The season kicks off with The 39 Steps, based on Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film and adapted for the stage by Patrick Barlow. Four actors play 150 roles in this Tony Award-winning show full of gunshots, murder, seductive spies, chases and laughs. Peter Amster will direct. The 39 Steps, which will run Oct. 20-Nov. 7, is a co-production with The Cleveland Playhouse.

The holiday season brings A Christmas Story, Nov. 30–Dec. 30. The 1983 film was adapted for the stage by Philip Grecian, and tells the story of a smoking furnace, a bully named Farkus, a pack of thieving-baying hounds, a dingblang-fuzzle-whizzin-mouthed old man and Ralphie, a little boy who wants nothing more than an official Red Ryder 200-Shot Carbine Action Range Model Air Rifle with a compass for Christmas. Seth Gordon will direct.

Next up is Jonathan Larson's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent, Jan. 18-Feb. 13, 2011, a co-production with Syracuse University's Department of Drama. The show follows one year of love, loss, tragedy and triumph in the lives of seven young friends from New York's gritty Alphabet City. Anthony Salatino will direct and choreograph.

Radio Golf, which will play Feb. 23–March 13, 2011, is the final installment of August Wilson's ten-play 20th Century Cycle, and tells the story of a man striving to become the first African-American mayor of Pittsburgh. Syracuse Stage artistic director Timothy Bond will direct.

The Miracle Worker, William Gibson's classic American tale of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller, will play March 23–April 23, directed by Paul Barnes. Rounding out the season is Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House, May 4-22, 2011. This Pulitzer Prize-nominated play premiered in 2004 at Yale Repertory Theatre, and announced Ruhl's presence as a major young playwright. Her whimsical, emotional comedy centers on Matilde, a Brazilian cleaning woman who would rather be a comedian. Michael Barakiva will direct.

For more information, visit www.syracusestage.org.