The sweeping memory play of a childhood during Apartheid | April 30 – May 30

PROVIDENCE – Trinity Rep is thrilled to present The Syringa Tree by Pamela Gien as the closing show of its 2009-2010 season, playing in the intimate Dowling Theater from April 30 through May 3. Under the direction of Laura Kepley (The Clean House, Shapeshifter, Boots on the Ground), The Syringa Tree is a haunting, lyrical play based on Gien's own experiences growing up in Apartheid-torn South Africa. Tickets are on sale now at the Trinity Rep box office at 201 Washington Street, by phone at (401)-351-4242, and online at www.trinityrep.com.

Playwright Gien tells an epic political story through the eyes of Elizabeth – a little girl born into a divided world.  She paints an evocative portrait of the abiding love between two families – one black, one white. History’s shocking events unravel, mingled with the resonant rites of passage shared by all families. The universal quest to reconcile our past and the place it’s rooted in with who we are today lies at the heart of this play. As we watch Elizabeth come of age, this haunting, joyous memory play takes shape through her eyes – and together we come to terms with sacrifice, liberation and the bonds which cannot be broken.

Anne Scurria (Shapeshifter, Some Things are Private) plays the tale’s narrator, Elizabeth, while resident acting company members Barbara Meek and Rachael Warren, along with Brown/Trinity Rep MFA student Tiffany Nichole Greene ’11 portray the 22 characters that span the play’s timeline of four generations. Director Kepley says, “The play’s characters range from young, old, male, female, Sotho, Afrikaans, Zulu, English South American, Xhosa, American, Catholic, Jewish. There is a line in the play that says ’we carry one another with us for all time.’ In our production, we have an ensemble of three women who appear to Elizabeth to help carry her, guide her, and give her strength as she struggles to make sense of her world. She in turn also carries them – their memory and their legacy.“

“It's important to me that each actor play a diverse range of characters,” explains Kepley. “Barbara Meek’s main roles are a Sotho nanny and Elizabeth’s Jewish, English South African father; Rachael Warren is Elizabeth’s English South African mother and a Zulu gardener; Tiffany Nichole Greene plays many characters, including a young Xhosa girl, an Afrikaans girl, a male English South African and a male Sotho.”

Evoking the world of Elizabeth’s childhood home in South Africa are set designer Antje Ellermann, resident costume designer William Lane, and sound design by John Gromada.  “The play was created as a memory play, written not in ’scenes‘ but in fragments of text,” explains Kepley. “The production design team’s goal is create a ‘poetic space‘ that binds these memory fragments together. The set, lights, music, song and movement― all of these elements play a huge role. We’re thrilled that John Gromada, who composed the incredible music for Shapeshifter, will be returning to work with us to bring all of the rhythms and sounds of South Africa to the Dowling Theater.”

As resident director and artistic associate at Trinity Rep for four seasons, Laura Kepley’s directed last season’s world premiere of Shapeshifter and Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House. Also at Trinity Rep, she co-created and directed Boots on the Ground and Some Things Are Private with playwright Deborah Salem Smith. Directing work on other new plays includes Laura Schellhardt’s The K of D (The Kennedy Center and Orlando Shakespeare Festival), George Brant’s shop talk (Drama League’s DIRECTORFEST), Trista Baldwin’s Falling Up (Perishable Theatre), Elephant’s Graveyard (The University of Texas–Austin), various selections from new works at New York’s Public Theater, productions in the New York, Seattle, and Philadelphia Fringe Festivals, and several plays in Chicago.   Kepley is a 2008 Drama League Fellow, which allowed her to work at the Alliance Theatre and to assist on New York City Center’s Encore Series production of On the Town.  She received her MFA in directing from the Brown University/Trinity Rep Consortium, where she now Interim Head of the MFA Directing Program.

Pamela Gien (Playwright) won New York’s OBIE Award for Best Play, the Drama Desk Award for Best Solo Performance, Outer Circle Critics Award, Drama League Honor, and received a John Gassner Playwriting Award nomination for The Syringa Tree. She performed the play at London’s Royal National Theatre, in America, Canada, and her native South Africa. Trio Arts Channel filmed the production. Her new novel version of The Syringa Tree is published by Random House. Along with extensive acting credits, Pamela has completed two screenplays.

The first Friday performance on April 30 at 7:30PM is Pay What You Can (PWYC). PWYC tickets go on sale at 6:30 pm, limit one per person.  This season Trinity Rep has responded to these economic times by continuing to offer $20 discounted seating. Group rates and other discounted ticket options are available by calling the box office at (401) 351-4242.   

Continuing this season is a unified curtain time of 7:30 PM for all evening performances. Regular performances start at 7:30 pm on Tuesday through Sundays with selected Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday Matinees at 2pm. Talkbacks will be held after every performance of The Syringa Tree. Audiences are invited to share their response to the play’s production and themes for approximately twenty minutes. Trinity Rep’s 46th season is sponsored by NBC 10, with supporting sponsors Cox Media, Rhode Island Monthly and RISCA.