The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers. Led by JoAnne Akalaitis from 1991 to 1993 and by George C. Wolfe from 1993 to 2004, it is currently led by Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham. The venue opened in 1967, with the world-premiere production of the musical Hair as its first show.
Bard on the Beach is Western Canada's largest professional Shakespeare festival. The theatre Festival runs annually from early June through September in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Festival is produced by Bard on the Beach Theatre Society whose mandate is to provide Vancouver residents and tourists with affordable, accessible Shakespearean productions of the finest quality. In addition to the annual summer festival, the Society runs a number of year-round theatre education and training initiatives for both the artistic community and the general community at large. Bard on the Beach celebrated its 30th anniversary season in 2019.
The Culture of Pittsburgh stems from the city's long history as a center for cultural philanthropy, as well as its rich ethnic traditions. In the 19th and 20th centuries, wealthy businessmen such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry J. Heinz, Henry Clay Frick, and nonprofit organizations such as the Carnegie Foundation donated millions of dollars to create educational and cultural institutions.
Shakespeare in the Park is a term for outdoor festivals featuring productions of William Shakespeare's plays. The term originated with the New York Shakespeare Festival in New York City's Central Park, originally created by Joseph Papp. This concept has been adapted by many theatre companies, and over time, this name has expanded to encompass outdoor theatre productions of the playwright's works performed all over the world.
Joshua Elijah Reese is an American actor.
City Theatre is a professional theatre company located in Pittsburgh's South Side. It specializes in productions of new plays and has commissioned new works by playwrights on the national theatre scene, including Christopher Durang, Adam Rapp, and Jeffrey Hatcher. Established in 1975 as the City Players under the direction of Marjorie Walker, it was originally composed mainly of Carnegie Mellon graduates and was part of Pittsburgh's Department of Parks and Recreation, performing at schools, parks, and housing projects. Initially the group shared their performance space in the North Side's Allegheny Center with Pittsburgh Public Theater. In 1979, the group was offered a residency at the University of Pittsburgh and renamed itself City Theatre. “Homeless” for a brief period of time, the University of Pittsburgh theatre department offered to shelter the theater company in 1980. Attilo Favorini, head of the department, thought that, “The City Theater offered us [Pitt] the opportunity for Pitt’s students to work a professional company.”(Steele, Bruce “Artistic Struggles -The City Theater Company: A History of Bad Luck and Good Theater” pg. 27) In addition to receiving a new troupe of professional actors, arts funding through CETA enabled the expansion of the company and the creation of the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival in the summer of 1980. In 1981, under the artistic direction of Marc Masterson, the company moved to a new performance space on Bouquet Street in Oakland. The company again moved to a new performance space at the former Bingham United Methodist Church in the South Side in 1991, where in addition to its own season it acted as a host space for the earliest productions of the Pittsburgh New Works Festival. Marc Masterson became artistic director of Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky, and Tracy Brigden became artistic director in 2001.
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company is a professional theatre company located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 2003 by artistic director Mark Clayton Southers, the company originally held productions at the Penn Theater in Garfield and moved to a new space on Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh's Cultural District. It now holds productions in a space on Liberty Avenue in the same building used by Bricolage Production Company, as well as the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, where Southers is artistic director of theatre initiatives.
Unseam'd Shakespeare Company is a professional theatre company located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1993, the theatre's mission is to "rediscover and reinvent classic and classically inspired plays for modern audiences and present these plays in artistically ambitious and innovative productions." A member of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America, the company has produced classic works by Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Brecht, as well as contemporary plays inspired by classic works such as Paula Vogel's Desdemona, A Play about a Handkerchief. Some of these contemporary plays have included premiere productions by Pittsburgh playwrights, such as Amy Hartman's Mad Honey, Anya Martin's Teatro Latino de Pittsburgh, and Wali Jamal's Braddock '76. The company has received praise from local publications such as Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, City Paper, and Pittsburgh Magazine and has received recognition for their own productions as well as productions in conjunction with the Pittsburgh New Works Festival. The company has also received national and international attention, having been featured in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the National Performing Arts Conference.
No Name Players is a professional theatre company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 2000 by Don DiGiulio at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, the theatre company began as a creative outlet for DiGiulio and his classmates to hone their craft outside of college-related performance opportunities. It has since evolved to become an important part of Pittsburgh's theatre scene, establishing its presence in 2004 with a production of Charles Mee's Big Love, which was recognized as one of the Top Ten Plays of 2004 by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The company's mission is to "present unique and challenging theatrical productions by both new and established playwrights with an emphasis on the collaborative nature of theatre through ensemble." It is notable for its "SWAN Day" celebration, which is an annual theatrical event that features short plays and other performance pieces that are created primarily by women, in connection with the international holiday SWAN Day which occurs on the last Saturday of Women's History Month. The company has no performance space of its own but has used performance spaces around Pittsburgh, including Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, Bricolage Production Company, and the Grey Box Theatre. It has received attention from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Out Online, and Pittsburgh City Paper.
Pittsburgh Playhouse is Point Park University's performing arts center located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It houses three performance spaces and is home to The Rep, Point Park's resident professional theatre company, as well as three student companies—Conservatory Theatre Company, Conservatory Dance Company, and Playhouse Jr. The Conservatory Theatre Company offers five productions each year that are performed by undergraduate students at Point Park; each season consists of a mixture of established plays and musicals, as well as occasional new works.
Pittsburgh New Works Festival is an annual festival where participating Pittsburgh-area theatre companies each produce an original one-act play. Established in 1990 by Donna Rae, the Festival features four weeks of productions of new plays as well as two weeks of LabWorks. The Festival has taken place in numerous locations, originally having performances at City Theatre's Lester Hamburg Studio, Open Stage, the Father Ryan Arts Center in McKees Rocks, and currently Carnegie Stage in Carnegie.
Terra Nova Theatre Group is a theatre company located in the area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, founded by William Cameron. Originally located in Washington, PA, the company has also utilized the Grey Box Theatre in Pittsburgh. Terra Nova has produced full productions of both established and new plays, some of them by such Pittsburgh-based playwrights as Tammy Ryan and Cameron himself. The company has encouraged the development of many new works by local playwrights, holding a reading series during the summer called Friday Night 'Wrights. Terra Nova has also sponsored a reading series called the Underground Readings, which was held during the 2011 run of its production of Cameron's Violet Sharp.
Theater in Pittsburgh has existed professionally since the early 1800s and has continued to expand, having emerged as an important cultural force in the city over the past several decades.
Organic Theater Pittsburgh is a theatre company located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the first theatre company in Pittsburgh to focus on being "eco-friendly." Founded in 2011 by Jaime Slavinsky, the company's mission is to create an "organic theatre product" through "a unique rehearsal process based on improvisation" and "relying on Earth-friendly, recycled, and sustainable materials & partnering with local artists, merchants, and environmental organizations." The company's first performance, a production of Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, was held in ModernFormations on Penn Avenue in July 2011. The organic theme of the company was reinforced by reducing ticket prices for audience members who brought in a used cell phone to recycle. The company has been reviewed in such publications as Broadway World, Out Online, Pittsburgh Magazine, and Pittsburgh City Paper. Organic Theater Pittsburgh uses prominent actors from Pittsburgh's theatre scene. Jaime Slavinsky received recognition in the Post-Gazette's "Performer of the Year" article for her leading performance as Jean in the company's inaugural production of Dead Man's Cell Phone.
Cup-A-Jo Productions is a theatre company located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Established in 2004 by Joanna Lowe, the company's mission is to "further new & established works in an effort to focus on the artist by tackling a variety of subjects, exploring non-traditional venues & styles, & mixing theatre with film, dance, music & poetry." The company has produced established contemporary and classic plays, such as Medea, No Exit, A Thurber Carnival, and Hospitality Suite, as well as original works such as Life and Other One-Man Shows. Cup-A-Jo Productions has also produced original one-act plays in conjunction with the Pittsburgh New Works Festival. The company has held productions in numerous venues throughout the Pittsburgh area, including Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, Garfield Artworks, and the University of Pittsburgh Studio Theatre.
A Shakespeare festival is a theatre organization that stages the works of William Shakespeare on an ongoing basis.
Bald Theatre Company is a Pittsburgh-based theatre company. Established in 2010 by Justin Zeno, the theatre company's mission, "is to explore and expose stereotypes, focus on the individual, and to embrace those qualities which make us unique and valuable. the BALD theatre company is a celebration of our differences beyond stigma without fear of substance or content while connecting to our collective human experience."
The Summer Company is a Pittsburgh-based theatre company that produces classical and contemporary plays. Established in 1993 by Steve Fatla, Jay Keenan, and John E. Lane, Jr., the company was initially founded with the mission “to produce quality productions of classical and soon to be classic plays in the company of friends concentrating on plays written between 1850 through 1950” and has since expanded to include more recent material, including the original musical Homeless: The Musical. The company has produced material with varying stylistic content, including absurdism, realism, and comedic revues. The Summer Company's productions have been held at performance spaces located on the campuses of Duquesne University and Carlow University.
Carrnivale Theatrics is a Pittsburgh-based theatre company that has produced contemporary musicals. Established in 2009 by Maggie Carr, Justin Fortunato, and Bob Neumeyer, the company was initially founded as a means to utilize the talents of local college students and raise money for breast cancer research. The company has continued to produce musicals such as Sweeney Todd, Ragtime, and Into the Woods. All of Carrnivale Theatrics' productions have been staged at the New Hazlett Theater in the North Side of Pittsburgh.
Stage Right is a theatre company located in the Fox Chapel area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Established in the mid-1960s, the theatre has staged productions of contemporary plays such as Alan Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular, Ken Ludwig's Leading Ladies, Paul Rudnick's I Hate Hamlet, and Yasmina Reza's 'Art'. Stage Right's productions are held in the Boyd Community Center in O'Hara Township and utilizes local actors from Pittsburgh's theatre scene. The company has also produced plays in conjunction with the Pittsburgh New Works Festival.
