Theater & Arts category, Page 24
Pittsburgh Opera productions to have small, live audiences
Pittsburgh Opera will welcome small, live audiences back to productions of its modified 2020-21 season, in addition to livestreaming all performances. First up is Mozart’s “Così fan tutte,” opening Oct. 17 for six performances in front of socially distant audiences at its headquarters in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. Stage director Crystal...
Quantum Theatre charts 2-mile ‘odyssey’ through Schenley ParkVideo
Quantum Theatre is planning a 2-mile odyssey along the trails of Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park, through which visitors can access an interactive audio production of “OK Odysseus.” Five Greek columns will be placed throughout the park, at which Quantum Theatre artists and staff will act as guides. The journey will begin...
Pittsburgh Musical Theater’s outdoor stage opens with magic show
Pittsburgh Musical Theater’s new outdoor performance venue will do more than offer patrons a way to see live acts during ongoing covid-19 gathering restrictions. It also will be “an anchor” for community gatherings and development in the up-and-coming West End that the theater calls home, according to executive artistic director...
Met Opera skips this season, 1st Black composer opens ’21-22Video
NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Opera will skip an entire season for the first time in its nearly 140-year history and intends to return from the pandemic layoff next September with the company’s first presentation of a Black composer, Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” This season was...
Penn-Trafford graduates are bringing ‘Broadway to the Burgh’Video
Penn-Trafford High School grads Lindsey Brett Carothers and Jarrett Reiche know what it takes to make it on New York City’s famed Broadway. Carothers is an actress who has been in the Broadway musical “Bring it On” and starred as Glinda in the national tour of “Wicked.” Casting professional Reiche...
Pittsburgh Playhouse plans virtual theater, dance, speaker events
Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse is getting ready to launch “Here. Now. Next!,” a fall season of virtual offerings, including theater and dance productions, the new Dance Speaker Series and a re-imagined Media Innovators Speaker Series. The season will include several new works. “Some of our work this fall will...
‘Hamilton’ performances at Benedum Center being moved back 1 year because of coronavirus
You’ll have to wait a year to be in the room where it happens. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announced Thursday that the performance of “Hamilton” is being rescheduled to 2022. The Broadway musical was scheduled at the Benedum Center on Jan. 5-Feb. 7. The new dates are set for Feb....
With Carnegie Mellon’s stages shut down, students create front porch venue for live theater
For the seniors involved in Carnegie Mellon University’s esteemed drama program, this was a year they had been looking forward to — years of study culminating in an entire season of 22 stage shows over the course of the school year. For now, the entire first semester of shows has...
Freeport Theatre Festival presents ‘President Arthur’s Inspiration’
The words in these letters spoke volumes. Julia Sand wrote to then-vice president Chester A. Arthur, who would become the 21st president of the United States, offering advice on how to be a better man. Arthur read the correspondence and seemingly took it to heart. You will have to come...
Inclusive theater troupe will hold holiday-play auditions in September
Auditions for a holiday play by inclusive theater group Acting Up will be at the First Presbyterian Church pavilion, 3202 North Hills Road in Murrysville. It is not an open casting call due to health and safety regulations. All potential participants must call or email to make an audition appointment....
City Theatre reimagines 2020-21 season
Drive-in movies are universally known. Well, how about a drive-in stage play? It’s one way Pittsburgh’s City Theatre is reimagining its 2020-21 season. The updated schedule includes a live drive-in experience as well as virtual content. Without this shift in planning, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to...
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust continues online programs, reopening plans
When will patrons be able to return to Pittsburgh’s Cultural District for live music, theater and other entertainment? While the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust does not have a date to resume in-person programs, it is “working with national tours and presenters to realign all 2020 season programs into the 2021 calendar...
Teen pens musical adaptation for Diamond Theatre of Ligonier
While some teens have been busy during the pandemic shutdown recording TikTok videos, a 15-year-old from Laughlintown has gone a big step further. Lanigan McCulty created “Greece Lightning the Musical,” which will be staged this weekend at the Diamond Theatre of Ligonier. Granted, he might have an advantage over the...
Pittsburgh CLO postpones live shows, plans virtual ‘Christmas Carol’
Pittsburgh CLO has postponed all scheduled in-person performances until 2021, citing “uncertainties and risks related to the ongoing health crisis.” Postponed shows includes the previously scheduled fall Kara Cabaret productions of “Dixie’s Tupperware Party” and “Untitled.” The annual production of “A Musical Christmas Carol” at the Byham Theater will be...
Delmont’s Apple Hill Playhouse is closed but fond memories remain
Pat Beyer says she’s heard many times over the years that ghosts inhabit the Apple Hill Playhouse in Delmont. After all, the structure has been around since Civil War times, starting out as a barn before its reincarnation as a theater with a long string of owners. Beyer, Apple Hill’s...
Pittsburgh playwrights produce new works for online performance
Five Pittsburgh-area playwrights have written 10-minute plays responding to the current state of the world. A one-night-only digital reading of the resulting works, entitled “Homegrown Stories,” is planned for 7:30 p.m. Aug. 6 as part of City of Asylum’s The Show Must Go On(line) Series. The initiative is a collaboration...
Penn-Trafford Drama Guild will stream showcase of spring musical tunesVideo
In early March, just a couple of weeks before the curtain was set to rise on the Penn-Trafford Drama Guild’s production of “Footloose,” musical sponsor Jen Haberberger wasn’t thinking about the coronavirus. She certainly wasn’t thinking about using pool noodles to properly social-distance students at rehearsals. “We would’ve started technical...
Apple Hill Playhouse is closing, leaving theater group seeking new home
The Apple Hill Playhouse in Delmont is going dark. “The time has come” to permanently close the historic stage, executive artistic director Pat Beyer said. “I’m just too old to be in this game anymore. This is my 38th year,” said Beyer, 79. However, it’s just the barn that’s closing,...
Westmoreland Ballet Company plans ‘The Nutcracker’ film based in Greensburg
Westmoreland Ballet Company is seeking dancers and other community partners for a film version of the beloved holiday classic, “The Nutcracker.” “Incorporating area artists, musicians, performers, community members and business owners, the film will highlight Greensburg and surrounding towns,” according to the recently established company. Filming will begin in September....
Pittsburgh Opera ‘pulls back the curtain’ with web conversations
Pittsburgh Opera will “Pull Back the Curtain” in a new weekly web series, giving viewers behind-the-scenes looks at what it’s like to be an opera singer, how operas are made and why opera has thrived for centuries. The first episode of “Pull Back the Curtain” will livestream at 4 p.m....
Postponed school musicals going live and online during July
Stage Right School for the Performing Arts in Greensburg is preparing to stage “Aladdin Jr.,” the spring musical for its preteen home-schooled students that was postponed due to the covid-19 pandemic. It’s the first time Stage Right has had to consult with a medical professional while preparing a musical production,...
Freeport Theatre Festival opens 31st season Friday with pandemic safety protocols in place
The curtain will go up at the Freeport Theatre Festival for a 31st year. This season, there will be noticeable changes at the summer barn theater. Because of the coronavirus pandemic the Allegheny Township theater will seat fewer people. The usual meet-and-greet sessions with actors won’t be taking place. “We...
‘Hamilton’ release spikes surge in Disney+ app downloads
Although it’s difficult to verify viewership for streaming services, it looks like “Hamilton” is a box office smash for Disney+. A prerecorded version of the hit Broadway musical was released on Friday, spurring a surge in app downloads during the holiday weekend. From Friday through Sunday, Variety reports, the Disney+...
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre honors retiring artistic directorVideo
The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre paid tribute to artistic director Terrence S. Orr on his last day with a moving — literally — tribute. Filmed from a moving vehicle, dancers leapt and twirled in front yards, porches, a parking lot, streets, sidewalks and a park to say goodbye to Orr, who...
Kelly-Strayhorn Theater partners with East Liberty arts organizations for virtual fundraiserVideo
The only tax dollars many music and performance venues get are from amusement taxes levied on ticket sales, but that money has dried up since the halls have sat empty since mid-March. Before the pandemic, the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty was partnering with restaurants in the neighborhood to host...
