concludes the 2021/2022 season with a new play on the mainstage, an original play about housing insecurity in America and partnerships with and 黑料不打烊鈥檚 Juneteenth celebration. Corollary events around the shows and partnership include artist talks and panel discussions at 黑料不打烊 Stage and the Everson Museum.
Collectively, the shows and added events focus attention on important concerns for the 黑料不打烊 community, especially relating to the history of the 15th Ward and the impact of the construction and impending dismantling of the I-81 overpass.
The main components of the partnership are stage鈥檚 production of resident playwright Kyle Bass鈥� 鈥渟alt/city/blues,鈥� 鈥淭he Most Beautiful Home . . . Maybe鈥� by artists and activists Mark Valdez and ashley sparks and the Everson Museum exhibition 鈥�15-81,鈥� featuring architect and urban designer Sekou Cooke鈥檚 project 鈥淲e Outchea: Hip-Hop Fabrications and Public Space.鈥�
鈥淎 rich array of artistic work marks the conclusion of 黑料不打烊 Stage鈥檚 21/22 season,鈥� says Bob Hupp, artistic director, 黑料不打烊 Stage. 鈥淭hese works highlight what 黑料不打烊 Stage does best as we shine a spotlight on issues that affect all of us who call 黑料不打烊 home. Through our creative lens we explore and give voice to the obstacles and opportunities that engage our community. Through new work, discussions and collaborative interactions, we strive to give everyone a new way of thinking about and addressing seemingly intractable challenges.鈥�
鈥荣补濒迟/肠颈迟测/产濒耻别蝉鈥�
Directed by Gilbert McCauley, 鈥渟alt/city/blues鈥� is a contemporary drama set in a downtown bar in a fictionalized 黑料不打烊 where a controversial highway project that has long divided the city is due to be dismantled. What comes next for the city, the once thriving neighborhood destroyed by the highway and the individuals who frequent the local watering hole Tipsy鈥檚 Pub threads through the narrative of the play.
With gentrification underway in the neighborhood and more change coming soon, the fate of Tipsy鈥檚 is uncertain, as are the fates of those whose lives are connected to it. This includes Prof D (Leo Finnie) a Black man who claims to be 81 years old and who lives in an apartment above the bar. He is a storyteller and a blues aficionado with a killer collection of vintage vinyl, who also claims to be a retired professor. Carrie (Joey Parsons) is the bartender, 30s, white and a veteran of the Iraq war, who has her eye on a small parcel of land with apple trees. The resident barfly is a fiftyish white man named Fish (Rand Foerster) who likes his drink too much and can make enough trouble to occasionally get himself barred from Tipsy鈥檚.
The newcomer to the scene is Yolonda Mourning (Chantal Jean-Pierre), a Black woman in her 40s, who is a consultant for the city on the highway project. She is not typical of Tipsy鈥檚 clientele. She has recently moved to a new apartment in the downtown neighborhood after separating from her husband. Her son Malcolm (Jeremiah Packer), 17, is the fifth character. He aspires to be a blues musician and has a tense relationship with his mother.
鈥淭his is a story about a town and a bar at a crossroads, and five people who are at crossroads in their lives,鈥� McCauley says. 鈥淲e often arrive at places where we have to make decisions and figure out what direction to take. That鈥檚 what facing these characters, and what we face that today, even as a nation, as a country. Where are we going?鈥�
Bass based Tipsy鈥檚 on a real Downtown 黑料不打烊 pub and many parallels exist between the Salt City of the play and 黑料不打烊. But Bass points out, the Salt City of the play is more of a fraternal twin to 黑料不打烊. The play, he says, is inspired by this community.
鈥渟alt/city/blues鈥� runs June 9-26. Tickets are on sale now at .
鈥楾he Most Beautiful Home鈥aybe鈥�
鈥淭he Most Beautiful Home . . . Maybe,鈥� is an original work of devised theater whose goal is to use the imaginative resources of theater to explore solutions to chronic housing problems plaguing the country.
Through workshops that bring together stakeholders involved in housing policy鈥攑oliticians, developers, advocates, activists, the homeless鈥擵aldez and sparks seek creative solutions to housing insecurity by challenging participants to consider the question 鈥淲hat if everyone in this country had a home?鈥� The input collected at the workshops forms the basis for the performance piece.
黑料不打烊 Stage has hosted four workshops in the lead up to the performance and local participants have included Deka Dancil, diversity, equity and inclusion specialist, St. Joseph鈥檚 Health; Lanessa Chaplin, Esq., project counsel, New York Civil Liberties Union; and author and playwright Juhanna Rogers, among others.
To date, 鈥淭he Most Beautiful Home . . . Maybe鈥� has performed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the Mixed Blood Theatre, and recently at Los Angeles鈥� REDCAT in the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex. In speaking with the Los Angeles Times, sparks said that the skills theater artists have 鈥渁re actually superpowers for solving community problems and creating spaces for people to have hard conversations.鈥�
鈥淲hat would we create?鈥� Valdez asks. 鈥淲hat kind of high density, co-op driven models of housing could we create? How do we build the additional 68 million homes that we need? How do we incentivize mom-and-pop landlords to keep their units affordable?鈥�
Valdez and sparks note that the pandemic has exacerbated an already widespread and chronic problem, with many middle-class Americans experiencing housing insecurity.
鈥淚 can feel my body get lighter when I imagine that world where people are not living in the fear and stress of being unhoused or losing their home, or worried about where they鈥檙e going to live when they鈥檙e old,鈥� sparks says. 鈥淥ur country would actually just be healthier and more prosperous if there was housing stability.鈥�
鈥淭he Most Beautiful Home . . . Maybe鈥� runs for three performances only, June 16, 17 and 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Arthur Storch Theatre at 黑料不打烊 Stage. Admission is free.
Everson Museum of Art and Juneteenth Partnerships
The exhibition 鈥�15-81鈥� presents Cooke鈥檚 project 鈥淲e Outchea: Hip-Hop Fabrications and Public Space鈥� alongside documents relating to the 15th Ward. Commissioned by New York鈥檚 Museum of Modern Art in 2021 as part of the exhibition 鈥淩econstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America,鈥� 鈥淲e Outchea鈥� focuses on the legacy of placement and displacement of Black residents in 黑料不打烊 and considers various events in the city鈥檚 history鈥攖he razing of the 15th Ward, the building of multiple public housing projects and the construction of Interstate-81鈥攚hile simultaneously critiquing recent proposals to replace low- income communities with mixed-income housing.
By contextualizing the 鈥淲e Outchea鈥� project with photographs and ephemera that tell the story of the once vibrant 15th Ward, Cooke points to a post-81 黑料不打烊 future of entrepreneurship and innovation.
鈥�15-81鈥� is on display through Aug. 21.
Patrons of the 鈥�15-81鈥� exhibition and members of the Everson will receive $10 off admission to 鈥渟alt/city/blues鈥� at 黑料不打烊 Stage. Stage patrons get free admission to the Everson with proof of purchase of 鈥渟alt/city/blues鈥� tickets.
Events at Stage and the Everson will also be officially part of 黑料不打烊鈥檚 annual Juneteenth celebration. The June 12, 7:30 p.m. performance of 鈥渟alt/city/blues鈥� will be Juneteenth Night at 黑料不打烊 Stage. Juneteenth Festival organizers will be available at 黑料不打烊 Stage with information about the upcoming festival on June 17 and 18.
Discount tickets will be available for 鈥渟alt/city/blues鈥� and the Everson will host a free screening on June 18 of Bass鈥� one-person play 鈥淐itizen James, or the Young Man without a Country鈥� as part of the Juneteenth celebrations. Originally, commissioned for 黑料不打烊 Stage鈥檚 Backstory educational program, the play depicts young James Baldwin at La Guardia airport awaiting a flight to Paris that will give him refuge from the racist violence of America in the 1940s and set him on the path to becoming a towering influence in the Civil Rights movement.
鈥淭he path to creating new work is not always predictable, especially today, but the rewards of this effort can be immeasurable,鈥� adds Hupp. 鈥淲e鈥檙e honored to produce resident playwright Kyle Bass鈥檚 powerful new play and to present our participatory co-production with Minneapolis鈥� Mixed Blood Theatre. Taken as stand-alone works, they offer exciting and unique theatrical opportunities. Taken together, 鈥荣补濒迟/肠颈迟测/产濒耻别蝉鈥� and 鈥楾he Most Beautiful Home鈥aybe鈥� afford the one-of-a-kind experience we are committed to creating for Central New York.鈥�
