With news about Pittsburgh Playwrights ‘Art of the Wise,’ stage manager Renee B. Sorrell honored, City Theatre Seeks Artistic Producer, Pittsburgh Opera Names Rehearsal Hall in Honor of Retiring General Director, New Product Company’s ‘Whistleblowers’, Black Heart Arts ‘Lady Lord Macbeth,’ Jeff Goldblum & Leslie Odom at Heinz Hall, 2026 Tony Awards.
🎭 ICYMI:
- 2026 Arts Festival Opens June 5: Full Lineup Unveiled for Three Rivers Arts Festival at Arts Landing
- Review: Bonkers ‘Pickleball’ Lands a Banger at Little Lake
- Holiday Celebrations: 2026 Juneteenth Events In the Pittsburgh Area
- Review: Eavesdropping on Brotherhood and Bonding in ‘Coconut Cake’
- A Converstation With Stephen Flaherty: Composer’s Ragtime’ Red-Carpet Ride Stops in Pittsburgh for Richard Rodgers Award
PITTSBURGH PLAYWRIGHTS’ ‘ART OF WISE’ HEADS TO INTERNATIONAL BLACK THEATRE FEST; LOCAL STAGE MANAGER AMONG HONOREES
Eileen J. Morris, director of Melda Beaty’s Coconut Cake for New Horizon Theater — read Mingsi Ma’s review for onStage Pittsburgh here — was on hand at the preview, and announced with delight that longtime New Horizon stage manager Renee B. Sorrell would be honored at the 2026 International Black Theatre Festival, held in North Carolina, for Outstanding Achievement in Stage Management. The lineup of plays for the 19th biennial festival, July 27-August 1, includes Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company’s Art of Wise, by Mark Clayton Southers. The play is one of several that Southers has taken to the festival. It premiered at Playwrights’ Upper Hill District home in the spring of 2026. Back home, Coconut Cake runs through June 14 at the O’Reilly Theater, and marks Sheldon Ingram’s first acting turn after leaving Pittsburgh Action News 4, as he leaps from 34 years as a newscaster to acting fulltime
CITY THEATRE SEEKS ARTISTIC PRODUCER
Keeping up with the evolution of City Theatre’s leadership team may have your head on a swivel, if you follow such things. City has announced it is hiring an artistic producer, a role previously held by Reginald Douglas, now the artistic director of Mosaic Theater in Washington, D.C. Douglas had joined City in 2015, when then-artistic director Tracy Brigden grew her staff to include Douglas, managing director James McNeel and Clare Drobot as director of new play development. When Brigden left, Drobot and Douglas filled the gap until 2018, when Marc Masterson returned as AD, a position he held from 1980 to 2000.
After Douglas departed in 2020, City and Masterson, looking toward the future, promoted Drobot and Monteze Freeland to help co-lead the company, alongside Masterson. When Masterson retired in 2024, Drobot and Freeland shared the co-AD title until Freeland announced his departure for Alumni Theater Company, leaving Drobot as the sole artistic director.
The back-to-the-future job posting to reintroduce an Artistic Producer role says that the new hire will report to Drobot.
Pittsburgh Opera Names Rehearsal Hall in Honor of Christopher Hahn
Pittsburgh Opera has officially named its rehearsal hall in honor of retiring General Director Christopher Hahn, recognizing a leader whose tenure has shaped the company’s artistic life and the careers of countless artists.
The Hahn Rehearsal Hall has been the heart of Pittsburgh Opera since 2008, when the company moved into its headquarters at 2425 Liberty Avenue in the Strip District. Every Pittsburgh Opera production begins in the space, from first rehearsal through studio run-throughs. The building, now known as the Bitz Opera Factory, began life in 1869 as George Westinghouse’s air brake factory. Hahn has served as Pittsburgh Opera’s General Director since 2008 and Artistic Director since 2000. A native of South Africa, he began his opera career in 1983 at San Francisco Opera, later leading the San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program before serving as Artistic Administrator at Los Angeles Opera.
“For 26 years, Christopher has shaped not only what happens on our stage but who we are as a company,” said Michele Fabrizi, Chair of Pittsburgh Opera’s Board of Directors. “This Hall celebrates his legacy, and is a testament to his dedication to Pittsburgh Opera and the larger world of opera.” Gene Welsh, President of the Board, added that naming the hall for Hahn is “a fitting way to honor what he’s meant to this community, and to the people who make opera here every day.”
NEW PRODUCT COMPANY’S ‘WHISTLEBLOWERS’
I get asked to independent productions in various spaces, near and far, with what has become an overwhelming frequency. I admire the can-do tenacity of local theater-makers, and it was in that spirit that I arrived at Whistleblowers, a new play written and directed by Spencer Byham-Carson, and produced by the Pittsburgh-based New Product Company.
Founded in 2024 by Pria Dahiya and Byham-Carson, graduates of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama’s John Wells Directing Program, the self-described “experimental theater company … creates hybrid, media-driven performance work that explores the contradictions of contemporary life, online and off.” (Learn more here.) New Product has produced five original works in Pittsburgh, including Madeline Cash’s Earth Angel, and the workshop of lily gonzales’ play:body.
The play about a Boeing-like corporation called Congreve, makers of unsafe airplanes and deadly missiles, explores the trickle-down effect of a smarmy, “greed is good” CEO (Mike Zolovich). He sends four of his top people — played by Nai’Ron Arnett, Evan Vines, Cashel Rodriguez and Graham Bailey — to a leadership workshop, led by Richard McBride’s willfully oblivious Thomas, and one of them makes the choice to go public with the company’s disregard for safety. The subject matter and tense pacing are reminiscent of the play Enron, recently produced in a sprawling office space by Quantum Theatre, while the claustrophobic set of Whistleblowers adds to the escalation of threats and paranoia throughout the piece. There are plans for New Product to take its works to other cities, and I look forward to catching up with whatever comes next. — Sharon Eberson
BLACK HEART ARTS RECEIVES GPAC GRANT TO DEVELOP ‘LADY LORD MACBETH‘
Pittsburgh theater artists Brett Sullivan Santry and Alyssa Herronby have received a grant from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council to support the development of Lady Lord Macbeth. Created by Santry and Herronby in collaboration with a group of local theater artists, Lady Lord Macbeth reimagines Shakespeare’s tragic couple through an intimate exploration of love, loss, and ambition. Using only text drawn from Shakespeare’s original play, the project seeks to connect contemporary audiences with the emotional core of one of the Bard’s most enduring stories. To support the project, the artists have formed Black Heart Arts as the production vehicle for Lady Lord Macbeth. Development performances will be presented in partnership with Jeremy Seghers during the run of Hamlet: The Bad Quarto, featuring Sullivan, at the Richard E. Rauh Studio Theatre, June 19–28, 2026. Additional details and performance information will be announced as the project progresses.
IT’S ALMOST TONY AWARDS TIME!
If you are like us, you have plans to to spend Sunday evening (June 7, 2026) watching the 79th annual Tony Awards, live form Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The main ceremony, hosted by Pink, will air live on CBS and stream on Paramount+. Laura Benanti and Tituss Burgess will host The Tony Awards: Act One, a live pre-show that features awards not presented during the main broadcast. Act One will air live on Pluto TV for free, from 6:35 p.m. to 8 p.m. If you’re keeping track of the many Carnegie Mellon University ties among the nominees, keep an eye out for The Lost Boys, tied with Schmigadoon! for the most nominations with 12. The Lost Boys, produced by three CMU alums, including Patrick Wilson, has already announced a National Tour, to launch in spring 2028.
VIP TIX FOR JEFF GOLDBLUM, LESLIE ODOM JR. AT HEINZ HALL
- The Wizard of Oz, stage, screen and jazz piano, Jeff Goldblum, and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, return to his hometown as part of The Night Blooms Tour, presented by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at Heinz Hall on October 6, 2026. Tickets go on sale June 5 at https://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/production/107789/jeff-goldblum-and-the-mildred-snitzer-orchestra.
- Tony-winner Leslie Odom Jr., who will be heading to Hamilton UK in July, brings his Christmas tour to Heinz Hall on December 8, 2026. Tickets on sale now: https://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/production/107786/leslie-odom-jr-the-christmas-tour-2026.
🎟️ Reminder: The discount ticket initiative Go See a Show! is ongoing, with 18 performing arts companies and Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama participating. Find tickets at https://www.goseeashowpgh.com/, and read all about What’s Happening on local stages at onStage Pittsburgh.
👉 Don’t forget — you can always explore the next two months of performances, organized by date or company, at onStage Pittsburgh.
👉 Did we miss your show? Send us your updates at info@onstagepittsburgh.com so we can share them in Listings and a future Call Board.
Categories: CALL BOARD, National and Local Awards, News, Our Posts
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