Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre’s third annual Bards From the Burgh series will feature four readings of new works by local playwrights.
Each year, PICT selects one play from the series to develop for production. The first production from the series was Andy Warhol’s Tomato, by McKeesport-born playwright Vince Melocchi, which launched Artistic Director Elizabeth Elias Huffman’s first season.
Monongahela native Huffman is currently developing her own new work, Bon Temps Roulet at the Shakespeare Café, as well as Isle of Noises, a prequel to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, by TJ Young, selected from the 2024 series.
2025 BARDS FROM THE BURGH
Tuesday, July 8, 2025: Gloria Jean and The Sexy Ghost Show
By Matt Henderson, directed by Daina Griffith
About the play: It’s the near future, and a nasty virus has shut everything down. Gloria and Jean have no life whatsoever and never leave the house. In a world plagued by isolation, these two middle-aged women living on opposite ends of the country embark on an epic journey – constant watch parties bingeing a CW TV show about sexy teen ghosts in love. The farther in they go, season after season, an unsettling question emerges more and more clearly – what does it take to get off the couch?
Thursday, July 10, 2025: Run Wild
By Anya Martin, directed by Ponny Conomos Jahn
About the play: Three 10-minute plays inspired by social justice questions and events surrounding Pittsburgh, with characters and scenarios that are “a play on” ancient Greek Trilogies: Demeter questions the drills that mine her mother’s heart in Demeter’s Fracked Heart; Eve and Pandora step outside the box of woman-blaming in Eve and Pandora Revise Herstory; and Helen runs through centuries of femicide canonized within our hero stories in Helen at the Gym (Again). As the cast of local actresses move through grueling performance demands, Dionysus headlines a cabaret fundraiser to save the theater in Satyress, questioning if theater today is just a running joke or perhaps our biggest hope.
Saturday, July 12, 2025: Wanderlust or The Adventures of The Keystone Kid
By Wali Jamal Abdullah, directed by Art DeConciliis
About the play: A Great Depression-era drama based on the true story of Joe Szalanski, and his determination to avoid working in a steel mill. Defying his family’s wishes, Joe opts to make a name for himself by traveling to all 48 states in America on just 48 cents. His plan is to ride the rails like a hobo, and then write a book about his adventures. Back home in Pittsburgh, his friends, family and the girl he loves all anxiously await the letters he sends them, when he can afford a stamp.
Sunday, July 13, 2025: Playboy of Manhattan
By Anthony McKay, directed by Riccardo Vila-Roger
About the play: When Chase Hutchins’ best friend, Jamie, is killed in a bicycle accident while riding through the streets of Manhattan, his life becomes unmoored. Already struggling with a floundering acting career and unable to sustain a relationship, he must not only deal with his own grief, but with two unresolved issues: Who had Jamie’s love: his wife or his mistress? And who owns his Rolex? Each of the characters seizes upon the watch as a talisman that will connect them to the dead man and right their upended lives. As the watch changes hands, so does Chase’s allegiance — to his friend, to his career, and to guilt he feels about Jamie’s death, until finally, his world implodes, and he’s forced to face some ugly truths.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Play descriptions are via PICT. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. at Carnegie Stage, 25 West Main Street, Carnegie, PA. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, at https://pictclassictheatre.ludus.com/200485754.
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