City Theatre has revealed the winners of the 2025 Young Playwrights Contest, an annual regional competition for grades 7-12. The Young Playwrights Festival’s public performances will take place October 25-26, 2025.
City Theatre
Review: ‘King James’ Provides a Front-Row Seat to the Bonds of Hometown Fandom
By SHARON EBERSON It might put you at ease to know that you don’t have to be a sports fan to cheer for King James, a funny and poignant ode to lifelong fandom and an underdog friendship, struggling mightily to… Read More ›
Friendship Gets an Assist from Fandom as ‘King James’ Rolls into City Theatre
Michael Patrick Trimm on the Pittsburgh premiere of “King James,” about friends bonded through a love of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, at City Theatre: “This play is as much about a town like Pittsburgh as it is about a place like Cleveland. And I can vehemently say you will not walk away feeling like this doesn’t speak to you as a sports fan.”
City Theatre Packs Next Season With Firsts: 3 World Premieres, a Revival, New Start Times, Second City, and More
City Theatre heads into the 2025-2026 season with an expansive five-show subscription lineup that features three world premieres, a Pittsburgh premiere, a revival in the heart of the Pittsburgh Cultural District, plus a visit from the improv troupe Second City, making its South Side debut.
‘Repulsing the Monkey’ Comes Home to the South Side; Pittsburgh Fringe Finale Spotlights Josephine Baker
By SHARON EBERSON Repulsing the Monkey is coming home to the South Side. The play with the memorable name, about the fate of a family-owned tavern on the Slopes, had its first staged reading at the University of Pittsburgh 10… Read More ›
Review: Emotions Run High as Time Marches on in ‘Birthday Candles’
By SHARON EBERSON Birthday Candles leans into the poignancy of one woman’s journey of 100 years, punctuated by personal events that warm and break hearts, along with the inevitable family rituals that span generations. The moving City Theatre production of… Read More ›
Notes From the Edge: Here, There and Everywhere in Pittsburgh Theater
BY SHARON EBERSON Catch my interview with Marc Masterson on the CitySpeaks: A New Play Podcast, conducted in advance of Masterson’s return to City Theatre for Birthday Candles, at the South Side theater through March 30, 2025. The podcast is… Read More ›
Monday, Monday: City Rewinds; Shakespeare Monologue Contest
It used to be that Monday nights were a day of rest in the theater world, but more and more, dark Mondays have seen the light. CITY REWINDS: CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS On February 24, 2025, City Theatre continues… Read More ›
‘Birthday Candles’ Lights the Way to Masterson’s Return to City Theatre
Marc Masterson, in announcing his retirement as City Theatre co-artistic director in June, also announced his imminent return as a director. That time has arrived, with the opening March 14, 2025, of Birthday Candles. Masterson returned to the South Side… Read More ›
Christopher Rivas’ Life Changed When He Discovered ‘The Real James Bond Was … Dominican’
By SHARON EBERSON A magazine article that cast James Bond in a new light changed Christopher Rivas’ life. Vanity Fair wasn’t the first to write that Ian Fleming’s enduring 007 character was inspired by the life of Porfirio Rubirosa, a… Read More ›