Cast & Artistic Staff Bios

CAST

Octavia Chavez-Rich-

mond (Romola, and others) is an actor, playwright, and storyteller whose work has been featured at international film festivals and regional theatres. She holds an M.F.A. in acting from Brown University/Trinity Repertory where she received the David Wickham Playwriting Award. After graduating, Trinity Repertory awarded Octavia with the Margo Skinner Memorial Fellowship for 2018. Her original short film Lolita Express recently debuted at the NYC Indie Theatre Film Festival (March 2021). Octavia uses theatre and film to explore women’s relationship to their bodies. She is particularly interested in women of color and their sexual agency. Her work disrupts hierarchy, racism, and misogyny and challenges conventional beauty standards.

Andrea Cirie (Joan) is delighted to be making her debut at Syracuse Stage with this production. Select theatre credits include: OffBroadway: The Cherry Lane Theater. Regional Theatre: Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Hartford Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Old Globe, Barrington Stage Company, Florida Stage, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Olney Theatre Center, Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Capital Repertory, Virginia Stage, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and Playmakers Rep. Television: Blue Bloods, House of Cards (recurring), Younger, Law & Order: SVU, Madame Secretary, For Life, Search Party, The Defenders, 30 Rock, Law & Order, Unforgettable. Film: Irresistible (directed by Jon Stewart), I’ll Meet You There, Violet Tendencies, Santa Con, Off The Rails, Flatbush Luck, Norman, Gimme Shelter. Andrea is a proud union member of AEA, and SAG-AFTRA.

Rishan Dhamija (Raj) is an actor/writer based in New York. Rishan’s parents were hyped to hear that after graduating from acting school (UNC, M.F.A. ‘19), he’d get to play doctors and IT guys on TV. Something they couldn’t get him to do in real life. He wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction. And so, he got his second M.F.A. in dramatic writing (NYU-Tisch ‘21) so that he could create authentic South Asian content for himself and his friends. Rishan recently appeared on TV shows like Apple TV’s Little Voice and NBC’s New Amsterdam and will be seen next in Apple TV’s limited series WeCrashed.

Christopher Gurr (John, and others). Broadway: Cats (revival), Tuck Everlasting, Kinky Boots, Amazing Grace, and All The Way with Bryan Cranston. National Tours: Memphis, Monty Python’s Spamalot. OffBroadway: Cyrano with Peter Dinklage at New Group, Arturo Ui with Raul Esparza at Classic Stage, Call

CAST

Me Madam with Carmen Cusack at City Center. Regional credits include: Elf at Pioneer Theatre Company, Fun Home at Theatre Raleigh, Marie at 5th Avenue, The Sting at Paper Mill, plus multiple productions at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Geva Theatre Center, Berkshire Theatre Group, Indiana Rep, Ogunquit Playhouse, and Human Race. Television: Madame Secretary on CBS, At That Age pilot, Soul Santa on BET+, Gilded Age on HBO this February, and five episodes as Godwin Page (#141) on last season’s The Blacklist on NBC. Union member: Actors’ Equity, SAG/AFTRA, and the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society. Christopher has been teaching for over thirty years (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Webster University, St. Louis, Geva Theatre) and coaching in NYC for the last twelve. When he’s in the city, he misses the woods. When he’s in the woods, he misses the work. ChristopherGurr.com

Ricky Pak (Fred) is happy to make his premiere at Syracuse Stage as an actor, though he was honored to serve as director for last year’s streaming productions of Danny, King of the Basement for The Bank of America Children’s Tour and Home for the Holidays for the Syracuse Stage/Syracuse University Department of Drama main “stage” holiday show. He is an assistant professor of acting for the Department of Drama and a teaching artist with the Tectonic Theater Project in New York City. He lived in Los Angeles where he worked as a professional actor for close to 18 years prior to coming to Syracuse to teach. Pak is the artistic director of the Circle Squared Collective, a bicoastal theatre company with members in Los Angeles and Syracuse. Upcoming directorial work includes the Department of Drama’s virtual production of Id, which will debut in the spring of 2022. Recent credits: Regional Theatre: Here Comes the Sun (New York Pops Up/ The REV Theater Company), Saving the Country from Itself (Su Teatro, Denver, CO.), Valley of the Heart (el Teatro Campesino/Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles, CA). Film: I Love My Dad (Hulu), The Ultimate Playlist of Noise (Hulu). He would like to express his gratitude to Melissa, Bob, and the entire Syracuse Stage team, the Department of Drama for their support, and his wife Whitney and dog Gus for their undying love. www.TheRickyPak.com

ARTISTIC STAFF

Ann Beyersdorfer (Scenic Design) is a NYC based set and production designer, a proud Syracuse University Department of Drama alumna (‘14), and is absolutely thrilled to be back in Syracuse, designing at Syracuse Stage! TV credits include: NBC’s Saturday Night Live (current

ARTISTIC STAFF

art director of the film unit), NBC’s The Kid’s Tonight Show (assistant art director). Broadway associate design credits include: Company (the current revival), Ink, August Wilson’s Jitney, The Children, Anastasia (first national tour and EU productions). Additional associate design credits: Samson et Dalila (The Metropolitan Opera), PHISH New Year’s Eve Concert ‘17/’18 (Madison Square Garden), an immersive touring production of Peter Pan in China. Select Regional/Off-Broadway design credits include the Off-Broadway sleeper hit, Afterglow, as well as Carmen (Rose Hall at Lincoln Center, postponed), We Are the Tigers (Theatre 80 - NY premiere), Knead (The Alliance Theatre). Ann was a 2018 Live Design/LDI 30 Under 30 recipient, Broadway World Regional Award winner, a United Solo Festival Award Winner for Best Set Design, and a proud member of USA Local 829. Big thanks to the entire staff and crew at Syracuse Stage for their incredible work and support, and for being the teachers and mentors who helped shape the career that I have today. www.annbeyersdorfer.com @annbeyersdorfer

Johanna Pan (Costume Design) is a costume and sometimes scenic designer for theatre, film, dance, and opera, a textile and visual artist, host and co-producer of the podcast Dirty Laundry: Unpacking the Costume Closet. Born and raised in Singapore, they first discovered theatrical design while competing in the creative thinking competition Odyssey of the Mind and has never looked back. They are a proud feminist, lover of vintage clothing and all things related to textile arts. Johanna’s artistic practice is centered around decolonizing the imagination, breaking down the notions of feminized labor, and anti-racism. They continue to harbor hope for a more sustainable humankind in the face of adversity and dreams of a future filled with equity, inclusion, and diversity. As part of their artistic practice, they are building the curriculum for a decolonized costume history survey class. M.F.A. -NYU/TISCH, B.F.A. - Ithaca College, IG: @jpandesign

Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (Lighting Design) is an award-winning multi-disciplinary theatrical designer for theatre, dance, opera, musicals, music performances, installation, immersive experiences, and digital productions. Her designs have been seen across US cities and internationally at Havana (Cuba), Prague (Czech Republic), Lima (Peru), Edinburgh (Scotland), Tokyo (Japan), Graz (Austria), Shanghai (China), Paris (France), and Bloemfontein (South Africa). As a designer, Jeanette aims to create a visual environment that is organically integrated into the landscape and language of the production. The New York Times described her designs as “clever” and “inventive”. Recent: KPOP! (Henry Hewes Award, LIT Design Award, Lortel and Drama Desk nomination), Sweet Land (2020 Lighting Design Achievement Award), Amy

ARTISTIC STAFF

Berryman’s Walden (2021 Berkshire Theatre Awards Outstanding Lighting Design nomination), Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s cullud wattah, Whitney White’s Macbeth in Stride, Haruna Lee’s Suicide Forest, Aya Ogawa’s Ludic Proxy (Bel Geddes Design Enhancement), and En Garde Art’s installation A Dozen Dreams. In addition, she is a generative artist in devising interdisciplinary and collaborative productions with puppetry. Jeanette is the assistant arts professor and head of lighting design training with NYU’s Department of Drama Production & Design Studio (P&D). Member of Woodshed Collective, Caborca, and USA829. Recipient of the NEA/ TCG Career Development Program.

Mark Van Hare (Sound Design) is a composer, sound designer, and audio engineer working in New York City. Selected credits include Oh My Sweet Land and Villa with The Play Company; Life Sucks at the Acorn Theatre; Brother Toad at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Refuge Malja and Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods at Portland Stage Company (Portland, Maine); Las Meninas at Asolo Repertory Theatre (Sarasota, Florida); Paris! and Nutcracker Rouge! with COMPANY XIV at Irondale Theatre; Plano with Clubbed Thumb Theater Company at The Wild Project; and Men On Boats, The Wild Party, and Icarus with The Yale Dramatic Association. Mark assisted on the Eliza Tour of Hamilton; Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical at Town Hall; and Smart People at Second Stage Theater. He was production audio for Sing Street, Slave Play, and What The Constitution Means To Me at New York Theatre Workshop; Freestyle Love Supreme at Greenwich House Theatre; and The Wrong Man at MCC. Mark is currently the technical director for The Get Up podcast on Spotify. markvanhare.com

Lisa Renkel (Projection Design) is an award-winning projection designer based in New York City and is thrilled to be returning to Syracuse Stage for her third production. 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: Eureka Day (Syracuse Stage), Reefer Madness (New 42), Drama League Gala ft. 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

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(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). OffBroadway: Broadway Bounty Hunter (Greenwich 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 USA Local 829. lisarenkeldesign.com

Susan Cameron (Dialect Coach) is a voice and speech teacher and professional dialect coach in theatre, television, and film. As an educator, she currently is adjunct associate professor at The New School for Drama. Former teaching positions include full-time professor of voice and speech at Columbia’s M.F.A. acting program, adjunct professor at New York University Tisch graduate acting program and master teacher and chair of voice and speech at NYU Tisch School of the Arts undergraduate’s CAP21 program, among others. As a dialect coach, Susan has coached Lincoln Center’s The King and I, Roundabout Theatre’s national tour of Cabaret, many off- Broadway and regional theatre productions at such companies as Primary Stages, Shakespeare and Company, TACT, and George Street Playhouse. Film credits include: A Most Wanted Man, Snowflower and the Secret Fan, Solitary Man, and Lady In The Water. She was the dialect coach for seasons one and two of Marvel/Netflix’s Daredevil, as well as episodes of CBS’s television shows Instinct, Blacklist, and Blue Bloods. Susan was granted a trademark by the US government for the Cameron Method of Accent Modification, which highlights her use of hand positions in syncing the articulators of speech. Her book/ DVD/CDs Perfecting Your English Pronunciation, published by McGraw-Hill in 2012, has recently been released in a second edition, which includes a free app with twelve hours of streaming audio and an hour of streaming video. Susan’s television/radio appearances include interviews on Sinovision (China), NHK-TV (Japan), and NPR radio. She is also a published playwright/ award-winning screenwriter, and holds an M.F.A. in acting from Yale School of Drama.

Sidikha Ashraf (Dramaturg) is a Tamil-American, Muslim comedian, actress, and writer. She’s written for a pre-school comedy television program in development with DreamWorks Animation. She has also written for a comedy in development with Wildseed Studios and Netflix. Her writing is featured in the award-winning Wellesley Magazine, and she read stage directions for several of The New Group and Colt Coeur’s 2020 virtual benefit readings. Sidikha was the ’19-’20 artistic fellow at The New Group, and

ARTISTIC STAFF

a Young Playwrights fellow at the Atlanta Horizon Theater Company’s 2017 New South Young Playwrights Festival. Sidikha graduated May 2019 from Wellesley College with a degree in English and Creative Writing. In college, she was well known for her stand-up, and for writing a mock late-night show for her creative writing thesis. Today, Sidikha continues to make people laugh, especially children. She’s a proud playground associate for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, where she provides schoolage child care and teaches drama and comedy. Sidikha is, in a nutshell, a storyteller, and so, she would like to thank Melissa Crespo for inviting her onto this team to help tell this story. She would also like to thank Dipika Guha for writing Yoga Play, and hopes that Dipika’s work will inspire you to fight for the humane treatment of laborers in the athleisure and fast fashion industries.

Caitlin Sullivan (Associate Director) is a director and theatre maker based in New York City. Recent work includes Sanctuary City (Martyna Majok/NYTW), Ole White Sugah Daddy (Obehi Janice/WP Theater), Panopticon (Gracie Gardner/ Clubbed Thumb), and Cherie Dre (Sacha Yanow/Danspace). She is currently developing Ohio with The Bengsons, Nova with Obehi Janice, and United States vs Gupta with Deepali Gupta, as well as untitled new pieces by Sarah Einspanier and Martyna Majok. Caitlin was a co-founder and artistic director of Seattle’s critically acclaimed Satori Group. She is an alum of The Drama League Directors Project and the Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship and a New Georges Affiliate Artist.

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.

Bass/Valle Casting (Casting), formerly Harriet Bass Casting, is a leading NYC boutique casting office. To know more about their upcoming projects and casting philosophy please visit www.bassvallecasting.com. Harriet Bass has cast for ABC/TV, Fox Television Studios, The Public The-

ARTISTIC STAFF

atre: NEW WORK NOW, The Minetta Lane Theatre, The Women’s Project, La MaMa E.T.C., New York Women in Film and Television, and The Jewish Repertory Theatre. She has cast the last three of the late August Wilson’s ten part play series: the original Radio Golf, Broadway Gem of the Ocean, and Off-Broadway Jitney. Harriet is also a leading educator in audition technique, side and monologue coaching, and the business of acting. She has taught at the nation’s top universities and professional training programs. Gama Valle is a director, playwright, screenwriter, children’s book author, and casting director. His casting credits include: The American Tradition, The Great Novel, Split Second, I Wanna Fuck Like Romeo and Juliet, among others. He is a proud member of New Light Theatre Ensemble and the recipient of the Van Lier Directing Fellowship at Repertorio Español. Gama received the First Prize in playwriting from Puerto Rico’s Institute of Culture for his play Queishd&Dilit. Their regional casting credits include: Mark Taper Forum, Hartford Stage, Arena Stage, Trinity Rep, San Jose Rep, GeVa, Syracuse Stage, Pittsburgh Public, Merrimack Rep, Longwharf Theatre, Alliance Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, Kansas City Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Virginia Stage Company, Dallas Theatre Company, Berkeley Rep, Portland Center Stage, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. Feature films credits include: Pushing Hands directed by Ang Lee, Underheat, starring Lee Grant, First We Take Manhattan, produced by Golden Harvest Inc., and Graves End, directed by Sal Stabile.

PLAYWRIGHT

Dipika Guha is an LA based, Calcutta - born playwright raised in Russia, India, and the United Kingdom. Her plays include Yoga Play (South Coast Rep, Gateway, Moxie Theatre & SF Playhouse), The Art of Gaman (Theatre 503 London, Relentless Award semifinalist) and Unreliable (Kansas City Rep). Recent commissions include Azaan, a play for for Oregon Symphony, In Braunau for Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, contributions to You Across From Me (Humana, Actors Theatre of Louisville) and Getting There for New Conservatory Theatre Center. She is a current Venturous Fellow with the Lark for her play Passing, was a Hodder Fellow at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University and was the inaugural Shakespeare’s Sister Playwriting Fellow. Dipika is currently under commission from South Coast Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club and Barrington Stage. For television, she’s written for projects in development at AMC the series Sneaky Pete and currently writes for Black Monday on Showtime. She earned her undergraduate degree at University College London, won a Frank Knox Fellowship to Harvard University and has an M.F.A from the Yale School of Drama under Paula Vogel.

CO-PRODUCER

Geva Theatre Center. Now in its 46th Season, Geva Theatre Center is a notfor-profit, professional theatre company dedicated to creating and producing professional theatre productions, programs and services of a national standard. As Rochester’s leading professional theatre, Geva Theatre Center is the most attended regional theatre in New York State, and one of the 25 most subscribed in the country, serving up to 160,000 patrons annually, including more than 16,000 students. The 516seat Elaine P. Wilson Stage is home to a wide variety of performances, from musicals to American and world classics. The 180-seat Ron & Donna Fielding Stage is home to Geva’s own series of contemporary drama, comedy and musical theatre; Geva’s New Play Reading Series and the Hornets’ Nest–an innovative play-reading series facilitating community-wide discussion on controversial topics. In addition, the Fielding Stage hosts visiting companies of both local and international renown. Geva Theatre Center offers a wide variety of educational, outreach and literary programs, nurturing audiences and artists alike. Since 1995, the organization has been under the artistic direction of Mark Cuddy.

DIRECTOR/ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Melissa Crespo is a director of new plays, musicals, and opera. Upcoming: world premiere of Justice, book by Lauren Gunderson, music by Bree Lowdermilk, and lyrics by Kait Kerrigan (Arizona Theatre Company). As a playwright, her play Egress, co-written with Sarah Saltwick, will receive an NNPN rolling world premiere at Salt Lake Acting Company. 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”.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Robert Hupp is in his sixth season as artistic director of Syracuse Stage. He recently directed Eureka Day, 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

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

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.

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 was 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 MacArthur 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 Broadway-bound 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 most-produced 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 for Regional Studies. Previously, Kyle was faculty in the M.F.A. Creative Writing program at Goddard College from 2006 to 2018, taught playwriting in Syracuse University’s Department