NEW WORK
Syracuse Stage proudly invests in the future of storytelling by producing new works by contemporary artists. World premieres at Syracuse Stage have gone on to make a lasting impact on the American Theatre through subsequent productions, Broadway transfers, and publication.
The cast of “How to Dance in Ohio.” Photo: Curtis Brown
“The Hello Girls”
September 10 – 28, 2025
Music and lyrics by Peter Mills | Book by Peter Mills and Cara Reichel | Directed by Cara Reichel | Co-produced with Michael Cassel Group, Broadway & Beyond Theatricals, and Chief Operator
A heroic new musical about connection in a time of conflict.
1918. As the world plunges further into unprecedented catastrophe, Grace Banker works as a telephone operator in New York City, proving herself more than capable in a male-dominated industry. But when the U.S. Army recruits her to lead a group of women directing communications on the frontlines in France, she and her fellow “Hello Girls” will have to prove themselves again and again if they are to convince the top brass—and the country—that they belong in the fight. This new American musical reminds us that in the battle against hopelessness and hate, no weapon can match the power of the human spirit.
“Thrilling… smart, human, with a lively ragtime-and-jazz-score.”
– The New York Times
Chessa Metz (front) with cast members in the Syracuse Stage production of "The Hello Girls." September 9 - 28, 2025. Music and lyrics by Peter Mills. Book by Peter Mills and Cara Reichel. Directed by Cara Reichel. Co-produced with Michael Cassel Group, Broadway & Beyond Theatricals, and Chief Operator. Photo by Joan Marcus.
“The National Pastime”
June 11 - 29, 2025
Written by Rogelio Martinez
Directed by Johanna McKeon
Cuba, 2016. A mysterious illness rips through the American embassy in Havana. America, 2017. The Houston Astros are stealing signs, on their way to a World Series win. With tensions heightened from the lead-up and aftermath of an election year, the two nations play a dangerous game in the shadows, with their shared national pastimes – baseball and espionage – as their weapons of choice.
Cuba, 2016. Una misteriosa enfermedad arrasa a la embajada norteamericana en La Habana. Estados Unidos 2017. Los Astros de Houston están robando señales en la ruta al campeonato de la Serie Mundial de las Grandes Ligas. Con tensiones elevadas hacia y la secuela de un año electoral, ambas naciones se enfrascan en un peligroso juego en las sombras con sus pasatiempos nacionales compartidos - el béisbol y el espionaje – como sus armas preferidas.
John J. Concado, Joe Cassidy, Erick González and Cherrye J. Davis in the Syracuse Stage world premiere production of "The National Pastime." By Rogelio Martinez. Directed by Johanna McKeon. June 11 - 29, 2025. Photo: Brenna Merritt
“Tender Rain”
May 5 - 21, 2023
Written by Kyle Bass
Directed by Rodney Hudson
"Rain is like sorrow. It exposes our roots." In this elegiac drama, playwright Kyle Bass introduces Milton Millard, a white banker who lives in a small Southern city with Dolores, his wife whom he can hardly see anymore and who endures alone the memory of loss and unrelenting trepidation. Childless, they are a late-middle-aged couple lost in a fog of what cannot be undone. Is there a way forward for either of them? Can Milton seek aid from Ruthie Mimms, an older Black woman who has profoundly and irrevocably influenced his life? The momentary escape Milton finds in the arms of a younger woman will not spare him the reckoning he must face. Set in the 1950s, Tender Rain explores how pain, violence, and suffering rooted in an oppressive society leach insidiously into domestic lives and intimate relationships. A journey through a richly layered emotional landscape from the author of Possessing Harriet and salt/city/blues.
The cast of the Julie Lutz Cold Read World Premiere of "Tender Rain" by Kyle Bass. May 3 - 21, 2023 at Syracuse Stage. Photo: Mike Davis
“Our Words are Seeds”
October 22, 2022 + Performances through 2025
Written by Ty Defoe
Directed by Joann Yarrow
"Our Words Are Seeds” was a project that commissioned playwright Ty Defoe to collaborate with communities of the Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, Cayuga, Tuscarora, Mohawk nations that form the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. This included sessions with youth and elders, weaving Indigenous history and futures. It was presented first as part of the Cold Read Festival of New Plays, then as a workshop performance at Syracuse Stage that traveled to the Onondaga Nation School and Big Picture School. The process of this community collaboration was shared at Western Arts Alliance in Seattle as well as at the Rematriation Haudenosaunee and Indigenous Matrilineality Symposium in Syracuse.
Montana Adams in “Our Words are Seeds.” Photo: Brenna Merritt
“How To Dance In Ohio”
September 21 – October 9, 2022
A new musical based on Alexandra Shiva’s documentary film | Book & Lyrics by Rebekah Greer Melocik | Music & Co-Arrangements by Jacob Yandura | Music Direction by Lily Ling Music Supervision, Co-Arrangements, Orchestration by Matt Gallagher | Choreographed by Mayte Natalio | Directed by Sammi Cannold | Produced in association with Ben Holtzman, Sammy Lopez, and Fiona Howe Rudin
How to Dance in Ohio is a heart-filled new musical based on the Peabody Award-winning documentary of the same name that explores what it means to belong, the courage it takes to put yourself out in the world, and the universal need to connect. Set at a counseling center in Columbus, How to Dance in Ohio follows seven autistic young adults as they come of age and find their ways in the world.
How to Dance in Ohio Broadway Announcement
Liam Pearce, Ashley Wool, Amelia Fei, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Madison Kopec, Desmond Edwards, Conor Tague. Photo credit Curtis Brown.
“salt/city/blues”
June 8 – 26, 2022
By Kyle Bass
Directed by Gilbert McCauley
How does a fractured family heal when unresolved emotions of the past color the present? Can a city reshape itself if it means tearing open old, still-tender wounds? And where in a diverse but segregated city can communities find common ground, mutual dignity and a true sense of home? These questions collide into Yolonda Mourning, an independent consultant on a vast project to take down a span of highway that has long divided Salt City. When she leaves her husband and teenage son and moves to the heart of trendy downtown, a diverse cast of characters forces Yolonda to confront the Salt City’s complicated history around race, class and urban renewal, and to reckon with her role as architect of the broken bridges in her own family.
Moving, funny, poignant, and current, salt/city/blues is a fresh, contemporary new play set in a fictionalized Syracuse and to the music of the blues.
Leo Finnie and Chantal Jean-Pierre in "salt/city/blues" at Syracuse Stage. June 9 - 26, 2022. Written by Kyle Bass. Directed by Gilbert McCauley. Photo: Brenna Merritt
“Citizen James, or The Young Man Without a Country”
Syracuse Stage (Streaming World Premiere) 2021
By Kyle Bass
Directed by Joann Yarrow
The year is 1948. The place, LaGuardia Airport. Young James Baldwin is an unknown aspiring “Negro” writer whose first novel has yet to be published. He awaits his flight, having just left his family with the news of his decision to flee America for refuge in Paris. He speaks no French. He has a one-way ticket and $40 in his pocket. Witness James Baldwin as he decides he must do something to save himself from the violent reality of racists America, a decision that sets him on the path to becoming a brilliant, powerful, and prophetic voice of the Civil Rights era and beyond. More than a one-man show, Citizen James is a bridge that connects the past to our now.
James Alton in Citizen James, or The Young Man Without a Country. Photo: Brenna Merritt
“Somewhere Over the Border”
February 23 – March 13, 2022
By Brian Quijada
Directed Rebecca Martinez
Somewhere Over the Border embraces the factual and the fantastical in its depiction of one young girl’s pursuit of the American dream. As Reina travels north to the Mexican border, she gathers friends, faces down dangers, and holds tight to the memory of the little boy she left behind. Set in the 1970s and propelled by cumbia, Mexican mariachi boleros, American rock and hip hop, this new musical is both fable and family history – and a testament to the determination born of love.
Robert Ariza, Tanya De León, Bobby Plasencia, and Gloria Vivica Benavides in the world premiere of "Somewhere Over the Border," Feb. 23 - March 13, 2022 at Syracuse Stage.By Brian Quijada. Photo: Mike Davis
“Thoughts of a Colored Man”
September 4 – 22, 2019
By Keenan Scott II
Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III
Thoughts of a Colored Man is a play written by Keenan Scott II that opened on Broadway on October 13, 2021. It is Scott's Broadway debut, and the play is the first Broadway show that was written and directed by Black men with a Black man in the lead role and lead produced by all Black artists. It was slated to be one of seven plays by Black playwrights during the Fall 2021 season. The show uses slam poetry, prose and songs to tell the story of Black life in America through the stories of seven multi generational men living in the same Brooklyn neighborhood.
Thoughts of a Colored Man Broadway Announcement
The cast of "Thoughts of a Colored Man" in the world premiere at Syracuse Stage. September 4 - 21, 2019. By Keenan Scott II. Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III. Choreography by Millicent Johnnie. Scenic design by Robert Brill. Costume design by Toni-Leslie James and Devario Simmons. Lighting design by Ryan J. O'Gara. Sound design by Mikaal Sulaiman. Projection design by Sven Ortel. Music by Te'La and KAMAUU. In association with Baltimore Center Stage, Brian Moreland, and Ron Simons. Photo by Michael Davis.
“Possessing Harriet”
October 17 – November 4, 2018
By Kyle Bass
Directed by Tazewell Thompson
In 1839, Harriet Powell, a young, mixed-race, enslaved woman, slips away from a hotel in Syracuse, New York, and escapes from the white Southerner who owns her. With the aid of a worker at the hotel, a mysterious free black man named Thomas Leonard, Harriet finds temporary safe harbor in an attic room at the home of impassioned abolitionist Gerrit Smith. With the slave catchers in pursuit, Harriet spends the hours before her nighttime departure on the dangerous journey to Canada in the company of Smith’s young cousin Elizabeth Cady, an outspoken advocate for women’s equality. Confronted with new and difficult ideas about race, identity, and equality, and with confusion, fear, and desperation multiplying, Harriet is forced to the precipice of radical self-re-imagining and a reckoning with the heartrending cost of her freedom.
Lucy Lavely, Nicole King, and Daniel Morgan Shelley in the world premiere production of "Possessing Harriet" at Syracuse Stage, Oct. 17 - Nov. 4. Set Design: Donald Eastman. Costume Design: Carrie Robbins. Lighting Design: Stephen Quandt. Photo by Michael Davis.