City Theatre, CMU School of Drama partner for return of the Momentum Festival

This weekend, City Theatre and Carnegie Mellon University will partner for a celebration of new works for the stage.

The Momentum Festival: New Plays at Different Stages will run Saturday and Sunday at City Theatre on the South Side. The four included works include “East Carson Street,” a jukebox musical built around the songs of local legend Joe Grushecky, as well as three other exciting play readings, artist panels, workshops and other events.

The return of the Momentum Festival — which was originally mounted in 2003 and last organized two years ago — is owed in part to the establishment of the Carnegie Mellon University Center for New Work Development earlier this year. This program brings CMU’s School of Drama together with theaters and artists around the Southwestern Pennsylvania region to incubate and encourage new theatrical works from School of Drama undergraduate and graduate students.

For this festival, the Center for New Works is contributing two plays, “Jo van Gogh” by Kate Isabel Foley and “The Gettysburg Test” by maguire wilder. According to Rick Edinger, co-artistic director of the Center for New Works, both playwrights are second-year MFA students.

“Our MFA dramatic writers at CMU have historically won national and international awards, have gone into screenwriting for film, television and for the stage,” said Edinger, who has taught at CMU since 2018. “So, whenever we have an opportunity to uplift the works of these brilliant young minds, I’m always thrilled to support them.”

Both works are approximately 90 minutes long. “Jo van Gogh,” directed by Aurelia Clunie, is about the real person Johanna van Gogh, sister-in-law of Vincent van Gogh, who was tasked with keeping the artist’s legacy after her husband’s passing. It can be seen at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Lillie Theatre.

“The Gettysburg Test” — which is directed by Cody Spellman — introduces the audience to a group of people preparing for the test to become a Licensed Gettysburg Battlefield Guide and examines the Civil War and the complexity of history. It will be performed at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Lillie Theatre at City Theatre.

Edinger said that both plays were first developed in the spring and have been in process since.

“It’s sort of a rite of passage. … It’s a curricular requirement to do a new play reading within their second year,” he said.

Other new CMU student works will be presented in festivals in the first half of 2026 around Pittsburgh.

“We’re just really excited to see the Momentum Festival back on its feet and to be partnering so closely with City Theatre, who I think is one of the most innovative regional houses in America,” Edinger said.

Clare Drobot, City Theatre’s artistic director, is also looking forward to the festival’s triumphant return.

“I think being able to expand the festival so that it is providing an academic and professional partnership is really in line with the work that we do,” she said.

The two shows included in the Momentum Festival that are under development by City Theatre are “The Punchline” and “East Carson Street.” Taking place at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Lillie Theatre and directed by Adil Mansoor, “The Punchline” sees the return of Christopher Rivas, whose one-man show “The Real James Bond … Was Dominican” had a run at City Theatre earlier this year. This new solo show explores the importance of memory and living in the present with plenty of humor and poignancy. Runtime is about 90 minutes.

“East Carson Street” is an ambitious project presented in partnership with barebones productions and the Pittsburgh CLO. Through the music of Pittsburgh legend Joe Grushecky, the musical follows the decades-spanning story of a Pittsburgh family through three generations. The show’s book was written by Jonathan Rosenberg with additional text by James McManus, and it’s directed by Patrick Jordan. The performance will be held on the City Theatre Mainstage at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

In addition to the four plays, the Momentum Festival will hold a New Works Slam at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Peirce Theater at Three Stories, 937 Liberty Ave., in Downtown Pittsburgh. The Slam will contain monologues, songs, scenes and more from an array of artists and developing works.

“It’s important for companies in the city to nurture these newer works. I think that theater is in many ways a town hall space for communities. …. It’s part of bringing audiences together to see something they haven’t seen onstage before, experience the world in a new way,” Drobot said.

“Pittsburgh’s such a perfect incubator for that work; there’s so much talent in the artistic community here. To be a launch pad and a space where artists can try things is just really wonderful,” she added.

For more information about the Momentum Festival’s events and tickets, visit citytheatrecompany.org.