Up-The Classroom Study Guide

CLASSROOM STUDY GUIDE SPONSORS:

2008 - 2009 EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH SPONSORS STUDENT MATINEE PROGRAM Playwrights Circle ($5,000 - $7,499) National Grid Directors Circle ($1,500 - $2,799) Grandma Brown Foundation Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation

CARRIER BACKSTORY PROGRAM Regents Circle ($7,500 - $13,999) Carrier Corporation Syracuse Campus-Community Entrepreneurship

Initiative, funded by the Kauffman Foundation Syracuse University GEAR-UP Playwrights Circle ($5,000 - $7,499) KARE Foundation Directors Circle ($1,500 - $2,799) Time Warner Cable Lockheed Martin Employees Federated Fund

LOCKHEED MARTIN PROJECT BLUEPRINT Regents Circle ($7,500 - $13,999) Lockheed Martin MS2

BANK OF AMERICA CHILDREN’S TOUR Founders Circle ($14,000 - $24,999) Bank of America Producers Circle ($2,800 - $4,999) Lockheed Martin Employees Federated Fund Directors Circle ($1,500 - $2,799) Wegmans Benefactors ($1,000 - $1,499) Excellus BlueCross BlueShield

CHASE YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL Founders Circle ($14,000 - $24,999) Chase

ARTS EMERGING Founders Circle ($14,000 - $24,999) Partnership for Better Education Regents Circle ($7,500 - $13,999) NYS Assembly through the office of William Magnarelli Directors Circle ($1,500 - $2,799) Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

2008 - 2009 Educational Outreach Corporate Sponsors Since 1849 National Grid and its predecessor companies have been part of the Syracuse community, helping to meet the energy needs of over two million Upstate New York customers. We are proud to contribute to the quality of life through the energy we deliver and through the many ways we give back to the communities we serve.

2008 - 2009 Syracuse Stage Season Sponsors

UP STUDY GUIDE CONTENTS Timothy Bond Producing Artistic Director Jeffrey Woodward Managing Director

__ 820 E. Genesee Street Syracuse, NY 13210 Artistic Office (315) 443 - 4008 Educational Outreach (315) 443 - 1150 (315) 442 - 7755 Box Office (315) 443 - 3275 Group Sales and Matinees (315) 443 - 9844

4. Planning Your Visit 5. Theatre & Education 6. Elements of Theatre 7. General Questions 8. Production Information 9. Plot Synopsis 10. The Inspiration 12. Taking Flight 13. Meet the Playwright 14. Additional Resources 15. About Educational Outreach © 2008 Syracuse Stage Educational Outreach Chief Editor Lauren Unbekant Edited by Nichole Gantshar and Adam Zurbruegg Interior Design & Layout by Adam Zurbruegg Cover design by Campdesign

___ www.syracusestage.org ___ Syracuse Stage is Central New York’s premiere professional theatre. Founded as a not-for-profit theatre in 1974, Stage has produced more than 220 plays in 34 seasons including numerous world and American premieres. Each season, upwards of 90,000 patrons enjoy an exciting mix of comedies, dramas and musicals featuring the finest professional theatre artists.

Stage attracts leading designers, directors, and performers from New York and across the country. These visiting artists are supported by a full-time and seasonal staff of artisans, technicians, and administrators.

Syracuse Stage is a member of The League of Resident Theatres (LORT,) Theatre Communications Group (TCG,) the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, the Arts & Cultural Leadership Alliance (ACLA,) the East Genesee Regent Association, and the Partnership for Better Education.

EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH AT SYRACUSE STAGE Syracuse Stage is committed to providing students with rich theatre experiences that connect to and reveal what it is to be human. Research shows that students who participate in or are exposed to the arts show higher academic achievement, stronger self-esteem, and an improved ability to plan and work toward a future goal.

Last season more than 35,000 students from 24 counties attended or participated in in-depth integrated arts partnerships with Syracuse Stage. For more information, call (315) 443-1150 or (315) 442-7755.

The Bank of America CHILDREN’S TOUR brings high-energy, interactive, and culturally diverse performances to elementary school audiences.

The Carrier BACKSTORY! Program brings history to life, as professional actors portray historical figures in classrooms and other venues.

Lockheed Martin PROJECT BLUEPRINT merges scientific discovery and the arts, as an actor portraying a scientist/mathematician introduces students to the connections between scientific discovery and the arts. artsEMERGING takes high school students on an in-depth exploration of a mainstage play using a multi-cultural, multi-arts lens.

The Chase YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL challenges high school students to submit original plays for a chance to see their work performed at Syracuse Stage.

Planning Your Visit Teachers! Please speak with your students about the role of the audience in watching a live performance. The following are some helpful suggestions and guidelines to make the day more enjoyable.

GIVE your students plenty of time to arrive, find their seats, and get situated. We ask that you arrive 30 minutes prior to the performance. Our student matinees begin promptly at 10:30AM. Latecomers are seated at the discretion of House Management.

BUSSES not staying should load and unload on East Genesee Street, where bagged meters will indicate bus-only parking.

Please do not park in the Centro Bus Stop. When you exit the bus, have your group stay together inside the main lobby.

USHERS will escort you to your seats - we do not use tickets for our student matinees. Students will be asked to fill in the rows and not move around once seated. We request that teachers and chaperones distribute themselves throughout the students and not sit together. Remember, we need to seat 500 people as quickly as possible, so your help is greatly appreciated.

BACKPACKS, cameras, food, and drinks are not allowed into the theatre. We do not have storage facilities for these items, so please leave them at school or on the bus.

PHOTOGRAPHS or video taken with a camera or cell phone are illegal, disruptive, and sometimes dangerous to the performers. All cameras or other recording devices are prohibited and will be confiscated.

SNACKS and soda will be sold whenever possible during intermission, at a cost of $1. Food and drinks are to be consumed in the lobby, as they are not allowed into the theatre.

RESTROOMS are located in the main lobby. We ask that students use the facilities only before the show and during intermission, and not leave during the show.

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The Audience’s Role A performance needs an audience. It is as much a part of the theatre event as actors, designers, technicians, and crew.

Each playwright invites you into the world he/she has created - but this world is different than television or movies. The actors need your responses (laughter and applause) but conversations, cell phones, and other distractions will disrupt that world. If any student becomes disruptive to the point of interference with the performers or audience, a chaperone will be asked to remove that student.

If you play your part well, the actors can do the same, and all will enjoy the show!

Theatre & Education

“Theatre brings life to life.”

-Zelda Fichandler

W

hen the first cave-dweller got up to tell a story, theatre began. Almost every culture has

some sort of live performance tradition to tell stories. Television and film may have diminished the desire for access to theatre, but they have not diminished the importance.

Live theatre gives each audience member an opportunity to connect with the peformers in a way he or she never could with Tom Cruise or Lindsay Lohan. The emotions can be more intense because the events are happening right in front of the audience.

I

n the classroom, theatre can be used in a variety of ways. In many respects the teacher is much like an actor on stage - with an audience, a script (lesson plan,) props (visual aids,) and scenery (the classroom setting.) Both theatre and teaching rely on the interplay between performer and audience.

From this perspective, all of what can be taught can be taught theatrically. Young children can create a pretend bank to learn about money and mathematics. Older students may be asked to act out scenes from a play or novel. Theatre provides both an opportunity to teach , and the means to do so.

B

ringing your students to productions at Syracuse Stage, and utilizing this study guide to integrate the play into your lesson plans, fulfills elements of the New York State core requirements. We know that as educators, you are more qualified to determine how our plays and study guides blend with your goals and requirements. We hope that we can help you to discover possibilities spanning many disciplines.

As you bring your students to the shows, you may want them to examine not merely the thematic elements of the play, but also how production elements explore these themes. Everything you see on the stage has been created specifically for this production. There are no standard sets for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, no rules for costuming Crowns. Our designers meet with our directors months before rehearsals start, and shows are built to their specifications, which are in line with their vision of the work. Exploring design elements with your students is a way of opening the door to the production they will be seeing. We’ll begin with activites and questioning that can be applied to any play, and then move into details regarding specific plays.

So, without further ado, welcome to Syracuse Stage... and enjoy the show!

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Elements of Theatre

Elements of Visual Art: Any piece of visual art (including scenery, costumes, etc.) contain the following ‘elements of art.’

Theatre usually engages many forms of art including:

-Writing

-Visual/Design

• Scenery & Props

• Costumes

• Sound

• Lighting

• Casting

-Music

-Dance/Movement

1.

2.

Line Shape Form

Principles of Design: Art (or any of the elements listed above) can be examined further through the ‘principles of design.’

Balance Proportion Rhythm Emphasis Unity

How have the designers utilized these elements and principles?

ELEMENTS OF DRAMA:

Why have they done so?

- Character WHO are the characters and what is their relationship to each other?

- Plot/Story WHAT is the story line?

What happened before the play started?

What do the characters want?

What will they do to get it?

What do they stand to gain or lose?

- Setting WHERE does the story take place?

How does this affect the characters’ behavior? How does it affect the plot?

How does it affect the design?

- Time WHEN does the story take place?

What year is it? What season? What time of day? How does this affect the characters, plot and design of the play?

Other Elements to Explore: Conflict/Resolution, Action, Improvisation, Non-verbal communication, Staging, Humor, Realism and other styles, Metaphor, Language, Tone, Pattern and repetition, Emotion, Point of view.

What are the trying to convey visually?

What would be other options?

CREATING QUESTIONS FOR EXPLORATION Creating an open-ended question using an element for exploration (otherwise known as a “line of inquiry”) can help students make discoveries about a piece of theatre and its relevance to their lives.

A line of inquiry is also useful for kinesthetic activities (on-your-feet exercises.)

Examples of Lines of Inquiry: 1. How does an actor create a character using his/her body? How would you imply setting using your body?

2. How might a director create a sense of realism on stage? Why might you not want to use realism?

3. How does an actor use the language of gesture to convey emotion/feeling?

4. How does the use of music convey the mood of a scene?

Educational Outreach

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Space Color Texture

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General Questions These questions were designed to promote classroom discussion of any play.

Use these questions as a model to help you design your own analysis techniques.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

How does the play start?

What does the playwright do to set the scene? How are the characters introduced?

What other techniques does the play use to help you jump into the story?

Who is the main character?

What does he/she want? (“Objective”) How will he/she get it? (“Actions/Tactics”) What is stopping him/her? (“Obstacles”) How does the character change throughout the play?

Why is the play set in the time period that it is?

How would the play be different if the time period were different?

Is there a character who helps the main character come to decisions and changes?

How? Opposition? Reflection?

Is there a villain/antagonist in the play?

Does there need to be good character and a bad one?

What makes a play relevant? What makes it important?

What are the elements that make this piece suited for the stage, as opposed to film, television, or a novel?

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(315) 443-1150 (315) 442-7755

PRESENTS

BY

Bridget Carpenter DIRECTED BY

Penny Metropulos

SCENIC DESIGN

COSTUME DESIGN

LIGHTING DESIGN

[Not available at time of print]

Maggie Dick

[Not available at time of print]

SOUND DESIGN

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER

CASTING BY

Jonathan Herter

Stuart Plymesser

Alan Filderman

Timothy Bond

Jeffrey Woodward

Producing Artistic Director

Managing Director

SPONSORS

SEASON SPONSORS

Plot Synopsis THE PLAY Walter Griffin once managed to float above the earth in a lawn chair suspended from weather balloons, achieving 15 minutes of fame and an offer from the Smithsonian for the chair. Sixteen years later, Walter is still tinkering with ideas for inventions that will help him become airborne again and has imaginary conversations with French wire walker Philippe Petit. Walter’s 16-year-old son, Mikey, languishes, and his wife, Helen, dutifully supports the family as a postal worker.

Things improve for Mikey when he meets Maria, a pregnant teen-age girl who has just moved to town with her Aunt Chris. Soon, Mikey is working for Chris, successfully selling office supplies over the phone. In the meantime, Walter has finally given in to Helen’s pleas to find a job.

All seems to be going well for the Griffins, until Helen decides to visit Walter at work. He says he works at the Los Padres Chamber of Commerce. There is no Los Padros Chamber of Commerce. In fact, there is no Los Padros. Walter has been driving off to “work” every morning and the “paychecks” he has been bringing home (and spending) are actually withdrawals from their savings account and Helen’s pension. Now, nothing is left. On the day Helen discovers this, Mikey finds out that he has been scammed by Aunt Chris and Maria, who have left town, taking with them the money Mikey made selling office supplies. Mikey gets so upset that he goes down to the basement and sets fire to the “famed” lawn chair, burning the house down in the process.

The fire is out. While Helen and Mikey give their statements to the authorities, Walter has one final encounter with Philippe Petit, who gives him a bright red parasail and encouragement and inspiration to pursue his dream of flight.

Bridget Carpenter wrote Up in Juneau, Alaksa during the summer of 2002.

THE REALITY In Up, playwright Bridget Carpenter walks a veritable tightrope between fiction and reality. The character of Walter Griffin is fictional. He is, however, inspired by the reallife Larry Walters, a Vietnam veteran and truck driver from southern California (more Photo: washingtontimes.com details on Larry Walters can be found on the following page).

Philippe Petit was an actual man who achieved a great deal of fame for his public stunts, most notably his daring tightrope trek across the gap between New York’s Twin Towers (more details on Philippe Petit can be found on page 33).

THE DISCUSSION Use this opportunity to spark a dialogue with your students. The following pages, plus the additional resources listed at the end of this section, will provide you with useful background information on Larry Walters and Philippe Petit.

What events and traits surrounding these people were portrayed accurately in Up? Which were fictionalized?

What is the concept of ‘artistic license?’ Should writers have any obligations to the real people they characterize? To what extent?

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Main Source: Oregon Shakespeare Festival

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The Inspiration Larry Walters (1949 - 1993)

At the age of 13, Larry Walters saw his first weather balloon and dreamed of being carried up above the clouds.

Twenty years later, in 1982, he strapped four dozen of these balloons to his rickety Sears lawn chair and accomplished the sort of astonishing feat that is only devised by walking the fine line between ingenuity and lunacy.

Walters was working as a truck driver in North Hollywood, CA in 1982. He had served in Vietnam, but never saw a single day of flight training. His plan was amazingly simple: the balloons would carry him upward, the winds eastward, gallon jugs of water would provide ballast, and a shot from his pellet gun would burst a balloon or two when he was ready to descend. Walters, an avid outdoorsman, planned to float across the Mojave Desert toward the Rocky Mountains, spending several days in the air.

This historic, albeit brief, flight granted Walters instant celebrity status. He appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country, and was interviewed by Johnny Carson and David Letterman.

FAA officials were not amused. Adding to their frustration, there was no precedent for how to punish a maverick balloon pilot, and it is impossible to revoke the pilot’s license of a man who never had one to begin with. One official said: “We know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act, as an soon as we decide which part it is, some type of charge will be filed.”

In the end, Walters was fined $4,000 for operating a “civil aircraft for which there is not currently in effect an airworthiness certificate.” Walters protested that “if the FAA was around when the Wright Brothers were testing their aircraft, they never would have been able to make their first flight at Kitty Hawk.”

On July 2nd he lifted off from the rooftop of a friend’s house in the town of San Pedro, CA. His calculations were wrong, however, and the balloons shot upward much quicker than expected, at around 1,000 feet per minute. Soon, Walters paid the fine, and he was 16,000 feet (3 miles) never flew again. His perin the air, at an elevation that sonal life, like his aviation Photo of Walters’ flight; courtesy of www.markbarry.com put him smack dab in the flight career, also remained landpath of commercial airliners heading to the Long Beach locked. His celebrity faded, his long-term relationship Airport and LAX. Spotted by two pilots, Walters’ flight ended, he struggled to find work, and in 1993 he took was quickly reported to bewildered officials at air traf- his own life. Once, the Smithsonian Museum offered to fic control and the Federal Aviation Administration. buy the historic lawn chair. Walters was unable to sell it, though, because immediately after landing, he gave In the thin air high above the earth, Walters grew cold the chair to a neighborhood boy who had watched the and dizzy. He pierced several balloons with his pellet flight in amazement. Through it all, Walters never wanted guns, but his frigid hands could not keep their grip and fame: the gun plummeted to the earth. Luckily, Walters had managed to deflate enough balloons, and he began his “It was something I had to do. I had this dream descent. He planned to reach the Rockies, but only made for twenty years, and if I hadn’t done it, I think it to nearby Long Beach, where he landed ensnared in I would have ended up in the funny farm. I power lines and caused a short power outage. didn’t think that by fulfilling my goal in life my dream - that I would create such a stir and make people laugh.”

- Larry Walters Educational Outreach

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Main Sources: www.markbarry.com www.snopes.com/travel/airline/walters.asp

The Inspiration (Cont’d) Philippe Petit (1949 - present)

Defying gravity has always captured the imagination.

Bridget Carpenter’s play Up sets that dream with her character Walter Griffin and gives it wings by adding the character of Philippe Petit, a famed high-wire performer.

Some could consider Griffin a slacker. But it’s his desire for more that drives the journey of Up, and Carpenter chose Petit to be a character to reinforce that point in the play. The circus-like activities Petit mastered have long been a metaphor for resistance to social conformity in scholarly thought. His pairing with Griffin adds politics and a desire for independence to the play.

Petit, who now lives in Woodstock, NY, was more than just a risk taker. He began his career on the Paris streets that were filled with challenge and political change in 1968. From his early start as a street performer, riding a unicycle, juggling and doing pantomime, he went on to specialize on the high wire and became an artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Born in 1949 (the same year as Larry Walters,) Petit made his mark in history walking high wires from such famous structures as the Sydney Harbor Bridge, New Orleans’ Superdome, the Eiffel Tower, and one walk that truly captured the American imagination — the World Trade Center Towers. That walk is featured in the documentary

film, “Man on Wire.” The film won a jury prize and the audience award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

In Up, Petit serves as a symbol of defiance. Professor Peta Tait of LaTrobe University in Australia, writes, “Petit’s muscular control also confronts government controls over the lives and properties of citizens.” She says an individual’s choice to put his or her body on the line —on the wire, or in Griffin’s case a balloon chair — becomes “metaphoric of messy, unruly democratic individuals and their ongoing civil disobedience …”

Petit’s and Griffin’s actions stand as shouts of freedom against society’s constraints and rules. The two men test the very limits of the human body. And Tait says “we need the bodily freedoms promised by circus artistry— to defy, to fly, to fall.” Can these seemingly trivial stunts of daredeviltry really be fulfilling human needs? Are the acts of lawn chair flying and tight rope walking actually coping mechanisms for dealing with stress, self-doubt, and other emotional turmoils? If so, are the benefits only enjoyed by the performer, or does the audience experience this catharsis by proxy?

The two men also symbolize transcendence and yearning. Professor Helen Stoddart, of Keele University in Scotland, wrote that such performances are about “desire—they are invariably linked to the opposite ideas of faltering, failing and falling.” She argues that elevating everyday behavior, such as sitting in a lawn chair, opens up the possibility of transcending other social limits.

Carpenter uses Petit as more than a fantasy object, inspiration and counselor for Griffin. She gives power to Griffin by tying his literally high-flying actions to such an adventurous figure from history. Unhappy with his life, out of control and seeing past glory, Griffin’s actions are not the silly delusions of an early mid-life crisis. He seeks power and control with his desire for flight. By tying Griffin to Petit, Carpenter makes Griffin more serious.

If writers such as Tait and Stoddart are correct, linking Petit and Griffin make the fictional character’s actions more political, more dynamic and a bold move of independence.

Petit spanning the Twin Towers on August 7, 1974. He walked back & forth, 1,300 feet in the air, for 30 minutes, then was promptly arrested.

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Taking Flight A Brief History of Balloon Travel The dream of flight drifted through people’s imaginations for centuries, but originally seemed impossible. Leonardo DaVinci sketched ideas for flying machines in the late 15th century, usually operated by enormous wings. When humans finally did take to flight 300 years later, it would be through a much simpler concept.

A French paper-maker named Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and his brother One of Da Vinci’s flying machine sketches Jacques-Étienne noticed that pieces of paper caught in the updraft of their chimney would often curve into a dome and float updwards. They launched their first series of experiments in the summer of 1783. These experiments only utilized animal passengers until they were convinced that such a flight would be safe for humans. On November 21, 1783, Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Francois Laurent took a twenty-three minute trip in the Montgolfier brothers’ balloon to become the first people to take to the skies.

It wasn’t long before the world’s militaries saw a use for balloons. From high in the air, scouts could see across vast distances to determine enemy location and formations. Balloons could also be used for aerial bombardments or transportation, and were used by both Union and Confederate forces in the American Civil War. In 1852, the French inventor Jules Henri Giffard built the first passenger-carrying powered and steerable airship, called a dirigible. The dirigible’s balloon was filled with hydrogen, and carried a steam engine with a propeller and steering rudder. This was a precursor to blimps, which were developed by the Goodyear Company in the 1930’s for advertising its tires and rubber products, but were soon adopted by the US Navy for less innocent purposes.

It wasn’t until the 1960’s that balloons were considered a form of recreation.

Paul Edward Yost (1919 - 2007) was a pilot and high-altitude research scientist A drawing of Giffard’s dirigible in the US Army Air Corps. In 1956, the Office of Naval Research hired him to create a reusable aircraft that would carry one man and cargo to 10,000 feet for three hours. In 1960, he made the first free flight of a modern hot-air balloon. Two years later, the first balloon was sold and the sport of ballooning was created. In 1963, Yost made the first hot-air balloon crossing of the English Channel and in 1976 crossed the Atlantic Ocean. He retired holding 21 patents on balloons and other lighter-than-air mechanisms.

While Yost was ending his career, Larry Walters (1949 – 1993) was dreaming of a much smaller version (see page 38.) Since Lawn-Chair-Larry’s flight, Ken Couch (www.couchballoons.com) has taken a number of lawnchair baloon flights. Last year, he hitched 105 helium balloons to a lawn chair for a nine-hour adventure across the state of Oregon 13,000 feet above the ground. His chair carries GPS, a two-way radio and safety equipment.

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Meet the Playwright Bridget Carpenter is part of a new breed of playwrights

who make careers in both television and the theatre. Your students may be familiar with her without realizing it. Carpenter works as the supervising producer for the NBC series Friday Night Lights and has written several of its episodes. She also worked as a producer on Dead Like Me and wrote scripts for Bionic Woman and Head Cases.

Carpenter’s career began after she graduated with a MFA in playwrighting from Brown University. She was a playwright-in-residence at the Royal National Theatre in London and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. She has a standing poker game on Wednesday nights in Los Angeles.

Her play, Fall, was the recipient of the 2000 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and her works have been produced around the country and as far away as Australia.

Photo: www.playscripts.com

In addition to Up, her plays include:

• The Faculty Room, which was commissioned by the Atlantic Theater Company,

2002. It premiered at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival and

won the 2003 Kesselring Award

• Fall, which had its world premiere, Trinity Repertory Company in 2000.

• The Death of the Father of Psychoanalysis

• Mr. Xmas

• Tiny

• West

• The Ugly Duckling

• OED

• Variations on a Sex Change

• Roman Fever

• The Ride

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Additional Resources IN PRINT Auslander, Philip. Liveness. London: Routledge, 1999.

Bouissac, Paul. Circus and Culture. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1976.

Davis, Janet M. The Circus Age. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press. 2002.

Douglas, Mary and A. Wildavsky. Risk and Culture. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1983.

Ritter, Naomi. Art as Spectacle. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1989.

Tait, Peta. Circus Bodies: Cultural Identity in Aerial Performance. London: Routledge, 2005.

Petit, Philippe. To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers. New York: North Point Press, 2002.

ONLINE www.nysun.com/arts/up-there-i-have-no-fear-philippe-petit-on-man/82261/ Ken Couch Balloon Flights [www.couchballoons.com] Video of a Ken Couch flight [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLjUlVoVWNI] Larry Walters Info [http://www.markbarry.com/lawnchairman.html] More Larry Walters Info [www.snopes.com/travel/airline/walters.asp] History of Aviation [http://www.globalaircraft.org/history_of_aviation.htm] Interview with Phlippe Petit [http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20070115-000003.html] PBS Article on Philippe Petit & the World Trade Center [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/new

york/peopleevents/p_petit.html]

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EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH at Syracuse Stage

S

yracuse Stage is committed to providing students with rich theatre experiences that connect to and reveal what it is to be human. Research shows that children who participate in or are exposed to the arts show higher academic achievement, stronger self-esteem, and improved ability to plan and work towards a future goal.

Many students in our community have their first taste of live theatre through Syracuse Stage’s outreach programs. Last season more than 35,000 students from across New York State attended or participated in the Bank of America Children’s Tour, Carrier Backstory, Lockheed Martin Project Blueprint, artsEMERGING, the Chase Young Playwrights Festival, and our Student Matinee Program.

We gratefully acknowledge the many corporations, foundations, and government agencies whose donations support our commitment to in-depth arts education for our community. The listing below respresents support towards last season’s 2007-2008 programming.

Bank of America - Bank of America Children’s Tour Bristol-Myers Squibb Company - artsEMERGING Carrier Corporation - Carrier Backstory Chase - Chase Young Playwrights Festival Excellus BlueCross BlueShield - Bank of America Children’s Tour Grandma Brown Foundation - Student Matinee Program KARE Foundation - Carrier Backstory Lockheed Martin Employees Federated Fund - Carrier Backstory,

Bank of America Children’s Tour Lockheed Martin MS2 - Lockheed Martin Project Blueprint National Grid - Student Matinee Program NYS Assembly through the office of William Magnarelli - artsEMERGING Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office - artsEMERGING Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation - Student Matinee Program Syracuse Police Department - artsEMERGING Syracuse University Division of Student Affairs - Student Matinee Program Syracuse University GEAR-UP - Carrier Backstory Target - Student Matinee Program Time Warner Cable - Carrier Backstory US Department of Justice - artsEMERGING Wegmans - Bank of America Children’s Tour

Actor Rob North signing autographs after a performance of The Mischief Makers.

Teachers from the Syracuse City School District receiving professional development from teaching artist Reenah Golden.

1,500 students from the Syracuse City School District attended matinee performances of The Bomb-itty of Errors.

08/09

come dream with uS

August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Directed by Timothy Bond September 9 – October 4

The award-winning music-filled play that captured the attention of the theatre world and launched August Wilson’s remarkable career.

Up

By Bridget Carpenter Directed by Penny Metropulos February 25 – March 15 East Coast Premiere

A soaring new play about family and following your dreams . . . even if it takes 42 balloons tied to a lawn chair.

The Diary of Anne Frank

Music and Mischief for the Holidays

Godspell The Excellus BlueCross BlueShield Family Holiday Series; A collaboration between Syracuse Stage and SU Drama

Conceived and Directed by Ping Chong October 14 - November 2 World Premiere

By Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett Newly adapted by Wendy Kesselman Directed by Timothy Bond March 31 – May 3

Conceived and Originally Directed

by John-Michael Tebelak Music and New Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz Directed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj Choreographed by Anthony Salatino November 25 – December 28

Life stories of real Syracuse residents carry us around the globe and bring us home with a more complete understanding of how we’re all connected.

A 13-year-old girl finds hope in the in face evil and teaches us all an unforgettable lesson in courage. A new adaptation of an American classic.

Filled with popular hit songs and based on the Gospel of St. Matthew, this energetic musical is a celebration of worldwide community.

Putting it Together

Crowns

A Musical Review Concept by Stephen Sondheim & Julia McKenzie Book, Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Directed & Choreographed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj January 27 - February 15

The Santaland Diaries

By Regina Taylor Adapted from the book

by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry Directed and choreographed by Patdro Harris May 13 – June 7

By David Sedaris Adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello Directed by Wendy Knox December 2 – January 4

Tales from the Salt City

At a Manhattan cocktail party, a cast of five uses Sondheim’s exquisite songs to examine the ups and downs of two relationships.

A troubled young woman journeys to her ancestral home and finds healing in the warm embrace of family, church, gospel music and tradition

Meet Crumpet, a 33-year-old starving artist turn cranky (but cute) Macy’s elf, in humorist David Sedaris’ witty gem of a lump of coal. For mature elves only.

All plays and players subject to change.

SeASon SponSorS:

www.SyracuseStage.org

Box office: 315.443.3275

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