Theater

On today's program: The University of Pittsburgh just got a treasure trove from the estate of horror great George Romero; a queer youth theater program is debuting a new multimedia production; City Council District 9 candidates are readying for Tuesday's primary election; CEOs take a stand against the stigma around mental illness; and the state's top court hears from both sides of the UPMC / Highmark split. 

Mark Clayton Southers owes much of the inspiration for his theater career to an unimpeachable source: August Wilson. It was listening to the Pittsburgh-born Pulitzer Prize winner lecture in South Africa in 1998 that led Southers – then a thirtysomething steel-mill worker and stage actor – to try his hand at writing.

Lynn Nottage began researching the play that became Sweat in 2011. In today’s rapidly changing political landscape, that seems like eons ago. But when it premiered on Broadway in 2016, just five days before the presidential election, Sweat felt as topical as an op-ed column. One prominent critic even called it “the play that explains Trump’s win.”

In 1856, British artist Henry Wallis completed “The Death of Chatterton.” The oil painting was Romantic with a capital “R”: a loving depiction of 18th-century poet Thomas Chatterton, who’d just committed suicide by ingesting arsenic. Chatterton, age 17, lays draped on a bed, washed in dawn light. 

Beth Corning says we don’t talk enough about death.

The choreographer and performer calls life’s cessation the ubiquitous “elephant in the room.”

For years, arts organizations have offered “sensory-friendly” versions of their concerts, plays and recitals, primarily to benefit audiences on the autism spectrum. These productions are generally the same event, but with sound and lighting modified to avoid aggravating audiences unusually sensitive to such stimuli.

Later this spring, the end of an era in Pittsburgh theater arrives with the shuttering of the Pittsburgh Playhouse in Oakland.

Gab Cody is a Pittsburgh-based playwright. But the inspiration for her newest work began some 3,500 miles northwest of here.

Steubenville, Ohio made headlines in 2012 when a high school girl was raped by a group of boys after she passed out following a night of partying. The assault was captured on cell phones and shared on social media, forcing the town and the country into a conversation about sexual violence against female students.

That night, what lead up to it and its aftermath are the subject of the play ‘Good Kids’ being performed through Sunday by University of Pittsburgh students at the Stephen Foster Memorial. 

These aren’t your typical theater-goers. They call out during the play. They try to join into the performance.

And some are sucking on pacifiers.

This is entertainment for the very young — baby theater.

Roberto Clemente died on Dec. 31, 1972, but you’d never know it from the hundreds of people who show up to Pirates games wearing jerseys with his name and number — 21 — printed on them. 

Now two musicals will trace the life of "The Great One" from his childhood in Puerto Rico to his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates from the mid-50’s to his untimely death at age 38.

Composer Alki Steriopoulous to spend nearly a decade writing a musical about Clemente.

It's called "21."

For generations theaters have been an important part of thriving cities and towns across the country. In recent years more people are seeing how theaters can be an economic engine of development.

The Conclave Theater tour is held every year in a different city. This year Pittsburgh hosts the tour, showcasing the region's contributions to theatrical architecture.

This Sunday the Hollywood Theater is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first film appearance of Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp character.  Kid Auto Races at Venice Beach will be featured, along with the premiere of a brand new score of The Pawnshop, written and performed by Pittsburgh pianist Tom Roberts.

Roberts says he tried to relate to Chaplin when composing music for The Pawnshop.

Many 1970s TV viewers remember Pittsburgh native John Davidson as a game show emcee, or as one of the guest hosts for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.

But Davidson actually got his start in showbiz on Broadway in the early 1960s. And now after many years of making a name for himself on the small screen, he's back on stage playing the part of the Wizard in Wicked. 

“One door closing, is another one opening up” says Andrew Paul, former artistic director and co-founder of Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre.

This appears to be  a relevant motto for him and Pittsburgh theater veteran Mark Clayton Southers, founder of the 10-year-old Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, and former arts director at the August Wilson Center. Southers and Paul had been let go from their former theatres earlier this year.

Now the two journeymen are collaborating to start a new theater company in Pittsburgh called, The Phoenix, designed to produce cutting edge plays and a focus on diverse casts. The company will be christened this evening with an opening night performance of the play Blue/Orange, which deals with issues related to race and the mental health care system.