Theater is essential for its immediate nature, and for its ability to exist suddenly and without warning by people left out of pop-cultural conversations. For a few of my friends, the theate…
At the end of June, actor Mark Rylance shared how he caught the Pittsburgh bug on his first visit more than a decade ago, fueling new projects steeped in our region’s labor history. Fresh …
“I’m kind of crazy about this season,” says Ted Pappas of his 2017-18 programming for Pittsburgh Public Theater. The company’s 43rd season is also his last as artistic director. Papp…
The 27th annual Pittsburgh New Works Festival (PNWF) Program B offers is a mixed bag of theatrics. On stage, three world premiere one act plays, produced by local theater troupes. I revi…
Pittsburgh Opera has chosen for its 79th season an interesting combination of works – a 50/50 split between the old, tried and true, and the new, including a second world premiere in as ma…
For their 11th year of performances, Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center is introducing their 2017-2018 season – “Dream Bigger,” beginning on October 6, 2017, through June 24, 2018. Th…
No one can say Artistic Director Jennifer Tober and the Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks hasn’t been busy over the past twelve seasons. The company has been producing free public perfor…
This second post covers the Pittsburgh New Works Festival (PNWF) Programs A & B! Six new one-act plays will be produced during this portion of the festival, all performed at the Carnegie…
Multidimensional, quasi-interactive plays are gradually becoming a phenomenon in theatre, in which evocative themes and transgressive or incredibly sensitive subject matter can be portrayed …
When I was given this assignment, I was greatly confused at being told that the theatre I was going to was in Greenfield. I lived on the Squirrel Hill/Greenfield edge for eleven years and ha…
There is a reason we tell each other stories that go beyond a recollection of the facts. We like to think we’re our own historians, and sometimes we are, but we don’t make myths as a mat…
There is a sort of unintentional impracticality to presenting a dramaturgical narrative that focuses on the heavily romanticized (and even fetishized, to some extent) monarchical dynasty of …
It’s THAT time of year again ladies and gentleman! Time to settle back into your daily routine of books and classes for some of you, which means, rehearsals are starting soon! If you’ve …
With the announcement of the 2017-2018 season, the CMU drama department is brimming with excitement about special guest artists in the line-up. The season will boast a Tony-Nominated Guest D…
Fall is approaching, and students are already moving back into the dorms. That means fall semester auditions are about to start at local universities. And although Carlow University in Oakla…
Pittsburgh’s oldest amateur theatre company, The Duquesne Red Masquers has quite the ambitious upcoming 105th season. Orphie and the Book of Heroes, The Busy Body, Macbeth and Equus would …
For an extraordinary variety of reasons better cataloged elsewhere, it is a confusing time to be a young person in America. Thanks to a blame game-y media environment, one needs only type in…
Summer may be ending, but things are about to heat up at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in Oakland. The home of Point Park University theatre— The REP Professional Theatre Company and the Conser…
The Summer Company presents Agatha Christie’s Go Back for Murder, an unusual take on the traditional murder mystery. What could be more exciting than family secrets, intrigue, suspense, ro…
Keystone Performing Arts Academy presents Billy Elliot the Musical based on the 2000 film by the same name. The music is by Elton John, and the book and lyrics are by Lee Hall, who also wrot…
If you are a regular reader of Pittsburgh in the Round I’m sure you have realized that the Pittsburgh area has quite the active theatre scene. From productions at the Cultural District the…
Cloud 9 is a peculiar, challenging play. Its title brings to mind feelings of euphoria and images of paradise. On the other hand, Throughline Theatre Company’s production of Caryl Churchil…
Horror and comedy mix well. Laughter and terror are base emotions, but both require a degree of nuance to actually work. A comedy with stilted rhythm is unsettling; horror without subtlety i…
There are two kinds of jukebox musicals in the world. In one type, the songs originally performed by an established musical act are incorporated into that person or group’s biography. Exam…
Any fairly seasoned or routine theatre-goer has a certain expectation for crowd makeup at certain shows. The niche, hyper-baroque, perhaps one person piece—the crowd is replete with art ma…