Feature Stories

Season Previews and Interviews.

A Converstation With Stephen Flaherty: Composer’s Ragtime’ Red-Carpet Ride Stops in Pittsburgh for Richard Rodgers Award

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A CONVERSATION WITH “RAGTIME” COMPOSER AND DORMONT NATIVE STEPHEN FLAHERTY

Coming home to accept the Richard Rodgers Award is “a big, beautiful arc,” Stephen Flaherty was saying just the other day. Catching up with Flaherty was no easy task – he and his songwriting partner, lyricist Lynn Ahrens, have been on a seemingly endless red-carpet ride with the acclaimed revival of “Ragtime” ahead of the 2026 Tony Awards on June 7. Flaherty will then head home to the Pittsburgh CLO Gala on June 12, when he will become receive the award that has been bestowed on an impressive list of luminaries, starting with Mary Martin in 1988.

A Brutal Week in Pittsburgh Theater Demands A Reset: Let’s Do Better

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I have seen the fallout from mismanaging expectations and a lack of transparency when jobs are lost, and the rift it can create between people practicing their calling and those entrusted with their livelihoods. The team transitioning Pittsburgh Public Theater and Pittsburgh CLO into a single entity, as well as those performing a “strategic review” of Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse, chose to fire a whole bunch of people (three at the Playhouse) within a few days of each other, without providing any public-facing explanation.

Did they think no one would notice?

Here’s my plea: Le’s do better.

14 Community Theaters Featured in Downtown Pittsburgh Showcase

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An event titled Pittsburgh Community Theater Showcase seemed like a good time to check out the Dollar Bank Lobby Series at the O’Reilly Theater. The three-day showcase illustrates the possibilities of the series, announced by Pittsburgh Public Theater in February as “intimate performances and community‑centered events designed to bring fresh artistic voices into the heart of Downtown Pittsburgh,”

Echoes of War: Students Face Vietnam Draft in New Play

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The new play “Sixty Nine — Seventy,” among the independent productions sprouting in Pittsburgh this spring, is a throwback to the era of the Vietnam War, the draft lottery that sent young Americans to fight in Southeast Asia, and the antiwar protests of the “flower power” generation. It was the last military draft in the United States, ending in 1973, but not the last war. Every few years, it seems, the U.S. is embroiled in a violent conflict on foreign soil.
For playwright Michael Eichler, a University of Pittsburgh alumnus, and director/producer Alex Manalo, “Sixty Nine — Seventy marks” a second collaboration as the play readies for a May 14, 2026 opening. In March of last year, Manalo produced and directed Eichler’s self-funded “Repulsing the Monkey,” at City Theatre’s Lillie Theatre.

Pittsburgh Public Theater and Pittsburgh CLO Reveal 2026 ‘Prologue Season,’ Ahead of 2027 Merger

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Pittsburgh Public Theater and Pittsburgh CLO have announced a “Prologue Season” of curated programming for the remainder of 2026, as they prepare to merge into one organization in January of 2027.

In a press release on Friday, May, 8, 2026, it was also announced that the O’Reilly Theater, home of Pittsburgh Public Theater since 1999, will undergo “significant renovations this fall.”

The lineup also includes the return of the Pittsburgh CLO holiday standard, “A Musical Christmas Carol,” at the Byham Theater, and “Who’s Holiday!” at the Greer Cabaret Theater.

August Wilson’s ‘Jitney’ Comes Home to the Hill — In Italian

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Carl Kurlander led a University of Pittsburgh crew to Vincenza, Italy, in 2024, to document the first production of August Wilson’s “Jitney” in Italian. With that production arriving in Pittsburgh this coming Friday, May 8, presented by Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre and the August Wilson House, Kurlander shares his experiences chronicling the production with onStage Pittsburgh.

Review: Prime Stage Theatre’s ‘Speak’ Speaks Volumes About Aftershocks of Sexual Assault

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“Speak,” a new play about the intentional damage — physical and emotional — we are capable of inflicting on one another, and the healing powers of kindness and art.

The work, an adaptation by Tammy Ryan of Laurie Halse Anderson’s popular 1999 YA novel, was commissioned by Prime Stage Theatre, and made its debut on April 30 at the New Hazlett Theater. 

Q&A With City Theatre’s ‘Hedwig’ Star, Treasure Treasure

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“I’ve always been drawn to characters that take up a lot of space and refuse to leave the stage. I was born to play Hedwig.” — Treasure Treasure, who stars for City Theatre in a first-time revival of HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH.

The production at the Greer Cabaret, in partnership with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, was visited by Hedwig creator and recent “Oh, Mary!” star John Cameron Mitchell during rehearsals, saying of the Broadway role “It’s going well. Easier than Hedwig!”

As she takes the stage this week as Hedwig, Treasure answers questions for onStage Pittsburgh.

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