By SHARON EBERSON
The comeback of Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre – PICT, in all of its incarnations – hits a new stride, with the announcement of two productions in Carnegie, PA, venues, the first in September and the next, in March 2025.
Since being named artistic director in February 2023, Elizabeth Elias Huffman has created several fundraising productions, notably an invitation-only presentation of King Charles III during the British monarch’s coronation week, the 2500 Years of Theatre and Fashion Gala and Bards From the Burgh, a new-play reading series that completed its second year on Thursday, July 11.
ANDY WARHOL’S TOMATO
The first PICT production of its 2024-25 season was part of the first Bards series: Andy Warhol’s Tomato, by McKeesport native Vince Melocchi, and directed by Huffman. Matt Henderson portrays 18-year-old Carnegie Tech student Andy Warhola, before he became the Pop Art King.
In the play, Andy finds himself in the basement of a working-class bar owned by Mario “Bones” Bonino (Johnny Patalano), a second-generation Italian American from McKeesport. Over the course of the summer, Andy and Bones form an unlikely friendship that surprises them both.
The play, commissioned by the LA-based Pacific Resident Theatre, previously had productions in Los Angeles and Chicago. Andy Warhol’s Tomato “examines the complexities between urban LGBTQ lifestyle and blue collar sensibilities, reinforcing our aspirations that divisions can be bridged by our fundamental need to create.” As Bones says in the play: “There is beauty in the mundane.”
A couple of recent plays delve into apocryphal scenes from the life of Warhol – Andy Warhol in Iran (City Theatre) and The Collaboration – while Andy Warhol’s Tomato takes another POV, offering insights into the young artist, and the Pittsburgh roots that shaped him.
Andy Warhol’s Tomato runs September 20 – October 6, 2024, at Carnegie Stage, 25 W. Main Street, Carnegie, PA. For tickets, visit https://pictclassictheatre.ludus.com/index.php
A preview performance at 8 p.m. September 13 takes place at The Andy Warhol Museum, 117 Sandusky Street, North Side. Visit https://www.warhol.org/events/andy-warhols-tomato/ for tickets and details.
THE SMUGGLER
Coming in March 2025 is The Smuggler, “a powerful, subversive, and funny monologue in verse,” by Irish playwright Ronan Noone. The play representing PICT’s Irish heritage features a solo performance by Michael Patrick Trimm, and is directed by Little Lake Theatre’s Patrick Cannon.
The Smuggler, winner of the Best Playwright award at the first Irish Festival of New York in January of 2019, is set in modern day Amity, an affluent summer colony in Massachusetts, where Tim Finnegan is trying to make it as a writer. Tensions have escalated between the Irish migrant and local communities following a fatal car crash. When Tim loses his job as a bartender, he gets drawn into the dark underbelly of the island. “‘The Smuggler examines how far one man will go to restore his self-respect and asks the question: What does it mean to be an American Citizen?”
As a nod to St. Patrick’s Day, The Smuggler is a site-specific production, running at 7:30 p.m. Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, March 2-18, 2025, at Riley’s Pour House, 215 W. Main Street, in Carnegie.
As part of Huffman’s mission, the play likely will move on to her hometown of Monongahela, where she said there is a thirst for professional theater.
Huffman is a longtime theater artist whose three decades of work include serving as artistic or co-artistic director of companies based in Los Angeles, New York City and Portland, Oregon. She has international connections as well, and is in the process of fundraising for two additional productions, one representing the “classic” in the company’s title, the other, representing her global point of view.
Check https://www.picttheatre.org/whats-on for updates.
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