{"id":99372,"date":"2019-02-26T15:16:20","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T20:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=99372"},"modified":"2019-02-26T12:19:27","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T17:19:27","slug":"gerrit-smith-a-playwrights-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=99372","title":{"rendered":"Gerrit Smith: A Playwright’s Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Kyle Bass, the playwright of Possessing Harriet, returns to\nPeterboro to present \u201cInventing Gerrit Smith: A Playwright’s Journey\u201d for the\nannual recognition of abolitionist Gerrit Smith\u2019s birth in 1797. The Gerrit\nSmith Estate National Historic Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame\nand Museum will host the special program at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 2, 2019, at\nthe Smithfield Community Center, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bass spent time at the Gerrit Smith Estate during his\npreparations for writing a play commissioned by the Onondaga Historical\nAssociation about Harriet Powell, an enslaved woman who escaped from slavery\nwith the help of a waiter at a hotel in Syracuse, with shelter in Smith\u2019s home\nin Peterboro and transportation to Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After months of research and writing, Bass created a\npowerful and poignant drama that debuted at Syracuse Stage Oct. 17, 2018. The\nsetting is 1839 in the attic of the Smith home in Peterboro where Harriet is\nsecreted while waiting for the final leg of her journey to Canada. Bass, through\nthe four characters (Tom Leonard, Harriet Powell, Gerrit Smith and Elizabeth\nCady [Stanton]), pulls the audience into the human factors and tensions of two\nmighty movements swelling in the nation with their pulses beating from Central\nNew York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bass and the four outstanding actors accomplish more in the 90\nminutes in that setting to illuminate the strains and stresses of the time than\nheritage efforts have mustered in 90 months. Bass will share his learning\nexperience as he \u201cintended to invent and write a drama, not edit and present a\ndocumentary; not to exhibit but to reveal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bass earned a master of fine arts degree from Goddard\nCollege, where he has taught creative writing since 2006. He is the associate artistic\ndirector at Syracuse Stage, teaches playwriting at Syracuse University and is\nthe Burke Endowed Chair for Regional Studies at Colgate University for the spring\n2019 term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A two-time recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts\nFellowship for fiction and play writing, Bass has many one-act plays,\nfull-length plays and screen plays to his credit, is the drama editor for the\njournal Stone Canoe and is the creator and curator of Cold Read Festival of new\nplays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the program, a walk to the site of the setting of\nthe play will be guided. The public is encouraged to attend. Admission is free.\nFor more information call 315-280-8828 or email info@gerritsmith.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

    Kyle\nBass (Courtesy of Brenna Merrit) the playwright of Possessing Harriet a play\nthat debuted at Syracuse Stage in 2018, returns to Peterboro NY to present\nInventing Gerrit Smith: A Playwright’s Journey for the annual recognition of\nabolitionist Gerrit Smith\u2019s birth in 1797. The Gerrit Smith Estate National\nHistoric Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum will host\nthe special program at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, March 2, 2019 at the Smithfield\nCommunity Center, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro NY 13134. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

 Possessing Harriet cast (Courtesy Brenna\nMerrit) in the 1839 attic setting in Peterboro NY. (L-R) Lucy Lavely as\nElizabeth Cady, Daniel Morgan Shelley as Tom Leonard, Nicole King as Harriet\nPowell, and Wynn Harmon as Gerrit Smith. Play wright Kyle Bass will present\nInventing Gerrit Smith: A Playwright’s Journey for the annual recognition of\nabolitionist Gerrit Smith\u2019s birth in 1797. The Gerrit Smith Estate National\nHistoric Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum will host\nthe special program at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, March 2, 2019 at the Smithfield\nCommunity Center, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro NY 13134. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

       Wynn\nHarmon as Gerrit Smith in Possessing Harriet (Courtesy Brenna Merrit)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyle Bass, the playwright of Possessing Harriet, returns to Peterboro to present \u201cInventing Gerrit Smith: A Playwright’s Journey\u201d for the annual recognition of abolitionist Gerrit Smith\u2019s birth in 1797. The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum will host the special program at 1 p.m. Saturday, March […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,22367,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-entertainment","category-history","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/99366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}