onStage Pittsburgh presents the top 15 local theater stories that captured readers’ imaginations in 2025. Festivals and activities roundups were big draws, along with exits and entrances, legacy prospects, and bold, new experiences. A few late-in-the-year stories continue to have momentum, while one from last year is still going strong.

In 2025, the all-volunteer onStage Pittsburgh produced more than 500 posts, and you visited us for more than 130,000 views, while our social media following grew to 1,045 followers.

THE STORIES THAT CLICKED WITH READERS IN 2025

#1

#2

#3

The return of Throughline Theatre’s Living News Festival and PICT’s Bards From the Burgh reading series kicked off a summer that introduced short-play collections from Ensemble Actors Studio, the Becoming Arts Collective and Pittsburgh New Works Festival, which turned 35 in 2025. The August Wilson American Century Cycle Experience included three plays at three venues — Fences at the August Wilson House, Two Trains Running at Madison Arts and Entertainment Center and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which inaugurated the Madison Cabaret.

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13

#14

#15

Editors note: This story was originally posted in June of 2024, but it makes our list of 2025’s most read stories due to significant readership this year as well.

Categories: Company, Feature Stories, Festival, Our Posts, Venue

Tags: 2025 Feature Stories, 2025 Readership, August Wilson, Best of 2025, City Theatre, Juneteenth, Little Lake Theatre, Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Theater Festivals, West Side Story