Wednesday, June 17: Opening night after-show party at a local restaurant at no additional cost!
Friday, June 26: After-show Q&A
Friday, June 26: After-show Q&A
In 1839, Harriet Powell escaped from her Southern owner with the help of a freed slave who took her to the home of abolitionist Gerrit Smith. While hiding in his attic, a price on her head, she waits to be taken to Canada – and freedom. With her is Elizabeth Cady (before she married Stanton), an advocate for women’s equality. Confronted with new and difficult ideas about race and identity, Harriet was forced to face the costs – and benefits - of freedom. This compelling new play premiered at Syracuse Stage in 2018, and was performed at the Franklin Stage Company, also in New York, in 2019.
POSSESSING HARRIET had its World Premiere at Syracuse Stage, Syracuse, NY, in October 2018; Artistic Director Robert Hupp; Production Directed by Tazewell Thompson. It was originally commissioned by The Onondaga Historical Association, in Syracuse, NY; Gregg Tripoli, Executive Director.
Possessing Harriet by Kyle Bass
Copyright © 2013 All rights reserved.
Produced by arrangement with Kyle Bass and The Barbara Hogenson Agency, Inc.
POSSESSING HARRIET had its World Premiere at Syracuse Stage, Syracuse, NY, in October 2018; Artistic Director Robert Hupp; Production Directed by Tazewell Thompson. It was originally commissioned by The Onondaga Historical Association, in Syracuse, NY; Gregg Tripoli, Executive Director.
Possessing Harriet by Kyle Bass
Copyright © 2013 All rights reserved.
Produced by arrangement with Kyle Bass and The Barbara Hogenson Agency, Inc.
BIOS FOR PLAYWRIGHT KYLE BASS AND DIRECTOR MARK EDWARD LANG
Photo by Brenna Merritt
Kyle Bass’s Possessing Harriet received its world premiere at Syracuse Stage, directed by Tazewell Thompson. It was also produced at Franklin Stage Company and has an upcoming production at HartBeat Ensemble (CT). Kyle’s other full-length plays include Baldwin vs. Buckley: The Faith of Our Fathers, Tender Rain, Bleecker Street, and Separated, a piece of documentary theater about the student military veterans at Syracuse University which was presented at Syracuse Stage and at the Paley Center in New York. His play salt/city/blues will premiere at Syracuse Stage in 2021, directed by Tazewell Thompson, and he is the co-author (with Ping Chong) 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 worked with acclaimed visual artist 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, subsequently produced at Yale Rep and the Kennedy Center. 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 is a two-time recipient of the NYFA Fellowship (for fiction in 1998 and playwriting in 2010), a finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Award, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. Kyle’s current projects include the libretto for an opera based on the life and music of legendary folk singer and guitarist Libba Cotten, commissioned by the Society for New Music, and the screenplay adaptation of the novel Milk by Darcy Steinke. Kyle is Assistant Professor in the Department of Theater at Colgate University, where he previously served as the Burke Endowed Chair for Regional Studies, and he is the current Susan P. Stroman Visiting Playwright at the University of Delaware. Kyle previously taught playwriting at Syracuse University and in the M.F.A. Creative Writing program at Goddard College. Kyle earned an M.F.A. in playwriting from Goddard College. He is the Associate Artistic Director at Syracuse Stage, and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America. He is represented by The Barbara Hogenson Agency.
Mark Edward Lang Theater and corporate training events have taken him to 35 U.S. states and around the world; including trips to Malaysia, Tanzania, Copenhagen and Istanbul. Favorite roles include Alfred Lunt in the biographical drama Lunt and Fontanne: The Celestials of Broadway (FringeNYC and Classic Theatre of San Antonio; also playwright), Captain Robert Scott in Terra Nova and Jack in The Importance of Being Earnest (Hilton Head Playhouse), The Actor in ELTC’s The Guardsman (with wife Alison J. Murphy), seven roles in the Irish comedy Stones in his Pockets (Open Stage of Harrisburg), Kosti in Welcome Home Marian Anderson (Off-Broadway and tour); and ELTC’s The Rainmaker, Ah, Wilderness!, Biography, Zorro!, Christopher Bean, The Poe Mysteries, Dulcy, Butter and Egg Man, Why Marry?, The New York Idea, Voice of the City, The Dictator (2001), Four by Four and You and I (Best Actor Jacoby Award, 2007). He’s performed Shakespeare, Molière and new works in NYC and on tour; as well as theater workshops and directing, including ELTC’s Anna Christie. Graduate of Vassar College. Member AEA, SAG-AFTRA.
