Franklin Stage Company Presents Staged Readings of New Play by Kyle Bass

FRANKLIN — The Franklin Stage Company (FSC) on Institute Street in Franklin, Delaware County’s renowned professional summer theater, will present 2 staged readings of a new play by Kyle Bass entitled The Civilities. FSC was awarded a Support for Artists Grant last year for the commission of the play written by the author of Possessing Harriet and Toliver & Wakeman, which FSC produced during their 2019 and 2022 summer seasons, respectively. The readings will be directed by Gilbert McCauley.

“It’s wonderful to again be part of the development process of a new Kyle Bass play,” said Artistic Director Patricia Buckley, “Possessing Harriet and Toliver & Wakeman were two of our audience’s favorite shows, and we’re very excited about Kyle’s new piece, an exploration of local and historical facts and imaginings.” The commission was funded by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). The final component of the grant is a public offering such as staged readings, which FSC will present on Sept. 12 and 14.

Set in Ithaca, 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” Jackson, whose poetry critiques and romanticizes Old Dixie. As researcher and subject, Blessah and Silas form an unlikely connection, and their relationship is tested when 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 revelation her research uncovers: a discovery linking them to a history of bondage, birthright and bloodshed compels a reckoning with the past and the wrongs of the present. The Civilities explores profound questions about heritage, race, civility, and the tension between history and literature as two means of conveying truth.

The readings will take place on Friday, September 12 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, September 14 at 3 pm. Both presentations will include an audience talkback following the reading. For more information or to reserve seats, visit www.franklinstagecompany.org. Programming at the Franklin Stage Company is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.