By SHARON EBERSON
The New Hazlett Theater has appointed Melissa Cardello-Linton as the first Artistic Director in its 20-year history, in conjunction with the unveiling of ForgeWorks, “designed to partner with established producers, cultural institutions, and creative teams developing ambitious new projects.”
A year in the planning, the programming of ForgeWorks will be announced in September, in addition to NHT resident companies Prime Stage Theater, Front Porch Theatricals, Kente Arts Alliance, and Texture Contemporary Ballet. The Community Supported Artists (CSA) also will continue unabated.
“CSA is about developing the artist, taking an emerging artist and helping them get the skills to move forward, and ForgeWorks is more about developing the project,” NHT Executive Director René Conrad explained. “It isn’t necessarily about a brand new artist. Some partners will be in town, some partners will be from out of town. But the goal is to still provide the opportunities for local talent, performers, designers, technicians, stage managers, rather than bringing folks in from out of town.”
Of what’s ahead, Conrad and Cardello-Linton would say only that there are “two or three projects in the pipeline,” and one of them will be in the coming year.
Along with ForgeWorks, the New Hazlett leadership team is heralding “a complete institutional rebrand to support this next era of growth,” including a new logo and revamp of the website.
A teaser for the rebranding shows the tagline, “The Catalyst for What’s Next.” There’s a lot of that going around. City Theatre themed is 2026-2027 season “Our Next Act,” and the unification process of the Public and CLO is being chronicled as “The Next Chapter.”
A future for locally produced professional works, hiring local artists to perform and create them, with clear eyes about financial responsibility and sustainability, is the hope for what’s next in Pittsburgh theater.
With ForgeWorks, the New Hazlett Theater is carving out a space for itself in that scenario.
“There’s a need in every city for strong regional theater, for people to bring work in from New York, Tony Award-winning work and Pulitzer Prize-winning work, into their cities, so that they can experience those works, because not everybody can afford to go to New York to see those shows,” Conrad said. “But I also think there’s a need specifically in Pittsburgh, because of the talent that is here. There’s so much talent here on every level, not just acting, but designers and creatives to develop work here, and send it out into the world.”
ForgeWorks was developed to partner with professional producers, “to develop quality work here by providing support and the space and all of the things that you need, so that it can potentially go from here to on tour or wherever else the show grows and lands,” Conrad said. “But the idea is we want to give our audience an opportunity to see the work here first, and I think we are working to create a really solid foundation, and that’s what we hope the next two seasons are.”
Asked how ForgeWorks was different from the work being done, say, by Carnegie Mellon’s Center for New Works or City Theatre, Cardello-Linton noted that the New Hazlett already has a relationship with CMU, working on There Goes The Bride, a musical comedy by Noah Van Ess and Catcher Sanchez, which was part of the CSA Off the Page series of readings.
“I love the work that [City Theatre] does, and I think it’s very, very important. To look at anyone as competition, I think you’re just limiting yourself,” Cardello-Linton said.
What makes the New Hazlett “unique,” she teased, is that, “We have the opportunity to cross disciplines. We’re known for not just theater, but also dance, music, and musicals. To have that ability to do those cross disciplines, you sort of don’t know. Could it be dance? Could it be theater? Is it music? You’ll have to wait and see.”
“Nobody is a competitor anymore,” Conrad added. “We have to stop thinking like that, and we have to say that we need to figure out ways to collaborate with everyone. The competitors are, like, restaurants and sports. If you’ve got to choose where you’re spending your money or your time, the experience, that’s who we’re fighting against.”
A lot of news out of Pittsburgh theater has been dire in recent months, with the shutdown of 80-year-old Pittsburgh CLO and 51-year-old Pittsburgh Public Theater, and the wait-and-see of what their unification will mean for locally produced theater Downtown.
The year of planning ForgeWorks has included budgetary considerations and strategies such as increased commercial rentals of the venue, including Fever Up events.
as the nation’s first Carnegie Music Hall.
The New Hazlett Theater at 6 Allegheny Square has appeal as part of a cultural block on the North Side that includes the award-winning Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. The updated 137-year-old venue, the original home of Pittsburgh Public Theater, houses a thrust-stage auditorium with 432 seats, that can be increased up to nearly 500 (as a contrast, the relatively new O’Reilly Theater, also a thrust stage, seats 650). A partnership with Allegheny Health Network allows New Hazlett patrons access to a nearby garage for evening events and weekend matinees.
Beyond rentals, the financial planning has been ongoing. Aside from strategies aimed at individual giving, Conrad said, “We worked really, really hard for 15 years to have a little savings account, so we have a very modest reserve. It is not even the total of our full year’s budget, but it is giving us the ability to have a year or two where we can draw on that reserve to try these things, with the goal potentially being that one of them, in turn, has a future life, and then some revenues coming back in when it makes its next step.”
If they seem to be dreaming big, Conrad and Cardello-Linton say that’s exactly what they are doing, while being responsible about making those dreams come true.
The goal of ForgeWorks is for Pittsburgh audiences to say, “We saw it here first,” performed and mounted by Pittsburgh artists.
of Melissa Cardello-Linton as Artistic Director,
the New Hazlett Theater has begun a rebranding campaign.
“It wasn’t something that we just sort of pulled out of the hat and said, ‘Oh, let’s just try this.’ We’ve really been thinking this through,” Cardello-Linton said. “We consulted with people that run much larger organizations, or that are commercial producers on Broadway, to say, ‘We know what the costs are. … So how can we, one, create wonderful, magical art for people to come and see, and, two, be financially responsible? So how can we do those things? And how can we make the city of Pittsburgh be a city where you see it here first?’ ”
Laughing and joking over a Zoom call, Cardello-Linton, beside Conrad, said her boss is very budget-conscious.
“What I love about working here, in the sense I am an artist and I have these visions for what we could do here, is I really saw [the New Hazlett] as a place where you can build. She knows that,” Cardello-Linton said. “What’s really wonderful about somebody like René is that I’m able to come to her with these ideas and thoughts and possible collaborations and partnerships, and I see the whole thing. And then she goes, ‘OK, Mel, OK. Let’s talk budget.’ And I say that in the best way, because you need that balance. If everyone’s just sort of talking about what you can do and no one’s looking at the numbers, well then you sink.”
Conrad gushes, and Cardello-Linton blushes, when she talks about the organization’s first Artistic Director.
One of the attributes that originally sold Conrad on her new AD was a reference that said, “Mel will be everyone’s big sister.” Then she watched her in action as the leader of the CSA program.
“I feel like we have gone through such crazy times. Every artist is different, and some are 20, and some are 65, and some people are skilled with performing arts, and some people never did that in their life. She has really just been holding their hand through the whole process — and I mean, grown-up people who just have a meltdown, Mel is there to get them through. And I think we can take advantage of her wealth of networks, and people from both inside town and outside of town. She’s really made a deep dive into making relationships with other organizations, which not everyone in her role has time to do, and she has made the time to do that.
“Plus,” Conrad added, “she’s super fun to work with.”
“I am excited to support NHT and Melissa in this new chapter,” Christopher Ketner, NHT board member and Tony and Olivier Award-winning producer, said in a statement. “Melissa has the incredible ability to inspire and foster ambitious ideas that make everyone work at their highest possible level. As New Hazlett Theater’s first Artistic Director, the dreams and goals of the company will not only enrich the local artistic community and audiences, but also provide a platform for that work to make an impact on a national level.”
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