As technology advances, it’s undeniably woven more and more tightly into our everyday existence. We’re never without trusty virtual assistance in our every moment of need—though, as…
By Eva Phillips The tides of change are cruel in the sleepy town of Mullingar. Anthony and Rosemary neighbors nestled in the bucolic Irish farmlands, have worked tirelessly to keep their far…
The audience is sent to 1930s Paris where the story unfolds around four tenors, two wives, and three girlfriends in one hotel room while there’s preparations for the concert of a lifetime …
By Brian Pope What’s better than one opening night? Four opening nights! For the last 29 years, the Pittsburgh New Works Festival has been a champion of the one act play. Each festival see…
By Eva Phillips The balance of power is erratic and volatile. Can those who thirst for power and reign over others ever do so without corruption, or without the megrims of self-interest over…
By Brian Pope In her ever increasingly maniacal efforts to cloister her son safely in the nest (or bubble, as it were), the conservatively hardwired Mrs. Livingston carefully curates (or rat…
By Eva Phillips At this point, writing a review of the astronomically popular and enormously profitable onstage adaptation of The Lion King feels a bit superfluous. 25 years after the world …
Artistic Director Marya Sea Kaminski’s lineup of plays for her second season at the Pittsburgh Public Theater seems at first glance to ramble all over the theatrical landscape. She rang…
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” Iconic. Evocative. Declarative. Historic. But even the canon, once considered untouchable, needs a little revamping and re-imagining.…
A shaky sound system. Neighborhood kids shouting. Three quick explosions of firecrackers. Honking of car horns. Emergency sirens. A noisy low-flying helicopter. It was opening night and the …
By Eva Phillips Randa is an unstoppable career woman whose prosperous career as an architect has just been, well, stopped after an unfortunate (but justifiable) at-work eruption. Dot is a vi…
Cup-A-Jo’s latest production is one of Moliere’s most famous theatrical comedies, Tartuffe. Adapted by Richard Wilbur, Tartuffe follows a family who is desperate to expose an outwardl…
By Eva Phillips The first time I ever encountered Cabaret, I was a severely depressed 19-year-old, being moved to tears in a Dunkin Donuts at 2 AM as I watched Bob Fosse-directed, spectacula…
Clever and cathartic, Fun Home at Front Porch Theatricals stirs the heart and memories of growing up despite the foibles of the grown-ups around us. Full of longing and never short on irony,…
By Miriah Auth On Saturday, August 10th, performing artists took the stage at Off The Wall Productions in sweats and warm-up clothes only to walk out the theater exit. They led the audience …
Food for Groundlings’ Othello is a labor of love attesting to how the region’s small companies do much with a modest resources. Shakespeare is about the human journey of the characters i…
By Eva Phillips The unpleasantries and discomforts of growing old, being financially disenfranchised, being a woman in a patriarchal world (and so on, and so forth) really go down much smoot…
Next to the bowling greens in Frick Park, a large tent stirs anticipation. Quantum Theatre’s audience members are invited into the peña of beloved Chilean artist-activist Violeta Parra…
12 Peers Theater’s latest production is the 2018 Pulitzer Prize Finalist play, Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Based on the play, Everyman, a 15th century morality play, Everybody tac…
We limit the rich potentiality of our identities when we adhere to constructs or conceive of the self as static. Whether we render the components of our identity as parallel structures that …
By Eva Phillips It is unsurprising that Goethe makes an appearance, in the beautiful yet eviscerating coming-of-age musical Spring Awakening. After all, the inimitable musical, with music by…
By Eva Phillips Overly melancholy Irish folk music really does something to me. Rousing, but also melancholy, Eastern European folk music REALLY does something to me. The two musical cosmose…
By Eva Phillips There is a particularly arresting moment in folkLAB’s newest production, Nicole Gallagher’s mija: one bitch’s tale, that for the sake of the integrity of the story, and…
By Brian Pope They say that youth is wasted on the young. Well, I don’t know much about the “They” who coined that cliche, but I am sure that They have not yet seen Alumni Theatre Comp…
A season of uncommon women and others take Quantum Theatre audiences from a Chilean peña, to Shakespeare’s hometown, to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. The journey during Quantum’s 29t…