Pitt Arts’ night with the Public

‘ ‘ ‘ Pitt students with an eye for the theater will get a second chance to see Pittsburgh… ‘ ‘ ‘ Pitt students with an eye for the theater will get a second chance to see Pittsburgh Public Theater’s popular production of ‘Metamorphoses.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ The play, an adaptation of tales of Roman gods written by Ovid in 8 A.D., has been a fast ticket seller since opening at the O’Reilly Theater Downtown just two weeks ago. ‘ ‘ ‘ Pitt Arts, which offers discounted student and faculty tickets to many of the city’s best and brightest theater productions, is offering a chance to meet Public Theater’s producing artistic director, Ted Pappas, through its Pitt Night tonight. ‘ ‘ ‘ And though this behind-the-scenes look at ‘Metamorphoses’ is selling fast ‘mdash; Pitt Arts has sold more than 100 tickets so far ‘mdash; these discounted, reception-included tickets will remain on sale until this morning. ‘Meeting with the production team makes the whole experience more valuable,’ said Annabelle Clippinger, Pitt Arts director. ‘It helps students understand what goes into a production like this, how they had to bring in all this water and move all the props to accommodate such an unusual production. Students can find out what’s at stake.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ And that, it turns out, is a lot ‘mdash; each scene takes place around a swimming pool of water built into the O’Reilly Theater. The ‘Metamorphoses’ show recites numerous tales from the poem by the same name. The adapted play revolves around myths selected because of their focus on the idea of change and transformation. The depictions of the myths demonstrate not only the timelessness of classics, but the fact that there are indeed universal themes throughout time ‘mdash; such as love, greed and human fragility. ‘ ‘ ‘ Students going through Pitt Arts (which provides transportation ‘mdash; find out more details in Pitt Arts’ office), will get to see it all up close with the Pitt Night reception. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘[Meeting the crew] helps students understand. It’s interesting and fun to know, to get that back story we don’t normally get sitting in the seats dispelling our disbelief,’ said Clippinger.