Local Stars Take The Stage In DOWNSTAIRS At City Theatre

Local stars take the stage as City Theatre continues its 45th season with Downstairs by Theresa Rebeck. This ominous, darkly intriguing new play - from Broadway's most produced female playwright - confronts family secrets, regrets, and the threat of madness in the search for the good life.

"I have directed or produced five plays by Theresa Rebeck, including four world premieres," said Artistic Director Marc Masterson. "One was a Pulitzer finalist, two transferred to New York and one was made into a feature film. She is smart and prolific and fierce and an acknowledged leader in our field. I believe in her artistry and welcome her back to City Theatre."

Downstairs is directed by Artistic Director Marc Masterson, his first show on the mainstage since his return last season and will run on the City Theatre Main Stage, January 11 - February 2, 2020. Tickets are on sale now.

The Sunday, January 26th post-show discussion features panelists Marc Masterson and lllah Nourbakhsh, the K&L Gates Professor of Ethics and Computational Technologies at Carnegie Mellon University.

"At the heart of Downstairs is an old, broken-down computer that may hold important clues to the mysteries pervading this family drama," said Maureen J. Rolla (Manager of Public Programs, Ethics & AI at CMU). "The ability to pretend and try on other identities has long been considered a normal part of social development. Now, however, evolving technologies allow people to assume aliases and even create entirely new virtual personas and relationships, seemingly without consequences. Yet consequences have become permanent and entrenched in reality, because nothing in the digital age actually disappears, ever."

This panel discussion is presented in partnership with CMU's Ethics & AI public programming initiative.

City is continuing Pick-Your-Price-Previews for the 2019-2020 Season, in an effort to better serve the community and to reduce economic barriers to entry, tickets start at just $5 (plus fees) to all performances January 11 - 16. See details at CityTheatreCompany.org. This offer may not be combined with discounts.

Downstairs is directed by Marc Masterson. The cast includes Martin Giles, Helena Ruoti, and John Shepard. The production team includes Tony Ferrieri (scenic design), Brian Lilienthal (lighting design), Ange Vesco (costume design), Steve Shapiro (sound design), and Taylor Meszaros is Production Stage Manager. The almost entirely local creative team represents over 200 years of Pittsburgh stage practice.