Syracuse Stage Releases 2014-2015 Season Teaser, Includes Award Winning Works

Syracuse Stage is pleased to announce that the 2014/15 season will include Sizwe Banzi is Dead, the acclaimed 1975 Tony Award-winning play by Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona. Intensely funny and poignant, Sizwe tells the tale of a black man in apartheid-era South Africa who is trying to overcome restrictive work regulations in order to support his family. An opportunity comes his way-unexpectedly-but taking it comes at an unusual cost.

The production of Sizwe will originate at one of South Africa's most prestigious venues, The Market Theatre, known internationally as South Africa's "Theatre of the Struggle" for its history in challenging the apartheid regime. Following the South African run, Sizwe will move to McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ, and then to Syracuse Stage where it will perform February 25-March 15 in 2015.

Directing the Syracuse Stage production is John Kani, co-creator of Sizwe, known as the Grandfather of South African Theatre. Kani and Winston Ntshona together won the 1975 Tony Award for Best Actor for their performances in Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island. Featured actors in the Syracuse Stage production will be Kani's son, Atandwa Kani, and Mncedisi Shabangu.

Athol Fugard is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose best-known work deals with the political and social upheaval of the apartheid system in South Africa. In additional to Sizwe Banzi is Dead, his plays include "Master Harold"...and the Boys, A Lesson from Aloes, Blood Knot, Valley Song, My Children! My Africa!, The Road to Mecca, The Captain's Tiger and The Island. In 2011, Fugard received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre.

The full 2014/15 Season at Syracuse Stage will be announced by early April. It will feature:

· a recent Tony Award-winning comedy set in a country home

· a Pulitzer Prize-winning play with a musical instrument in its title

· a popular 1960s era musical

· a seriocomedy about a particular medical practice of the late 1800s

· a biting family drama mixing politics and art

ABOUT SYRACUSE STAGE

Syracuse Stage is Central New York's premier professional theatre. Founded in 1974, Stage has produced more than 300 plays in 40 seasons including a number of world, American, and East Coast premieres. Each season 90,000 patrons enjoy an adventurous mix of new plays, and bold interpretations of classics and musicals, featuring the finest theatre artists. In addition, Stage maintains a vital educational outreach program that annually serves more than 30,000 students from 24 counties. A solid core of subscribers and supporters helps keep Syracuse Stage a vibrant artistic presence in Central New York. Additional support comes from the government, foundations, corporations and Syracuse University. Syracuse Stage is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, and a member of the Arts and Cultural Leadership Alliance (ACLA), the University Hill Corporation and the East Genesee Regent Association. Syracuse Stage is a member of The League of Resident Theatres (LORT), the largest professional theatre association in the country.

www.SyracuseStage.org