Pittsburgh Public Theater

 

Producing Artistic Director Ted Pappas will make Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 38^th season an epic celebration of our cultural and political heritage. The 2012/2013 line-up will feature a six-play Subscription Series plus one Special Event, all by American writers and composers and set in cities across the USA. MADE IN AMERICA will exalt in the complexity and joy of the American Dream – past, present, and future. Let the fireworks begin! New this season is a 7 pm starting time for all Tuesday shows. Six-play subscription packages range from $135 to $321 and are available by calling the Box Office at 412.316.1600 or SUBSCRIBE ONLINE.  Pittsburgh Public Theater’s home is the O’Reilly Theater at 621 Penn Avenue, in the heart of Downtown’s Cultural District.

 

 

This hilarious classic comedy tells the tale of Billie Dawn’s transformation from ditzy showgirl to solid citizen. The makeover begins when her crooked boyfriend, Harry Brock, goes to Washington to buy himself a Senator and decides that Billie is too dumb to mingle with the political smart set. He hires a nerdy journalist to teach her how to fit in, and what transpires is the stuff of Broadway and Hollywood legend. Born Yesterday is one of the American theater’s absolute Essentials.

 

The distance between Boston’s Chestnut Hill and the Lower End is measured in more than miles. Mike and Margaret both grew up poor, but he made it out and became a doctor while she is stuck – a single mother who gets by on sarcasm and bingo games with her pals. When they meet again, an invitation leads Margaret to his luxurious home and into a turbulent conversation with Mike and his surprising wife. This tough and tender play looks at luck, choices, blame, pride, and what people will do to survive. 

 

 

The founding of our nation comes to star-spangled life in this grand Tony Award-winning Best Musical. In 1776 you’ll see the heroes of the American revolution like you’ve never seen them before – in rousing songs and dances, comic encounters, and impassioned politics. The stakes have never been higher as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin wrangle to get everyone on the same page – namely, the Declaration of Independence. Directed by Ted Pappas, theatrical fireworks will fill the O’Reilly Theater in this thrilling story of how we went from 13 colonies, to the United States of America.

 

 

In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became our first African-American Supreme Court Justice. In this exuberant one-man play we hear Thurgood’s story in his own words – from humble beginnings as a waiter in Baltimore, to behind the scenes with leaders such as General MacArthur, Robert Kennedy and President Lyndon Johnson, to his triumphant rise to the highest court in the land. A journey of epic proportions, Thurgood is an eye-opening, humorous, and uplifting portrait of a true American hero.

 

 

With brilliant wit this winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama inspects one house in two separate years: 1959 and 2009. In Act One, the mid-20^th century problem centers on a black family moving into Chicago’s white Clybourne Park. In Act Two, it’s 50 years later and the issue is white gentrification in the now black neighborhood. Norris has conceived a perceptive and sharply funny play about the minefield of personalities that must be negotiated before a community can be created.

 

 

 

Lyman Wyeth is an actor-politician in the Ronald Reagan mold. His impeccable wife Polly never has a strand of hair out of place. Now retired, their life in a wealthy Palm Springs enclave is upset when relatives arrive for the holidays. Son Trip is a TV reality show producer; Polly's sister Silda is a wisecracking liberal just out of rehab; most troubling is daughter Brooke, who announces that she is about to publish a revealing memoir. This new Broadway sensation is an entertaining look at u

 

 

 

 

 

Back for a special 10^th anniversary celebration, this made-in-Pittsburgh play about Arthur J. Rooney, Sr. is the best-selling and most beloved production in Public Theater history. Starring Tom Atkins, The Chief offers stories about the founding of a legendary football dynasty, and a great American city.