Pittsburgh’s City Theatre, based on the South Side, prides itself on introducing cutting-edge new works. In keeping with that tradition, the company announced a 2020-21 season filled with bold new plays.
The season opens Sept. 19 with “Frankenstein” by Emmy Award-winning performance collective Manuel Cinema, described as “a new take on a classic gothic tale.” This production combines Mary Shelley’s biography with her story of Dr. Frankenstein’s creature. The staging of “Frankenstein” includes cinematic techniques and a live orchestra.
In November, “Paradise Blue” by Dominique Morisseau returns to City Theatre. It’s the story of a late 1940s Detroit club owner and trumpeter named Blue who must choose between escaping his demons and the human cost of leaving the only home he’s ever known.
As the calendar flips to 2021, City Theatre opens January with “The Sound Inside” by Adam Rapp. The story focuses on Bella, a 53-year-old literature professor at Yale who has “intense encounters” with a “brilliant, yet peculiar, student (named) Christopher.”
March brings “Vietgone” by Qui Nguyen. Set in 1975 after the fall of Saigon, it’s described as “an all-American love story about two very new Americans.”
April marks the world premiere of “The Garbologists” by Lindsay Joelle. It’s an unconventional buddy comedy that follows two sanitation workers as they navigate the streets of New York City.
The season concludes with another world premiere, “A Pittsburgh Immigration Story” by Western Pennsylvania native James McManus. The new homegrown play focuses on stories of immigration in Pittsburgh.
“Our job as a new works theater is to keep our audience engaged with the national theater landscape,” said artistic director Marc Masterson. “We are proud to present a season that brings back City Theatre favorites, introduces new voices, and adds a Pittsburgh story into the American theater canon.”
