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Syracuse Stage will put on six virtual shows during the 2020-2021 season.

The shows include “Talley’s Folly,” “Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley,” “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” “Yoga Play,” “Our Town” and “salt/city/blues.” The season will run from late October through June 2021, Syracuse Stage said in a press release.

The performances will be video-on-demand, similar to the theater’s production of “Amadeus” in March. The dates for the access of each show will be announced in early October, according to Syracuse Stage’s announcement.

The reopening of in-person performances depends on COVID-19 guidelines from professional unions and state and local officials that have not been established yet, according to the release.

Syracuse Stage artistic director Robert Hupp wants to make sure the plays’ online format isn’t just a substitute for a live performance.

“While we’re saddened by the fact that we can’t create the season we had planned, we are thrilled to announce our ideas for a newly reimagined Syracuse Stage season,” Hupp said in the press release.

This year’s virtual season includes additional performances and community conversation. The Cold Read Festival of New Plays will return in March, with expanded online programming through the ongoing Cold Read Shorts series. “Syracuse Stories” programming also includes a production of “A Gatherin’ Place,” written and performed by Harriet Tubman Dance Troupe, and video interviews with local leaders such as Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh.

Hupp will direct the first of the six shows, “Talley’s Folly,” which premieres in November. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play is a romantic one, with a middle-age accountant named Matt Friedman traveling 200 miles to Missouri so that he can propose to a younger woman by the name of Sally Talley. But chaos ensues as Friedman is approached by Sally’s “shotgun-toting” brother and hides in a folly, where Sally finds him.

In December, “Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley” will take the virtual stage. The play is a sequel to Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” with odd sister Mary taking the spotlight during a Christmas celebration.

In January and February, Syracuse Stage will put on “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” which was influenced by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. In the play created by Anna Deavere Smith and directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, more than four dozen characters look further into issues of race and class.

The comedy “Yoga Play” directed by Melissa Crespo will take place in March. It tells the story of Joan, the CEO of an athletic clothing company called Jojomon. Joan learns that a BBC investigative team is looking to expose her company for using child labor in Bangladesh. So, they go on the hunt to find a yogi as their spokesperson, all in the hopes of saving their public image.

“Our Town,” directed by Hupp, will run from April to May. One of Hupp’s personal favorites, the play is about a fictional small town in New Hampshire called “Grover’s Corners,” and tells the story of its citizens.

Syracuse Stage will host the world premiere of “salt/city/blues” in June. Kyle Bass, the associate artistic director at Syracuse Stage and author of “Possessing Harriet,” wrote the play, which is directed by Tazewell Thompson. Set in a fictionalized Syracuse, the main character Yolonda Mourning leaves her family to move downtown. But the people she meets throughout make her confront issues of race, class and urban renewal within her city.

“Especially now, in this time of national reckoning, we need the transformative power of theatre more than ever,” Hupp said in the press release.

Published on September 15, 2020 at 12:41 pm

Contact Christopher: cscargla@syr.edu | @chrisscargs