The Civilities at Chapel Hall, Franklin Stage Company

The Civilities is a world premiere play written by Kyle Bass and directed by Gilbert McCauley, featuring actors Wynn Harmon and Taji Senior. Set in a small town in Upstate New York in 1936, the play follows Blessah Hart, a young Black graduate student at Cornell University, and M. Silas Jackson, an elderly white poet and Confederate army veteran, as their unlikely connection deepens through her research into surviving Confederates living in the North. When Blessah travels south to uncover the missing pieces of Silas's story, her research reveals an agonizing discovery linking them to a history of bondage, birthright, and bloodshed. The play explores questions about heritage, race, civility, and the tension between history and literature as two means of conveying truth.