The Civilities
The Civilities
Written by Kyle Bass
Directed by Gilbert McCauley
A World Premiere FSC Production
Featuring:
Wynn Harmon
Taji Senior
Description
Set in a small town in Upstate New York in 1936 (the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War), The Civilities introduces Blessah Hart, a dynamic young Black graduate student of History and Anthropology at Cornell University, and M. Silas Jackson, an elderly white poet and Confederate army veteran who has resided in the North for 60 years. Conducting research for her graduate thesis on the narratives of surviving Confederates living in the North, Blessah reaches out to “son of the South” poet Jackson, whose poetry critiques and romanticizes the Old South, and is rich with allusions about the nation’s history and enigmatic clues about the poet’s own past. As researcher and subject, Blessah and Silas form an unlikely connection. But their relationship is tested as Blessah’s perceptive nature leads her to “read between the lines” of Silas’s work, prompting questions that strain his patience.
When Blessah travels to Silas’s hometown in the South to uncover the missing pieces of his story, neither historian nor poet is prepared for the agonizing revelation her research uncovers: a discovery linking them to a history of bondage, birthright, bloodshed, compelling a reckoning with the wounds of the past and the wrongs of the present. From the author of Possessing Harriet and Toliver & Wakeman, The Civilities explores profound questions about heritage, race, civility, and the tension between history and literature as two means of conveying truth.
This production is made possible by a 2024 Support for Artists grant awarded by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
Cast & Crew
WYNN HARMON (M. Silas Jackson) Broadway: Porgy and Bess (broadcast “Live from Lincoln Center” on PBS). International: Candide, The Music Man, West Side Story (France, Sardinia, Oman). Off-Broadway: The Light and the Dark (Primary Stages/Chautauqua),The Lucky One (Mint). Regional: Billie Jean(Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Choice (McCarter); Love All (La Jolla); Possessing Harriet, Travels with My Aunt, Sylvia(Syracuse Stage); The Constant Wife, plus ten Shakespeares (Old Globe); Candide, Show Boat, Lost in the Stars, West Side Story (Kennedy Center); Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Alchemist (Shakespeare Theatre Company); A Moon for the Misbegotten (Long Wharf/Hartford Stage/Alley); The Habit of Art (Studio Theatre); Mother, Daughter, Father, Son (Adirondack Theatre Festival);The Heidi Chronicles (Arena Stage); The Music Man, Lost in the Stars, Carousel, Camelot, Ariadne in Naxos (Glimmerglass Festival); Pure Poe, The True, Race (Capital Rep); As You Like It (Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis). TV:“Law & Order SVU”, “Madam Secretary”, “The Knick”. Awards: The Edwin E. Stein Award for Excellence in the Arts.
SCOTT HOLDREDGE (Set/Lighting/Sound Design/Technical Director) is excited to be back with FSC this summer for this exciting anniversary season. He recently designed Oklahoma! for Cortland Repertory Theatre. His scenic designs for SUNY Cortland have recently included; Cinderella, The Rocky Horror Show, Anything Goes, John Proctor is the Villain, By Any Other Name (a new musical workshop with CreateTheater) Sweet Charity, Love Billy, Cabaret, The Last Five Years (co-production with Cortland Repertory Theatre). He has also designed for Opera Ithaca, The Hangar, Cortland Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Opera, Syracuse University, and a few area high school theatres as a set/lighting designer and technical director. Scott’s work has been seen in New York City, Los Angeles, Alaska, and San Diego across the genres of theatre, corporate events, theme parks, haunted houses, and film.
GILBERT MCCAULEY (Director) is a Full Professor in the Department of Theater at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has served as the Producing Artistic Director of Oakland Ensemble Theatre, Resident Director at Brown University’s Rites and Reason Theatre, as an acting company member of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and he is an alum of New York Drama League Directors Project. Mr. McCauley has directed Off-Broadway and at regional theatres around the country including Arena Stage, Arkansas Repertory Theater, Goodman Theatre, HartfordStage, Old Globe Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Horizons, SeattleRepertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage and the National Theatre of Ghana. His directing credits include, Kyle Bass’ Salt City Blues, August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Fences, and Two Trains Running, Master Harold…and the Boys by Athol Fugard, Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, The Mountaintop by Katori Hall, Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We are Proud to Present, The Call by Tanya Barfield, Cheryl L. West’s Jar the Floor, The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez, Gees Bend by Elyzabeth Gregory-Wilder, Hell in High Water and Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi by MarcusGardley, Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon, Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play, and Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie.
ALYSSA PERILLO (Stage Manager/Prop Mistress) began working at the Franklin Stage as an intern in 2023. She is delighted to be returning for her 4th season working at FSC and her 2nd year as Season Stage Manager. In the off season, Alyssa works as Franklin Stage’s Administrative/Artistic Associate, attends SUNY Oneonta, and co-directs Unatego Central School’s theater program.
TAJI SENIOR (Blessah Hart) Taji Senior is a Princess Grace award winning actor, writer and theatre maker. Off Broadway: Bernarda’s Daughters (The New Group and National Black Theatre) Mary Gets Hers (Playwrights Realm); Regional: Two Trains Running (Hartford Stage), Nightbird (Austin Playhouse). She holds an MFA in acting from UCLA and a BA in journalism from Texas Tech University.
KATHARINE TARKULICH (Costume Design) is delighted to be back designing for theFranklin Stage Company after designing Bricktop, Legend of the Jazz Age in 2022. Favorite regional designs: Mamma Mia; Cortland Repertory Theater, Cortland NY; Oliver!, Much Ado About Nothing, The Color Purple; Redhouse Arts Center, Syracuse NY; Blood Brothers; Irish Classical Theatre, Buffalo NY; Guys and Dolls, Secret Garden; Lees-McRae Summer Theater, Banner Elk NC; Taking Steps; Abigail’s Party, Odyssey Theatre; Hay Fever; School for Scandal; Crimes of the Heart, Little Fish Theatre, San Pedro CA; Woyzeck, Gangbuster’s Theatre (2009 NYC Fringe Fest.), Burbank CA; Assassins; The Cannibals, Cal Rep. Long Beach CA. www.ktcostumedesign.com Member USA829
EVAN TRUE (Production & Technical Assistance) spends the colder months as a technical producer and production manager for live events, conferences, festivals and interactive museums. He has worked on the production side with many theater and dance companies including the TEAM, Liz Lerman Dance, and Culture Project and has been a build and strike volunteer at FSC for two seasons. Evan is also an Obie Award winning performer, and has been an ensemble member as well as Tech Director at the Living Theatre and International Wow Company.
About the Playwright
KYLE BASS is a playwright, screenwriter, and librettist whose works include The Floydians, Toliver & Wakeman, Tender Rain, Salt City Blues, Possessing Harriet (published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide), Citizen James, or The Young Man Without a Country, and a new version of Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha. His work has been produced Off-Broadway, at Syracuse Stage, Franklin Stage Company, East Lynne Theater Company, HartBeat Ensemble, by the Washington National Opera, and elsewhere. His new plays include The Civilities, which was commissioned by Franklin Stage Company and will premiere there this summer, and The Black Nationals, commissioned by Syracuse Stage and which will premiere in 2027 under the direction of Gilbert McCauley. A three-time recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (in fiction, playwriting, and screenwriting), Kyle is Resident Playwright at Syracuse Stage and Associate Professor of Theater at Colgate University. A descendant of individuals once enslaved in colonial New England and the American South, Kyle resides and writes in upstate New York where his family has lived in freedom and owned land for 227 years.
SHOWTIMES
Thursday–Saturday @7:30 pm
Saturday Matinee @3:00 pm
Sunday @5:00 pm
Performance is approximately 2 hours with one intermission.
Please arrive on time. Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of house management.
General Seating
FREE ADMISSION
Franklin Stage Company is an admission-free theater that depends on the generosity of our audience and donors. The suggested donation is $25 per seat, but whatever donation you can afford, you are welcome here.