City Theatre (Pittsburgh)

City Theatre
Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark
Location:	1300 Bingham Street in the South Side Flats neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Coordinates:	40°25′45″N 79°59′06″W / 40.429267°N 79.985125°W / 40.429267; -79.985125Coordinates: 40°25′45″N 79°59′06″W / 40.429267°N 79.985125°W / 40.429267; -79.985125
Built/Founded:	1859
PHLF designated:	2000[1]

City Theatre is a professional theatre company located in Pittsburgh's South Side. It specializes in productions of new plays and has commissioned new works by playwrights on the national theatre scene, including Christopher Durang, Adam Rapp, and Jeffrey Hatcher. Established in 1975 as the City Players under the direction of Marjorie Walker, it was originally composed mainly of Carnegie Mellon graduates and was part of Pittsburgh's Department of Parks and Recreation, performing at schools, parks, and housing projects. Initially the group shared their performance space in the North Side's Allegheny Center with Pittsburgh Public Theater. In 1979, the group was offered a residency at the University of Pittsburgh and renamed itself City Theatre. In 1981, under the artistic direction of Marc Masterson, the company moved to a new performance space on Bouquet Street in Oakland. The company again moved to a new performance space at the former Bingham United Methodist Church in the South Side in 1991, where in addition to its own season it acted as a host space for the earliest productions of the Pittsburgh New Works Festival.^[2] Marc Masterson became artistic director of Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky, and Tracy Brigden became artistic director in 2001^[3].

In addition to its mainstage season, City Theatre offers educational outreach programs such as the Young Playwrights Festival, in which selected submitted plays by students in middle school and high school are given professional productions, and City Theatre Playmakers, which provides opportunities for Pittsburgh youth to write radio dramas that are fully produced and broadcasted.^[4][5]

See also

Theatre in Pittsburgh

References

1. ^ Historic Landmark Plaques 1968-2009. Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. 2010. http://www.phlf.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/Historic-Plaques-2010b.pdf. Retrieved 2011-07-30. 
2. ^ http://www.post-gazette.com/magazine/19990910newworks5.asp
3. ^ http://www.citytheatrecompany.org/about/history.html
4. ^ http://www.citytheatrecompany.org/education/yp/
5. ^ http://www.citytheatrecompany.org/education/playmakers.html