Author Archives
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A Conversation with Michael Patrick Trimm
“If this works, if [other independent projects] start to work, to us, it’s about proof of concept, that this can be part of the landscape.” — Michael Patrick Trimm
Pittsburghers know Michael Patrick Trimm as an onstage performer, so when he reached out to say he had joined the parade of local theater artists entering the producing ranks, accompanied by a model format and a mission statement, I was eager to chat. Here’s a chunk of our conversation.
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Comfort Food: RealTime Arts’ Equitable Dinners Create Pathways to Conversations
REALTIME ARTS’ EQUITABLE DINNERS ARE DESIGNED TO MAKE IT “COMFORTABLE TO TALK TO EACH OTHER AGAIN.”
Originated in Atlanta, Equitable Dinners attracted the attention of RealTime Arts’ cofounders Molly Rice, Artistic Director/Lead Playwright, and Rusty Thelin, Artistic/Executive Director, whose Pittsburgh-based “community-fueled theater” is focused on “connecting human beings through unique theatrical experiences … united by the stories we’re telling together.”
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Pittsburgh’s a.k. payne named Best Playwright at NAACP Theatre Awards
Ahead of the Pittsburgh premiere of a.k. payne’s BURNBABYBURN: an american dream, the local writer was named Best Playwright for her play Furlough’s Paradise at the 31st annual NAACP Theatre Awards, held Monday, June 29, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in LA.
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How We Got Here, and What Comes Next: Unifying Pittsburgh Public Theater and Pittsburgh CLO
AN INSIDE VIEW TO THE FUTURE OF PITTSBURGH PUBLIC THEATER AND PITTSBURGH CLO
When their marriage becomes legal sometime this summer, only then will the new name and details of the Pittsburgh Public Theater and Pittsburgh CLO unification be fully revealed. Until that time, they are in the engagement period of a process that will culminate in the region’s two largest professional theater companies merging into one.
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Review: Pittsburgh CLO’s ‘Beautiful, the Carole King Musical’ Is Some Kind of Wonderful
Pittsburgh CLO’s 80th season opener, “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” rides the unstoppable wave of musical standards by one of the 30 greatest living American songwriters, according to a recent New York Times poll, in a production as finely tuned as any National Tour, especially in its sparkling Carole.
For Beautiful to get it right, you have to start with a Carole you believe in, and Pittsburgh CLO gets it very right with Kyra Kennedy, supported by an accomplished troupe of mostly local performers and musicians.
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Review: Rare ‘Hamlet: The Bad Quarto’ Production Is Served by Youth
“Hamlet: The Bad Quarto”, a script that predates the best-loved published Folio, employs some names, phrasing and layering that resemble an early draft, before the Bard really got going on eloquence and rhythms. Yet, taken for all, “The Bad Quarto” doesn’t seem so very different by comparison. Rare in presentation, it is an exhilarating treat to experience the play now onstage at the Rauh Studio Theatre in Oakland, presented by director Jeremy Seghers with a youthful cast, led by Ayden Freed.
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Review: Teen Girls Take a Wild Ride to Raising ‘Our Dear Dead Drug Lord’
What happens among four teens in the 2019 play by Alexis Scheer, “My Dear Dead Drug Lord,” is the stuff of pubescent histrionics, paranormal activity, and parental nightmares. It would be hysterical if some of it wasn’t so feasible, teetering on the edge of funny shenanigans and deeply discomfiting actions. The barebones production, now playing in Braddock, is a twisty, trippy exploration into the lives of four young women who are determined to go dark, as a path into the light.
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A Night to Cherish: Pittsburgh CLO Concert Salutes 80 Years of Musical Theater
PITTSBURGH CLO 80th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT: ONE BRIEF SHINING MOMENT
During a nostalgia packed night — including the honoring of former CLO intern Stephen Flaherty, the award-winning composer of “Ragtime” — the end of an eight-decade era was mentioned several times, as well as the hopes for the future in combination with Pittsburgh Public Theater. Wisely, the night was focused on the local musicians and performers who have graced stages from Pitt Stadium to the Melody Tent to the Civic Arena to every stage in the Downtown Cultural District, plus Heinz Field.
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Review: Throughline Theatre’s Living News Festival, Where Fiction Tweaks the Truth
When truth is stranger than fiction, in a playwright’s hands, it can go a few steps further into bizarro world, or find a pathway to grounded reality. Such is the case of the third annual Living News Festival, a Throughline Theatre Company creation that distributes local news stories to six Pittsburgh playwrights, who each write a 10-minute play, ripe for production. The results are currently being presented at Carnegie Stage through Sunday, June 14, 2026.
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barebones’ Quartet of Newcomers Summon ‘Our Dear Dead Drug Lord’
The cast of “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord,” the “ferocious, darkly funny” coming-of-age play opening this weekend at barebones productions, answer questions about their first professional production, women working with women in theater, and more. The Alexis Scheer drama at the Braddock Black Box theater, June 12-June 28, 2026 is set in a treehouse, where a quartet of teens tries to summon the ghost of Pablo Escobar.
