World Premiere By Resident Playwright Kyle Bass Up Next At Syracuse Stage

Next up in the 2022/2023 season at Syracuse Stage is the World Premiere of Tender Rain, written by Resident Playwright, Kyle Bass, and directed by longtime Syracuse University Department of Drama faculty member, Rodney Hudson, running May 3 -21, 2023.

Set in a small Southern city, circa mid-1950s, Tender Rain introduces us to Milton Millard Milton, a white banker, and Ruthie Mimms, an older Black woman and their deeply familial and complex relationship which profoundly influences Milton's life.

Approaching late-middle-aged and childless, Milton and his wistful wife Dolores are lost in a marital fog of secrets and emotional withholding. Is there a way forward for them? Can Milton seek aid from Ruthie without destroying their relationship? Will the momentary escape Milton finds in the arms of a younger woman spare him the reckoning he must ultimately face? Tender Rain richly observes a layered emotional landscape rooted in an oppressive society as it explores intimacy, race, and the assumptions we all make about one another.

Tender Rain also marks the fourth play written by Bass and produced by Syracuse Stage for their mainstage, including Cry for Peace: Voices of the Congo: (co-authored with Ping Chong), salt/city/blues and Possessing Harriet. Bass has also written two Backstory scripts as part of Syracuse Stage Education programming, Carver at Tuskeegee and Citizen James, or the Young Man without a Country, which has been optioned for a feature-length film. And, as part of a project focusing on the lives of student military veterans, Bass wrote Separated, which was presented on the Storch stage and at the Paley Center in New York City. Baldwin vs. Buckley: The Faith of Our Fathers, Bass's theatrical reimagining of the famed 1965 Cambridge Union debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, was performed at Cornell, Colgate, and Syracuse Universities, and at the University of Delaware.

According to Syracuse Stage Artistic Director Bob Hupp, "The beauty of this play lies in the richness of Kyle's language. Tender Rain tackles the complexity of relationships in ways that transcend the time in which the play is set. This is not a play that could easily translate to television; this is a work that demands to live on a stage. That's what I find so compelling about Kyle's work, and that's why we're honored to support his craft as our resident playwright, and as a defining voice of our organization."

Playwright Bass refers to Tender Rain as a "symphonic drama," it is also the first full-length play Bass ever wrote, having originally written it as his MFA graduate creative thesis nearly 20 years ago, while a graduate student at Vermont's Goddard College. According to Bass, "It's strange and wonderful to be working on this play again nearly 20 years after I first started writing it as my graduate thesis. In revisiting it for its world premiere, I could revise the play, but I could not revise the playwright who first brought it to the page-an exercise in acceptance and possibility. My process mirrored the underlying metaphor of the play: how do we as a nation fully acknowledge and reckon with the difficult and unchangeable truths of our shared past and move forward together in the light of those truths towards a more compassionate future?"

The cast for Tender Rain features, in alphabetical order, Devereau Chumrau as Lily/Doctor, Brian Dykstra as Milton Millard, LeeAnne Hutchison as Dolores Millard, Marjorie Johnson as Ruthie Mimms, Erin Lockett as Deirdre/Aralia, Niall Powderly as Eddie "Brother" James, and Jenny Strassburg as Mary Honeycutt. Taking the helm for this world premiere production is director Rodney Hudson, who is joined by a creative team consisting of Scenic Designer Se Hyun Oh, Costume Designer Tracy Dorman, Lighting Designer Dawn Chiang, Sound Designer Fabian Obispo, and Wig Designer Bobbie Zlotnick. Laura Jane Collins is stage manager.

Besides his playwriting credits for Syracuse Stage, Bass has written another play, Toliver & Wakeman, which was commissioned by Franklin Stage Company and premieres later this summer. He is a three-time recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (fiction in 1998, playwriting in 2010, screenwriting in 2022), a finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Award, among others.

In addition to his work as Stage's first-ever Playwright-in-Residence, Bass is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Theater at Colgate University, where he was previously the 2019 Burke Endowed Chair for Regional Studies. Previously, he was faculty in the M.F.A. creative writing program at Goddard College, taught in the Departments of Drama and African American Studies at Syracuse University, and the Theatre Department at Hobart & William Smith Colleges. Kyle's plays and other writings have appeared in the journals Callaloo, Folio, and Stone Canoe, among others, and in the essay anthology, Alchemy of the Word: Writers Talk about Writing. Kyle is the founding curator of Syracuse Stage's annual Cold Read Festival of New Plays.

Director, Rodney Hudson, was an assistant professor in the Drama Department at Syracuse University for 26 years, where he directed over 30 productions. He's also appeared as an actor in such disparate roles as Captain Hook in Peter Pan to Mephistopheles in Faust and Lenny in Of Mice and Men. Rodney has appeared as a soloist with ten symphonic organizations including the Houston Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra, singing the Broadway musical repertoire. He was a series regular for NBC's Marblehead Manor and appeared in the two-character film, A Lady in Waiting, which was nominated for an Academy Award. He previously directed A Christmas Carol at Syracuse Stage.

Tender Rain runs Wednesday, May 3 through Sunday, May 21, 2023. Opening Night for the world premiere is Friday, May 5 at 7:30pm. All evening performances begin at 7:30pm while all matinee performances begin at 2pm. Tickets start at $30 with discounts available for students and groups of 10 or more. Tickets can be purchased by visiting SyracuseStage.org, by calling 315.443.3275, or by visiting the Syracuse Stage Box Office at 820 East Genesee Street.

Pay-What-You-Will performances are May 3 - 6; Prologue conversations, three pre-show discussions that take place one-hour before curtain, take place May 7, 13, and 18; the Post-show Sunday Discussion will take place on May 14 after the 7:30 performance. Syracuse Stage has their open-captioned performances scheduled for May 10 at 2:00pm, May 20 at 7:30pm, and May 21 at 2:00pm as well as an audio-described performance on May 20 at 2:00pm. The production Happy Hour takes place an hour prior to the 7:30 curtain on Thursday, May 11.

Season support for Syracuse Stage is made possible by The Slutzker Family Foundation.