Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company

Pittsburgh is invited to sample a taste of things to come when Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company offers From Page to Stage at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture on February 27, 2010 at 8 p.m.

From Page to Stage serves to introduce (or re-introduce) this groundbreaking theatre company to the public as well as to preview its spring 2010 offerings through staged readings of scenes from VALU-MART, The Ancestor Series and Jitney. PPTCO will present full productions of these shows in March, April and May, respectively. The evening will be emceed by actor Bill Nunn (Do the Right Thing, Spider-Man films), a Pittsburgh native, and includes Lynne Hayes-Freeland, Anji Corley, Vanessa German and Sala Udin.

VALU-MART, by Sean O'Leary (our guest playwright for this season), examines the art of self-preservation. A display case key has gone missing at a mass merchandise department store. Five employees are suspected of taking the key and are detained in a break room for questioning. Humiliated and fearful that they will all be fired if the key and the person responsible are not found, the five employees struggle to find a way out. Their struggle exposes the hopes, fears, aspirations, and resentments that arise from five very different lives.

The Ancestor Series, written by Pittsburgh-born playwright P.J. Gibson, is a trilogy of three works: The Taking Circle, Blood on the Seats, and Weeding. In each play, women call upon their African ancestors to help them make difficult decisions.

Jitney by August Wilson really needs no introduction. Jitney was produced in New York for the first time in spring 2000, winning rave reviews and the accolade of the New York Drama Critics Circle as Best Play of the Year. In its seventh season, The Pittsburgh Playwrights proudly presents Jitney in keeping with its mission of producing each play of Wilson's ‘Pittsburgh Cycle’ in the order in which they appeared on Broadway. Jitney features an all-star cast of some of Pittsburgh’s favorite actors, including Sala Udin reprising the role which he originated in the original 1982 Pittsburgh production.

From Page to Stage is presented by the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture on February 27, 2010 at 8 p.m. Admission for From Page to Stage is free, however, a ticket is required. Click here For reservations or call 412-377-7803. Online reservation tickets will be available for pick up at the will call window at the August Wilson Center prior to the performance.

Pittsburgh Playwrights Proudly Announces Its 7th Season

Individual tickets are now on sale from ProArts.

Schedule change

Our second show of the season, previously announced for November 2009, has been replaced with The Ancestor Series by Pittsburgh playwright P. J. Gibson, and will be produced later in our season, in April 2010. More details below.

VALU-MART
by Sean O'Leary (Guest Playwright)
Directed by Mark Clayton Southers
March 13th - March 28th, 2010

A display case key has gone missing at a mass merchandise department store. Five employees are suspected of taking the key and are detained in a break room for questioning. Humiliated and fearful that they will all be fired if the key and the person responsible are not found, the five employees struggle to find a way out. Their struggle exposes the hopes, fears, aspirations, and resentments that arise from five very different lives.

Buy individual tickets.

The Ancestor Series
by P. J. Gibson
Directed by Talvin Wilks
April 8th - April 24th, 2010

The Ancestor Series, written by Pittsburgh born playwright P.J. Gibson, is a trilogy of three works The Taking Circle, Blood on the Seats, and Weeding. In each play, women call upon their African ancestors to help them make difficult decisions.

Buy individual tickets.

Funding provided by

Jitney
by August Wilson
Directed by Mark Clayton Southers
May 8th - May 30th, 2010

Set in the 1970’s in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, and depicting gypsy-cab drivers who serve black neighborhoods, Jitney is the seventh in Wilson’s ten-play cycle (one for each decade) on the black experience in 20th century America. A thoroughly revised version of a play Wilson first wrote in 1979, Jitney was produced in New York for the first time in spring 2000, winning rave reviews and the accolade of the New York Drama Critics Circle as Best Play of the Year. In its seventh season, The Pittsburgh Playwrights proudly presents Jitney in keeping with its mission of producing each play of Wilson's ‘Pittsburgh cycle’ in the order in which they appeared on Broadway, featuring an all-star cast of some of Pittsburgh’s favorite actors.

Buy individual tickets.

Earlier this season:

The Revenants
by Scott T. Barsotti
Directed by Mark Whitehead
October 16th - 31st, 2009

Two married couples become barricaded in a basement during a violent uprising of zombies, Pittsburgh's favorite villains (or heroes to some). As supplies run low and hopes dwindle, it is revealed that two of the spouses are infected and getting...hungry. Faced with the true meaning of commitment, husbands and wives must ask of each other: When does love die?

Review: City Paper

This season continues PPTCO's commitment to bringing together playwrights and artists of all backgrounds that have some sort of connection to Pittsburgh. Scott T. Barsotti is a playwright originally from Pittsburgh, now based in Chicago, whose plays have played in Chicago, New York, and New Orleans. His work has been seen at the New York International Fringe Festival, the Rhinoceros Theater Festival, and Collaboraction’s Sketchbook, and has been produced and/or developed by WildClaw Theatre, Curious Theatre Branch, Chicago Dramatists, and The Route 66 Theatre Company among others. Scott was recently named a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists.

Sean O'Leary is PPTCO's guest playwright this season, and he makes his home near Harpers Ferry, WV. He is the author of five plays, two of which have previously appeared on Pittsburgh stages. His play VALU-MART is the 2007 winner of The Ruby Lloyd Apsey Award for plays confronting racial issues, the winner of the West Virginia Writers Conference 2007 Best Play award, and was a finalist in the National Arts Club's Playwrights First competition. He is also the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts "Access to Artistic Excellence" award and the Ostrander Award for Best New Play of the 2007 Memphis theatre season.

And of course, the Pulitzer Prize-winning August Wilson was born and raised in Pittsburgh, and is recognized as one of the most influential writers in American theater. He is best known for his unprecedented cycle of 10 plays, including the acclaimed Fences, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and The Piano Lesson, all of which have been produced by PPTCO in the past. These plays chronicle the tragedies and aspirations of African Americans during each decade of the 20th century, and have appeared in theaters across the world

Click to order individual tickets from ProArts, or call ProArts Tickets at 412-394-3353. For group sales, contact Twanda Clark at 412-708-1503.

Dear Fans of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre:

I hope you saw the recent Sunday Post-Gazette where Two Trains Running, by August Wilson, and directed by our own Mark Clayton Southers, was named one of the top ten plays of the DECADE by Chris Rawson. That’s right, one of the top ten plays from the past ten years of theatre in Pittsburgh. And, it was the only August Wilson production in Pittsburgh to win such recognition. Wow! What an honor. Thanks!

Thank you to all of you who have supported Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Co. in the past and helped make this great moment possible. We all know PPTCO produces great theatre inexpensively. In fact, I would bet out of all of the top ten plays, we had the smallest production budget. This challenge to produce great works with few dollars isn’t by choice! PPTCO is awarded grants from foundations and the state, but we still need our friends’ support to pay our actors and run our stage.

Let’s reward Mark for his hard work by making a donation today to Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre. You will give Mark the kudos he deserves, and you will boost his budget for our next August Wilson play, Jitney, which he will direct at the end of our season this spring.

Please join me in supporting Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre by clicking a link below to donate now.

$25 will send a congratulations to Mark for his great honor

Please, everyone join me in sending him congratulations!!

$50 will buy a costume

$100 will help pay for an actor

$250 will help pay for great directors

$500 will help pay for a new playwright to come to town

$1000 or more will boost PPTCO to great new heights!

Visit this link to donate some other amount, or for our mailing address if you'd rather mail a check.

Thanks so much for helping Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company!

Happy New Year,

Elizabeth Reiss, Board Member and Director of Fundraising

Our esteemed artistic director at PPTCO, Mark Clayton Southers, was put to the test today, THE PERSONALITY TEST that is. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review theater critic Alice Carter injected him with a shot of sodium pentathol (a.k.a. "truth serum" for all you civilians out there) and gave him the 3rd degree! Click to read the results from today's Trib.

On Feb. 11, 2009, PPTCO presented Angry Black Man Poetry at Teatr Slaski in Katowice, Poland. The production was part of Teatr Slaski's "American Frontier" festival, or Festival of the Americas, which presented audiences with American photography, music, dance, theater, and poetry. Upon return home to Pittsburgh, Angry Black Man Poetry cast member Carter Redwood, a current high school junior, wrote the following chronicle of the experience that was published in The New Pittsburgh Courier:

Who knew that the election of President Barack Obama would land me in Poland?! Angry Black Man Poetry is the brainchild of my mentor, founder and Artistic Director of the Pittsburgh Playwrights’ Theatre Co., Mark Clayton Southers. The piece chronicles the “Black Experience” in regards to slavery to Obama. During the week of February 7-14, the show was taken to Katowice, Poland to perform in Teatr Slavski’s Festival of the Americas. As a member of the cast, and a newbie to international travel, it was a better experience then I could’ve asked for. Teatr Slaski is the main venue for theatre in town, and a great deal of advertisement was put out to try and expose the Polish natives to something they certainly don’t see every day.

In addition to performing, we did a bit of sightseeing and traveling. We got the chance to visit the grave of Ira Aldrige, famed African-American actor, revered as the one of the best Shakespeare Othellos ever. The same day we got the opportunity to stop by the Black Madonna; to the Polish it is known as the Mother of the Mount of Light, which is a large portrait of Mary holding baby Jesus, which looks to be of African descent. One of the traditional things that people do is crawl around the effigy on their knees, praising and asking for the things deep in their hearts. A lady came to us to explain what was going on; she was with us for about an hour and posed as our tour guide. She explained the many miracles she’s witnessed there, including people healed on the spot. Before we were about take part in the crawl ourselves, she revealed, “if you ask for a lot and you get half of that, you’ll still have a lot; if you ask for a little and get half of that, you don’t have that much.” While crawling through, something hit me, and I realized the once in a lifetime opportunity I was taking part in; I began to bawl uncontrollably. It turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. A few days later we stopped by Auschwitz and Birkenau. This was a solemn and very humbling encounter. The snow and the cold added to the intensity of the place, making it even more uncomfortable then expected. I remember trying my best not to touch anything, not even doors leading into other rooms and places. Before we got to the museums, we were the first ones at Birkenau and walked around the place on our own to see everything close up. The land seemed barren and eerie, and I know for a fact I wasn’t the only one who felt uneasy.

The audience was very open and seemed to have accepted the show pretty well. Afterwards, there was a talk-back where Mark got to explain first hand his influence for writing the show, and the cast got to give personal responses to the show and its creation. As well as knowing how it affected the creation of the show, they wanted to know our personal responses to the election and what it meant for each of us. It’s still hard for me to believe that an event as great as this happened during my lifetime. As a young boy, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d anxiously reply “the first black President.” I knew it would be incredible if something like that was to happen, but even then, I’d said it with the slight belief that it was impossible. I would say it because it seemed like such a difficult feat to accomplish. The day after the election, I remember going to school and hearing people screaming in the hallways and the stairwells. I was still in total shock, but that’s when I really started to realize the affect it had on people – young people even! Even now that he’s been in office for a few weeks, I still think back to that day. I think about where I was and what I was doing at the exact moment it was announced. This stands as such a pivotal moment in history, because the decision was more than black and white, it was a majority.

Mark wrote a lot of poetry back in 1998, but took a brief hiatus to focus more on his playwrighting. The night Obama won office, Mark wrote a poem about it, then a few more, until eventually the idea for Angry Black Man Poetry sprang up. He pieced together the many poems he wrote nearly ten years ago along with the new ones and a few scenes from his shows to arrange the piece. The fact that I was in Poland during Black History Month, presenting a show about African-Americans made February this year very different for me. I am extremely lucky to have had such a wonderful opportunity and to know people like Mark Clayton Southers, who are constantly growing artistically and “bringing cultures together.”

Click for more photos from this production

On Sunday, Jan. 25th, volunteers Kim El, Carter Redwood, Lonzo Green, Nathan Hollabaugh, Ashley Southers, Richard Yahr, PPTCO Board president Barbara Cymerman, Twanda Brown, Chris Josephs, Randy Kovitz, Wali Jamal, Judy Meiksin, David Gebhardt, Cheryl El Walker, and PPTCO artistic director Mark Clayton Southers participated in another great day of work, continuing our 2009 renovation project. Crews cleared and redefined a significant amount of space in the storage, workshop, and dressing-room areas and erected the frames of several new interior walls. In addition, exciting new progress was made in re-organizing and taking new inventory of the company's wardrobe resources.

This is only part of many exciting new developments we have underway in our downtown performance facility at 6th St. & Penn Ave. in the Cultural District. WE ARE ON A ROLL! Step-by-step we are doing BIG things in 2009 at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. And YOU too can be a part of it: if you would like to join our volunteer list and receive notices about upcoming opportunities please contact Nathan Hollabaugh at 412-867-8274 or nhollabaugh@pghplaywrights.com.

Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company
542 Penn Avenue, mezzanine level
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222

On January 6th & 7th, PPTCO Artistic Director Mark Clayton Southers shared his experience as a playwright with students from area junior and senior high schools. As part of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's 2009 Theater Arts Workshop, Mark and fellow playwrights Tammy Ryan, F.J. Hartland, and Wali Jamal led students through the playwrighting segment of the workshop. The program was presented at the Byham Theater by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Department of Education and Community Engagement, and was made possible by Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania.

PPTCO productions of Two Trains Running and James McBride won a total of eleven awards at the 2008 AACTA Onyx Awards, presented by the African American Council on the Arts on June 27 2008. The AACTA Onyx Awards honor African-Americans in theater and dance. Awards for PPTCO productions included, for Two Trains Running, Best Play, Best Direction (Mark Clayton Southers), Best Equity Actor (Anthony Chisholm), Best Supporting Actor (Sala Udin), Best Up and Coming Youth Actress (Sharnece Thomas), Best Costume Design (Cheryl El-Walker), Best Set Design (Mark Clayton Southers), Best Set Construction, and Best Ensemble, and for James McBride, Best Minority Actor and Actress (Jay Keenan and Theo Allyn).