Theatre and entertainment has become the new steel industry in Pittsburgh. Just check out one of the guides, and you can find absorbing, thought provoking theatre in most corners of the city, on almost any night. This can range from extremely well done community theatre, which has a huge base in the region (Baldwin Players, Little Lake Theater) to huge, cutting edge experimental productions and brand new works (Public Theater, Quantum). Most companies in town however, run more to the middle of the road, producing high quality, entertaining, compelling, theatre that is still gentle on the wallet. (Cup-A-Jo Productions, Three River Theater Company, 12 Peers Theater, and Theatre Sans Serif, etc.)
This proliferation of theatre allows for a wide diversity of tastes, from the macabre (Rage of the Stage Players, Still Breathing Productions) to children’s theatre (International Children’s Festival, Gemini Theater) and everything in between. In addition to everything else, a wide variety of new play festivals take place throughout the year. With all of the new talent coming out of the city’s universities (Point Park and Carnegie Mellon) it is more than conceivable you could see a work by a student who might turn out to be the next Stephen Schwartz (Schwartz is the composer of the hit musicals Wicked, Pippin, and Godspell and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.)
In short, good, affordable theatre is just around the corner in Pittsburgh. It can been seen in free productions, funded solely by donations, all the way to multimillion dollar spectaculars, almost guaranteeing an evening of entertainment for every wallet and taste. (Andrew Huntley)
