Marc Masterson News

City Theatre is excited to announce the details of The Bash, a benefit evening for the South Side theatre company, entering its 45th season. The Bash is taking over Bingham Street for a block party like no other. Pop-up performances, signature cocktails, food trucks, and an outdoor dance party will fill its multi-location cultural campus located between 13th and 14th Streets.

The annual Momentum Festival of New Plays at Different Stages will close the 2018-19 City Theatre season with four days of an intergenerational epic, an unconventional comedy, a chilling thriller, and a touching story of hope. Supported by The Fine Foundation, the festival runs May 30 - June 2, 2019, and is free and open to the public, though reservations are required as seating is limited. Reservations may be made at CityTheatreCompany.org or by calling the box office at 412-431-CITY (2489). Event schedule and project descriptions below.

City Theatre is thrilled to announce the details of the fifth show of the season: the world premiere of The Burdens by Matt Schatz. The Burdens is a dark comedy for the digital age. It is directed by City Theatre's returning Artistic Director, Marc Masterson, and will run on the City Theatre Lester Hamburg Stage, April 6 - May 12, 2019. Tickets are on sale now. 

City Theatre Company, Pittsburgh's home for contemporary plays, has announced the details of the theatre's 45th season of new works. This line-up of plays is the first curated by Artistic Director Marc Masterson upon his return to City Theatre in 2018.

City Theatre will welcome Tamara Tunie and Laurie Klatscher to the City Theatre stage this spring to bring the unlikely plans in Jen Silverman's play The Roommate to life. It is directed by City Theatre's Artistic Producer, Reginald L. Douglas, and will run on the City Theatre Main Stage, March 2 - 24, 2019. Tickets are on sale now.

City Theatre is excited to welcome the musical theater writing team of Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond back to Pittsburgh for A Holiday Homecoming. The pair met while studying at Carnegie Mellon and the cabaret marks their City Theatre debut. Fresh off the success of their work on the Disney Channel's VAMPIRINA, the duo will host a two night only event on the theater's main stage showcasing music from their award winning works including Dani Girl and Romantics Anonymous with a few holiday favorites sprinkled in. Music directed by Nick Stamatakis, A Holiday Homecoming will run on the City Theatre Main Stage, November 30 and December 1. Tickets are on sale now. 

City Theatre is excited to kick off to the 2018/19 Momentum Reading Series with Isaac Gomez's PerKup Elkhorn. Set in the small Wisconsin town of Elkhorn in the aptly named PerKup Coffee shop, owner Lori and her pal Vicki are testing out the market for cold brew and debating swinging by the local RibFest with Vicki's' husband Jeff and their recently returned childhood friend, Eric. Something shifts when newcomer Pedro visits the shop to use the Wi-Fi and touch base with his job in Chicago. The ensuing encounter will forever alter these five interwoven lives in this searing portrait of present day America.

City Theatre launches its new season with an all female cast and creative team for the Pittsburgh premiere of America's most produced playwright from 2017, Lauren Gunderson, and her hysterical and historical comedy, The Revolutionists. While set during France's Reign of Terror (1793-94), it is a timely treatise for the United States today as it celebrates four badass women out to change the world. 

National New Play Network (NNPN), the country's alliance of professional theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays, has added three new Core Members: Silk Road Rising (Chicago), Company One (Boston), and City Theatre Company (Pittsburgh). As of the date of this release, NNPN has 114 Members Theaters, comprised of 32 Cores and 82 Associates.

City Theatre launches its new season with an all female cast and creative team for the Pittsburgh premiere of America's most produced playwright from 2017, Lauren Gunderson, and her hysterical and historical comedy, The Revolutionists. While set during France's Reign of Terror (1793-94), it is a timely treatise for the United States today as it celebrates four badass women out to change the world. 

CRY IT OUT: A laugh-till-you-cry comedy for anyone who's ever known a baby. Jessie can't find any Mom Friends in her new Long Island neighborhood until she and larger-than-life Lina start sneaking out for coffee between their duplexes during nap times. When a wealthy neighbor comes down from the hill overlooking their hangout, the sleep-deprived comedy of new parenthood shows a different side of itself. CRY IT OUT is an honestly absurd look at the dilemma of returning to work after childbirth and how class impacts parenthood and friendship.

Dorset Theatre Festival, under the leadership of Artistic Director Dina Janis, Producing Director Will Rucker, and Executive Director Marissa Hutton, is proud to announce the full lineup and casting for their inaugural Pipeline Series-four one-night-only presentations. All presentations will take place at the Dorset Playhouse (104 Cheney Rd, Dorset, VT 05251).

Dorset Theatre Festival, under the leadership of Artistic Director Dina Janis, Producing Director Will Rucker, and Executive Director Marissa Hutton, opens the 41st Season with CRY IT OUT, by Molly Smith Metzler, directed by Marc Masterson.

Dorset Theatre Festival, under the leadership of Artistic Director Dina Janis, Producing Director Will Rucker, andExecutive Director Marissa Hutton, is proud to announce casting for the 41st season. All performances will take place at the Dorset Playhouse (104 Cheney Rd, Dorset, VT 05251).

Under the leadership of Board President Beth Newbold and Managing Director James McNeel, the City Theatre Board of Directors has concluded an extensive national search, naming Marc Masterson the new Artistic Director of the region's largest theater dedicated solely to new plays. Masterson brings decades of experience and an award-winning national presence as a champion of new works, having served as the artistic director of South Coast Repertory Theatre (2011-2018) and Actors Theatre of Louisville, home of the internationally acclaimed Humana Festival of New American Plays (2000-2011), two of the most distinguished arts institutions in the nation. He was City Theatre's producing artistic director from 1981-2000.

Dorset Theatre Festival, under the leadership of Artistic Director Dina Janis, Producing Director Will Rucker, and Executive Director Marissa Hutton, announced today that the 41st Season will begin with CRY IT OUT, by Molly Smith Metzler, directed by Marc Masterson. CRY IT OUT will begin performances June 21, 2018 at the Dorset Playhouse (104 Cheney Rd, Dorset, VT 05251), and will run through July 14, 2018. CRY IT OUT will occupy the slot for the previously announced production of Herb Gardner's I'm Not Rappaport starring Judd Hirsch, which has been postponed to Summer 2019 to allow Mr. Hirsch to recuperate from back surgery.

City Theatre is thrilled to announce the details of the final production of the 2017-18 season: Nomad Motel by Carla Ching. Originally commissioned as part of South Coast Repertory Theatre's CrossRoads initiative (Marc Masterson, Artistic Director) the play explores a family consumed by California's crippling housing crisis and the life of a "parachute kid," sent to live alone in America while his father remains in Hong Kong. It is directed by LA-based artist Bart DeLorenzo, and will run on the City Theatre Main Stage, May 12-June 3, 2018. Tickets are on sale now. 

Witty, enchanting, and joyously self-referential, the original film version of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE fantasizes a story involving a young, virile William Shakespeare in his prime, who quells a bout of writer's block by secretly romancing an engaged lady named Viola---which apparently becomes the inspiration for the Bard's infamous star-crossed tragedy 'Romeo and Juliet.' The plot of the film remains fairly intact in Lee Hall's mostly delightful if slightly diluted stage adaptation, now continuing performances in a gorgeous-looking new regional production at Orange County's Tony Award-winning theater South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through February 10, 2018. This spunky love letter to the theater is chockfull of stagecraft-insider amusements and fun-to-find Shakespearean Easter Eggs that both aficionados and casual fans will appreciate. But, shockingly, despite the spectacular production values and the beguiling, gusto-bathed performances of its large ensemble cast, this stage adaptation somehow loses some of the inescapable romanticism that is so much more prevalent in the original film.

Romance, mistaken identities, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics served up with a generous dash of comedy are at the heart of Shakespeare in Love, adapted by Lee Hall from the Oscar-winning film written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, with music by Paddy Cunneen. South Coast Repertory Artistic Director Marc Masterson directs the production on the Segerstrom Stage, Jan. 13-Feb. 10. Tickets are now on sale: www.scr.org.

Here is the performance schedule for South Coast Repertory for the four-month period of January-April 2018.