Lisa Velten News

Project Y Theatre Company presents 12 playwright commissions as part of TINY BARN, streaming from VT to NYC June 23, 2021 through July 3, 2021.

Ashland New Plays Festival will present a special two-night full production of The Gun Show by award-winning playwright E.M. Lewis at 7:30 pm on June 14 and 15 at the Bellview Grange in Ashland, featuring Andrew William Smith and directed by Lisa Velten Smith. Tickets are $25, available online or at the door, subject to availability. A conversation with the audience about personal experiences with guns will follow the performance.

Henrik Ibsen's characters go HBO mumblecore in this electric reimagining of the classic melodrama.

Pittsburgh Public Theater is honored to welcome back Ted Pappas to direct Lucas Hnath's Broadway hit, A Doll's House, Part, 2. Ted was The Public's leader for 18 years before retiring last fall.

TheaterWorks - Rob Ruggiero, Producing Artistic Director announced today that TheaterWorks will present HAND TO GOD by Robert Askins as the fifth and final show of the 2017-2018 Season. Directed by Tracy Brigden, the Broadway smash hit and Tony Award nominated play begins previews July 20 and runs through August 26, 2018.

Grief can be a very strange thing and people react to traumatic events in very different ways. Some may become reserved and avoid contact with people. Some may turn to their faith for support during trying times. Others, like the young man in TheaterWorks' HAND TO GOD, channel anger, fear and confusion into a demonic and controlling puppet. Yes, you read that right. In Robert Askins' Tony Award nominated play, young Jason and his evil puppet alter ego, Tyrone, wreak havoc on a small Texas church and raunchy, rude, unhinged hilarity ensues.

Rob Ruggiero, Producing Artistic Director announced today that TheaterWorks will present HAND TO GOD by Robert Askins as the fifth and final show of the 2017-2018 Season. Directed by Tracy Brigden, the Broadway smash hit and Tony Award nominated play begins previews July 20 and runs through August 26, 2018.  

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. 

City Theatre is unwrapping something special this holiday season with our favorite New York undie-rock duo The Skivvies in the premiere of Sleigh My Name. Broadway performers Nick Cearley and Lauren Molina return to City Theatre for two nights of mashed-up musical fun with some of Pittsburgh's favorite theatre stars.

City Theatre is unwrapping something special this holiday season with our favorite New York undie-rock duo The Skivvies in the premiere of Sleigh My Name. Broadway performers Nick Cearley and Lauren Molina return to City Theatre for two nights of mashed-up musical fun with some of Pittsburgh's favorite theatre stars.

Peter Shaffer's genre-busting psychodrama gets a bracing production, featuring a revelatory change of pace by Daniel Krell.

Pittsburgh Public Theater begins its 43rd season with Peter Shaffer's sensational drama, Equus. The play is directed by Pittsburgh Public Theater's Producing Artistic Director, Ted Pappas, as part of his Grand Finale Season. Mr. Pappas will leave the company in August, 2018. Equus runs September 28 - October 29, 2017 at the O'Reilly Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater's home in the heart of Downtown's Cultural District. For tickets call 412.316.1600 or visit ppt.org.

With sold-out performances through the planned closing date of October 16, City Theatre is thrilled to announce an extension of the wildly popular Broadway comedy, Hand to God by Robert Askins.Directed by Artistic Director Tracy Brigden, Hand to God features a cast of five local and national performers and nine wayward puppets.

Make no mistake- this isn't 'Sesame Street.' But it's not quite 'Avenue Q' either.

Showcasing demonic puppets, sex with students, and religous overtones works wonderfully in City Theatre's HAND TO GOD

Kicking the 2016-17 season off with a bang, City Theatre presents Hand to God by Robert Askins, September 24 - October 16, 2016 on the Main Stage.

Kicking the 2016-17 season off with a bang, City Theatre presents Hand to God by Robert Askins, September 24 - October 16, 2016 on the Main Stage.

Pittsburgh Public Theater presents the regional premiere of Ayad Akhtar's Disgraced, winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Directed by City Theatre Artistic Director Tracy Brigden, Disgraced runs March 10 - April 10, 2016 at the O'Reilly Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater's home in the heart of Downtown's Cultural District. For tickets call 412.316.1600 or visit ppt.org.

City Theatre continues its 40th anniversary season with the comedy Oblivion, by Carly Mensch, directed by Stuart Carden, on-stage in the Hamburg Studio Theatre tonight, March 21 - April 26, 2015.

City Theatre continues its 40th anniversary season with the comedy Oblivion, by Carly Mensch, directed by Stuart Carden, on-stage in the Hamburg Studio Theatre March 21 - April 26, 2015.