Author Archives
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Preview: Premiere ‘Refugee Rhapsody’ Rolls In for PICT’s 30th Season
By SHARON EBERSON With the season-opening rolling premiere of Refugee Rhapsody, the 30-year evolution of PICT is firmly in the Elizabeth Elias Huffman Era. What started as Pittsburgh Irish & Classic Theatre under Andrew Paul has been rocked by ousters… Read More ›
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Preview: One-Woman Musical ‘In Clay’ Opens City Theatre’s 52nd Season
By SHARON EBERSON As In Clay readies its Pittsburgh debut at City Theatre, its London-based creators mused about it finding a fandom in China, before being introduced in the USA. “It’s so bizarre,” admitted Jack Miles, whose music was the… Read More ›
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A Conversation with Katie Brook, Quantum Theatre’s Incoming Artistic Director
There likely will be changes ahead for Quantum Theatre, when Katie Brook takes the helm as Artistic Director, but one thing that won’t change: “It’s safe to say that we’re going to continue to work in unusual spaces,” Brook said: “That’s part of Quantum’s identity, and it’s one of genuinely the most explicit expressions of the values of nontraditional theater.”
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Preview: Mandy Gonzalez Sings the Songs of Lin-Manuel Miranda With PSO Pops
Mandy Gonzalez, the original Nina in the Tony Award-winning In the Heights, possesses a genre-defying voice that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda to gush that she is “one of the greatest singers on earth.” She has played some of the most memorable characters in some of the most memorable Broadway productions of the 2000s — Elphaba in Wicked and Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard among them — but it is her collaborations with the creator of In the Heights and Hamilton that brings her to Heinz Hall for Everything I Know: Mandy Gonzalez Sings Lin-Manuel Miranda, October 8-11, 2026.
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Meet City Theatre’s New Artistic Producer, Nicholas Perez-Hoop
By SHARON EBERSON Nicholas Perez-Hoop‘s tenure as Artistic Producer of City Theatre had only just begun as he was quizzed about what comes next — the overall theme of the season, and a theme for his own adventures as a… Read More ›
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30 Years On, ‘Rent’ Continues to Have a Hold on Peter Matthew Smith
“RENT,” the smash hit rock musical that launched Sewickley native PETER MATTHEW SMITH to Broadway, brings him home later this month, to direct the show for the second time in his hometown. When BDE Productions’ Michael Greer and Vince Tresco (directed by Smith for PMT in 2010) asked him to direct “Rent” in its 30th anniversary year, Smith’s answer was a resounding, “Yes!”
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Introducing Confluence Theater of Pittsburgh, a New Name and Hope for a Fresh Start
This story has been updated to include Pittsburgh’s Confluence Ballet Company. By SHARON EBERSON The new name is here — Confluence Theater of Pittsburgh — and with it, the hope for a fresh start and the creation of a sustainable,… Read More ›
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Review: In a.k. payne’s ‘BURNBABYBURN!’, Generations of Black Women Hope and Dream, and Rage Against Injustice
By SHARON EBERSON a.k. payne sets the stage for their new play with a voiceover about the 2019 study that revealed Black women in Pittsburgh experience poverty at rates higher than in 85% of similar U.S. cities. Then they list… Read More ›
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Kiesha Lalama Envisions Pittsburgh Playhouse and Point Park COPA on the Global Stage
Kiesha Lalama’s vision as the head of Pittsburgh Playhouse at Point Park University is building for the future by staying relevant in the present, reviving cherished parts from the past, and launching the students of Point Park’s Conservatory of Performing Arts (COPA) onto the global stage.
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Preview: Award-Winning Playwright a.k. payne Journeys Through Time With ‘BURNBABYBURN!’
The world premiere of the award-winning playwright a.k. payne’s “BURNBABYBURN! the american dream” is a co-production of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company and the August Wilson House. In the play, generations of women confront truths about motherhood, love, loss, and Pittsburgh — “a city that both holds and haunts their dreams” — as they ask questions across time.
