MTAP—Musical Theatre Artists of Pittsburgh is announced that it will produce a half-dozen brand new 10-minute musicals, Hot Metal Shorts!, the result of collaborations between MTAP members and members of the Dramatists Guild. 

The Hot Metal Shorts! and the artists who created them are: 

Take Me by David Michael King and Maureen McGranaghan 

Connected by Annette Ferrieri, Alicia Johnson, and J.W. Snyder 

Next Stop Steel Plaza by Anita Spano and Darlene Thompson 

20% by Marisa Horak and Jennifer Schaupp 

Unravel by Dana Leahy, Judy Meiksin, and Angela Thompson 

Thank You But No Thank You by Mora Harris and Ian Kane 

The settings range from a city bus to a cable car suspended over Albuquerque, but the content goes way past public transportation. 

The situations span struggling with remote learning, transforming a total loser into an exploitative capitalist, embracing your alien abduction, chasing a new job but blowing the interview, getting upstaged by your own post-doc, and fighting for your future by laying claim to the audition room. 

Directing the six mini-musicals is Rob James, with music direction by Nick Navari. A single acting company of six will take on all the roles: Becki Toth, Erich Lasceck, Cynthia Dougherty, Nandita Mahesh, Jillian Lesaca, and A.J. Prestogeorge. 

Hot Metal Shorts! is being produced by MTAP’s Executive Director, Jeanne Drennan. 

There will be two performances, Saturday, July 30, at 7 pm and Sunday, July 31, at 2 pm. Performances are at the newly renamed Lillie Theatre (formerly the Hamburg Studio) at City Theatre, 1300 Bingham Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203. 

The show is open to the public; the $10 tickets are available at EventBrite. Visit mtap.weebly.com for the link. All audience members must remain masked at all times inside City Theatre unless eating or drinking in the lounge. 

MTAP’s focus is on new musicals. It seeks to foster collaboration between musical theatre artists in the region and create opportunities for developing, presenting, and producing new musical theatre.

Categories: Show Previews

Tags: Alicia Johnson, and A.J. Prestogeorge, Angela Thompson, Anita Spano, Annette Ferrieri, Becki Toth, Cynthia Dougherty, Dana Leahy, Darlene Thompson, David Michael King, Erich Lasceck, Ian Kane, J.W. Snyder, Jeanne Drennan, Jennifer Schaupp, Jillian Lesaca, Judy Meiksin, Marisa Horak, Maureen McGranaghan, Mora Harris, MTAP, Musical Theatre Artists of Pittsburgh, Nandita Mahesh, Nick Navari, Rob James