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“Amadeus,” a play based on the complex rivalry between Wolfgang Mozart and Antonio Salieri, will live in “infamy” at Syracuse Stage as the theater’s only production to open and close on the same night, said Kyle Bass, resident playwright of Syracuse Stage.

Syracuse Stage, the professional theater in-residence at Syracuse University, closed its 2019-20 season during “Amadeus” due to the pandemic. Though the play was recorded and published for online streaming, other productions were also canceled. The 2020-21 season featured six plays presented in an online format, and the 2021-22 season will follow with six in-person performances including “Matilda,” “Eureka Day” and “salt/city/blues.”

Despite the success of the company’s venture into streaming, the communal experience of theater that differentiates it from other mediums of art was still lost, said Robert Hupp, the artistic director of Syracuse Stage.

“I see a play five or six times. It’s the same script but there’s just enough difference based on how the actors are feeling with that audience,” Hupp said. “That live experience is something unique to the theater as an art form. That’s what makes it special.”

Syracuse Stage reopened on April 2, once vaccines were available to nearly all adults. Joseph Whelan, the director of marketing and communications, said the theater would not have made that decision if vaccines were not available. He also said that Syracuse Stage had to communicate and work with other organizations in the theater industry, such as the Actor’s Equity Association, to start live, in-person shows again.

“Broadway is reopening, concerts are reopening, New York City Ballet is reopening,” Whelan said. “Arts organizations across the country are trying to reopen. So, we felt we had to. We had to try to reopen.”

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Almost 20 months to the day, Syracuse Stage will premiere its first full production of a play on Oct. 13. The theater plans to perform for a live audience with “Eureka Day,” a production centered around a mumps outbreak at a privileged elementary school.

The play was not chosen solely for its similarities to the pandemic, Hupp said, however, the parallels to COVID-19 allow the theater to fulfill its obligation and tell stories relevant to the community.

While the national conversation about getting vaccinated falls on “strict political lines,” Hupp said, the characters in the play have their own reasons for not getting vaccinated.

“The play approaches it in such a way that gives us relief in our current situation because there is humor in it,” Hupp said. “But it also looks at some of the underlying issues that I think as a society, we need to talk about.”

Ushering in the holiday season is “Matilda” — a family-friendly musical that follows a young girl with telekinesis powers — which opens on Nov. 19. The winter season will also feature shows that discuss topics related to politics and culture, like “Yoga Play” by Dipika Guha and “Somewhere Over the Border” by Brian Quijada. “The Play That Goes Wrong,” written by Henry Lewis, an escapist comedy set in the 1920s, will premiere in the spring.

The start of summer will mark the last play of the season, “salt/city/blues” by Bass. It’s set in a fictional city inspired by Syracuse and explores the struggles of the residents in the historic 15th Ward due to gentrification.

Bass worked on the play throughout the pandemic, and though administrative tasks were completed and production roles filled during quarantine, the script has not been finalized yet, he said. Because of the pandemic, he was in a special position of finishing a script after the director and actors had been cast.

“This is a different process for me because I’m taking an incomplete work into a workshop with actors and a director,” Bass said. “And it will be through that process that I hope that the play will speak to me even more profoundly about what it wants to be about.”

Despite the full schedule ahead for Syracuse Stage, the delta variant and upcoming winter season leave a lingering fear of another shutdown. Whelan said the theater has followed SU’s vaccination requirements and has not had a COVID-19 outbreak so far, but they are approaching the filming of more shows on a case-by-case basis just in case the theater should be shut down again.

Still, Hupp urges audiences to not fear for their health at Syracuse Stage, as the theater has created protocols — such as masking, testing and vaccination requirements — so audiences can enjoy the performances safely.

“We have to find safe ways of engaging with life,” Hupp said.

Published on October 11, 2021 at 11:46 pm

Contact Sneha: skc101@syr.edu