By SHARON EBERSON
Amid a glittery, celebratory gathering on Thursday, the New Hazlett Theater announced a season that includes its first ForgeWorks production. Titled Just a Smatter of Time, the interdisciplinary dance porject by Ephrat Asherie Dance, children’s author Mo Willems, and Grammy-winning Third Coast Percussion will be developed and previewed in Pittsburgh, before its premiere in New York City at 92NY.
The work comes to the New Hazlett courtesy of a familiar face and one of its original Community Supported Art (CSA) creators, Teena Marie Custer.
Custer’s own solo show, My Good Side, a solo multimedia dance set to electronica music and exploring the intersections of street dance, hip-hop culture and identity, went on from CSA to tour extensively for the next five years.
the first New Hazlett Theater ForgeWorks project, Just a Smatter of Time,
which will have its premiere at the 92NY. (Image: Sharon Eberson)
“It opened up so many doors. It was life changing. So NHT has really become my creative home,” Custer told a group of supporters last month.
She has since been on the NHT board and directed other CSA artists at the New Hazlett. With her husband Ron “Stealth-1” Chunn Jr., a break-dancer, DJ, and hip-hop artist, Custer lives on the North Side, but has a secondary creative home in New York City, where they perform and also tour with Ephrat Asherie Dance, a two-time National Dance Project awardee that is named for Custer’s fellow “break girl” and longtime friend.
“It’s a company that’s rooted in storytelling, rhythm, and underground dance culture. The central idea in her work and our collaborative work … is that joy is one of the greatest forms of resistance.”
The international company represents artists from “France, they’re from Japan, they’re from Senegal. Some of them are from Queens, and they’ve never been to Pittsburgh,” Custer said. “So I can’t wait for Pittsburgh to meet them, and I can’t wait for them to meet Pittsburgh.”
Just a Smatter of Time is described as “a cross-generational collaboration using live percussion, visual storytelling, projected imagery, and interactive audience participation to transform internal emotional landscapes into a tangible environment. Incorporating street and club dance forms including breaking, hip hop, house, popping, locking, whacking, and hustle, the artists investigate how we fill our lives while uncovering new modes of expression.”
Caldecott-winner Willems will provide animation for the multimedia work, at the New Hazlett December 3-4, 2026.
(Images: Sharon Eberson/onStage Pittsburgh)
At Thursday’s The Catalyst gathering, artists representing other previously announced 2026-2027 season works included Shaunda Miles McDill, who will direct the season-opening Othello of the End Zone, or the Steel City Tragedy, at NHT October 22-28, 2026. McDill had seen the play in Texas, where the gender-switched Shakespeare work was reimagined by playwright and TV writer Franky D. Gonzalez with the Dallas Cowboys in mind. He has retooled his version of Othello to represent the Steelers. The co-production with McDill’s DEMASKUS Theater group is a two-hander, with Cynthia Dallas and Michael Patrick Trimm.
Dominique Briggs will direct CSA offering The Women Who Lit the Way, “an immersive, interdisciplinary fusion celebrating the enduring impact of the pillars of Pittsburgh, O’Labrice Beckom and Henrietta Freeman, written by Omari Abdul-Alim. It was announced that Briggs, a local theater artist who previously worked with McDill, as Pittsburgh Public Theater’s Director of Participation & Partnerships, is now a permanent member of the NHT staff.
In a glittery evening emceed by Mils “M.J.” James (soon to be seen in Monteze Freeland’s Fishy Woo-Woo 2, for Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company) and Agnus Stephenson (aka Treasure Treasure), Executive Director René Conrad and Artistic Director Melissa Cardello-Linton were joined by arts leaders from companies including City Theatre, Pittsburgh International & Classic Theater, Quantum Theatre, Alumni Theatrer Company, Little Lake Theatre and resident company Kente Arts Alliance.
For more about the New Hazlett Theater’s 2026-2027 season, CSA and Off the Page readings, plus its resident companies, visit https://www.newhazletttheater.org/.
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Feature Stories, Season Listings
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