By SHARON EBERSON

Pittsburgh theater’s Summer of Series has far-reaching benefits that were fully on display in the third annual Bards From the Burgh, readings of full-length plays presented by Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre.

The four works by local playwrights were well-attended at the 90+-seat Carnegie Stage, a boost to efforts by PICT artistic director Elizabeth Elias Huffman to garner support for the possible next stage for each play, with the intention of at least one being produced by the company in the future.

It was pay-what-you-can for each showing, in addition to fundraising efforts via a 50-50 raffle, envelopes provided for whatever else patrons might be moved to donate, and a rallying cry for potential sponsors, with Huffman saying it would take $5,000 to cover the next steps of workshopping and fine-tuning a full production.

Each reading had a different director, with cast sizes ranging from four (Anthony McKay’s Playboy in Manhattan), to five (Matt Henderson’s Gloria Jean and The Sexy Ghost Show), to seven (Anya Martin’s Run Wild), and nine for Wali Jamal Abdullah’s Wanderlust, or The Adventures of the Keystone Kid, plus songs from activist and protest singer Mike Stout.

One of the many benefits for audiences was watching established actors such as Hazel Carr Leroy come out from behind her music stand and cut loose in Run Wild, or witnessing young actors holding their own and carrying heavy loads, such as Jackson Blanchard (Carnegie Mellon, Class of 2027) in the title role of The Keystone Kid. Wali Jamal’s play is based on the true story of East Vandergrift native Joe Szalanski’s Depression Era feat: Hopping trains as a hobo, he visited all 48 states, starting with 48 cents in his pocket. Joe D. Szalanski, 85, who shared his father’s journey in the book Boarding the Westbound, was in attendance at the reading, which required additional seats to accommodate enthusiastic supporters of the project.

Another young actor in the Wanderlust cast, Ayden Freed (Point Park, ’26), has already had a varied career, from Stage Right, Mon Valley Arts and Prime Stage, to Jeremy Seghers’ recent production of The Trial. He played Joe’s best buddy, Kelly, memorably handling both comedy and some tough moments opposite the estimable Sam Lothard.

Among the four casts, Cole Vecchio and Isaac Miller doubled up, with Miller in a riveting Playboy of Manhattan role, opposite writer Anya Martin.

On Thursday, Carnegie Stage heats up again, with Throughline Theater’s Living News Festival, before August brings on the Ensemble Theater Company’s new All Things Pittsburgh Play Festival, at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Three Stories Peirce Theater, Downtown.

ABOUT THE BARDS FROM THE BURGH PLAYS

• Comedy and connections are the keys to Gloria, Jean and The Sexy Ghost Show, fueled by an understanding of pop culture fandom and its power to spark unexpected relationships among the like-minded; 
• Run Wild inspires a boomerang of emotions, as Greek gods and community theater actors clashed, forged relationships, despaired, and found ways to hope and cope with the state of theater today; 
• With Stout’s music helping to set the mood, The Keystone Kid’s journey and love story became an immersive experience, amid the tug o’war of the freedom of the road, often fraught with peril, vs. the loved ones and the mills that awaited at home; 
• In the Bards From the Burgh’s dramatic finale, Playboy of Manhattan, grief, guilt, betrayal, entitlement and desperation combine for a timeless story of the toll rejection can take in the life of one struggling actor.

Categories: Arts and Ideas, Festival, Our Posts

Tags: Bards From the Burgh, Carnegie Stage, Local Playwrights, PICT, Readings