Culture / Theater

A woman — illuminated by a single spotlight and clad in a bathrobe, a towel wrapped around her head and a pale green face mask — stands alone on stage and releases an enraged scream. The opening scene of CorningWorks’ fall 2017 production “six a breast” launched a theater full of Pittsburgh locals into a […]

Nestled deep within Falk Library atop Cardiac Hill sits one of Pitt’s most unknown gems — a small art exhibit comprised of artifacts from past plays performed by Pitt’s medical school. Annually, fourth-year med students perform a pop culture-themed play with a medical twist, called Scope & Scalpel. According to the Scope & Scalpel website, […]

You don’t need to know how to spell “dramaturgy” to see the theatre department’s newest play — but it would probably help. While some of the vocabulary may require a college reading level, the actors in Pitt Stages’ current production ask viewers to think back to a time when even the most infinitesimal problems seemed […]

As the entire cast of Pitt Stages’ “Hair” strips naked under low blue stage lights upstage, a hippie mulling over his Vietnam draft card downstage sings, “Where is the something? Where is the someone that tells me why I live and die?” This is “Hair’s” most iconic scene and is no less iconic, or shocking, […]

The environment of the University of Pittsburgh Stages scene shop is always changing. Some days, a few people quietly paint, listening to music. Other days, they swap headphones for earplugs as their peers cut metal, noise echoing throughout the basement of the Cathedral of Learning. For the past few weeks, the shop has been in […]

Two stories below the Cathedral of Learning’s Commons, the theatre department’s costume shop is filled with busy students.   Storyboards line the unfinished basement walls and sewing machines hum on wooden tables, as designers work to complete finishing touches. It’s one week before the premiere of “Intimate Apparel.” In her final days fitting actors for […]

As Gene Wilder, in his eponymous role as Willy Wonka in 1971’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” leads a group of awestruck youngsters and parents into his chocolate factory for the first time, he sings, “There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination.” Even in death, Wilder never settled for the […]

Near the end of Quincy Jones’ stand-up set at this weekend’s Pittsburgh Comedy Festival, it looked like he might have gone too far — the room quieted as he playfully tried to riff on a hypothetical scenario in which black people enslaved whites. Jones commented on black people’s ability to take over previously white-only activities […]

Black poetry has a well-established home in Pittsburgh. The Kelly Strayhorn Theater hosted four poets on Sunday, June 19, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Cave Canem — Latin for “beware the dog” and pronounced “Kah-veh Kah-nem” — a nonprofit literary organization that highlights and sponsors African American poets. Pitt’s Center for African American Poetry […]

Not all passion projects last 24 hours, but they do for students participating in Pitt’s Redeye Theatre Project. Twenty-nine students participated in the Redeye Theatre Project, a 24-hour theater festival where students work as playwrights, directors or actors. The project kicked off at 8 p.m. Friday with their performances taking the stage in the black […]