Kyle Bass

“I’m honored that Kyle Bass has accepted the position of associate artistic director,” says Hupp. “Kyle and I will work together to build on the theater’s rich artistic history while we chart a new course of artistic identity and exploration. Kyle has been instrumental in the transition process. His experience as a playwright and dramaturg, combined with his keen insight and knowledge of the field, and his commitment to community engagement, make him an exceptional artistic partner for me, and an ideal artistic collaborator for ���ϲ����� Stage.”

As resident dramaturg, Bass worked closely with former producing artistic director Tim Bond in selecting plays for ���ϲ����� Stage seasons. He also provided dramaturgical support for numerous ���ϲ����� Stage productions, including “The Christians,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson,” “Blithe Spirit,” “Scorched,” “The Whipping Man,” “The Glass Menagerie,” “Moby Dick,” “The Brothers Size,” “Red,” “Caroline, or Change,” “Radio Golf,” “No Child …,””August Wilson’s Fences,” “The Price,” “Little Women,” “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.”

An accomplished playwright, Bass worked closely with Ping Chong on two ���ϲ����� Stage projects that became part of Chong’s “Undesirable Elements” series. “Tales From the Salt City” had its world premiere at ���ϲ����� Stage in 2008. “Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo,” which Bass co-wrote, premiered at Stage in 2012 and was subsequently produced at La MaMa Etc. in New York.�� His one-man play “Carver at Tuskegee” was produced as part of ���ϲ����� Stage’s “BackStory!” series.

“I’m honored to continue with ���ϲ����� Stage as associate artistic director and excited to work with Bob Hupp. His commitment to developing and producing new plays and the emphasis he places on connecting the art of what we do to the heart of who we are both builds on Stage’s history and shines a bold and necessary light toward the future of this organization. I’m thrilled to play a key role in the next chapter of Stage’s history,” Bass says.

Bass recently worked with MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Carrie Mae Weems on her theater piece “Grace Notes: Reflections for Now,” which had its world premiere at the 2016 Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina. He also co-authored (with director-writer Kim Bass) the original screenplay “Day of Days,” a film starring award-winning veteran actor Tom Skerritt, scheduled for release this year.

Bass’ stage plays include “Tender Rain, Bleecker Street, Fall/Out,” produced by the Kitchen Theatre, “The Heart of Fear,” published in the journal Stone Canoe; and “Northeast,” which appeared in the journal Callaloo. He is currently at work on a new play titled “Possessing Harriet,” which was commissioned by the Onondaga Historical Association and developed at the Kitchen Theatre, and a screenplay adaptation of the novel “Milk” by Darcey Steinke.

In addition to his work at ���ϲ����� Stage, Bass is a faculty member in the M.F.A. Creative Writing Program at Goddard College and teaches playwriting in the ���ϲ����� Department of Drama, at Colgate University and at Hobart & William Smith Colleges.

As a writer, Bass is a two-time recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (for fiction writing and for playwriting), a semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Award and a Pushcart Prize nominee. Bass’s prose and other writings have appeared in the journals Folio and Stone Canoe, among others, and in the anthology “Alchemy of the Word: Writers Talk about Writing.” Bass is drama editor for Stone Canoe. He holds an M.F.A. in playwriting from Goddard College and is a member of the Dramatist Guild of America.

Running Oct. 19, 2016 through May 28, 2017, the 44^th ���ϲ����� Stage season includes: an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations,” the family musical “Mary Poppins,” the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Disgraced,” the joyous musical revue “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning “How I Learned to Drive” and the seriously funny and scary “Deathtrap.”

Season subscribers and flexible ticket package holders for the 2016/2017 season also have the opportunity to purchase single tickets to all shows, including “Mary Poppins,” prior to the public on-sale date of Sept. 6.

“I see this season as a parting gift and an expression of gratitude for having had the opportunity to serve as producing artistic director for nine seasons,” says Tim Bond, who will join the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle this July. “I hope the community will be just as dazzled and intrigued by this final line-up of plays I’ve selected as audiences on Broadway and across the world have been.”

Subscriptions and FlexPacks can be purchased at or by calling the Box Office at 315-443-3275.

The game is wildly and hilariously afoot as ���ϲ����� Stage concludes the 2015/2016 season with “Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery,” running May 11-29.

Directed by Peter Amster and featuring a cast of five actors who take on more than 30 roles, this madcap comedy spoofs Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles” while preserving the enticing elements of the mystery.

“This version stays very close to Conan Doyle’s original tale, even more so than other dramatic adaptations I’ve worked on,” Amster says. “With Ken Ludwig’s version, you get the mystery, a whole lot of comedy and plenty of opportunities for some terrific performances from the cast.”

The style and feel of “Baskerville” is much like that of “Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps,” which Amster directed at ���ϲ����� Stage in 2010. Like “The 39 Steps,” “Baskerville” is filled with lightning quick character and costume changes that add to the excitement and fun. As one review noted, “Baskerville” plays like “a circus of non-stop comedy.”

That sense of unbridled fun is in keeping with playwright Ludwig’s theatrical inclinations. Best known for the hit comedies “Lend Me A Tenor” and “Moon Over Buffalo,” Ludwig believes that theater is “always a place to have a great time—that’s why it exists. It’s OK to have fun in the theater.”

He also believes that this particular historical moment is ripe for a hero like Sherlock Holmes.

“Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson have been a staple of our culture since the 1890s, but they have recently re-entered our world in a more muscular way,” Ludwig explained prior to the play’s world premiere at Arena Stage last year. “For some reason, it seems to be just the right time for Holmes and Watson. Perhaps these days we crave a hero who succeeds despite, or perhaps because of, his quirks, his obsessions and his near-fatal flaws.”

Ludwig also explained that revisiting the Sherlock Holmes stories provided him with an opportunity to write a kind of expansive play full of wonder and adventure that is largely absent from contemporary theater.

“I’ve written a big, and what I hope is a rollicking, mysterious, exciting, funny piece that takes place all over southern England in the 1890s,” the playwright told playbill.com.

Creating that expansive world, including the ferocious hell-hound of the title, has been an exciting challenge for the ���ϲ����� Stage scenic, costume and prop shops. ���ϲ����� Stage producing artistic director Tim Bond believes Stage’s artisans and technical crew will deliver what is needed.

“So much of this show requires split-second timing by the cast, and they need the physical elements of the production to work flawlessly,” he explains. “I think our audiences will be thrilled by how the design elements enhance the enjoyment of the show. There may even be a few surprises.”

Tickets are available at and at the Box Office, 315-443-3275 (Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and two hours before curtain).

The season opens on Sept. 30 and concludes May 13, 2017. The six shows are available on subscription for $99. Discounted subscriptions, $89, are available for seniors, students and new this season, for ���ϲ����� employees. The Department of Drama is also introducing a flexible ticket package, Flex 4Pack, for $60. Flex 4Pack tickets are not valid for “Mary Poppins.”

“As always, our season will provide a wide range of entertaining and provocative evenings in the theater,” says Ralph Zito, chair of the Department of Drama. “I hope that our new Flex 4Pack and ���ϲ����� employee subscription options will mean that even more people have the chance to enjoy the work of our talented young artists.”

Set in Paris in 1900, the play tells the story of life insurance executive Victor Chandebise, who becomes the subject of an elaborate ruse concocted by his wife, Raymonde. She suspects that her husband’s sudden lack of passion in the bedroom signifies that he is cheating on her. Together with the help of her best friend, Lucienne, Raymonde writes Victor an anonymous letter, requesting a meeting at the dubious Frisky Puss Hotel. As is the case with stories of mistaken identity, hilarity ensues as Raymonde, Victor, Lucienne and a host of other characters gather at the establishment, everybody wondering what on Earth is going on.

Cross’ decision to direct this Feydeau masterpiece for the Department of Drama stems from how much fun he had working on a different production of the play years ago. Feydeau farces are known for their zany plots, which unfold at breakneck speed from the moment the curtain goes up and don’t let up until the curtain comes down.

“It requires excellent comedic skills and highly precise physicality,” says Cross. In this production the cast will have to be both actors and acrobats, as they dive their way around the furniture and objects on the set. In fact, it is estimated that, from start to finish, the three-act play contains a total of 274 entrances and exits.

And, yet for all the sidesplitting silliness, Cross feels that Feydeau had a more serious reason for writing such a farcical comedy. “He was writing, I suppose, about his own failed boring bourgeois life, marriage, and so on,” says Cross, “He does not think highly of his class, its follies, and the tragic ennui that makes for lousy fathers and husbands and just possibly sets the moral stage for world wars.” But the hilarious adventure that this play’s characters find themselves on makes for a stupendously memorable night at the theater.

Tickets for “A Flea in Her Ear” are $17 and $19 and are available at the Box Office (315-443-3275) and . Student rush tickets (with valid ID) are available for $8 at the Box Office on the day of performance.

Cross is an assistant professor of acting in the Department of Drama. A member of the Actors’ Equity Association, he founded the Irondale Ensemble Project in Canada and serves as its artistic director. While a faculty member at ���ϲ�����, Cross has directed the Department of Drama’s production of “Lysistrata” during the 2010-2011 season, and, in ���ϲ����� Stage’s 2011 co-production of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” he played the roles of “Maugrim” and “Rumblebuffin.”

Adapter David Ives was born in Chicago in 1950. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1971 with a degree in English and, in 1984, earned a master of fine arts degree from the Yale School of Drama. In 1995, he was named a Guggenheim Fellow for playwriting. As a playwright, Ives’ works include “All in the Timing,” “Ancient History,” “Don Juan in Chicago,” “The Red Address” and the Tony-winning “Venus in Fur.” He has written several musical adaptations for the Encores! series at New York City’s City Center. Ives has also served as editor for Foreign Affairs magazine and as a contributor to The New Yorker and Spy. In 2006, he wrote a new translation of “A Flea in her Ear” for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. As an author, Ives’ bibliography includes the young adult novels “The Phobia Clinic” and “Monsieur Eek.”

Feydeau was one of the most influential playwrights of France’s Belle Epoque era in the early 20^th century. Born in Paris in 1862, he was fascinated by theater at an early age. He wrote his play “Through the Window” at the age of 20. Feydeau’s first major theatrical success as a playwright happened in 1886, when he was only 24, with “Ladies’ Dressmaker.” Following a two-year hiatus, during which he studied the works of other playwrights who had written farces, Feydeau returned in 1892 with two back-to-back successes, “Monsieur Has Gone Hunting” and “Champignol In Spite of Himself.” His other plays include “Paradise Hotel” (1894), “The Lady from Maxim’s” (1899), and “A Flea in Her Ear” (1907). It is estimated that he wrote as many as 60 plays during his lifetime, many of them farces and the last of which he wrote in 1914. Feydeau later suffered a mental breakdown and ultimately died of syphilis in 1921, at the age of 58.

Running Oct. 19, 2016, through May 28, 2017, the 44^th ���ϲ����� Stage season includes: an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations,” the family musical “Mary Poppins,” the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Disgraced,” the joyous musical revue “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning “How I Learned to Drive” and the seriously funny and scary “Deathtrap.”

Season subscriptions and flexible ticket packages for the 2016/2017 season will be available beginning June 1. Single tickets for all shows will be on sale beginning Sept. 6. Subscribers and ticket package holders will have advance opportunity to purchase single tickets to “Mary Poppins” and all the shows in the season. Six-play subscriptions range from $150 to $282. Flexible packages of four, six or eight tickets (FlexPacks) range from $176 to $304.

This season represents the final line-up of plays selected by outgoing producing artistic director Timothy Bond before he joins the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle. Bond says he sees the season “as a parting gift and an expression of gratitude for having had the opportunity to serve as producing artistic director for nine seasons.”

Robert M. Hupp, current artistic director of Arkansas Rep, takes over for Bond in July.

The 2016/2017 ���ϲ����� Stage season kicks off with a lively and moving adaptation of Dickens’ classic novel “Great Expectations.” This compact stage version offers a terrific opportunity to experience what is arguably Dickens’ greatest novel in one energetic and sweeping evening of theater. Adaptor Gale Childs Daly cuts right to the narrative core of Pip’s unexpected journey from orphan to gentleman as aided and inhibited by three memorable Dickens characters: the escaped convict Magwitch, the beautiful Estella and the lonely, embittered Miss Havisham. Six actors create an atmospheric Victorian world in this fast-paced coming-of-age adventure. Veteran director Michael Bloom, former artistic director of the Cleveland PlayHouse, guides this truly lovely tale of fortunes gained and lost, of love misused, of hope dashed and peace attained at last.

This year, the holidays will be simply supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as the beloved musical “Mary Poppins” brightens everyone’s spirits with an enchanting mixture of irresistible story, unforgettable songs, breathtaking dance numbers and astonishing stage magic. The Banks children, Jane and Michael, have been positively beastly to a series of nannies. Enter (from above, of course) Mary Poppins with her magic tricks and common sense know-how to charm children and grown-ups alike and remind them how important they are to each other. Peter Amster (“The Fantasticks,” “This Wonderful Life,” “Alfred Hitchcock’s the 39 Steps,” “Moby Dick,” “A Christmas Carol” and Ken Ludwig’s “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery”) directs with choreography by Anthony Salatino and musical direction by Brian Cimmet. “Mary Poppins” played more than 2,500 performances on Broadway and won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical (2007). Co-produced with the ���ϲ����� Department of Drama.

Ayad Akhtar is a daring new voice in American theater, and his searing drama “Disgraced” has racked up major awards (Pulitzer Prize 2013, Tony Award for Best Play 2015) since it premiered in 2012. A successful lawyer, Amir Kapour, is a deeply assimilated Pakistani-American with the perfect job, the perfect apartment and the perfect wife—until it all unravels over the course of a single dinner party (one of the most explosive scenes in recent theater). “Disgraced” is a timely and taut (90 minutes) drama that engages mind and heart with refreshing and stunning candor as it explores the cultural and personal fracturing Amir encounters as he pursues his ideal of the American Dream. May Adrales (“Chinglish” and “In the Next Room, or the vibrator play”) directs this blistering social drama that bristles with wit and intelligence.

Following this hard-hitting drama is a musical revue of unbridled joy and sassy repartee as “Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show” brings the sounds of the Golden Age of the Cotton Club to rollicking life. Step back into the sparkling nightlife of a 1930s jazz club in this celebration of the jazz legend whose musical influence extended from Uptown to Tin Pan Alley to Hollywood. Twenty-nine famous songs, including “‘T Ain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” “The Joint is Jumpin’,” and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” keep the music and good times flowing in “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” Patdro Harris (“Crowns”) directs and choreographs.

Since the 1990s, Paula Vogel has impressed audiences and critics alike with her ability to take complex characters and situations and bring them to the stage with nuance, insight and delicate theatricality. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning play (1998) “How I Learned to Drive” chronicles the troubling relationship between an adolescent girl, Li’l Bit, and her Uncle Peck. Accompanied by a soundtrack of 1950s pop music, the play unfolds as a tapestry of memories and finds unexpected humor and compassion as it avoids easy answers and judgments. “How I Learned to Drive” is a beautifully layered bitter-sweet drama about all-too-human characters and their lasting impact on each other. ���ϲ����� Stage co-produces “How I Learned to Drive” with the Cleveland PlayHouse, whose artistic director Laura Kepley (“Good People”) directs.

The season closes with a revival of Ira Levin’s landmark comedy-thriller “Deathtrap,” which excited Broadway audiences for four years in the late ’70s and early ’80s before becoming an equally tantalizing feature film starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve. The play features Sidney Bruhl, a successful playwright lately plagued by a series of flops. When a sure-fire hit drops into his hands courtesy of a young student, Bruhl concocts a devilish plan that twists and turns on its roller coaster course right through to the final moments. As spellbinding and entertaining as ever, this is a masterful play from the archives that is ripe for reconsideration. Paul Barnes (“The Miracle Worker,” “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” and “Peter Pan”) directs.

Based on the books by P.L. Travers and one of the most popular Disney movies of all time, “Mary Poppins” delighted Broadway audiences for over 2,500 performances and received nominations for nine Olivier and seven Tony��Awards, including Best Musical.

Join jack-of-all trades Bert, in a visit to England in 1910 and the household of the Banks family, where 11-year-old Jane and 9-year-old Michael have been positively beastly to a series of well-intentioned nannies. Enter (from above, of course) Mary Poppins, with her magic tricks and common sense know-how to charm children and grown-ups alike and remind them how important they are to each other.

“Mary Poppins” is an enchanting mixture of irresistible story, unforgettable songs, breathtaking dance numbers and astonishing stagecraft, with lovable characters and plenty of opportunity for special effects and magical illusions.

Veteran director Peter Amster returns to ���ϲ����� Stage to helm this stunning musical spectacular. He will be joined by choreographer Anthony Salatino and musical director Brian Cimmet. Previously at ���ϲ����� Stage, Amster directed “The Fantasticks,” Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps,” “Moby Dick,” “A Christmas Carol” and the current season’s closer Ken Ludwig’s “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery.”

“Mary Poppins” continues the long string of popular holiday co-productions between ���ϲ����� Stage and the Department of Drama. Recent co-productions include “Peter Pan,” “Hairspray,” “A Christmas Carol” and “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.” Single tickets will be available first to ���ϲ����� Stage subscribers and Flexpack holders.

Audition information

���ϲ����� Stage and director Peter Amster will hold auditions on April 18 for the following roles for “Mary Poppins.” For more information or to make an appointment contact Chris Botek at 315-443-4008.��

Jane: ��the high-spirited daughter of Mr. and Mr. Banks is bright and precocious but can be willful and inclined to snobbishness. Gender: female Age: 10-12.

Michael: the cute and cheeky son of Mr. and Mrs. Banks. Excitable and naughty, he adores his father and tries to be like him. Both he and Jane misbehave in order to get the attention of their parents. Gender: male Age: 9-11.

Audition scenes will be provided. Those auditioning should prepare 8-16 bars of an upbeat song to be sung without accompaniment.

Madeleine Peyroux (Photo by Marina Chavez)

Tickets for the concert will be available May 2 at the ���ϲ����� Stage Box Office, 315-443-3275 and . General admission ($25) seating is available in the balcony. Doors will open at 8:45 p.m. and the concert will begin at 9 p.m.

Tickets for the entire Gala event include cocktail reception, silent auction, dinner and concert, are available now at 315-443-2709.

Peyroux began her career at 15 as an American in Paris busking on the city streets, spent the next several years traveling around Europe performing jazz standards and was finally discovered in the early ’90s in a New York City jazz nightclub. She has released seven studio albums consisting of both original works and cover songs that are soulful, earthy takes on her musical inspirations, and has collaborated with many well-known artists such as former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman. Peyroux’s music can be heard in several films and television shows, including “Union Square,” “Last Holiday” and HBO’s critically acclaimed series “Deadwood.” More information can be found at .

���ϲ����� Stage Gala 2016 is presented by the ���ϲ����� Stage Board of Trustees and ���ϲ����� Stage Guild. The fifth annual Louis G. Marcoccia Award for Exemplary Service to ���ϲ����� Stage will be presented to three individuals who, when combined, have more than 75 years of service to ���ϲ����� Stage. Individuals being honored are Tim Bond, who is in his ninth and farewell season as producing artistic director; Diana Coles, who has been with ���ϲ����� Stage for 31 years and is topping off her career as interim managing director; and Barbara Beckos, who joined ���ϲ����� Stage in 1978 and retired in 2015 after 36 years, during which time she served in various capacities, including director of marketing and development.

Gala honorary chair is Louis G. Marcoccia, president of ���ϲ����� Stage’s Board of Trustees. Event co-chairs are Robert Pomfrey, chair of the ���ϲ����� Stage Board of Trustees, and Jacki Goldberg, vice president for fundraising of the ���ϲ����� Stage Guild Board. Underwriters for the event are Jacki and Michael Goldberg, ���ϲ����� Stage Guild Board, and The POMCO Group. All proceeds will benefit ���ϲ����� Stage artistic and educational programming.

Larry Powell and Andrew Garman in “The Christians” at Actors Theatre of Louisville

Since its premiere at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at the famed Actors Theatre of Louisville, “The Christians” has been produced at numerous theaters, including Playwrights Horizons in New York. The New York Times called it one of the best plays of the season and called playwright Hnath one of the brightest new voices of his generation.

Set in a large, contemporary, non-denominational Christian church, “The Christians” is performed with lively theatricality that emulates a Sunday service. The actors use hand-held microphones throughout and much of the performance has the rhythm and feel of a sermon. A live choir, under the direction of composer Michael Keck, sings gospel songs. The choir at ���ϲ����� Stage is made up of local members of the community.

The substance of “The Christians” concerns the impact of a decision by the congregation’s popular pastor to announce a change of heart and mind concerning a matter of doctrine. The decision has unexpected and unintended consequences for the pastor, his family and the congregation. Throughout, Hnath steadfastly avoids taking sides. His concern is not to make a determination of right or wrong, but rather to explore the widening divide that makes communication and understanding increasingly difficult.

“I have a powerful urge to communicate with you, but I feel there is an insurmountable distance between us,” the pastor, named Paul, says at one point.

Producing artistic director Tim Bond directs the ���ϲ����� Stage production. He believes that Hnath’s observations could be applied to any number of subjects that create rifts between people. Hnath has chosen religion as his subject to contextualize the action and to prompt an examination about “our deepest and, often, most noble desires and motivations and yearnings,” as a review in Christianity Today noted.

This production marks Bond’s final directorial effort as ���ϲ����� Stages producing artistic director. In July, he moves to the University of Washington in Seattle, where he joins the theater faculty as a full professor. In many ways, “The Christians” is a fitting capstone to his nine-year tenure. It is a play that encourages community and invites people of all faiths, believers and non-believers, to try to overcome the seemingly insurmountable divides evident in so many aspects of the contemporary world.

Hnath grew up in a Christian household in Orlando, Fla. During his childhood, he expected to become a preacher. He attended college at New York University, where he studied pre-med before switching to dramatic writing. He went on to earn both a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. in dramatic writing from the university. Hnath now teaches as part of the dramatic writing faculty at the university. His previous works include “Isaac’s Eye,” “Death Tax” and “Red Speedo.” For “The Christians,” Hnath has received the Kesselring Prize and the Steinberg/ACTA New Play Award, among other awards.

Tickets are available at syracusestage.org, and at the Box Office, 443-3275 (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and two hours before curtain).

The Department of Drama production, directed by department chair Ralph Zito, runs at the Storch Theatre in the ���ϲ����� Stage/SU Drama Complex from April 1-10.

Upon finishing a five-year jail sentence, Perchance “Percy” Talbott heads to Gilead, a Wisconsin town whose beautiful natural surroundings she found a photograph of in a donated travel book. In the economically depressed town, Percy finds work at the Spitfire Grill, run by the bitter Hannah Ferguson, who has been trying to sell the Spitfire Grill and start over. When Percy comes up with the idea of having a nationwide raffle and essay contest to find a new proprietor, she and the town learn that, in order to have a brighter future, one must first move on from the past.

The story of “The Spitfire Grill” has drawn widespread praise for its heartening take on the human spirit and its beautifully crafted score. “From the first notes of the opening song ‘Ring Around the Moon,’ right through to the uplifting end of the show, the score is a pure delight,” BroadwayWorld.com reported.

For Zito, this particular production marks his first time directing a musical. What drew him to “The Spitfire Grill” was its direct simplicity, in comparison to more traditional song-and-dance musicals. “I thought I could bring more to the experience, both as an artist and a teacher, if the piece had as much of a focus on the scenes as on the music,” says Zito. A veteran of directing Shakespeare, he and his cast dedicated one entire week of rehearsals to analyzing the written text of “The Spitfire Grill” script, excluding the music. “I have tried as much as possible to work in the same way that I always work,” says Zito, “I’m a pretty text-centered guy.”

For the role of Percy, Zito needed an actress who could convey the emotionally shut off Percy’s inner life without being shut off from the other actors or the audience. “It’s a challenging line to walk,” acknowledges Zito. Of all the characters in the musical, Percy sings more than anyone. “I needed somebody who could really animate and really come into what was going on for her musically. The particular sort of folk inflection of the music creates certain demands in the singer’s tone and their ability to express through that tone and through that medium,” says Zito.

The set designs of previous productions of the musical focused principally on the diner itself. But Zito and his set designer, Mary Olin Geiger, an alumna of the Department of Drama, purposely decided to make the woods surrounding Gilead a constant presence for the Department of Drama’s production. “The woods and the surrounding area is as much, if not more, the heart of the story,” says Zito, “It is the woods that heals Percy.” And it is Percy’s relationship to the woods that ultimately transforms the people of Gilead as well as their perception of their home.

Zito has served as department chair for the Department of Drama since 2010. Before coming to ���ϲ�����, he was chair of Juilliard’s Drama Division, as well as a professor in the school’s voice and speech department.

James Valcq and Fred Alley, both from Wisconsin, met as high school students at a music camp in the summer of 1980. Their first collaboration was a musical called “The Passage” for the American Folklore Theatre in 1994. Their next collaboration was the musical adaptation of “The Spitfire Grill.”

Cast

Maria Bufalini………………………………………………………………………PERCY

Jerrod Everett………………………………………………………………………CALEB

Kristen Kozma……………………………………………………………….………EFFY

Jenna Najjar……………………………………………………………………..HANNAH

Michael Roach…………………………………………………………..……………..JOE

Kelsey Roberts……………………………………………………………………SHELBY

Andrew Ryan……………………………………………………………THE STRANGER

Ensemble

Emily Harkins, McKenna Batterson, Hannah Shaffer, Taylor Feldman

Understudies

Jacob Arbittier (The Stranger), McKenna Batterson (Shelby), Taylor Feldman (Hannah), Emily Harkins (Percy), Andrew Ryan (Joe, Caleb), Hannah Shaffer (Effy)

The design team includes Mary Olin Geiger (scenic design), Katie Tulin (costume design), Emily Stork (lighting design), and Kevin O’Connor (sound design). Bianca Boller is the stage manager.

Through the familiar story of small-town lawyer Atticus Finch, his daughter Scout and the falsely accused Tom Robinson, the stage adaptation by Christopher Sergel, like its source material, examines the destruction of childhood innocence in a world poisoned by fear, hatred and racial prejudice.

Lee’s iconic story has had an influence on Bond, as an African American man and as an artist. “’To Kill a Mockingbird’ is a book and a story that has always moved me,” says Bond, who began considering adding the play to a ���ϲ����� Stage season 18 months ago. Bond sees the play as a way of addressing national issues of xenophobia and racial injustice. These prejudices have always been around but have seemingly exploded recently, demonstrating that they have never been an issue that only exists in the South. In casting the production, Bond found that his cast shared his opinion on the importance of mounting the play in these times. “I think the themes that the play and the original story that Harper Lee is touching on are still incredibly relevant,” says Bond, “I’d say tragically relevant, today.”

Bond conducted extensive auditions for the roles of the three child characters at the center of the story, particularly the character of young Scout. In order for the roles to resonate as truthfully as the adult characters, Bond needed child actors with a strong sense of emotional maturity that would allow them to better comprehend such complicated themes. In casting local child actors Sera Bullis, Matthew Caraccioli and Anthony Cawley, Bond found the qualities that he was looking for. These actors would need to read the book as well as to learn about the Jim Crow South and gender roles in the 1930s, as a way of understanding the town of Maycomb. “What makes someone mature is experience,” says Bond. “So I wanted kids that brought the right experience.”

Along with the three children, the show features a cast of veteran stage actors and 12 members of the local community who will fill out the gallery in the courtroom.

Bond is currently in his last season as producing artistic director at ���ϲ����� Stage. The upcoming play “The Christians” will be his final production. He will be moving to Seattle this summer to become a full professor at the University of Washington.

Nelle Harper Lee, born in 1926, grew up in Monroeville, Ala. “To Kill a Mockingbird” was her first book. For the book, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1961 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007. Her book was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1962. A sequel, “Go Set a Watchman,” was published in 2015.

Tickets are available at , and at the Box Office, 443-3275 (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and two hours before curtain).

Tickets range $17-$19 and can be purchased at , by phone at 315-443-3275 and in person at the Box Office, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Set at a private British grammar school, the equivalent to an American high school, the play navigates the increasingly on-edge angst of seven teenagers during their preparation for final examinations. As if there weren’t enough pressure already to perform well in their studies, their examination results determine where they’ll be able to go to university. At its core, the play looks at how our society, with its increasingly high expectations to be successful and its stigmatization of mistakes, has turned school into the ultimate pressure cooker.

Moss feels that students will relate to the play due to the brutal honesty of Stephens’ writing in depicting the relentless pressures that multiple forces, from education systems to parents, place on young people today.

“He [Stephens] creates real, three-dimensional people,” says Moss. “I think he’s drawn seven incredibly honest portrayals of these seven kids. They’re very different from each other. They each have their incredible anxieties.”

The play runs without an intermission, which allows the audience to feel the tensions that the students find themselves trapped by. The setting, a school library utilized by the students, stays the same throughout the play, except for the last scene, in which an adult character appears for the first time. Over the course of seven scenes, the audience gets to know the seven students in all of their insecurities and witness how the pressure they feel manifests in various destructive guises.

One of Moss’ creative decisions for the play is to have the cast dance to punk music during the play’s interludes, or scene changes, as a way of showing each character’s inner “punk.” “Each one of the interludes is centered on one or another of the seven characters,” says Moss. In researching punk music, he found that the rebellious genre centers on the act of doing something simply because you can. “It’s meant to be a kind of inner explosion of what this character would really be like, getting rid of tension,” adds Moss.

Moss served as the artistic director of Ithaca’s Hangar Theatre from 1982-1996, and then at ���ϲ����� Stage from 1996-2008. He has also taught in the Department of Drama at ���ϲ�����.

Simon Stephens, born in 1971, is a British playwright whose earliest plays focused on the plights of youth. He attended the University of York, graduating with a degree in History. Raised in the British town of Stockport, the married father of three and former teacher currently lives in London. Stephens won a Tony Award in 2015 for his stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s 2003 bestseller “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.”

Advisory: “Punk Rock” contains incidents of violence, including gun violence. It is intended for mature audiences.

Bond announced last May that the current ���ϲ����� Stage season, 2015-16, would be his last with the company, where he has served since 2007.

Timothy Bond

“I am thrilled about returning to my artistic birthplace in Seattle and honored to join the distinguished faculty at the University of Washington School of Drama. I look forward to sharing my passion for social activism and inclusive theaterwith the next generation of artistic leaders and global citizens,” Bond says.

As a full professor at the University of Washington, Bond will teach acting and directing on the undergraduate and graduate levels in the School of Drama beginning in the fall of 2016.�� Bond received his M.F.A. in directing from the university in 1983 and began his professional career in Seattle at the Group Theatre.

“This is big and wonderful news for the School of Drama,” says Todd London, the school’s executive director. “It represents a real homecoming—to Seattle and the University of Washington—for a major American artist and educator.”

Bond says he will also continue his artistic work by pursuing freelance directing opportunities. In addition to his work at ���ϲ����� Stage, Bond has directed at numerous theaters, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he was an associate artistic director for 11 years; and the Seattle Group Theatre, where he served for 13 years, including five years as artistic director. In a theater career spanning nearly 30 years, Bond’s credits also include productions at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Guthrie and Arena Stage, among others.

Among the many highlights of Bond’s tenure at ���ϲ����� Stage was the company’s first international transfer. In 2012, Bond directed Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “The Brothers Size.” Following the play’s run in ���ϲ�����, the production transferred to the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa, and from there to the famed Market Theatre in Johannesburg.�� Three years later, Stage presented The Market Theatre’s production of “Sizwe Banzi is Dead,” directed by Tony Award-winner and internationally acclaimed theater artist John Kani.

Bond also brought internationally renowned artist and National Medal of Arts recipient Ping Chong to ���ϲ����� Stage. In 2008, Chong created “Tales from the Salt City,” based on the lives of seven Central New Yorkers. In 2012, Chong returned for “Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo,” a play co-written with ���ϲ����� Stage dramaturg Kyle Bass and based on the experiences of members of ���ϲ�����’s Congolese community.

As a director, Bond also made an impact with his own productions, including five plays from August Wilson’s Century Cycle: “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Fences,” “Radio Golf,” “Two Trains Running” and “The Piano Lesson.” Other notable productions were “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “The Price,” “No Child ….” “The Boys Next Door,” “The Whipping Man” and “Other Desert Cities.”�� Bond closes out his tenure at ���ϲ����� Stage with the upcoming “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Christians.”

Bond was the fourth artistic leader in ���ϲ����� Stage’s 43-year history. He was preceded by Robert Moss (1996-2007), Tazewell Thompson (1992-95) and founding producing artistic director Arthur Storch (1974-1992). On Jan. 7, ���ϲ����� Stage announced the appointment of Robert Hupp as the company’s new artistic director.

Katie deBuys, Cody Nickell, Kate Eastwood Norris and Rick Foucheux, from left, in the 2013 world premiere of “Stupid F***ing Bird” at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Stan Barouh)

���ϲ����� Stage begins 2016 with the irreverent comedy “Stupid F***ing Bird,” a contemporary mash-up of Anton Chekhov’s modern classic “The Seagull.” Written by Aaron Posner and directed by Howard Shalwitz, the play comes to ���ϲ����� Stage from the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C., where it won two Helen Hayes Awards and performed to sold-out houses.

Not so much an adaptation as a new play built on the bones of “The Seagull,” “Stupid F***ing Bird” gives Chekhov’s famous characters and themes a decidedly up-to-date spin. An aspiring young director rampages against the art created by his mother’s generation. A nubile young actress wrestles with an aging Hollywood star for the affections of a renowned novelist. Plus, unrequited love abounds as Dev loves Mash who loves Con who loves Nina who sort of loves Con back but now only has eyes for Trig. Love, art and growing up prove so disappointing, and so comical.

“What Aaron does is sort of remove the entire social context from 19^th century Russia,” says Shalwitz. “As a result, he focuses more on simple, universal human relationships, or look at young people who have these dreams of how they want their lives to go and struggle to move beyond those dreams when they don’t work out.”

Part of the way Posner updates Chekhov is to use songs and to let the characters speak directly to the audience to express their thoughts and feelings. At times, they even solicit advice from the audience. “The proverbial ‘fourth wall’ of theatrical realism is shattered from the very first line,” Shalwitz notes, as the play does not begin until the audience says it can.

Posner is a highly regarded director and playwright whose adaptations include “The Chosen” and “My Name is Asher Lev” by Chaim Potok. He recently collaborated with the magician Teller (of Penn and Teller fame) on an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. He is a founder and former artistic director of the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia.

Shalwitz is a co-founder of Woolly Mammoth Theatre, where he has served as artistic director for more than 30 years. In 2014, he won the Margo Jones Award in recognition of his 35-year commitment to new American plays. Woolly Mammoth has earned a reputation as one of the country’s most influential producers of innovative, provocative new work. The New York Times once cited the theater as “Washington’s most daring theatre company.” In addition to 40 plays at Woolly Mammoth, Shalwitz has directed at numerous leading theater companies.

With the exception of one actor, the cast of “Stupid F***ing Bird” is the same company that appeared in Woolly Mammoth’s world premiere in 2013 and subsequent revival in 2014. For the ���ϲ����� Stage production, Ian Holcomb replaces Brad Koed in the role of Conrad Arkadina, or Con. A 2011 graduate of the ���ϲ����� Department of Drama, Koed was scheduled to continue in the role but changed plans when he was cast in the new PBS series “Mercy Street.” Holcomb brings an impressive set of credits, having worked extensively off-Broadway in New York, including productions at Theatre for a New Audience (under the direction of Julie Taymor) and at the Irish Repertory Theatre.

���ϲ����� Stage is co-producing “Stupid F***ing Bird” with Portland Center Stage in Portland, Ore.

“Stupid F***ing Bird” performs Jan. 20-Feb. 7 in the Archbold Theatre at the ���ϲ����� Stage/Drama Complex, 820 E. Genesee St. The opening night performance is Friday, Jan. 22, at 8 p.m. Tickets and information are available at , by phone at 315-443-3275 or in person at the ���ϲ����� Stage Box Office (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and two hours before curtain in the evening and on weekends). Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more at 315-443-9844. Discounts are also available for seniors, students and U.S military personnel and veterans. Sign interpretation, open captioning and audio description services are available for select performances.

Robert Hupp

For the past 16 seasons, Hupp has served as producing artistic director of Arkansas Repertory Theatre (The Rep). He assumes his new role in July, and succeeds Timothy Bond, whose tenure began in 2007.

Hupp has enjoyed a long, distinguished career as an artistic leader, director and educator. From 1989-1999, he was artistic director of the acclaimed Jean Cocteau Repertory in New York. Hupp also served on the board of the Theatre Communications Group, a nonprofit theatrical organization in New York, and has served as a panelist and on-site evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts.

“Theater is best served when the artistic leader rolls up his sleeves and engages in the issues that affect all aspects of life in the community,” says Hupp. “Artistic leadership means bringing the creative voice of the theater to the community. My philosophy of theater is tied to the idea that we have the rare opportunity to create important communal experiences for our audiences.”

Hupp’s appointment follows a months-long national search conducted by Greg Kandel of Management Consultants for the Arts. The search committee, in turn, involved members of ���ϲ����� Stage’s board of trustees, senior ���ϲ����� Stage staff, as well as professors and administrators from the University’s .

“Bob’s record of achievement at Arkansas Rep, combined with his proven commitment to high artistic quality, makes him an excellent choice to lead ���ϲ����� Stage into the future,” says Bob Pomfrey, chair of ���ϲ����� Stage’s board, as well as co-founder, president and CEO of POMCO. “I think our community will find him engaging as an artist and will come to value him as a contributor to the cultural discourse of Central New York.” Pomfrey also chaired the search committee.

Hupp has overseen steady growth and development at The Rep, widely regarded as the state’s flagship performing arts organization. Since 1999, the company has tripled its budget to $4 million; increased its contributed income and subscriber base by 100 percent and 30 percent, respectively; and broadened its artistic and economic base through various co-productions with other LORT theaters and civic and academic partnerships.

Much of its success lies in exploring the great diversity of the theatrical canon, including Shakespeare, American classics, contemporary plays and musicals. The Rep’s current season includes a new adaptation of “The Little Mermaid,” along with a new comedy directed by Jason Alexander (of “Seinfeld” fame). Last season, The Rep rang in the holidays with the world premiere of “Because of Winn Dixie,” a musical by Duncan Sheik and Nell Benjamin based on the award-winning novel.

“Bob brings strong institutional experience and astute awareness of the varied roles the theater plays within the broader community,” says Louis G. Marcoccia, board president of ���ϲ����� Stage and executive vice president and CFO of the University. “He has demonstrated his extensive capability as an artistic leader, as an administrator and as liaison with the community.”

Hupp has held faculty and administrative positions at Dickinson and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. At the latter, he helped restructure the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance and served as interim chair.

“I am particularly drawn to ���ϲ����� Stage because of its close association with the University,” Hupp says. “I am at home in the academic world, and I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the educational and cultural life on campus.”

Hupp brings with him a strong commitment to community service, as evidenced by his involvement in Little Rock with the Arts and Cultural Commission, Acansa Arts Festival, Vision Little Rock and the Little Rock Cultural Attractions Group. He also has been a part of the Creative Economy Advisory Board for the State of Arkansas.

Hupp will be the fifth artistic leader in ���ϲ����� Stage’s 43-year history. He is preceded by Bond, Robert Moss (1996-2007), Tazewell Thompson (1992-95) and Arthur Storch (1974-1992).