Category Archives: Theater

Monster Ink

[note] Please welcome two new authors to IheartPGH – Wendy and Lance will be writing about theater in Pittsburgh.  And I apologize for taking so long to get this posted – but you still have a few more days to catch The Monster in the Hall at the City Theater.[/note]

So, you may ask yourself, what are those two doing writing theater reviews? Well, long story short, we wanted to celebrate the Pittsburgh theater community that has fostered us lo these many years, and the editor of this fine blog supported the concept. (Thanks Lindsay, you’re the goods.)

First assignment: City Theater’s The Monster in the Hall, by David Greig.

Returning to City Theatre, for us, is a lot like visiting with your edgy, provocative, collage paramour some twenty years later. We were both heavily involved in the productions back in the mid-1980s when the company was producing out of a converted bar in Oakland and the staff looked like members of The Doobie Brothers (before the Michael McDonald era, thank you very much).

But back to the show…

City Theater’s production is like a finely tuned Superbike barreling around the track. The play is a one act, day in the life of 16 year old Duck (Ducati Macatarsney), a motherless, myopic, daydreamer who is trying to prepare her home and her biker dad for a visit from social services. She is trying to hide that her dad is not well and that she has become his care giver instead of the other way around. This sounds like the makings of an angst-driven tragedy but Greig creates his tale as a frenetic, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World-like, play-with-music, comedy.

The cast of four play a humungous number of roles. Melinda Helfrich as Duck, and David Whalen as Duke, her dad, mostly get to stay in singular roles allowing Matt Dengler and Sheila McKenna to deftly ricochet between innumerable characters. However, Greig’s multi-style narrative allows Helfrich to show her chops in an exposition-turned-quiz show scene, and Whalen, as Duke’s avatar in an online role-playing game. But it’s McKenna’s quick transformations as both Agnetha and Mrs. Underhill that take the show into the comic ionosphere.

This is more, however, than just a play – – it is a piece of theatrical candy, with projections, movement, rock-show lighting, and sound design, all of which reinforce the frantic storytelling. Director (and the company’s Artistic Director) Tracy Brigden never release the accelerator on this bike, and her designers don’t let her down. Narelle Sissons’ “cyclorama of doors” set allows Larry Shea’s projections to support the tale without intruding. Eric Shimelonis’ sound design is seamless, but his original music sometime has the feel of a Wiggle’s concert. (Not that we’re ever been… Really). Andrew David Ostrowski’s lighting design was workin’ overtime – – lights were literally hanging all over the place: they were packed into the on-stage overhead truss, there were cute little 3½” instruments perched on the edge of the stage as footlights, and still more were hangin’ from the rafters behind the audience. (Nice gobo special on Duc as bookends at the beginning and end of the play, by the way). Angela M. Vesco wisely keeps the costumes simple, allowing just a coat or sweater to indicate a character change. (Gotta love those boots, on Duc, though!)

The pit crew for this piece has to be consummate to keep this hog running. We are both sure that with all the elements and moving parts in this production, Stage Manager Patti Kelly’s cue calling in the booth must be a grand show in itself.

Ultimately, our Superbike on a race course simile is realized. We both truly enjoyed the fun as the machine sped around but finally it ended were is started. The production is an entertainment that lacks the stuff to make the mind engage or allow the audience to ponder after exiting the building.

Which brings both of us back to that college reunion. That former paramour is now older, more respectable, and less edgy and provocative. Maybe that is how it should be. Ah, but it doesn’t stop us from pining for the fjords.

The Monster in the Hall, by David Greig
City Theater Mainstage

Running currently through April 1, 2012

  • Tuesday 7:00 PM
  • Wednesday Mar 21, 2012 1:00 & 7:00PM
  • Wednesday Mar 28, 2012 1:00 PM
  • Thursday & Friday 8:00 PM
  • Saturdays, 5:30 & 9:00 PM
  • Sundays, 2:00 PM

1300 Bingham Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15203

412 431 CITY

citytheatrecompany.org

Just In Time for Halloween – 2 Costume Department Sales

costume details 003

via Cherie Priest /Flickr

Thanks to the IheartPGH reader for the heads up on not one, but 2 theater costume department sales! Perfect timing with Halloween just a few weeks away – you can score a creative costume and support local theater.

Pittsburgh Public Theater Costume Sale

  • Monday, October 17, 2011
  • 9am-6pm
  • lobby of the O’Reilly Theater
  • $2-$20

CMU School of Drama Costume Sale

  • Monday, October 17 and Tuesday, October 18, 2011
  • 3-6pm
  • Purnell Lobby
  • All proceeds will help support the Drama Senior Showcase in New York and Los Angeles
  • Rumor has it that most items are $5

The Cirque has come to town!

Cirque du Soliel

Image by pdbreen via Flickr

(Note from Lindsay – Thanks to Lauren for checking out Cique du Soleil and providing this write up – it is my fault it didn’t get posted sooner.  The tickets for this performance were provided to IheartPGH from Cique du Soleil)

With the ongoing uncertainty of the late spring weather, theater and art aficionados, families, and the average Jane can all appreciate the mesmerizing journey of Cirque du Soleil’s latest visionary and visually stimulating show, Totem, underneath circus-like tents erected along the river in The Strip District.  Totem takes its audience along for the journey and evolution of humankind, with one scene evoking the famous illustration of the evolutionary chain on Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, with an ape at the beginning and an upright walking man at the end.

Beginning with a scene featuring an immense turtle shell, symbolic of the origins of civilizations, Cirque performers emerge and literally evolve throughout the two hour show.  With acrobatics and visuals ranging from amphibians to hunter-gatherers to scientists and spacemen, Cirque du Soleil Totem is a thought-provoking look at the physical and intellectual progress of our species and our interconnection to all other beings, begging the question:  Are we really so evolved afterall?  In a scene featuring a science lab, a chimpanzee sits, staring and playing with a giant beaker full of light, no closer to understanding its source than are the men in the next scene in their exploration of the infinite nature of outerspace.

Meaningful interpretation aside, Cirque du Soleil Totem features a bafflingly talented (and flexible!) cast of performers who flawlessly, and seemingly effortlessly, complete their acts.  The stunning colors, moving set, and live band hidden in the grass pull Totem together for an all around breathtaking show that young children or the elderly alike will undoubtedly enjoy.  This is a show not to be missed, Pittsburgh!

Cirque du Soleil Totem runs through June 5th at 20th Street and A.V.V.R. in The Strip District. Tickets are available here.  Living Pittsburgh has a coupon code for 30% tickets here.

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Killer Joe Grushecky

killer-joe-photoThis seems to be the summer of unique Pittsburgh collaborations.  Barebones Productions is a Pittsburgh theater company that has been performing since 2003.  Barebones is back this summer and has partnered with another Pittsburgh performer – Joe Grushecky – for the production Killer Joe.

Killer Joe is a play by playwrite Tracey Letts about a family that hires a hitman to kill the matriarch for insurance money.

Joe Grushecky will be preforming live each night as part of the production.  Saturday nights production will be followed by a closing party with a performance by Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers.

Joe Grushecky is a musician from Pittsburgh who has been performing here, around the country and overseas for 30 years.  Joe Grushecky often collaborates and performs with Bruce Springsteen.  Check out this 2005 CNN article about Grushecky titled – Rock’s Best Kept Secret. Continue reading

Solids or Stripes – Quantum Theater's Q Ball

Therese Raquin in an abandoned swimming pool
Image by newneonunion via Flickr

If you are looking for something fancy to do this Saturday night you might want to check out the Q Ball.  This is the gala fundraiser for Quantum Theater.

Quantum Theater has been staging performances in Pittsburgh since 1990 and brings theater to unusual Pittsurgh places.  Quantum has staged over 50 productions in Pittsburgh – each in a unique location.

From PopCity Media:

Situation theater: For two decades and counting, homegrown theater company Quantum has been presenting compelling site-specific productions within some of the city’s most distinct settings—from Allegheny Cemetery and Heppenstahl Steel Mill, to the Garden Theater and Frick Art & Historical Center. The ever fearless company has even produced plays inside a pool housed within Braddock’s Carnegie Library.

qball2They have also planned some impressive parties – you can help support Quantum at their 2010 event the Q Ball.

Quantum Theater’s Q Ball

Saturday, April 10, 2010
Clear Story Studio, 1931 Sidney Street
7:30pm-Midnight

What to wear? Solids or stripes. Something swank for a modern shark, or classic pool hall apparel.

$85 at the door

For more information call 412.697.2929 To buy tickets visit ProArtsTickets.org

Click here for the Q Ball Facebook Event.