David Whalen News

Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre has assembled a team of more than 100 world-class artists, including popular Pittsburgh actors Helena Ruoti and Martin Giles, and New Yorkers Sam Tsoutsouvas and Sam Redford. Former Pittsburgh residents returning to work with PICT this season include designer Pei-Chi Su, actors Doug Rees, Kate Young, Alex Cole, Jarid Faubel, and Meghan Heimbecker, and director Jeffrey M. Cordell.

Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre celebrates thirteen years of theatrical excellence next year with six mainstage productions and the return of the popular Storytellers Series. The 2009 season runs May-September with a special family friendly December production in time for the holidays. The organization has snagged the rights to produce one of the very first regional productions of Tom Stoppard's recent Broadway sensation Rock'n'Roll, and will present the play as the opener of the 2009 season, 'New and Ideal.' The season continues with the naughty-yet-sophisticated wit of Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw, the moral uncertainty of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, the unbridled enthusiasm of Alan Bennett's students in The History Boys, and two classics of modern literature, Crime and Punishment and Jane Eyre, in phenomenal new adaptations for the stage. The Storytellers Series returns with Prague Spring: Three comedies about life under Communism by Vaclav Havel.

Twenty-one St. Louis theater companies are represented in the nominations for the fourth annual Kevin Kline Awards. Forty-two plays and musicals produced in the St. Louis area during 2008 now share 113 nominations in 22 different categories for the coveted award. The nominations were announced on KWMU-FM's 'Cityscape' today, January 16th, 2009. The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis received the most nominations, 32, divided among seven different productions that were presented on its mainstage, and in both the Studio and Off-Ramp series. The Muny was the second-highest recipient, with 15 nominations. Stages St. Louis was the third theater to receive double-digit nominations, with 13. The satirical comedy The Little Dog Laughed, which was produced by the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis as part of its Off-Ramp series, received the most nominations (8), followed by seven nominations for My Fair Lady at the Muny. Eighty-two actors, directors, choreographers, playwrights and designers received nominations. Six artists received multiple nominations.