Show puts Steelers’ founder in the spotlight

What do the Steelers, boxing, gambling, religion and family all have in common? They all made… What do the Steelers, boxing, gambling, religion and family all have in common? They all made up the life of one of the most influential people in Pittsburgh history: NFL Hall of Famer and Steelers founder Arthur J. Rooney. His life will be acted out by Tom Atkins in the Pittsburgh Public Theater’s sixth reprisal of the one-man-show ‘The Chief.’ ‘The Chief’ is the most successful play in the 34-year history of the PPT. Not only does it depict Rooney’s founding of the Steelers, but it also provides some history about the city and its people. ‘If you are new to Pittsburgh, or you just moved here, there is nothing like ‘The Chief’ to give you a crash course in all that’s really fun about the city,’ said producing artistic director Ted Pappas. And you don’t need to be a Steelers fan to enjoy the show, according to Pappas. ‘I didn’t know very much about the Steelers when I first started working on the play,’ said Pappas. Still, Steelers fans will certainly enjoy reminiscing their team’s beginnings. In fact, some of Rooney’s original furniture adorns the stage. Pappas is from Manhattan, where he worked on Broadway and other projects before coming to Pittsburgh. One of those other projects was working as a choreographer for Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s for comedians such as Eddie Murphy and Julia Louis Dreyfus. ‘It was really one of the most thrilling times of my career,’ he said. ‘Every Saturday night I get a little nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach like we’re about to go on live.’ Pappas said he always enjoys working on one-actor plays because of the unique challenges and advantages that it presents. ‘[One-actor plays] are a really unique and very friendly way of telling a story because you speak directly to the audience,’ he said. ‘It’s different because you establish a relationship between the actor and the audience, rather than between actors.’ ‘The Chief,’ which was written by Rob Zellers and Gene Collier, debuted in 2003 and will soon be published in book form by the University of Pittsburgh Press. According to Pappas, the PPT will produce many more exciting plays later this year, several of which he will be directing. They include a one-woman show, ‘The Lady With All The Answers,’ about the life of columnist Ann Landers, and ‘Metamorphoses,’ which will be set entirely in water. A pool will be built on the stage of the O’Reilly Theater, which will be city’s first ever play in the water. Students have a unique opportunity to purchase tickets to any or all of these shows for $15.50. Pappas calls this the ‘best deal in the country’ for students. ‘We love our student audiences here.’