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The play is based on incidents from Gien’s youth in South Africa. She was inspired to tell her story while attending an acting class. When directed to tell a story to the person next to her, vivid images of her youth leapt to her mind for the first time in decades. Despite her vulnerability in telling her life story, her director, Larry Moss, said, “you have to write this.” So Gien’s life story became a semi-autobiographical play, which amazingly has 24 characters played by one actress.

“Audiences around the world have been moved by this tour-de-force-performance, and I expect Buffalo audiences will be no different,” said Kathleen Gaffney, Studio Arena’s artistic director and chief executive officer. “Audiences will be amused, engaged and shaken by the powerful theatre they will see on stage.”

Gin Hammond plays Elizabeth Grace. She has performed THE SYRINGA TREE around the world to great critical acclaim, along the way winning the Helen Hayes award as best actress in 2003 for her run at the Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. She has also performed the role at the Long Wharf Theatre, TheatreWorks, A.R.T., the Pasadena Playhouse, The Canon Theatre, A.C.T. in Seattle, as well as in Edinburgh and in Germany. Other regional performances include BIG WHITE FOG (Guthrie Theater), THE BACCHAE (A.R.T.), LIFE'S A DREAM (Berkshire Theatre Festival), and POLK COUNTY (Arena Stage). Hammond is a grant recipient of the Ford Mellon Foundation. She is a graduate of the American Repertory Theatre Institute at Harvard University/Moscow Art Theatre School.

Director Larry Moss studied his craft with Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner and Warren Robertson. He began his career at New York’s famed cabaret Upstairs at the Downstairs and went on to appear on Broadway in numerous productions. After founding The Larry Moss Studio, he directed and helped develop THE SYRINGA TREE, which had its world premiere at ACT in Seattle. THE SYRINGA TREE opened in New York in September 2000 and won the OBIE Award for Best Play of 2001, the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. Moss has taught at Juilliard and Circle in the Square, and has coached actors such as Helen Hunt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hilary Swank, Michael Clarke Duncan, Hank Azaria, Jim Carrey, and Tobey Maguire. He has a new book out on acting, “The Intent to Live,” and has been very busy Off Broadway as well, most recently with RFK at The Culture Project. Moss is developing a musical with singer/performer Clint Holmes that will open in the spring.

Pamela Gien, the playwright and original performer of THE SYRINGA TREE, won the OBIE Award for Best Play 2001 in New York, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, the Outer Circle Critics Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, a Drama League Honor, and a nomination for the John Gassner Playwriting Award. Pamela has since performed the show in London, Toronto, Los Angeles, and in Boston at the American Repertory Theatre, where she was the recipient of Boston’s Elliot Norton Award for Best Solo Performance. She recently returned from South Africa where she performed the play to sold-out houses and critical acclaim at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, receiving a nomination for the prestigious Fleur du Cap Award. Random House commissioned the novel of THE SYRINGA TREE, now out in bookstores. Pamela began her acting career in South Africa, where she won the Dalro Best Actress Award and was nominated for several television performances. She has extensive theatre credits in the United States, including five years with the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge. Her TV and film credits include TALES FROM THE CRYPT, INTO THIN AIR, MEN SEEKING WOMEN and THE LAST SUPPER.

Producer Matt Salinger spent a decade as an actor and has produced twelve feature films. He has been with THE SYRINGA TREE for ten years, helping develop it, producing it in New York and around the world. He and Moss are proud that their production has garnered Best Actress awards for not only Pamela Gien (in New York), but Caroline Cave (Toronto and Vancouver) and Gin Hammond (Washington, DC). He produced the television version of the play that aired on the Trio television network and he is looking forward to working on the film version. Salinger is working with one of the creators of HOOP DREAMS and TALKING JAZZ writer Ben Sidran on a documentary style film set today when so many of our jazz greats are passing away, and he is most excited to be working with Pam again on Pam’s script THE LILY FIELD. Salinger is on the board of North Country School/Camp Treetops, a junior boarding school and camp in the Adirondack Mountains.