michael Bloom (see accompanying interview) who directs the Syracuse Stage production and who finds Great Expectations especially relevant today.

“It’s not only a fantastic coming-of-age story but also a cautionary tale about what having money means, and the differences between those who have it and those who don’t,” Bloom explains. “That’s a powerful theme in much of Dickens and couldn’t be more pertinent.”

Daly concurs. “I think he’s very, very relevant,"she says.

“Charles Dickens is a humanist. He really knew and loved people and how people act and how we think and what we do. I think that the people in Charles Dickens novels are just like people today.”

And, as Bloom adds, experiencing Dickens’s great work is like receiving a great gift: “a gift that encourages us to look at others as fully dimensional.”

“

OPEN HOUSE

WAS A GREAT SUCCESS!

We enjoyed showing over 400 people the inner workings of our theatre on September 17. Throughout the day we offered guided tours, performances by Department of Drama students, a moderated discussion with our new leadership, a selfie station with props, and the first "Taste of the Regent Neighborhood Food Festival."

Congratulations to Liberty Deli and Catering for winning first place in the festival for their signature Eggplant Moussaka.

SYRACUSE STAGE

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EMILY BROCKWAY AS MARY POPPINS AT THE POTSDAM MUSIC THEATRE.

An Interview with Emily Brockway INTERVIEWED BY BETH LINDLY

E

MILY BROCKWAY PLAYS MARY POPPINS IN THE SYRACUSE STAGE/ DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA CO-PRODUCTION OF MARY POPPINS. SHE GREW UP IN SENECA, A SMALL TOWN IN SOUTH CAROLINA, AND EARNED HER BFA IN MUSICAL THEATRE FROM COASTAL CAROLINA

UNIVERSITY. SHE SAYS SHE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THEATRE AND “DID ANNIE FAR TOO MANY TIMES AS A KID.” NOW BASED IN NEW YORK, SHE HAS WORKED FOR DISNEY CRUISE LINES AND AT THEATRES AROUND THE COUNTRY. THIS PAST SUMMER SHE APPEARED AS MARY POPPINS AT THE POTSDAM MUSIC THEATRE. THIS PRODUCTION MARKS HER SYRACUSE STAGE DEBUT AND IS HER FIRST JOB AS A MEMBER OF ACTORS' EQUITY ASSOCIATION .

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SYRACUSE STAGE & DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA

"

BL: SO YOU ARE COMING OFF A PRODUCTION OF MARY POPPINS. WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE DOING IT AGAIN? EB: It’s neat to touch base with it again so quickly, to dive into a new vision for it.

BL: HOW DID YOU PREPARE TO AUDITION FOR SYRACUSE STAGE? EB: My audition was two weeks after my first production closed, so the material was very fresh. As actors we do a lot of work to prepare for auditions, so it was nice to have tapped into this woman for a while this summer. I know a lot about Mary, but it’s two different productions back to back, so I set out to do something different than what I did previously.

years old waiting to meet Mary Poppins. I had this look on my face, like, “I’m meeting Mary Poppins”.

BL: WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE ASPECT OF THIS CHARACTER? EB: The thing I love about her is that a lot of people do things because they think it’s the right thing to do –Mary does things because she knows it’s the right thing to do. That’s the difference between her and George. Everything she does is because it should be done; it’s to enlighten a family. And I love the magic –she’s the child that never quite lost her imagination.

[In the book] they call her the “Great Exception". She never lost her ability to imagine, that part of your brain that you used as a child, where you believe that basically anything’s possible.

BL: WHAT’S YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE STORY? EB: I grew up watching the movie and I loved it, it’s so theatrical. It’s basically on a stage, meant for a stage. I’m a diehard Julie Andrews fan, and she’s just a queen and can do anything, I love her.

If I ran into Julie Andrews, I’d lose my mind. She is Mary Poppins to me. The movie introduced me to the legendary music of the show. I was hooked. I remember going to Disney World when I was four

THE MOVIE INTRODUCED ME TO THE LEGENDARY MUSIC OF THE SHOW. I WAS HOOKED. I REMEMBER GOING TO DISNEY WORLD WHEN I WAS FOUR YEARS OLD WAITING TO MEET MARY POPPINS.

"

FOUR-YEAR-OLD EMILY MEETS MARY POPPINS AT DISNEY WORLD. PHOTOS COURTESY OF EMILY BROCKWAY.

SYRACUSE STAGE & DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA | 8

DISNEY AND CAMERON MACKINTOSH'S

MARY POPPINS OCT 19 - NOV 6 sat. NOV 26 2 pm p sun. NOV 27 2 pm p wed. NOV 30 7 pm p 7 pm p

thur. DEC 1

fri. DEC 2 8 pm op sat. DEC 3 3 pm, 8 pm sun. DEC 4 2 pm pl, 7 pm d 2 pm o,w, 7 pm

wed. DEC 7

7 pm h

thur. DEC 8 fri. DEC 9

8 pm

sat. DEC 10

3 pm s, pl, ad, 8 pm

sun. DEC 11

2 pm

wed. DEC 14 7 pm thur. DEC 15 7 pm pl fri. DEC 16 8 pm sat. DEC 17

3 pm, 8 pm

sun. DEC 18

2 pm o

tues. DEC 20

7 pm

thur. DEC 22 7 pm BROCKWAY AS MARY POPPINS AT THE POTSDAM MUSIC THEATRE

mon. DEC 26 7 pm tues. DEC 27

2pm

BL: THE SHOW AND THE CHARACTER HAVE A LATENT DARKNESS IN THEM. HOW DO YOU BALANCE THAT WITH A PERFORMANCE THAT IS INTENDED FOR CHILDREN?

wed. DEC 28

2 pm, 7 pm

EB: A lot of people underestimate Mary Poppins– it’s about Mr. Banks, it’s about mending and healing a family. There’s darkness in the family, in the way he treats the children. You know, we all have family issues, and the message is really poignant to adults watching, but the magic and the joy of the rest of what Mary is showing them caters to the children. But I don’t think Mary plays into the darkness of any of it – that’s not her purpose for being there. It’s a tough thing in the rehearsal process, too – how far do you go with the way that George speaks to the kids. What does Mary see, how do the kids treat Mary after they’ve dealt with the dad.

fri. JAN 6 8 pm

BL: YOU’RE GETTING YOUR EQUITY CARD FROM THIS PERFORMANCE – HOW DOES THAT FEEL?

PRESENTING SPONSOR

EB: It’s wonderful, it’s so exciting. I’ve worked very hard. I’ve been in the City for almost five years, and it’s been fantastic because I got to do a lot of non-union contracts at a lot of great regional theatres around the country. And some opera work, which was fantastic.

But I’ve really been waiting to finally join the union, and I’m so happy that I get to do it with a role like this; Mary has been something I’ve been working toward for a long time.

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fri. DEC 23 8 pm

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thur. DEC 29

2 pm

fri. DEC 30

2 pm, 8 pm

sat. DEC 31

3 pm

thur. JAN 5 7 pm sat. JAN 7

3 pm sf, 8 pm

sun. JAN 7

2 pm, 7pm tba

p = preview op = opening d = discussion s = ASL interpreted o = open captioning ad = audio described h = happy hour pl = prologue w = Wed@1 sf = sensory friendly tba = to be added

SPONSORS

MEDIA SPONSORS

SEASON SPONSORS

GALA 2016

S

yracuse Stage held its annual Gala on June 10, 2016. The event, presented by the Syracuse Board of Trustees and the Syracuse Stage Guild, was a tremendous success. All proceeds from the evening benefitted artistic and educational programming at Syracuse Stage. Former producing artistic director Tim Bond and longtime senior staff members Barbara Beckos and Diana Coles were honored with the Louis G. Marcoccia Award for Exemplary Service to Syracuse Stage.

PHOTOGRAPHS: JERRY KLINEBERG

SYRACUSE STAGE

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EDUCATION DEPARTMENT Offers NEW Programs 2016/17

SENSORY-FRIENDLY PERFORMANCE High on the list of new programs is a SensoryFriendly performance of Mary Poppins. The Sensory-Friendly performance is scheduled for the Saturday 3 p.m. matinee on January 7, 2017.

Welcoming to individuals with sensory, social, and learning disabilities and their families, the performance will have special accommodations that create a more relaxed theatre experience without losing the magic of a live performance.

All tickets are $25 and include a 100 percent refund right up to the start of the show. The adaptations provide parents with an opportunity for the whole family to enjoy live theatre without having to worry about abiding by traditional theatre rules or disturbing other patrons. Syracuse Stage is the first theatre in Central New York to offer a Sensory-Friendly performance.

NEW PLAYWRITING CONTEST FOR STUDENTS GRADES 6–8 The new middle school playwriting contest called Word to the World is a national competition for which Syracuse Stage will serve as regional host. Stage will accept two entries per school for consideration in the national contest. Plays should address the theme of Anti-Bullying and should be 10 minutes. Submission deadline is November 4.

FOR MORE INFORMATION REGARDING SYRACUSE STAGE'S EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, PLEASE VISIT: SYRACUSESTAGE.ORG/EDUCATION

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SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION

RANDOM ACTS Even before the Syracuse Stage season officially started, the Education Department was in full swing serving the students of Central New York. This past summer Lauren Unbekant, director of education, introduced a new summer intensive for high school students. Called Random Acts, the two-week intensive challenged 17 students to create and perform an original devised piece of theatre incorporating text, music, and movement. This new summer program joins the long-established SummerStage, offered in conjunction with Syracuse City Department of Parks and Recreation, as a creative learning option for students interested in theatre.

CHILDREN’S TOUR The Bank of America Children’s Tour began its annual fall tour with the opening performance of A Promise is a Promise at Auburn’s Casey Park Elementary School. Based on a popular children’s book by Robert Munsch, A Promise is a Promise is a wonderful Inuit tale about a young girl who encounters a sea monster after being told by her parents not to go to the sea alone. This engaging fable teaches about Inuit culture while illustrating important issues of trust, responsibility, and truth-telling. The tour has sold out its 38 performances and will reach 10,000 students in 24 schools throughout Central New York.

MORE Stage will continue with existing programs including the 10:30 a.m. special student matinee performances of mainstage plays (14 scheduled for this season), the mutli-disciplinary high school program ARTSEmerging, Young Playwrights Festival for high school students, various Young Adult Council (YAC) events

(fight choreography for Great Expectations and trivia night for Mary Poppins), and returning this year is the in-school program Backstory! featuring original one-person performances about Harriet Tubman and early 20th century child garment worker Rosalie Randazzo.

SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION

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NINE:

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST IN

CR R C SIIS CRIIIS S SIS

EZEKIEL EDMONDS AND ENSEMBLE IN THE SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA'S PRODUCTION OF NINE, WITH SCENIC DESGIN BY FELIX E. COCHREN, COSTUMES BY KATHRYN BAILEY, LIGHTING BY ALEX KOZIARA AND VIDEO / PROJECTION DESIGN BY BARRY STEELE. PHOTOS IN THIS ARTICLE BY MICHAEL DAVIS.

" MY HUSBAND MAKES MOVIES

TO MAKE THEM HE LIVES IN A KIND OF A DREAM IN WHICH HIS ACTIONS AREN’T ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM"

So sings Luisa, wife of the famous film director Guido Contini in the lively, multiple Tony Award-winningmusical Nine, which opened the 2016/2017 Syracuse University Department of Drama season.

Nine is the brainchild of composer/lyricist Maury Yeston. The show’s arrival on Broadway in 1982, with book

by Arthur Kopit, directed by Tommy Tune and starring Raul Julia, represented the fulfillment of an obsession that first took hold of Yeston as a teenager growing up in Jersey City.

In 1962, Federico Fellini’s film 8 ½ had its U.S. premiere. “You have to try to imagine a 17-year-old boy looking at an Italian movie and falling in love with it,” Yeston explained in a Los Angeles Times interview. “I really just wanted to grow up and turn that into a musical.”

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DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA

What was it that so touched the young Yeston?

“I looked at the screen and said, ‘That’s me,’” the composer told the New York Times. “I still believed in all the dreams and ideals of what it is to be an artist, and here was a movie about an artist—an artist in trouble.”

The artist in trouble—called Guido Anselmi in the film—is widely understood to be a fictional representation of Fellini himself. 8 ½ follows a movie director in the throes of a creative crisis just as the starting date for his next film approaches. All is ready to go: cast, crew, set. But Anselmi has no script, not even an idea for one.

Such was the case with Fellini when he set out to make the film he called 8 ½.

“I was in limbo, taking stock of myself. I needed to reconcile my fears. I asked myself the usual questions: Who am I? What am I doing? Where am I going?” Fellini recalled in a New York Herald Tribune interview. And so, worried

EMMA ROOS, EZEKIEL EDMONDS, TRISTEN BUETTEL AND KELSEY ROBERTS

about “God, wife, women, money, and taxes,” Fellini began to collect rough and random ideas for a film, enough of which made it onto paper for the planning stages of production to begin.

However, Fellini kept postponing the start date.

He had no beginning or ending to his film. He knew his protagonist was a confused man—a man “seeking to find himself,” he told the film’s star Marcello Mastroianni. But what did this man do? What was his occupation? Engineer?

Lawyer? Journalist? Art director? Fellini couldn’t decide. Even as he began to cast in earnest, all he knew for certain was that he was attempting to make a film about “a life that had come to a stop—artistically, morally, and spiritually.”

As Fellini’s creative crisis intensified, the prospect of starting the shoot with a coherent script receded. He sat down to draft a letter to his producer Angelo Rizzoli explaining that he could not continue with the film. His epistolary effort was interrupted, however, by a call from his crew chief inviting him to join a birthday celebration for a carpenter on the crew.

On the partially completed set, the assembled company also toasted the director: “To your health, dottore, and a great film.

Viva 8½!”

How 8½ became Nine A colleague dubbed it The Beautiful Confusion because director Federico Fellini had no title for the film he was desperately trying to write in 1960. Even as he moved toward production, no title emerged, so Fellini called the film 8½. He had previously completed seven films, plus a documentary that he counted as a half, thus making this his eighth and a half film. Composer Maury Yeston called his musical version Nine for two reasons. First, nine references the youngest age of Guido in the film and musical, and, as Yeston explained, “I thought, if you add music, it’s like half a number more.”

EZEKIEL EDMONDS AND SÉAMUS GAILOR

Presented by Syracuse University’s Department of Drama in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Nine: Book by Arthur Kopit, Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston, Adaptation from the Italian by Mario Fratti (Based on Fellini’s 8½) Directed and Choreographed by Anthony Salatino, Musical Direction by Brian Cimmet. Performed in the Archbold Theatre September 30 - October 8 DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA |

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ABIGAIL GJURICH AND ENSEMBLE

Afterward, alone in the studio, Fellini had an epiphany. “It was in that moment that I found the heart of the film I was looking for,” he later recalled. “I would tell exactly what was happening to me. I would make it the story of the director who no longer knew what he wanted to make.”

Composer Yeston stayed very true to Fellini’s film in creating Nine. As with 8 ½, the musical focuses on a film director experiencing an artistic block while simultaneously contending with extreme turbulence in his relationships with the women in his life—his wife, his mistress, his favorite actress, and (in the musical) his producer.

“Nine is about the struggle involved in the creative process, both technical and personal, and the problems artists encounter when expected to deliver personal and profound work,” explained Anthony Salatino who directed and choreographed the Department of Drama production.

“With Guido, there is always an intense public scrutiny, always a tight schedule, and an expectation that the new work will be as good if not better than his previous movies.

This while simultaneously having to deal with his personal relationships and trying to find personal happiness in a difficult fragmented life.”

Also, like the film, Nine is essentially a journey into Guido’s mind. Consequently, it exists on multiple levels simultaneously including the past, present, and the imaginative realm of Guido’s fantasies, wherein the women in his life figure prominently.

“Nine is a fusion of reality and creativity exposing the boundaries between life and art,” Salatino said. “It is also an essay on the power of women to men. They are our mother, our sister, our teachers, our temptresses, our judges, our mistresses and muses. Guido hears the voices in his head of the women in his life speaking through the walls of his memory: insistent, flirtatious, irresistible, potent.”

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DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA

The original Broadway production followed the film and set the action in a resort spa near Venice where Guido has retreated to avert a nervous breakdown. For the Department of Drama production, Salatino, scenic designer Felix Cochren, and lighting designer Alexander Koziara devised a more fluid concept that incorporates elements of a soundstage and allows the action to move as quickly as Guido’s mind from location to location. The set employs screens and projections and borrows the black and white aesthetic of Fellini’s film to define the world of Guido’s imagination. Images from the Renaissance in statuary and art reference the encompassing importance of the women in Guido’s life.

In trying to explain the film in its formative stages, Fellini alternately described 8 ½ as “a fantastic, enchanted ballet, a magical kaleidoscope,” and a “tortuous, changing, fluid, labyrinth of memories and sensations, tying together daily happenings, feelings, nostalgia, imagination.” Or as the noted director and Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam put it: “Fellini’s 8 ½ is the film that captures what it is actually like to be a film director.”

And so does Yeston’s adaptation, with the additional fun, joy, and charm that define the best of musical theatre.

- JOSEPH WHELAN

WISE & FUNNY K K ate Tarker’s play Laura and the Sea represents a rare opportunity for the Department of Drama—a rare opportunity for a theatre anywhere, really. When Laura and the Sea has its preview performance on Friday, November 4, it will be the first time an audience will have the chance to see a fully-staged production of the play.

Laura and the Sea came to the Department through faculty member Katie McGerr, who makes her directorial debut on the Drama mainstage. McGerr and Tarker were classmates in the graduate program at the Yale School of Drama, and for a very brief time worked together on the play about the employees of a small travel agency and an unsettling event at a company outing. Five years later, McGerr was still thinking about it.

“Two questions stuck with me,” McGerr explains.

“The first is how in our digitized age—where irony is everywhere and authenticity is out—how do we connect with each other?”

The second question concerns more directly the theatre itself. “The play offers an opportunity to explore how we put the digitized world on the stage. How, with live performance tools, can we represent that space in which we live so much of our lives?”

The answer to the first question is, in short, not particularly well. McGerr characterizes Laura and the Sea as an “unhappy comedy” populated by six “quirky, oddball” characters, all of whom are vulnerable, thinskinned, and in pain. In a Chekhovian way, they endure the petty ridiculousness of life as they struggle with their own disappointments and the unexpected loss of a respected colleague. McGerr explains, the comedy comes “through their pain".

“The force that propels the play is the struggle to connect in a world that is disconnected,” she explains.

“The characters feel deeply but are in an environment where they can’t express what they feel. They are closed off.”

LAURA AND THE SEA

That environment encompasses three simultaneously represented and specific locales in the play: the office of a contemporary travel agency, a pleasure boat on the water near New York City, and a cyber-world envisioned as an online blog where the characters can post messages about their lost colleague, a colleague who, they come to realize, they didn’t know quite as well as they thought, or even hoped. The identity rubrics proposed by the blog bring them no closer: what was her favorite movie, her favorite color, sports team, song, quote, flower—information that reveals nothing about someone with whom they have all shared the strained intimacy of a confined working environment for some time.

Playwright Tarker has been working on the play since her days at Yale. She has had opportunities to develop it at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, Salt Lake Acting Company’s Playwrights Lab, and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. At each stop she has learned more.

“It’s a very physical play–about one third of the play is stage directions–so getting the thing on its feet has been an essential strategy for continuing to shape and develop it. Salt Lake City was especially fruitful in this regard, as we had about a week to just play with objects and actors, without any pressure for a final showing,” she explained. “At the O’Neill, we were able to work with a sound designer, and it was tremendously illuminating to see how all the scripted sound interacts with the text.”

McGerr, too, says she is learning quite a bit through the rehearsal process. It is challenging, she explains, to tackle what is essentially a 79-page group scene and one that requires the necessary props and set dressings for an office and a boat. She hopes that in some measure she is helping to chart the course for future productions.

Five years after her first encounter with Laura and the Sea, she is happy to be facing the challenges of staging the play for the first time. “I enjoy it. I still enjoy it—the beauty of the play. It’s wise and funny and tears me apart at the same time.”

Presented by Syracuse University’s Department of Drama in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Laura and the Sea:

by Kate Tarker. Directed by Katherine McGerr. November 4 - 13, opening night November 5, in the Storch Theatre at 820 East Genesee Street. Tickets are $16-$18, available at 315-443-3275 or by visiting syracusestage.org/su-drama.php

DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA

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SYRACUSE STAGE WELCOMES New Board Trustees

“I am beyond excited to become the president of the Syracuse Stage Board of Trustees at such an exciting time in the organization’s history and looking forward to working with new leadership and the wealth of experience that makes up our board,” said Bea. “As we embark on the 44th season of locally produced professional theatre, I am confident that everyone at Syracuse Stage, from the staff to actors to volunteers, will collaborate to bring our community the best productions yet.”

SYRACUSE STAGE BOARD PRESIDENT BEA GONZALEZ

S

yracuse Stage is pleased to welcome longtime Board of Trustees member Bethaida “Bea” González, dean, University College, as the new board president. She has been a member of the board since 2000 and most recently served as treasurer. Bea replaces board president Louis G. Marcoccia, who retired from Syracuse University in June.

Fellow board member Lorraine Branham, dean, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, has assumed the role of treasurer. In addition to Bea and Lorraine, the board welcomes seven new trustees.

“Syracuse Stage will truly benefit from the variety of experiences our new board members bring to the table,” said Bob Hupp, artistic director, Syracuse Stage. “Each and every one of them is passionate about the arts, believes in the transformative power of live theatre, and is committed to helping Syracuse Stage continue to reach its goal of providing the highest quality of professional live theatre to the Central New York community.”

As the dean of University College, Bea supervises programming for continuing education and summer programs, including both undergraduate and graduate studies, the English Language Institute and the Veterans Resource Center among others. She has received numerous awards for her achievements and has been recognized by New York State as a Hispanic American of Distinction and by the Central New York Organization of Women as an Unsung Heroine. Bea is originally from Puerto Rico and is a current Syracuse resident.

The Syracuse Stage Board of Trustees is led by chair, Fran Nichols, vice chairmen emeritus, Eric Mower + Associates; chair-elect Richard Shirtz, regional president, NBT Bank; vice chair, Janet Audunson, senior counsel, National Grid; vice chair, Larry Harris, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Saab Defense and Security, USA; vice chair, Melvin T. Stith, dean emeritus, Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University; and secretary, Samantha Millier, associate attorney, Mackenzie Hughes LLP.

THE BOARD ALSO WELCOMES SEVERAL NEW TRUSTEES: George S. Bain: freelance editor and writer Robin Curtis: associate real estate broker, Berkshire Hathaway

and Zellar Homes, and retired television, film, and theatre actress

Neil Gold: founder and former vice president, Gold Pure Food Products

Jacki Goldberg: community volunteer Kendall Phillips: associate dean, Global Academic Programs and Initiatives, Syracuse University

Robert Sarason: retired lawyer, specialization in social justice work

Michael Tick: dean, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Syracuse University

Lorraine has been a University Trustee on the Syracuse Stage board for several years. At the Newhouse School, she has developed strong connections between communications education and the industry and successfully directed an $18 million fundraising campaign.

Prior to her tenure in education, Lorraine was a newspaper journalist at a variety of nationally renowned publications.

LORRAINE BRANHAM SYRACUSE STAGE TREASURER 17

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SYRACUSE STAGE DEVELOPMENT

EVENTS SEPTEMBER 2016 - JANUARY 2017 SYRACUSE STAGE Great Expectations

Adapted for the stage by Gale Childs Daly Based on the novel by Charles Dickens Directed by Michael Bloom October 19 - November 6

Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins

A musical based on the stories of M.L. Travers and the Walt Disney film | Original Music and Lyrics

by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman Book by Julian Fellowes | New Songs and Additional Music and Lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe | Co-created by Cameron MacIntosh Directed by Peter Amster | Choreography by Anthony Salatino| Co-produced with Syracuse University Department of Drama November 26, 2016 - January 8, 2017 PROLOGUE

During the run of each show, join us for free, intimate, pre-show talks led by a member of the cast. One hour prior to curtain, three times during the run of each show.

Great Expectations

Sunday, October 23 at 1 p.m.

Saturday, October 29 at 2 p.m.

Thursday, November 3 at 6:30 p.m.

Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins

Sunday, December 4 at 1 p.m.

Saturday, December 10 at 2 p.m.

Thursday, Deember 15 at 6:00 p.m.

OPENING NIGHT PARTY

Join us for a post-show party with live music and complimentary food following each opening night performance. Performances at 8 p.m.

Great Expectations October 21: Castle Creek Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins December 2: Nancy Kelly WEDNESDAY@1 LECTURES

Pre-show lecture at 1 p.m. in the Sutton Pavilion before the 2 p.m. matinee performance.

Great Expectations Wednesday, November 2 Speaker: Christian DuComb, assistant professor of English and Theater, Colgate University.

Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins Wednesday, December 7 Speaker: Miles Tylor, associate professor of English, Le Moyne College. *Speakers and topics subject to change ACTOR TALKBACK SERIES

A lively discussion with the actors following the 7 p.m. Sunday night performance.

Great Expectations Sunday, October 23 Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins Sunday, December 4 HAPPY HOUR SERIES

Warm up before the show with half-priced drinks, signature cocktails, and complimentary appetizers from fine local restaurants. Located in the Sutton Pavilion at Syracuse Stage, Happy Hours start at 6 p.m. with performances at 7:30 p.m.

Great Expectations Thursday, October 27: Taste of Fall Happy Hour features a complimentary mapleinfused cocktail tasting from the innovative Last Shot Distillery and delicious fall flavors from Phoebe's Restaurant. Half-priced drinks including our signature drink "Pip's Grog".

Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins Thursday, December 8: Magical Sidewalk Happy Hour Come experience magic as local sidewalk chalk artist John Landers creates a work of art inside our lobby with the help of Studio 15. Enjoy Mary Poppins themed passed appetizers from Dominick's Restaurant.

OPEN CAPTIONING

Great Expectations Wednesday, November 2 at 2 p.m.

Sunday, November 6 at 2 p.m.

Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins Wednesday, Decenber 7 at 2 p.m.

Sunday, December 18 at 2 p.m.

Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins Saturday, December 10 at 3 p.m.

AUDIO DESCRIPTION

Great Expectations Saturday, November 5 at 3 p.m.

Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins Saturday, December 10 at 3 p.m.

DINNER & SHOW

Enjoy a buffet dinner with fellow theatre lovers in the Sutton Pavilion. Seasonal faire prepared by Phoebe’s Restaurant followed by great theatre.

Great Expectations Wednesday, November 2 at 6 p.m.

Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins Wednesday, December 14 at 5:30 p.m.

NEW IN 16/17 WINE & BEER FLIGHTS

A delightful way for those who have comeof-age to get a spoonful of grape and grain.

Great Expectations Friday, October 28 at 6:30 pm Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins Friday, December 9 at 6:30 pm BRUNCH AND BROADWAY STEPS

Delicious brunch for families at Phoebe’s and a chance for young dancers to learn some of the choreography from Mary Poppins.

Bring your dance shoes.

Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins December 4 and 18.

Dance class at 11 a.m. at Syracuse Stage, brunch at Phoebe’s at noon, Mary Poppins at 2 p.m

DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETED

Great Expectations Saturday, Saturday, October 29 at 3 p.m.

Laura and the Sea

By Kate Tarker Directed by Katherine McGerr November 4 – 13 | Opening Night: November 5

is published by Syracuse Stage and Department of Drama throughout the season for their subscribers and alumni. Editor: Joseph Whelan (jmwhelan@syr.edu). Designer: Brenna Merritt.

Robert M. Hupp, artistic director; Jill A. Anderson, managing director; Syracuse Stage.

Ralph Zito, chair of the Department of Drama.

SYRACUSE STAGE/ DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA

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Nonprofit Organization US POSTAGE PAID Syracuse Stage Syracuse, NY

820 East Genesee Street Syracuse, NY 13210-1508 www.SyracuseStage.org

Department of Drama alumnus

ROBBIE SIMPSON '11

The Department of Drama: LAURA AND THE SEA | NOV 4 - 13

Syracuse Stage: GREAT EXPECTATIONS | OCT 19 - NOV 6 DISNEY AND CAMERON MACKINTOSH'S MARY POPPINS | NOV 26 - JAN 8

WILL PLAY THE ROLE OF PIP IN GREAT EXPECTATIONS.