The Bread & Puppet Theater Co (based in Vermont) was in Syracuse this week as part of their tour for the firms 50th Anniversary. The company combines dance with political satire, street theater and puppetry. Here is a photo of their bus parked along the Connective Corridor.
Here’s part two of the Tim Bond interview from last week.
Syracuse Stage Producing Artistic Director Timothy Bond talks about the impact of writer August Wilson, specifically Two Trains Running, which is playing this month at the theater. Syracuse Stage has run seven of Wilson’s ten plays that chronicle African American life in each decade of the 20th Century.
Bond, who is the director for Two Trains, said Wilson’s plays are “poetic blues operas.”
Performance poet Omanii Abdullah presented a one man show called New Shoes... at the Community Folk Art Center tonight. The performances continue through the weekend with new work such as "8:02 am" and classics like " I wanna be the kinda father my mother was." The show is directed by Ryan Johnson-Travis.
Midsummer Night’s Dream in Thornden Park: Act Four
To celebrate their 10th year of production for Shakespeare in the Park, the Syracuse Shakespeare Festival, staged A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Thornden Park this month. These are photographs from last night’s show.
Midsummer Night’s Dream in Thornden Park: Act Three
Midsummer Night’s Dream in Thornden Park: Act Four
T.A.P. Festival Coordinator Tanya Passmore, Rev. Phil Turner and playwright Aaron Wright,
Bravo to the Bethany Baptist Church’s T.A.P. Festival for bringing Aaron Wright and his play A Teenage Love for a Syracuse debut on Friday.
Artensa Johnson sings Dear Love before intermission
The play, which is part-drama, part-comedy, part-musical, features high school student (actors) and deals with social issues not often seen on the stage for a youth audience.
Harron Thomas and Domonique Aviles during a scene of Teenage Love
Wright and the students live in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Shanaya Day-Merkerson and Carlos Oyola on stage for A Teenage Love
Shakespeare in the Park
The Syracuse Shakespeare Festival kicked off it’s Shakespeare in the Park last night with a Wild West-style production of Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Shakespeare in the Park
Reenah L. Golden discusses urban education following her performance in No Child… at Syracuse Stage
I finally got a chance to see the production of No Child… (written by Nilaja Sun) at Syracuse Stage on Saturday. The one-act play features Rochester-native Reenah L. Golden, an actor, poet, activist and educator as the sole performer of nearly 20 characters in a play within a play set in a New York City school.
The direction by Timothy Bond, which featured a photo montage of various Syracuse School district locations, and the post show dialogue with the audience, made for a wonderful theater experience.
Syracuse Stage Producing Artistic Director Timothy Bond began a series of discussions around the August Wilson play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which opened the season. On September 21, I attended a post show forum on the use of the N-word during the play. The forum featured Actor Thomas Jefferson Byrd (standing) along with media personality George Kilpatrick (center) and professor Dr. Adam Banks. Byrd told the crowd of about 50 that he was not offended by the use of the N-word during the play because it was part of the dialogue that showed a true portrait of the world of the featured characters (circa 1920s). Wilson’s work gave those characters, and their world, recognition and worth, Byrd said. Banks added that the word as well as the use of the N-word must be framed within the proper historical and cultural context.