THE SYRINGA TREE to Run 9/26-27 at USC's Drayton Hall Theatre

The UofSC Department of Theatre and Dance will present a special two-night only performance of The Syringa Tree, the award-winning apartheid era memory play by Pamela Gien, September 26-27 at Drayton Hall Theatre.

Show times are 8pm each evening. Tickets for the production are $5 and available only at the door. Seating will be on the Drayton Hall Theatre stage. Audiences are encouraged to arrive early, as seating will be limited.

Winner of the Obie for Best Off-Broadway Play in 2001, The Syringa Tree is a personal, deeply evocative story of an abiding love between two families - one black, one white - and the two children that are born into their shared household in early 1960s South Africa. Seen first through the eyes of a child, six-year-old Elizabeth Grace, as she tries with humor and palpable fear to make sense of the chaos, magic and darkness of Africa, the story of these families' destinies spans four generations, from early apartheid to the present-day free South Africa. As originally conceived and performed, one actress plays all twenty-four characters in the story.

Third-year MFA Acting student Melissa Reed is taking on the daunting challenge of the play's solo performance role. Fellow third-year MFA actor Josiah Laubenstein is directing.

It was Reed's idea to bring the play to the University. She saw, and loved, a production of the play in Atlanta, and rediscovered it recently when researching possibilities for a one-person play to potentially tour professionally.

"I reacted viscerally," she says. "It insisted itself as a presence in my life."

While the story looks back in history, Reed says it's explorations of power and injustice ring true for current events. "With the protests that have been happening in Ferguson, Missouri, especially. This play is very relevant to today's world."

Reed points out, however, that's it's not just a story of the dramatic social and political shifts in South Africa. "It's a memory play about a woman returning to her homeland. The magical thing, though, is that while it doesn't hit you over the head like an 'issue' play, you can still see how apartheid is woven throughout the story and affects the lives of these families."

For more information about The Syringa Tree or the theatre program at the University of South Carolina, contact Kevin Bush by email at bushk@mailbox.sc.edu or via phone at 803-777-9353.

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