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ABOUT US:
Syracuse Stage is Central New York’s premier professional theatre. Founded in 1974, Stage has produced more than 300 plays in 44 seasons including a number of world, American, and East Coast premieres. Each season 65,000 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 over 30,000 students from 24 counties.Syracuse Stage is a member of The League of Resident Theatres (LORT), the largest professional theatre association in the country. America’s leading actors, directors and designers work and/or have worked at Stage including: Tony Award-winners Lillias White, Chuck Cooper and Elizabeth Franz, Emmy recipients Jean Stapleton, Sam Waterston, John Cullum, James Whitmore, and Ben Gazzara. These visiting artists are supported by a staff of artisans, technicians, educators and administrators who are responsible for all facets of the theatre from building sets, props and costumes to marketing, development and box office.
A solid core of subscribers and supporters helps keep Syracuse Stage a vibrant artistic presence in Central New York. Year after year their support and patronage contribute to the success of the theatre. Additional support from government, foundations, corporations and SyracuseUniversity helps to ensure the continued role of Syracuse Stage as a valued cultural resource for the community.
Syracuse Stage is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, and a member of the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, the Arts and Cultural Leadership Alliance (ACLA), the University Hill Corporation and the East Genesee Regent Association.
LEADERSHIP
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, Robert M. Hupp
Robert Hupp is in his third season as artistic director of Syracuse Stage. The Three Musketeers marked his Syracuse Stage directing debut. Prior to coming to central New York, Robert spent seventeen seasons as the producing artistic director of Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock. He directed over 30 productions for Arkansas Rep ranging from Hamlet to Les Miserables to The Grapes of Wrath. In New York City, Robert directed the American premieres of Glyn Maxwell’s The Lifeblood and Wolfpit for the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble. He also served for nine seasons as the artistic director of the Obie Award winning Jean Cocteau Repertory. At the Cocteau, Robert’s directing credits include works by Buchner, Wilder, Cocteau, Shaw, Wedekind and the premieres of the Bentley/Milhaud version of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy and Eduardo de Filippo’s Napoli Millionaria. He has held faculty positions at Pennsylvania’s Dickinson College and, in Arkansas, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Hendrix College. Robert served as vice president of the Board of Directors of the Theatre Communications Group and has served on funding panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Theatre Communications Group, the New Jersey State Council of the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. While in Arkansas, Robert was named both Non-Profit Executive of the Year by the Arkansas Business Publishing Group, and Individual Artist of the year by the Arkansas Arts Council. He and his wife, Clea, ride herd over a blended family of five children, one dog, and a cat named Pi.
MANAGING DIRECTOR, Jill A. Anderson
Jill A. Anderson arrived at Syracuse Stage in July, 2016, and is delighted to serve as managing director. Jill is responsible for Stage’s nearly $6 million operating budget and has oversight of fundraising, marketing, and operational matters within the organization. Prior to joining Stage, Jill spent a decade as general manager at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. During her tenure, the O’Neill completed a $7 million capital campaign and campus expansion, doubled its operating budget, and was honored with a 2015 National Medal of Arts and the 2010 Regional Theatre Tony Award. Under the O’Neill’s aegis, Jill also developed the Baltic Playwrights Conference, an annual international new play development retreat held in Hiiumaa, Estonia. Previously, Jill spent five years in the production office at Washington DC’s Arena Stage, after working as a stage manager in Minnesota, New Mexico, and Massachusetts. Jill has also served on numerous municipal and non-profit boards and participated in mentoring programs for high school and college students, including the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Jill is a proud cheesehead, hailing from Marshfield, Wisconsin. She and her husband Dave Anderson, along with their daughter, look forward to calling Central New York home for years to come.
ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, Kyle Bass
Kyle Bass, who recently curated the Cold Read Festival, is a two-time recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (for fiction in 1998 and playwriting in 2010), a finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Award, a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Playwriting Conference, and Pushcart Prize nominee. His new play Possessing Harriet, commissioned by the Onondaga Historical Association, will have its world premiere at Syracuse Stage in October. Kyle is the co-author of the original screenplay for the film Day of Days, which stars award-winning veteran actor Tom Skerritt (Alien, Top Gun, Steel Magnolias, A River Runs Through It) and was released by Broad Green Pictures in 2017. Kyle is currently writing the screenplay adaptation of the novel Milk by Darcy Steinke and has been commissioned by the Society for New Music to write the libretto for an opera based on the life and music of legendry folk singer and guitarist Libba Cotten. Kyle is the co-author (with Ping Chong) of Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo, which had its world premiere at Syracuse Stage and was subsequently produced at La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York City. Kyle worked with acclaimed visual artist Carrie Mae Weems on her theatre piece Grace Notes: Reflections for Now, which had its world premiere at the 2016 Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, and was subsequently produced at Yale Rep and the Kennedy Center. Kyle’s Separated, a piece of documentary theatre about the student military veterans at Syracuse University, was first presented at Syracuse Stage in 2017, directed by Robert Hupp. Kyle’s prose and other writings have appeared in the journals Folio and Stone Canoe, among others, and in the anthology Alchemy of the Word: Writers Talk about Writing and he has appeared as a guest on National Public Radio’s “Tell Me More,” discussing race in American theatre. Kyle has taught in the MFA Creative Writing program at Goddard College since 2006 and was recently named to the Burke Endowed Chair for Regional Studies at Colgate University. Kyle also teaches playwriting in Syracuse University’s Department of Drama, theatre courses in the Department of African American Studies, and has taught playwriting at Hobart & William Smith College. Kyle holds an MFA in Playwriting from Goddard College, is Drama Editor for the journal Stone Canoe and is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America.