Syracuse University Department of Drama Stages PUNK ROCK, Beginning Tonight

Syracuse University's Department of Drama tackles the volatile combination of adolescence and anxiety in Simon Stephens' 2009 play Punk Rock. Directed by Robert Moss, this production from one of Britain's most celebrated contemporary playwrights runs at the Storch Theatre tonight, February 19, through February 28, 2016 in the Syracuse Stage/SU Drama Complex. Opening night performance is Saturday, February 20 at 8 p.m.

Tickets range $17-$19 and can be purchased at vpa.syr.edu/drama, by phone at 315-443-3275, and in person at the Box Office, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Set at a private British grammar school, the equivalent to an American high school, the play navigates the increasingly on-edge angst of seven teenagers during their preparation for final examinations. As if there weren't enough pressure already to perform well in their studies, their examination results determine where they'll be able to go to university. At its core, the play looks at how our society, with its increasingly high expectations to be successful and its stigmatization of mistakes, has turned school into the ultimate pressure-cooker.

Moss feels that students will relate to the play due to the brutal honesty of Stephens' writing in depicting the relentless pressures that multiple forces, from education systems to parents, place on young people today. Stephens won a Tony Award in 2015 for his stage adaptation of Mark Haddon's 2003 bestseller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. "He [Stephens] creates real, three-dimensional people," says Moss. "I think he's drawn seven incredibly honest portrayals of these seven kids. They're very different from each other. They each have their incredible anxieties."

The play runs without an intermission, which allows the audience to feel the tensions that the students find themselves trapped by. The setting, a school library utilized by the students, stays the same throughout the play, except for the last scene, in which an adult character appears for the first time. Over the course of seven scenes, the audience gets to know the seven students in all of their insecurities and witness how the pressure they feel manifests in various destructive guises.

One of Moss' creative decisions for the play is to have the cast dance to punk music during the play's interludes, or scene changes, as a way of showing each character's inner "punk." "Each one of the interludes is centered on one or another of the seven characters," says Moss. In researching punk music, he found that the rebellious genre centers on the act of doing something simply because you can. "It's meant to be a kind of inner explosion of what this character would really be like, getting rid of tension," adds Moss.

Robert Moss served as the artistic director of Ithaca's Hangar Theatre from 1982 to 1996, and then at Syracuse Stage from 1996 to 2008. He has also taught in the Department of Drama at Syracuse University.

Simon Stephens, born in 1971, is a British playwright whose earliest plays focused on the plights of youth. He attended the University of York, graduating with a degree in History. Raised in the British town of Stockport, the married father of three and former teacher currently lives in London.

Advisory: Punk Rock contains incidents of violence, including gun violence. It is intended for mature audiences.

The cast includes:

WILLIAM..............................................................................Cole Francum
LILLY.................................................................................Isabella Moore
BENNETT............................................................................Zeke Edmonds
CISSY.....................................................................................Bryn Dolan
NICHOLAS.............................................................................Matt Mueller
TANYA...................................................................................Rose Gulant
CHADWICK........................................................................Justice Hayward
LUCY FRANCIS...........................................................................Kim Roth
DR. HARVEY......................................................................Kevin Shumway

Punk Ensemble: Casey Boykins, Giovanni Da Silva, Chirag Manohar, Pascal Portney, Kim Roth, Alyssa Smith

Understudies: Casey Boykins (Tanya), Giovanni Da Silva (Bennett), Chirag Manohar (Chadwick), Pascal Portney (William), Kim Roth (Lilly), Alyssa Smith (Cissy)

The design team includes Rob Andrusko (scenic designer), Kiersten Kozbial-Wu (costume designer), Anna LiDestri (lighting designer), and Jonathan R. Herter (sound designer). Krystal Lynn Dawson is the stage manager.

The Department of Drama (SU Drama) offers conservatory-style training in a university setting shared with a resident, professional theater (Syracuse Stage), presenting an unparalleled combination of teaching professionals and diverse performance and production opportunities. SU Drama offers four conservatory-style bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) degree programs in acting, musical theater, stage management, and theater design and technology, as well as a bachelor of science (B.S.) degree program in drama that features a Theater Management track. Undergraduates put classroom theory into practice through productions and various special opportunities, including Wednesday Lab, study abroad, the NYC-based Tepper Semester, the Sorkin in L.A. Learning Practicum, numerous community engagement initiatives and the opportunity to participate in workshops or discussions with such visiting artists as Taye Diggs '93, Aaron Sorkin '83, Vanessa Williams '85, Frank Langella '59, David Henry Hwang, Tim Miller, Tony Kushner and more.

The Department of Drama is housed within the College of Visual and Performing Arts (SU:VPA). SU:VPA is committed to the education of cultural leaders who will engage and inspire audiences through performance, visual art, design, scholarship and commentary. It provides the tools for self-discovery and risk-taking in an environment that thrives on critical thought and action.

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