City Theatre Premieres SOUTH SIDE STORIES Tonight, 11/10

City Theatre presents the World Premiere of South Side Stories, a vibrant, hometown adventure written and performed by Tami Dixon. Directed by Matt M. Morrow, South Side Stories runs from tonight, November 10 to December 16, 2012 in City Theatre's Hamburg Studio Theatre, with an Opening Night performance on Friday, November 16 at 8pm.

This one-woman show portrays the dynamism of a neighborhood. Embedded in the concrete of South Side's city steps are testimonials of teenage mischief, steel mill toil, and townie haunts. This is a neighborhood where parking chairs and bar stools mark territory, where "paradise" is just one turn off of 26th Street. So we ask, "Are yinz ready for some stories 'bout the 'burgh?"

"I am interested in stories of survival," says actor and playwright Tami Dixon. "For over 100 years the South Side was cast in the shadow of The Jones and Laughlin steel mill. The steel helped to build our country, and the mill defined this region, its people, and the culture. Now, with barely a trace of the mammoth structure left behind, the South Side continues to be home to families that descended from this industrial past. Living in the Slopes, I became curious about the neighborhood's transition. I could feel the mill's history burning beneath my feet. I could see it in the faces of my neighbors. The stories in this play are theirs-vivid, funny, poignant, and true."

Tami Dixon's local acting credits include The Clockmaker, Marriage Minuet, The Missionary Position, and The Muckle Man with City Theatre; The Hothouse, Celebration, and Rock n Roll with Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre; The Task and El Paso Blue with Quantum Theatre; The Chicken Snake with The Rep; Metamorphoses with Pittsburgh Public Theater; Every Tongue Confess with The August Wilson Center Theatre Ensemble; Midnight Radio, STRATA, Dutchman, Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, and Key to the Field with Bricolage Production Company. Ms. Dixon is in her 7th season as Producing Artistic Director for Bricolage Production Company, which she runs alongside her husband, Jeffrey Carpenter. She is a member of The August Wilson Center Theatre Ensemble and a recipient of a TCG/Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship. Tami lives in the South Side Slopes, and South Side Stories marks her playwriting debut.

The creative team for South Side Stories includes Tony Ferrieri (Scenic), Sylvianne Shurman (Costume), Andrew David Ostrowski (Lighting), Nathan Leigh (Sound), David Pohl (Projection), Carlyn Aquiline (Dramaturgy), and Sheila McKenna (Dialect).

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