Pittsburgh Public Theater Reveals 50th Anniversary Titles and Programs For 2024/2025 Season

Pittsburgh Public Theater has announced its lineup of mainstage productions and vital off-stage programming for its 50th anniversary season.

The 2024/2025 season at Pittsburgh Public Theater includes six headline titles and offers something for everyone - a murder mystery, a musical Shakespeare, an American classic, a family favorite holiday story, and a legendary fantasy all come to life on the O'Reilly Theater stage.

The Public also announced numerous initiatives to further its mission of being a true public theater for the Pittsburgh region, including speaker series about sustainability in nonprofit arts, a digital season on Streamland to bring its work around the world, and cornerstone partnerships with organizations and universities to forge sustainable and impactful programming - including on its mainstage.

The 2024/2025 50th Anniversary Season at Pittsburgh Public Theater

DIAL M FOR MURDER Sept. 11-29, 2024

THE HOBBIT Oct. 23-Nov. 10, 2024

A CHRISTMAS STORY: THE PLAY Dec. 4-22, 2024

TROUBLE IN MIND Feb. 5-23, 2025, 2024

*TITLE TO BE ANNOUNCED APRIL 8* March 19-April 6, 2025

PUBLIC WORKS' TWELFTH NIGHT June 27-29, 2025

The Public's 50th season ends as did its inaugural - with a presentation of William Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT. But this year's production of the Bard's classic, the third in The Public's history, is the Pittsburgh premiere of an internationally recognized transformative theater initiative called Public Works, founded in 2013 by New York City's Public Theater.

"As we celebrate The Public this year, we also celebrate Pittsburgh's legacy of holding art at the center of its identity," Pittsburgh Public Theater Artistic Director Marya Sea Kaminski said. "Public Works will, in turn, hold the city at the center of our theater by inviting a cast of 100 Pittsburghers onto the O'Reilly Theater stage alongside beloved professional performers in an extraordinary celebration of our region."

Public Works is a proven program that engages community partners across the region to develop new models of participatory theater and to create the cast for an exhilarating pageant production of a musical version of a Shakespeare classic. The New York Times described the Public Works model as "the real theater of our time," and a reminder of the "healing the theater has offered for centuries," and some community performers have gone on to make careers out of newfound passions on stage by joining professional actors' associations and unions.

Pittsburgh Public Theater with PUBLIC WORKS' TWELFTH NIGHT, made possible with the generous support of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, joins a growing list of Public Works National Affiliates, including the Dallas Theater Center, London's National Theatre, the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in Taiwan, and Seattle Repertory Theatre, where Kaminski launched Public Works in 2016 as artistic director.

"Public Works will be a truly breathtaking moment to launch our next 50 years with imagination, true collaboration, and utter joy," Kaminski said.

The Public's stage at the O'Reilly Theater will be full all year, launching its 2024/2025 season in September with DIAL M FOR MURDER, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the original by Frederick Knott (which also had a silver screen debut from director Alfred Hitchcock in 1954). The murder mystery precedes THE HOBBIT, an epic all-ages adventure across Middle Earth that arrives in October, supported by the M. Patrick Daniels Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation.

A CHRISTMAS STORY: THE PLAY returns by popular demand for another holiday engagement, featuring a slew of new young actors in breakout roles under acclaimed director Michael Berresse.

Pittsburgh Public Theater will usher in the quarter century in February 2025 with the American classic TROUBLE IN MIND, from Alice Childress, with the long-awaited Pittsburgh premiere of this play that earned numerous 2022 Tony Award nominations while on Broadway.

Before bringing the city on stage with PUBLIC WORKS' TWELFTH NIGHT, The Public will feature one more regional premiere, a special title to be announced at its fundraising gala ALCHEMY: An Immersive Gala Experience on April 8.

"These titles bring the best of the American theater right here to Pittsburgh, just as The Public has for the last 50 years," Pittsburgh Public Theater Literary Director Brian Pope said.

Off stage, Pittsburgh Public Theater is proud to welcome an exciting lineup of programming to recognize its 50th anniversary and reinvest for the sustainability of its next half century. Programs in The Public's 50th Anniversary season include the Making Art Work speaker series about the business of nonprofit arts sustainability, Public Artists Centerstage evenings with legendary Pittsburgh artists, a dynamic reinvigoration of its resident artist program, and its continued partnership with the Pittsburgh Film Office in its workforce development initiative Create PA.

"This monumental anniversary season at The Public is brimming with what makes Pittsburgh so special," Board Chair Angela Blanton, CFO of Carnegie Mellon University, said. "And we're seeing this vision of being a true public theater come to life on and off stage alike."

Subscriptions to Pittsburgh Public Theater's 50th Anniversary season are available now at PPT.org/Subscribe.

DIAL M FOR MURDER

*Pittsburgh premiere

Sept. 11-29, 2024

Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher

From the original by Frederick Knott

SUSPENSE, SCANDAL, AND SCAMS LIKELY

Before Rear Window and Psycho, master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock brought Dial M for Murder to the silver screen and altered the landscape of the thriller genre. On a dark and rainy night, Tony's jealousy over his wife Margot's illicit affair takes a sinister turn. As Tony, Margot, her lover, and a figure from his past weave an intricate web of deception, the tension rises, and the consequences of suspicion and desire become deadly. The call is coming from inside the O'Reilly in this new version of the classic murder mystery, where secrets, lies, and the thirst for revenge collide.

THE HOBBIT

*Pittsburgh premiere

Oct. 23-Nov. 10, 2024

By Greg Banks

Directed by Marya Sea Kaminski

Presented by the M. Patrick Daniels Fund of the Pittsburgh Foundation

THE FABLED FANTASY BECOMES REALITY

In this all-ages adventure, J.R.R. Tolkien's magical Middle Earth transitions from page to stage in spellbinding fashion. An unexpected journey awaits homebody hobbit Bilbo Baggins, wise wizard Gandalf, daring dwarf Thorin, and anyone brave enough to join them. Along the way, they overcome obstacles ranging from monstrous goblins to the fearsome dragon Smaug and form a bond for the ages. This epic trek, reimagined through the whimsical lens of playwright Greg Banks (Public Unplugged's Robin Hood), is a treasure hunt sure to make families want to go there and back again.

A CHRISTMAS STORY: THE PLAY

Dec. 4-22, 2024

By Philip Grecian

Directed by Michael Berresse

WE TRIPLE-DOG-DARE YOU TO GET INTO THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT!
Be a holiday hero and bring your brood downtown this season to bask in the warm glow of holiday lights and experience the joy of a tale that is anything but your average Christmas "story." Don't like the movie? Don't worry - you'll love this play! From the halls of the Parker family home to the merry madness of Higbee's department store, this A++++++ production boasts the added charm of an all-star cast ready to show you sides of these iconic characters you've never experienced. This new holiday tradition is sure to be a gift that keeps on giving all season long.

TROUBLE IN MIND

*Pittsburgh premiere

Feb. 5-23, 2025

By Alice Childress

A TIMELY AND TIMELESS BACKSTAGE DRAMA

The year is 1955 and a promising new play is headed for Broadway. The most accomplished member of the cast, Wiletta Mayer, has entertained audiences for decades, bringing both wisdom and insight as the preeminent Black actress of her time. However, nothing could prepare her for the Culture Clash that erupts between the director and her fellow cast members in rehearsals for this new, "progressive" play. As the curtain rises, witness them grapple with the fraught dynamics of power, race, and ego, onstage and off. Visionary playwright Alice Childress was far ahead of her time when Trouble in Mind first debuted in 1955.

*Title to be announced April 8

March 19-April 6, 2025

PUBLIC WORKS' TWELFTH NIGHT

*Pittsburgh premiere

June 27-29, 2025

Conceived by Kwame Kwei-Armah

Music and Lyrics by Shaina Taub

Directed by Marya Sea Kaminski

SHAKESPEARE SINGS AND LOVE WINS

If musicals be the food of love, let this eclectic adaptation of Shakespeare's most cherished comedy play on! When noblewoman Viola finds herself shipwrecked, she decides to disguise herself as the male page Cesario to blend in. Her decision triggers literature's most hilarious love triangle and inspires the people of Illyria to see life through the eyes of another. This production not only enchants with its catchy pop score but also introduces Pittsburgh to the transformative Public Works program. Through community collaboration, this theatrical marvel becomes a celebration that is truly for, by, and of the people. Revel in the magic of love, laughter, and fellowship in this unmissable spectacle.

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