PICNIC to Begin Performances Tonight at Syracuse University Department of Drama
The cast features Emily Anagnos (Helen Potts), Harrison Wei (Hal Carter), Sidney Danielle Barbour (Millie Owens), Ethan Z Lang (Bomber Gutzel), and more.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Feb. 20, 2026
The Syracuse University Department of Drama begins the Spring Semester of their 25/26 season with “Picnic,” by William Inge. Directed by Ralph Zito, performances of “Picnic” will be held February 20 – March 1 in the Storch Theatre at the Syracuse Stage/SU Drama Complex, 820 East Genesee St.
As a small Kansas town prepares for the annual Labor Day picnic, handsome young drifter Hal stirs up long dormant feelings amongst a group of repressed women, including Madge, a beauty queen who yearns for another life whenever she hears the train whistle blow.
In “Picnic,” playwright William Inge unfolds the story over a single day, capturing the nuances of midwestern life in the early 1950s. Director Ralph Zito explains: “At the heart of each character in this play is a deep and active yearning for a way of life that they richly deserve, but don’t necessarily feel worthy of.”
Disappointments, resentments, and rivalries simmer with the late summer swelter in Inge’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic about the power of attraction and the perils of unfulfilled desire.
The cast features Emily Anagnos (Helen Potts), Harrison Wei (Hal Carter), Sidney Danielle Barbour (Millie Owens), Ethan Z Lang (Bomber Gutzel), Lily Gianna Nelson (Madge Owens), Lucy Foss (Flo Owens), Leah Steinman (Rosemary Sydney), Kai Ayush (Alan Seymour), Violet Lanciloti (Irma Kronkite), Kate Wass (Christine Shoenwalder), Caleb Kenin Elias-Reyes (Howard Bevans), Violet Lanciloti (U/S Flo Owens, Mrs. Potts), Ethan Z Lang (U/S Hal Carter), Addelyn Esposito (U/S Millie Owens, Christine Schoenwalder, Irma Kronkite), Kate Wass (U/S Madge Owens), Henry Joyce (U/S Alan Seymour, Howard Bevans, Bomber Gutzel), Elizabeth Everett (U/S Rosemary Sydney).
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