Theater & Arts category, Page 15
Saint Vincent Summer Theatre gala returning after 3-year hiatus
After a three-year hiatus, the Saint Vincent Summer Theatre Gala is returning as a forerunner of the theater’s 53rd season. The event will begin at 6 p.m. March 31 in the Fred M. Rogers Center on the Saint Vincent College campus in Unity. The theater hosted a shortened season of...
Quaker Valley High School students gear up for ‘Anything Goes’ musicalVideo
Quaker Valley High School students and staff invite audiences to board the S.S. American and set sail on a laugh and dance-filled journey with their reproduction of “Anything Goes.” Audiences at the land-locked school along Beaver Street will feel as through they are crossing the Atlantic with more than 40...
Franklin Regional students channel 1950s with spring musical ‘Grease’Video
Last year in the Franklin Regional Theatre Guild’s production of “The Little Mermaid,” students had the challenge of playing princes, mythical creatures or anthropomorphized fish. This year, director Mark Wolfgang said there’s an even bigger challenge — playing a slightly different version of themselves, as the angst-filled high school students...
Pittsburgh’s Prime Stage heads to Narnia with ‘Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe’
Rehearsals for Prime Stage Theatre’s production of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” are about to enter what stage manager Britt Kolek said is the best but also the most difficult phase. “We’re starting the really heavily technical rehearsals,” said Kolek, 24, of Freeport, who has been working at...
‘Westmoreland Night of the Stars’ gets encore with new producers
Less than two weeks after founder John Noble announced the demise of Westmoreland Night of the Stars, the annual showcase of county school musicals is getting an encore. Tony Marino, founder of Westmoreland Performing Arts, said his organization will take over producing the show, to be staged May 3 at...
Met Opera marks 1st year of Ukraine war with concert
NEW YORK — Emily D’Angelo made her point with attire before singing a single note at the Metropolitan Opera’s concert to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The 28-year-old Canadian mezzo-soprano walked onto the stage Friday night for the Mozart Requiem wearing a dark skirt covered with...
Seton Hill production puts modern spin on Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’
History tends to repeat itself — a notion that will be explored in a Seton Hill University Theatre and Dance Program production of “Julius Caesar.” William Shakespeare’s classic drama of political intrigue and personal honor will be staged Friday and Saturday and March 3 and 4 in the university’s Performing...
Met cuts season to 18 operas, matching fewest in 4 decades
NEW YORK — The financially challenged Metropolitan Opera is cutting its schedule to 18 productions next season, matching the pandemic-curtailed 2019-20 season for the fewest since 14 in strike-shortened 1980-81. The Met said Wednesday it will have six new productions and 12 revivals, down from seven new stagings and 16...
Pop-up dining to open in former Superior Motors space
Dining in the vacant Superior Motors restaurant building in Braddock is coming back, at least temporarily. Two Braddock businesses are collaborating to offer a pop-up dining experience at the restaurant space, which closed during the onset of the pandemic in 2020. The restaurant helmed by chef Kevin Sousa — located...
Westmoreland Performing Arts production of ‘The Nerd’ brings cast full circle
Rehearsing for the Westmoreland Performing Arts production of “The Nerd” has taken cast members back to the early days of their careers and their time with Saint Vincent Summer Theatre. “It has tied us all back to a very happy time in our theater careers,” said director and cast member...
Pittsburgh Opera fashion show featured live opera performers
Guests expect to see fashion models on a runway. But for a show to include live opera singers’ powerful voices with songs from “Carmina Burana,“ ”Rigoletto” and “Rinaldo”? That’s not something you see and hear every day. Friends of the Pittsburgh Opera hosted their annual style event on Monday with...
Final curtain falls on Westmoreland Night of the Stars musical showcase
The final curtain has fallen on Westmoreland Night of the Stars — unless someone steps up to take over running the annual two-night showcase of area school musicals. In 2019, founder John Noble announced his intention to turn the production over to his daughter, Elly Carr of Irwin, a theater...
Barebones productions launches 20th season with fiery ‘Is God Is’
The brooding man acts on his cruel intentions. Married with 3-year-old twin daughters, he wants out. He wants a new life and sets a fire and leaves his family for dead. The fire does not kill his family, but horrifically scars them. Eighteen years later, the now 21-year-old twins Anaia...
Standbys, understudies, swings ensure that the show will go on
Ready to go on at a moment’s notice, some actors and actresses wait in the wings. They are in the theater in case one of their colleagues can’t take the stage because of illness, a family emergency or a scheduled day off. They often are referred to as “unsung heroes”...
Greensburg Civic Theatre’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ plumbs depths of human psyche
Greensburg Civic Theatre will present the macabre tale of the demon barber of Fleet Street this weekend at the Greensburg Garden & Civic Center, 951 Old Salem Road. Curtain times for “Sweeney Todd” will be at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. The Stephen Sondheim musical is...
‘Kinky Boots’ at Irwin’s Lamp Theatre spreads message of acceptance
It wasn’t in the plan for Split Stage Productions to do the musical “Kinky Boots” this season. But when the opportunity arose, it was too good to pass up. “We were actually very, very fortunate to get the rights, and it was almost accidental how it happened,” said Split Stage...
Pine-Richland middle school girl picked for cast of ‘Hits! The Musical’ touring company
Like most young people who aspire to a career as a performer, Loren Prisuta of Pine has been dreaming big about her future. But she hasn’t been leaving those dreams to chance. Now, with nearly a decade of hard work under her belt training in voice, dance and acting, the...
Pittsburgh Opera debuts Handel’s ‘Ariodante’ in all-new production
Pittsburgh Opera will present the first-ever local performances of Handel’s Baroque opera, “Ariodante,” in an all-new production running Jan. 21-29 at Pittsburgh CAPA Theater. “Ariodante” also will be the debut with the company of costume designer Grace Kang and set designer Ningning Yang, both students at Carnegie Mellon University. “Almost...
‘Jagged Little Pill’ crafts Alanis Morissette songs into jukebox musical
Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album, “Jagged Little Pill,” marked an alt-rock, grunge swerve from the Canadian singer-songwriter’s two previous dance-pop albums. Songs like “You Oughta Know” explored hot-button themes like sexuality, sexual harassment, self-help and societal apathy. The songs and themes are incorporated in “Jagged Little Pill,” a jukebox musical that...
Prime Stage Theatre set to open Harriet Tubman play
Most Americans know about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, but there are many more details that aren’t as well known about this fascinating and exceedingly brave woman. A good many of those details are woven into an upcoming Prime Stage Theatre production opening this week at the New Hazlett...
Pittsburgh dancer Maria Caruso’s one-woman show to be available on Broadway on Demand
Maria Caruso has never watched herself perform. On Jan. 20, that will all change. She plans to sit down in her Los Angeles, Calif., home with her husband, Alan Russell, and view her one-woman show “Metamorphosis” streaming on Broadway on Demand. And you can, too. For $3.99, the hour performance...
David Byrne’s next Broadway show will be ‘Here Lies Love’
NEW YORK — David Byrne’s “American Utopia” may have left Broadway but the Talking Heads leader is plotting a return — with disco. Byrne and Fatboy Slim plan to put their musical “Here Lies Love,” a show that charts the rise and fall of Philippine ex-first lady Imelda Marcos, on...
Cabaret Theatre hosts Irwin reading of new ‘Gatsby’-inspired musical
It’s widely accepted in the literary world that writer F. Scott Fitzgerald stole ideas and actual words from his wife, Zelda — including lines that went into his widely acclaimed novel, “The Great Gatsby.” Two Westmoreland County theater veterans have imagined Zelda Fitzgerald’s role in the creation of the novel...
A lion roars on Broadway as box office hauls reveal winners
NEW YORK — It was feast or famine at the Broadway box office as 2022 wound down, with eye-popping revenue for popular shows — including a staggering new Broadway record for “The Lion King” — not lifting all strugglers. Twenty-one of the 33 shows available broke the $1 million mark...
Resonance Works’ ‘Amahl’ stars Victory Brinker in first full opera role
Victory Brinker of Unity has been singing opera arias since she was 6. Now 10, the “America’s Got Talent” veteran is taking on her first full opera role as the title character in “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” Brinker will sing the role on the first two nights of the...
