A Skull in Connemara Premieres

Contact: Michelle Belan
Sales & Marketing Director
412-561-6000 x. 203
mbelan@picttheatre.org
www.picttheatre.org
For Immediate Release

PICT Theatre Presents the Pittsburgh Premiere of A Skull in Connemara
*One of a trilogy of stories by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh*
**Directed by Martin Giles**

Pittsburgh, PA – September 5, 2013. PICT Theatre’s fifth production of the season is the Pittsburgh premiere of Martin McDonagh’s hilarious whodunit A Skull in Connemara, one of a the Leenane trilogy of plays written by the contemporary Irish playwright. McDonagh’s dark humor features the colloquial idioms of the west of Ireland, its rugged landscape, and its even more rugged people. McDonagh wrote one of PICT’s most popular shows, The Lieutenant of Inishmore. His short film Six Shooterwon an Academy Award in 2006, and he was nominated for an Oscar for best original screenplay for In Bruges, a feature-length film in which two hitmen hide in the Flemish city of Bruges after a problematic job.

A Skull in Connemara is directed by Martin Giles, and features James Keegan as Mick, Sharon Brady as Mary, Jason McCune as Thomas and Alec Silberblatt as Mairten.

Director Martin Giles is in his 12th season with PICT, with acting credits including The Kreutzer Sonata, Lady Windermere’s Fan, The School for Lies, Ivanov, Afterplay, The Mask of Moriarty, House & Garden, The Importance of Being Earnest,The History Boys, What the Butler Saw and The Gigli Concert, which helped earn him a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Performer of the Year award. He will also be returning to PICT in December to reprise his role as Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes & The Crucifer of Blood. For PICT, Martin directed plays for Beckett Fest, The Synge Cycle, the Pinter Celebration, the Chekhov Celebration and he wrote and directed the world premiere of Beautiful Dreamers. Other directing credits include When the Rain Stops Falling, The End of the Affair and John Gabriel Borkman for Quantum Theatre, and 800 Words for Caravan Theatre of Pittsburgh. Martin also founded and was Artistic Director of The New Group Theater, where he directed over 50 shows over 15 years. He regularly teaches acting at Carnegie Mellon University.

James Keegan returns to PICT to play Mick Dowd, a seasonal gravedigger in Connemara with a mysterious past. Keegan has been a member of the Resident Company at the American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Playhouse for 13 repertory seasons, where he has played more than 85 roles in over 60 productions, including the title roles in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and King Lear and Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great and The Jew of Malta. His work as Prospero in ASC's 2011 production of The Tempest was featured in the 2012 BBC documentary, Shakespeare Uncovered that recently aired on PBS. Keegan was last seen at PICT in the 2007 performances of Julius Caesar and Stuff Happens.

Also returning to PICT is Jason McCune, who is in his fourth season on the PICT stage. Previous PICT credits include Harvey Duff in The Shaughraun, James and Joey in The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Shawn Keogh in The Playboy of the Western World, and multiple roles in The Synge Cycle. With performance credits all over the United States, Jason has also performed locally in productions at Quantum Theatre, Bricolage, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, barebones theatre and The Pittsburgh Playhouse.

Sharon Brady, although making her PICT debut, is no stranger to theatre in Pittsburgh. She was last seen at the Pittsburgh Playhouse as Mattie Fae in August, Osage County and at Pittsburgh Public Theatre as Lady in Superior Donuts. She is also an adjunct associate professor at Point Park University, where she teaches Theatre Arts. Sharon is a 20-year veteran of New York’s Off Broadway scene, most notably as a founding member of the OBIE Award winning Cucaracha Theatre.

Alec Silberblatt makes his PICT debut. Alec is a Pittsburgh native with performance credits at Pittsburgh Public Theater, Hartford TheaterWorks, Cincinnati Outdoor Classics, Boulder Fringe Festival and MCC Theater's FreshPlay Festival. His play Living With Other People will be produced this spring in New York with the Middle Voice Theater Company, where he is a company member.

To celebrate the opening of this Irish comedy, PICT is pleased to welcome the Ceili Club dance ensemble, accompanied by live musicians playing traditional Irish instruments, who will perform in front of the Stephen Foster Memorial beginning at 7pm. The ensemble, led by artistic director Jim Guay, will perform individual figures from set dances from Connemara as well as from the area around Galway. Accompanying the dancers will be Evan Kenepp playing uilleann pipes, Rich Rayburg playing bodhran, and Vince Burns on fiddle.

ABOUT THE PLAY:
For one week each autumn, Mick Dowd is hired to disinter the bones in certain sections of his local cemetery to make way for the new arrivals. As the time approaches for him to dig up the bones of his own late wife, strange rumors regarding his involvement in her sudden death seven years ago begin to resurface. Strong language and situations.

PICT Theatre (Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre)  was founded in 1996 to diversify the region’s theatrical offerings by providing Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania audiences with high-quality, text-driven, affordable productions of classical theatre and the works of classical and contemporary Irish playwrights and to significantly improve employment opportunities for local talent in all facets of theatrical presentation and production.  PICT is a Small Professional Theatre (SPT) affiliated with Actors’ Equity Association, and a constituent member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. PICT is the Professional Theatre in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh and PICT productions at The Charity Randall and Henry Heymann Theatres are presented in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh – Department of Theatre Arts.

FACT SHEET -  A Skull in Connemara by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Martin Giles

Directed by Martin Giles
The Charity Randall Theatre in the Stephen Foster Memorial
4301 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Cast: James Keegan, Sharon Brady, Jason McCune and Alec Silberblatt

Design Team: Gianni Downs (scenic design); Rachel Parent (costume design); Chris Popowich (lighting design); Joe Pino (sound design); Johnmichael Bohach (properties)

Performance Schedule:
Wednesdays – Saturdays at 8pm
Sundays at 2pm
Tuesday, September 24 at 7pm
Saturday, September 28 at 2pm and 8pm

First Week:         Thursday and Friday, September 12 & 13, 8:00 p.m. – Previews
                                Saturday, September 14, 8:00 p.m. – Opening Night
                                Sunday, September 15, 2:00 p.m. – Talkback following performance

Second Week:    Wednesday* – Saturday, September 18- 21, 8:00 p.m.
                                Sunday, September 22, 2:00 p.m.
Third Week:       Tuesday, September 24, 7:00 p.m. (Early Tuesday** performance)
                                Wednesday- Friday, September 25- 27, 8:00 p.m.
                                Saturday, September 28, 2:00 p.m. - Matinee performance
Saturday, September 28, 8:00 p.m. – Final performance
*Pre-show lecture begins at 7:00 pm in The Charity Randall Theatre.
**Early Tuesday includes 6:00 pm happy hour – free food buffet + drink specials -- hosted at Joe Mama’s Restaurant, 3716 Forbes Ave. 15213)


PICT Special Events   (Free of Charge)

Opening Night Festivities
Saturday, September 14.  Prior to the performance, the Ceili Club Dance Ensemble with live musical accompaniment will entertain patrons in front of the Stephen Foster Memorial.
Following the performance, PICT invites all opening night patrons to attend the reception with complimentary hors d’ouevre and an opportunity to greet the cast and artistic staff.

Talkback
Sunday, September 15, following the 2:00 p.m. performance includes PICT producing artistic director Alan Stanford, Martin Giles, director and the cast of A Skull in Connemara

Pre-Show Lecture
Wednesday, September 18, 7:00 p.m.
Martin Giles, Director, discusses the dark humor in A Skull in Connemara.


Subscription Packages:                            $222* - $258* (Standard prices; flex plans available)
Single Tickets:                                               $25*-$48* ($20 under age 26 with valid ID)
                                                                                *Prices do not include handling fees              

Pick, purchase and print your tickets online at www.picttheatre.org,
or call 412-561-6000

# # #


Michelle Belan
Sales & Marketing Director
PICT
Theatre You Can't Stop Talking About
412-561-6000 x. 203
mbelan@picttheatre.org

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

Lady Windermere's Fan at PICT

More Modern Milieu for Lady Windermere’s Fan
**Alan Stanford adapts and directs Oscar Wilde’s comic gem **
***Featuring Leo Marks, Nike Doukas, Jodi Gage and John DeMita in 17-member cast ***

Pittsburgh, PA – UPDATE July 3, 2013. Renowned Oscar Wilde expert Alan Stanford, PICT’s interim Producing Artistic Director, will direct his adaptation of the great Irish playwright’s comedy, Lady Windermere’s Fan. Wilde’s play, first produced in 1892 in London, satirizes the morality of Victorian society. Stanford has moved the setting forward in time to 1947; in post-World-War II London, Wilde’s language and ridicule of high-society still resonate. Oscar Wilde was not so much a writer of polite English comedy, but rather a biting Irish satirist who lampooned the social absurdities and prejudices of the English upper classes, prejudices that lasted well into the Twentieth Century. This production, which runs July 11 through July 27, is PICT’s third show of the season, and features a cast of 17 actors.

Stanford continues to build his reputation as a skilled interpreter of the plays of Oscar Wilde. He has been the principal interpreter of Wilde at the renowned Gate Theatre of Dublin as both an actor and director. He has, at various times, directed and appeared in all of the major plays of Wilde, including the role of Lady Bracknell at Ireland’s Abbey Theatre and here at PICT.  Stanford just finished directing PICT’s second show of the season, The Kreutzer Sonata. His previous directing credits include works by Shakespeare, Molière, Noel Coward, Shaw, and Brecht. He directed PICT’s record-breaking production of the Sherlock Holmes’s mystery The Mask of Moriarty in 2011. Following Lady Windermere’s Fan, he will direct Don Juan Comes Back from the Warwhich PICT will present in August.

Nike Doukas returns to PICT to play Mrs. Erlynne, a mysterious woman whom Lady Windermere believes is seducing her husband. Doukas most recently appeared on the PICT stage in David Ives’ The School for Lies in December 2012. She played Anna inIvanov as well as directing and acting in the short plays of Funny Chekhov during PICT’s Chekhov Celebration last summer.

Also returning from the Chekhov Celebration is Leo Marks, who is playing Lord Windermere in his fourth season at PICT. His past PICT credits include Betrayal, The Hothouse, The Importance of Being Earnest, House and Garden and Three Sisters. His 2012 PICT performances in The Bear, Ivanov and The School for Lies were recognized with a Post-Gazette Performer of the Year award.

John DeMita returns to PICT to play Lord Darlington after his 2011 performance in Race.  Other theatre credits include the Andak Stage Company, The Hollywood Bowl, Geffen Playhouse, American Conservatory Theater, Intiman Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Pacific Resident Theatre, where he is a founding member. DeMita is a graduate of Yale University and the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.

Jodi Gage will begin her first season with PICT playing the suspicious Lady Windermere, who believes her husband is having an affair. Other Pittsburgh credits include The REP, Pittsburgh CLO and the Theatre Factory.  Gage is a Performing Artistic Affiliate, as well as Managing Director of Mozawa, an international company that creates original works of interdisciplinary art.

PICT welcomes back Martin Giles, Helena Ruoti, James FitzGerald and David Whalen.

Martin Giles is in his 12th season with PICT, with credits including The School for Lies, Ivanov, The Mask of Moriarty, House & Garden, The Importance of Being Earnest, The History Boys, What the Butler Saw and The Gigli Concert, which helped earned him a Post-Gazette Performer of the Year award. Most recently he wowed audiences with his one-man tour de force performance in PICT’s The Kreutzer Sonata. Giles will direct A Skull in Connemara for PICT in September, and in December, he’ll reprise his role as Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes & The Crucifer of Blood.

Helena Ruoti is in her seventh season with PICT.  Previous PICT credits include Ivanov, School for Lies, Afterplay, House and Garden, Antony & Cleopatra, The Seagull, Hamlet, Heartbreak House, King Lear, Rock N Roll and What the Butler Saw.

James FitzGerald is in his 6th season with PICT. Other Pittsburgh credits include the Pittsburgh Public Theater, Quantum Theater and Bricolage. He was acknowledged by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for his work in the Best of Pittsburgh 2011 and 2012. With many credits in Chicago, FitzGerald is also the recipient of Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award, a Jeff Citation and an After Dark Award.

David Whalen is in his 8th season with PICT. He has performed in more than twenty productions for PICT, including the Chekhov Celebration, Pinter Festival, Julius Caesar, Stuff Happens, Doubt, Salome, King Lear, Pride & Prejudice and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, a role he reprised at The Repertory of St Louis, winning the Kevin Kline Award for Best Actor.  His Pittsburgh credits include Pittsburgh Public Theatre, City Theatre, Quantum, The REP and Barebones Productions. In 2012, he was named the MVP Performer by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as well as being recognized as Performer of the Year for 2007.  Whalen will be appearing in PICT’s productions of Don Juan Comes Back from the War in August, and he will reprise his role as Sherlock Homes in Sherlock Holmes & The Crucifer of Blood in December.

Returning after her PICT debut last year, Colette Freiwald performed in Three Sisters and Ivanov. A graduate of Point Park University, she performed in Room Service and The Hostage, and she recently performed with Prime Stage in Walk Two Moons.

Lisa Ann Goldsmith was last seen on the PICT stage in Jane Eyre, and other PICT credits include The Shaughraun and Pride & Prejudice. Pittsburgh credits include Unseam’d Shakespeare, Pittsburgh CLO, Quantum Theatre and The REP.

Dylan Marquis Meyers is returning to PICT after his performance in The Importance of Being Earnest in 2011. He is in his junior year in the drama department at the University of Pittsburgh.
Six actors will be making their PICT debuts: Lily Davis, Jordan Ross Weinhold, Heidi Friese, Casey Jordan, Hannah Morris, Luke Halferty.

Lily Davis is a recent graduate of Point Park University this May, where she performed in The School for Scandal and TheCrucible. Her performance as Jane in 800 Words: The Transmigration of Philip K. Dick with Caravan Theatre Group earned her a mention in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2012.

Jordan Ross Weinhold is recently graduated with a BA in Musical Theatre at Point Park University, where he performed in The Producers and played opposite Lily Davis in The School for Scandal. Lily and Weinhold play opposite each other again in Lady Windermere’s Fan.

Heidi Friese is also a recent graduate of Point Park University, where her credits include Evita, Peter and the Wolf, A Chorus Line, M33 and The Producers.
A recent graduate of Wright State University, Casey Jordan’s university credits include The Merchant of Venice, Anything Goes,and The Phantom of the Opera.

Hannah Morris is in her junior year at Point Park University.
Also in his junior year at Point Park University, Luke Halferty appeared there in The School for Scandal, and he just completed his debut performance with the St. Vincent Theatre in Latrobe.

ABOUT THE PLAY:
Lady Windermere’s Fan
The play, the first of Wilde’s quartet of social satires, was first presented in 1893. It proved an instant success and established Wilde as a major playwright. Although greeted as a delightful comedy by the West End society of late Victorian London, it is in fact a thinly-veiled attack on the hypocrisy of what was called Good Society.

In this play, as in others from his pen, Wilde took the relatively unusual step of centering the plot around two female characters and proved himself every bit as adept at this as his contemporaries, Shaw and Ibsen.
The plot is simple enough. A young wife, married to an aristocrat of previously blameless character finds that he has been financially supporting a woman of dubious reputation. His refusal to explain drives her to take desperate steps. And yet, the safety of her own reputation in this world of privilege and prejudice and the avoidance of a scandal that could ruin her life hangs on the behavior of the very woman she suspects.
PICT Theatre (Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre)  was founded in 1996 to diversify the region’s theatrical offerings by providing Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania audiences with high-quality, text-driven, affordable productions of classical theatre and the works of classical and contemporary Irish playwrights and to significantly improve employment opportunities for local talent in all facets of theatrical presentation and production.  PICT is a Small Professional Theatre (SPT) affiliated with Actors’ Equity Association, and a constituent member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. PICT is the Professional Theatre in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh and PICT productions at The Charity Randall and Henry Heymann Theatres are presented in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh – Department of Theatre Arts.

FACT SHEET -  Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde
Adapted by Alan Stanford

Pittsburgh Premiere
Directed by Alan Stanford
The Charity Randall Theatre in the Stephen Foster Memorial
4301 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Cast: John DeMita, Nike Doukas, Jodi Gage, James FitzGerald, Martin Giles, Leo Marks, Helena Ruoti, Lily Davis, Colette Freiwald, Heidi Friese, Lisa Ann Goldsmith, Luke Halferty, Casey Jordan, Dylan Marquis Meyers, Hannah Morris, Jordan Ross Weinhold, David Whalen


Design Team: Michael Essad (scenic design); Joan Markert (costume design); Cat Wilson (lighting design); Steve Shapiro (sound design); Johnmichael Bohach (properties)

Performance Schedule:
Wednesdays – Saturdays at 8pm
Sundays at 2pm
Tuesday, July 23 at 7pm
Saturday, July 27 at 2pm and 8pm

First Week:         Thursday and Friday, July 11 & 12, 8:00 pm – Previews
                                Saturday, July 13, 8:00 pm – Opening Night
                                Sunday, July 14, 2:00 pm – Talkback following performance
Second Week:    Wednesday* – Saturday, July 17-20, 8:00 pm
                                Sunday, July 21, 2:00 pm
Third Week:       Tuesday, July 23, 7:00 p.m. (Early Tuesday** performance)
                                Wednesday-Friday, June 24-26, 8:00 p.m.
                                Saturday, July 27, 2:00 pm - Matinee performance
Saturday, July 27, 8:00 pm – Final performance
*Pre-show lecture begins at 7:00 pm in The Charity Randall Theatre.
**Early Tuesday includes 6:00 pm happy hour – free food buffet + drink specials -- hosted at Joe Mama’s Restaurant, 3716 Forbes Ave. 15213)


PICT Special Events   (Free of Charge)

Talkback
Sunday, July 14, following the 2:00 p.m. performance includes director Alan Stanford and the cast of Lady Windermere’s Fan

Pre-Show Lecture
Wednesday, July 17, 7:00 p.m.


Subscription Packages:                            $222 - $258 (Standard prices; flex plans available)
Single Tickets:                                               $25-$48 ($20 under age 26 with valid ID)
                                                                                Prices do not include Handling Fees      

Pick, purchase and print your tickets online at www.picttheatre.org,
or call 412-561-6000

# # #

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

PICT's Thriller The Kreutzer Sonata Stars Martin Giles

Contact: Michelle Belan
Sales & Marketing Director
412-561-6000 x. 203
mbelan@picttheatre.org
www.picttheatre.org
For Immediate Release

Martin Giles Stars in PICT’s Thriller The Kreutzer Sonata
**Irish playwright Nancy Harris transforms Leo Tolstoy’s novella for the stage **
***Featuring the music of violinist Juan Jaramillo and pianist Alaine Fink***

Pittsburgh, PA – May 20, 2013. Noted Pittsburgh actor/director Martin Giles will premiere the role of Pozdynyshev in PICT’s production of The Kreutzer Sonata, a psychological thriller by Irish playwright Nancy Harris. This production opens in previews on May 30th. The play is based on Leo Tolstoy’s novella of the same name, which was censored by the Russian authorities when it was published in 1889. PICT’s Artistic Director Alan Stanford will direct.

Martin Giles is in his 12th season with PICT, with credits including The School for Lies, Ivanov, The Mask of Moriarty, House & Garden, The Importance of Being Earnest, The History Boys, What the Butler Saw and The Gigli Concert, which helped earned him a Post-Gazette Performer of the Year award. In the award announcement, critic Christopher Rawson called Giles one of “Pittsburgh’s busiest, most reliable actors,” and he has a daunting 2013 calendar to prove it. In addition to teaching at Point Park and Carnegie Mellon Universities, he recently earned acclaim for his role in Dream of Autumn and for directing John Gabriel Borkman, both for Quantum Theatre. In addition to his role in The Kreutzer Sonata, Giles will direct A Skull in Connemara for PICT in September, and he’ll reprise his role as Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes & The Crucifer of Blood.

This is Alan Stanford’s first opportunity to direct for PICT since taking leadership of the organization. He most recently directed The School for Scandal for Point Park Conservatory, and his previous directing credits include works by Shakespeare, Molière, Noel Coward, Oscar Wilde, Shaw, and Brecht. He directed PICT’s record-breaking production of the Sherlock Holmes’s mystery The Mask of Moriarty in 2011, and will direct Sherlock Holmes & the Crucifer of Blood this December. He will also direct his adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan in July, and Don Juan Comes Back from the War in August.

The Kreutzer Sonata is known as a very challenging piece to play, and PICT is pleased to have two accomplished musicians working with sound and music composer Elizabeth Atkinson to create the perfect soundscape for the play.  Violinist Juan Jaramillo, a native of Venezuela and a product of the internationally famous “El Sistema” orchestral program, has played with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Sarasota Opera, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. He is currently a Principal Second of the Wheeling Symphony and first violinist for the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Orchestras, as well as the Sarasota Opera. Pianist Alaine Fink is on the faculty at Pittsburgh 6-12 School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) and Duquesne University, where she serves as Coordinator of Accompanying Services and as a performance coach. She is the organist at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Allison Park. She is an active chamber musician and accompanist, having collaborated in recital with principal members of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and vocalists from the Metropolitan Opera. She is featured on an album,Trumpet Masterworks, with Grammy-award-winning trumpet player George Vosburgh.
ABOUT THE PLAY:

The Kreutzer Sonata
When Leo Tolstoy published The Kreutzer Sonata, a novella in 1889, the Russian authorities censored the play, and its publication was limited internationally due to its very direct treatment of sexual relations and expressions of violence. Irish playwright Nancy Harris has transformed Tolstoy’s first person narrative for the stage, harnessing the power of the music that inspired Tolstoy to write it. We meet Pozdynyshev in a train car, where he is compelled to tell us his story  - a story of love, loss and betrayal, all brought about by music’s powerful influence. Was Beethoven’s sonata the soundtrack to an illicit affair between Pozdynyshev’s wife and his old friend – or has Pozdynyshev made a terrible mistake?
The first production of The Kreutzer Sonata was at the Gate Theatre, London, in 2009. Nancy Harris, who was born and raised in Dublin, is currently the Pearson Playwright in Residence at The Bush Theatre. Additional theatre credits include:  No Romance (Abbey Theatre), Little Dolls (The Bush Theatre), and  Love in A Glass Jar (The Abbey Theatre). She has been a writer on attachment at the Soho Theatre and National Theatre Studio respectively and has had work produced with Mind The Gap Theatre Company New York. Her radio credits include Love In A Glass Jar and the five-part woman's hour drama series Blood In The Bridal Shop co-written with Louise Ramsden, both for BBC Radio 4.

PICT Theatre (Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre)  was founded in 1996 to diversify the region’s theatrical offerings by providing Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania audiences with high-quality, text-driven, affordable productions of classical theatre and the works of classical and contemporary Irish playwrights and to significantly improve employment opportunities for local talent in all facets of theatrical presentation and production.  PICT is a Small Professional Theatre (SPT) affiliated with Actors’ Equity Association, and a constituent member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. PICT is the Professional Theatre in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh and PICT productions at The Charity Randall and Henry Heymann Theatres are presented in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh – Department of Theatre Arts.

FACT SHEET -  The Kreutzer Sonata by Nancy Harris
Based on the novella by Leo Tolstoy

Pittsburgh Premiere
Directed by Alan Stanford
The Henry Heymann Theatre in the Stephen Foster Memorial
4301 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Cast: Martin Giles

Design Team: Gianni Downs (scenic design); Lisa Lieberling (costume design); Jim French (lighting design); Elizabeth Atkinson (sound and music composition); Johnmichael Bohach (properties)

Performance Schedule:
Wednesdays – Saturdays at 8pm
Sundays at 2pm
Tuesday, June 18 at 7pm
Saturday, June 22 at 2pm and 8pm

First Week:         Thursday and Friday, May 30 & 31, 8:00 pm – Previews
                                Saturday, June 1, 8:00 pm – Opening Night
                                Sunday, June 2, 2:00 pm – Talkback following performance
Second Week:    Wednesday* – Saturday, June 5 – 8, 8:00 pm
                                Sunday, June 9, 2:00 pm
Third Week:       Thursday – Saturday, June 13-15, 8:00 pm
                                Sunday, June 16, 2:00 pm
Fourth Week:     Tuesday, June 18, 7:00 p.m. (Early Tuesday** performance)
                                Wednesday-Friday, June 19-21, 8:00 p.m.
                                Saturday, June 22, 2:00 pm - Matinee performance
Saturday, June 22, 8:00 pm – Final performance
*Pre-show lecture begins at 7:00 pm in the Henry Heymann Theatre
**Early Tuesday includes 6:00 pm happy hour – free food buffet + drink specials -- hosted at Joe Mama’s Restaurant, 3716 Forbes Ave. 15213)


PICT Special Events   (Free of Charge)

Talkback
Sunday, June 2, following the 2:00 p.m. performance includes director Alan Stanford and actor Martin Giles

Pre-Show Lecture
Wednesday, June 5, 7:00 p.m.


Subscription Packages:                            $222 - $258 (Standard prices; flex plans available)
Single Tickets:                                               $25-$48 ($20 under age 26 with valid ID)
                                                                                Handling fees may apply            

Pick, purchase and print your tickets online at www.picttheatre.org,
or call 412-561-6000

# # #


Michelle Belan
Sales & Marketing Director
PICT
Theatre You Can't Stop Talking About
412-561-6000 x. 203
mbelan@picttheatre.org
www.picttheatre.org

NEXT:
The Kreutzer Sonata by Nancy Harris
MAY 30-JUNE 22, 2013
A Pittsburgh Premiere starring Richard McMillan

Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde
JULY 11-27, 2013
Adapted and Directed by Alan Stanford

Don Juan Comes Back from the War by Odon von Horvath
in a new adaptation by Duncan MacMillan
AUGUST 8-31, 2013
A U.S. Premiere starring David Whalen as Don Juan

A Skull in Connemara by Martin McDonagh
SEPTEMBER 11-28, 2013
A Pittsburgh Premiere

Sherlock Holmes & The Crucifer of Blood
DECEMBER 4-21, 2013
David Whalen & Martin Giles return as Holmes & Watson!

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

Ivanov Continues PICT's Chekhov Celebration

AMERICAN PREMIERE OF TOM STOPPARD’S HILARIOUS NEW ADAPTATION OF IVANOV CONTINUES PICT’S CHEKHOV CELEBRATION - OPENING AUGUST 4th

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Michelle Belan
Marketing Director Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre mbelan@picttheatre.org
412-561-6000 x203

Pittsburgh, PA – July 23, 2012. PICT’s celebration of Anton Chekhov continues with the American premiere of Tom Stoppard’s hilarious new adaptation of Chekhov’s early play, Ivanov. Directed by Andrew S. Paul, this production features David Whalen in the title role, Nike Doukas as his ailing wife Anna, Alan Stanford as his aristocratic uncle Count Shabelsky, Matt DeCaro as his scheming estate manager Borkin, Helena Ruoti as neighbor Zinaida Lebedev, Martin Giles as her husband Pavel Lebedev, and introducing Katya Stepanova as Sasha. The show runs from August 2- 25 in The Charity Randall Theatre, Oakland. Ivanov portrays the life of a man trapped by his own inaction. Hamlet-like, he leaves those around him struggling to find satisfaction. Chekhov’s irrepressible Russian humor combines with the tragedy of the human condition, and all is filtered through Tom Stoppard’s uniquely zany perspective. The result is a powerful, often hilarious play that will keep audiences thinking long after the curtain closes.  Many in this cast of 19 also play roles in the three other festival productions, Three Sisters, After Chekhov and Funny Chekhov.

Andrew S. Paul selected Ivanov in part because Tom Stoppard’s brilliant adaptation rescues this early play from obscurity. “No longer can this masterpiece be considered a lesser work. Stoppard recognized the humor woven throughout the play, staying true to Chekhov’s original text but bringing the characters and their words alive for contemporary audiences.” This production marks the U.S. premiere of Stoppard’s adaptation.

ADDITIONAL FESTIVAL OFFERINGS:

Harriet Power, director of Three Sisters, which opened July 19, 2012 and runs through August 26th, chose Paul Schmidt’s distinctly American translation for similarly humorous reasons. “He understood how funny Chekhov often is – and his translation is indispensable for me, as a director, in mining the superb humor that’s often missed, even when tragedy strikes.” Three Sisters features Nike Doukas, Allison McLemore and Vera Varlamov as sisters Olga, Masha and Irina; Christian Conn as brother Andrei, David Whalen as Vershinin and Joe Domencic as Masha’s husband Kulygin. Megan McDermott, Leo Marks, Jonathan Visser, Larry John Meyers, Adrian Blake Enscoe, Billy Hepfinger, Robert Haley, Colette Freiwald and Grace Ellen complete the cast.

Irish playwright Brian Friel, a frequent adapter of Chekhov’s work, is featured in the festival’s After Chekhov. In Afterplay, Martin Giles and Helena Ruoti portray Chekhov characters from Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya decades into the future; working from Chekhov’s famous short story, “The Lady with the Lapdog,” Friel imagined two characters who meet on holiday in The Yalta Game. (starring Jonathan Visser and Allison McLemore.)

Funny Chekhov celebrates Chekhov’s wit in 5 short plays and vaudevilles: The Bear, The Proposal, Swan Song, Drama: A Comedy, and On the Evils of Tobacco. These neglected gems of the theatre are served up by our talented repertory cast, including Pittsburgh’s own James FitzGerald, Larry John Meyers, Terry Wickline, Colette Freiwald and Joe Domencic, as well as recent Pittsburgh transplant and PICT artist-in-residence  Alan Stanford.


THE REPERTORY COMPANY:

The festival repertory company includes celebrated Pittsburgh actors David Whalen and Martin Giles, who most recently graced the PICT stage as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in PICT’s The Mask of Moriarty, and Helena Ruoti, PICT’s Cleopatra in last season’s Antony and Cleopatra.  Nike Doukas returns to PICT, where she last appeared in House & Garden.  She is the recipient of the 2011 Lunt-Fontanne fellowship and is widely known for her recurring role on "Desperate Housewives." Irish stage legend Alan Stanford is PICT’s 2012 Artist in Residence.  Jonathan Visser recently played Sylvia in CLO Cabaret’s Ruthless. Larry John Meyers (fresh off the success of PICT’s The Pitmen Painters) Robert Haley, whose numerous credits include performances in Canada’s Shaw and Stratford festivals, and PICT’s 2011 Actor-in-Residence  Leo Marks are also featured.

Allison McLemore returns to PICT for her third season; she previously starred in PICT productions Jane Eyre and Othello. Vera Varlamov is making her professional debut at PICT.  She was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and received her MFA from Rutgers. Matt DeCaro’s previous PICT credits include King Lear and The Lieutenant of Inishmore; he has worked in film and on television, including a recurring role for two seasons on “Prison Break.” Christian Conn is in his first season with PICT, but recently played Orlando in As You Like It at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. Katya Stepanova, a rising senior in Carnegie Mellon University’s BFA program, makes her PICT debut in Three Sisters. Adrian Blake Enscoe, a 2012 graduate of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, also lends his guitar artistry to the productions. Colette Freiwald, a Point Park University graduate with an extensive career in voiceover and commercial film work, returns to the stage for the Chekhov Celebration. Keith Foster, a student at Marietta College, makes his professional debut. Grace Ellen, a PICT intern and sophomore at NYU’s Tisch School of Drama, rounds out the repertory cast.

Chekhov Celebration scenic design is by Gianni Downs, lighting by Allen Hahn and sound design by Liz Atkinson. Costumes for Three Sisters and Ivanov by Pei-Chi Su; Funny Chekhov and After Chekhov by Rachel S. Parent. Properties by George DeShetler, Jr.

The 2012 Media Sponsors are WYEP and Essential Public Radio. Single tickets are available now through PICT’s new online ticketing system at www.picttheatre.org,  or by calling ProArtsTickets at 412.394.3353 for an additional $1.50 phone fee. A range of options are available for money-saving season subscriptions, and can be purchased by contacting Carolyn Ludwig at 412.561.6000 x207, emailing tickethelp@picttheatre.org, or on the PICT website at www.picttheatre.org.

PICT receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as funding from the Allegheny County Regional Assets District and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Chekhov Celebration is also sponsored by The Pittsburgh Foundation and Mr. Richard E. Rauh.

The Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre was founded in 1996 to diversify the region’s theatrical offerings by providing Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania  audiences with high-quality,  text-driven, affordable productions of classical theatre and the works of classical and contemporary  Irish playwrights and to significantly improve employment opportunities  for local talent in all facets of theatrical presentation  and production.   PICT is a Small Professional Theatre (SPT) affiliated with Actors’ Equity Association, and a constituent member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. PICT is the Professional Theatre in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh and PICT productions at The Charity Randall and Henry Heymann Theatres are presented in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh – Department of Theatre Arts.

Ivanov Performances
First Week: Thursday – Friday, August 2-3, Previews, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 4, Opening, 8:00 p.m. (followed by reception)
Sunday, August 5, 2:00 p.m. (followed by talk-back)

Second Week: Tuesday, August 7, 7:00 p.m. (Professional Tuesday performance) Thursday, August 9, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 11, 8:00 p.m. Third Week: Wednesday, August 15, 8:00 p.m.
Fourth Week:  Friday, August 24, 8:00 pm
Saturday, August 25, 2:00 p.m.

For the schedule of performances for the other festival offerings, please visit picttheatre.org

Subscriptions: $224 - $252 (10 packages and Flex Plans available)
Single Tickets: starting at $25 ($20 under 26 with valid ID)

Chekhov Celebration Special Package:
See all four shows (selected dates) for $136 – includes all fees:
  Three Sisters (7/19 or 7/20)
  Ivanov (8/2, 8/3, 8/4, 8/5, 8/7, 8/9, 8/11, 8/15, 8/24, 8/25)
  After Chekhov (8/17 or 8/18)
   Funny Chekhov (8/22 or 8/26)
Must call 412-561-6000 x. 207 or x. 203 to order.

Three Sisters Performances
First Week: Thursday – Friday, July 19-20, Previews, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 21, Opening, 8:00 p.m. (followed by reception)
Sunday, July 22, 2:00 p.m. (followed by talk-back)

Second Week: Tuesday, July 24, 7:00 p.m. (Professional Tuesday performance) Wednesday – Friday, July 25-27, 8:00 p.m.*
Saturday, July 28, 2:00 p.m & 8:00 p.m. (2 shows)
*preshow lectures Wednesday and Thursday, July 25 and 26, 7:00 p.m. Free.

Third Week: Wednesday, August 8, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 12, 2:00 p.m.

Fourth Week:  Thursday, August 16, 8:00 pm
Sunday, August 19, 7:00 p.m.

Fifth Week: Thursday, August 23, 8:00 pm
Sunday, August 26, 2:00 p.m.


After Chekhov Performances
First Week: Friday, August 10, Opening, 8:00 p.m. (followed by reception)
Saturday, August 11, 2:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 12, 7:00 p.m. (followed by talk-back)


Second Week: Tuesday, August 14, 7:00 p.m. (Professional Tuesday performance) Saturday, August 18, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 19, 2:00 p.m.


Third Week: Wednesday, August 22, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 26, 7:00 pm

Funny Chekhov Performances
First Week: Friday, August 17, Opening, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 18, 2:00 p.m.

Second Week: Tuesday, August 21, 7:00 p.m. (Professional Tuesday performance) Saturday, August 25, 8:00 p.m.


Pick, purchase and print your tickets online at  www.picttheatre.org, or call ProArtsTickets at 412.394.3353
PICT - Great Stories. Well Told.

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

PICT's Electrifying 2012 Season Announced

Contact: Melissa Hill Grande

Associate Artistic Director & Director of Marketing
412.561.6000 x203
mgrande@picttheatre.org
http://www.picttheatre.org/

Get turned on by PICT’s electrifying 2012 season!

American playwrights, Friel and Chekhov bring five Pittsburgh

premieres – and new lower ticket prices! – to town this season

Pittsburgh, PA – October 12, 2011. Flip the switch and watch the sparks fly as PICT raises the voltage with their hot 2012 season! Pittsburgh audiences will get a charge out of a titillating new play by a leading American female playwright, a true story, an exploration of the comedic facets of a Russian master (and the great Irishman who was inspired by him), and a zany holiday farce! The 2012 season features FIVE Pittsburgh premieres and a U.S. premiere, and runs April through August, with a special December production in time for the holidays. Great stories, well told, and new lower prices (with special recession-busting seating options for all productions) will leave audiences tingling all over and guarantee a happy ending!



PICT plugs into the 2012 season in April with Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room or the vibrator play, a smash-hit across the country receiving its first production in the Pittsburgh region. Next up, Pittsburgh audiences will be inspired and delighted by The Pitmen Painters, the Evening Standard Award-winning new play by British playwright Lee Hall (Billy Elliot). The heart of the summer is devoted to celebrating the greatest Russian playwright of all time, Anton Chekhov, as seen through the eyes of two contemporary authors who are geniuses in their own right -- Tom Stoppard and Brian Friel. The festival includes the American premiere of Stoppard’s brilliant new version of Ivanov, and Brian Friel’s stunning newly-revised adaptation of Three Sisters. Irish master Friel’s long fascination with Chekhov is also evidenced in After Chekhov, a special program of featuring The Yalta Game and Afterplay. A second program of shorts, Funny Chekhov, features Chekhov’s early comic vaudevilles. And speaking of comedy, the super-charged season ends on a dazzling note of verbal virtuosity with the December production of David Ives’ absolutely hilarious new adaptation of Moliere’s The Misanthrope, The School for Lies.



This season features new lower prices on single tickets and subscriptions, and a special recession-busting program to make PICT tickets affordable for everyone. Full-priced tickets for premium seats are reduced, and a special program making $25 seats available for ALL PICT performances is being implemented.



PICT starts the season with the most stimulating play in American theatre today, Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room or the vibrator play. The play centers on Dr. Givings, a physician who treats “female hysteria” patients with a new electric invention, while in the adjoining room his own wife yearns for what is missing in their marriage. Pulitzer prize finalist Sarah Ruhl’s Tony-nominated hit has generated a buzz of excitement from East Coast to West since its Broadway run in 2009. In the Next Room or the vibrator play runs April 19th through May 5th in the Charity Randall Theatre.



May and June herald the regional premiere of a play that celebrates the very notion of community, Lee Hall’s The Pitmen Painters. Winner of London’s 2009 Olivier Award for Best Play, this true story about an inspiring group of miners touched the hearts of audiences around the world. In 1934, a group of Ashington miners and a dental mechanic hired a professor from Newcastle University to teach an evening Art Appreciation class. Unable to understand each other at first, they embarked on one of the most unusual experiments in British art, as the pitmen learned to become painters. Within a few years the most avant-garde artists became their friends, their work was taken for prestigious collections and they were celebrated throughout the British art world; but every day they worked, as before, down the mine. PICT producing artistic director Andrew Paul helms this Pittsburgh premiere, running May 31st through June 23 in the intimate Henry Heymann Theatre.



PICT amps it up in July and August, continuing its tradition of internationally-recognized festivals with Tragedian in Spite of Himself: A Celebration of the Life and Theatre of Anton Chekhov. In Chekhov’s scenes of provincial life, comic mayhem arises from quarrels over land and money, strategic alliances (usually marriages), and a sense of personal failure that lies, as one character has it, “beyond self ruin”. The festival opens with what is perhaps Chekhov’s best-loved play, Three Sisters, featuring a newly-revised adaptation by beloved Irish playwright Brian Friel. Three Sisters poignantly conveys the struggles, loves and secret desires of Masha, Olga, and Irina and their somewhat ineffectual brother Andrey. Set in a mythological provincial town in late 19th century Russia, we see their lives unfold before our eyes. Three Sisters plays July 19th through August 26th in the Henry Heymann Theatre.



The U.S. premiere of Tom Stoppard’s new English language version of Ivanov blends the comic and the tragic elements of this early work by the great Russian master. A sort of comic Hamlet, Ivanov is overcome with inertia and self-disgust. His wife is dying and he feels nothing. He is drowning in debt and despair, and he does nothing. Is it him? Is it Russia? Ivanov was the twenty-seven-year-old Chekhov’s shot at dispatching the ‘superfluous man’ of Russian literature; in surrounding him with a brilliantly-drawn set of provincial types, he created some of the finest comedy he ever wrote. Ivanov, directed by Andrew Paul, plays August 2nd through 25th in the Charity Randall Theatre.



The Chekhov Festival also features two programs of short plays. After Chekhov features Brian Friel’s The Yalta Game and Afterplay. The Yalta Game is inspired by a theme in Chekhov’s famous short story “The Lady with the Lapdog”. Two strangers meet on holiday and almost manage to convince one another that disappointments are ‘merely the postponement of the complete happiness to come…’ Afterplay is set in 1920’s Moscow in a small, run-down café. Uncle Vanya’s niece Sonya Serebriakova, now in her forties, is the only customer…until the arrival of the Three Sisters’ put-upon brother, Andrey Prozorov. After Chekhov is directed by Alan Stanford, and performs in the Henry Heymann Theatre from August 10th through the 26th. Funny Chekhov runs August 17th through the 25th in the Charity Randall Theatre, and will feature an evening of four short comic plays and vaudevilles by Chekhov.


Absolute truthfulness sounds like a GREAT idea…until it shorts out friendships and creates hilarious friction! PICT brings the circuit full-circle with its final show of the season, The School for Lies. David Ives’ freewheeling adaptation of Moliere’s The Misanthrope brings a disillusioned curmudgeon named Frank into direct conflict with everyone he meets when he vows to tell the truth – no matter how disconcerting or offensive it may be! This being a comedy, however, Frank is diverted from his high-minded path by his love for the beautiful Celimene, a bored aristocrat with a sharp wit – and a sharp tongue – to match his! The play’s virtuosic use of language turns their verbal duel into theatrical fireworks of the highest order. The magnetic Nike Doukas and Leo Marks return to PICT for this holiday treat, directed by Andrew Paul and playing in the Charity Randall Theatre from December 5th through the 22nd.

For more information, phone 412.561.6000.


PICT 2012 Season Fact Sheet

The Charity Randall and Henry Heymann Theatres, Stephen Foster Memorial,

4301 Forbes Avenue, Oakland



In the Next Room or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl
A Pittsburgh Premiere
The Charity Randall Theatre
April 19 – May 5


The Pitmen Painters by Lee Hall
A Pittsburgh Premiere
Directed by Andrew S. Paul
Henry Heymann Theatre
May 31 – June 23


Chekhov Celebration
Tragedian in Spite of Himself: A Celebration of the Life and Theatre of Anton Chekhov
July 19 – August 26


Three Sisters, adapted by Brian Friel
Henry Heymann Theatre
July 19 – August 26


Ivanov, new English version by Tom Stoppard
U.S. Premiere
Directed by Andrew S. Paul
The Charity Randall Theatre
August 2 – 25



After Chekhov
Featuring The Yalta Game and Afterplay by Brian Friel
Pittsburgh Premieres
Directed by Alan Stanford
Henry Heymann Theatre
August 10 – 26


Funny Chekhov
Short plays and vaudevilles by Anton Chekhov
The Charity Randall Theatre
August 17 – 25


The School for Lies by David Ives
A free adaptation of Moliere’s The Misanthrope
A Pittsburgh Premiere
Directed by Andrew S. Paul
The Charity Randall Theatre
December 5 – 22


Tickets:

Subscriptions: $252 - $176 (wide range of packages and flex plans available)

Single Tickets: $48 - $25 ($20 youth ticket for under 26)

Call ProArtsTickets at 412.394.3353 or visit online www.picttheatre.org


PICT – Great Stories. Well Told.

Special Benefit Screening of The Tempest

Media Contact: Melissa Hill Grande

mgrande@picttheatre.org
412.561.6000 x203
http://www.picttheatre.org/



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PICT hosts benefit screening of Julie Taymor’s theatrical film The Tempest, followed by “Meet the Producer” event

Theatrical cross-over film starring Helen Mirren screened as special event to benefit PICT; Hollywood producer will be on hand for festivities and reception

Pittsburgh, Pa – October 6, 2011. Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre is hosting a benefit screening of Julie Taymor’s theatrical film version of The Tempest, and will include an introduction and reception with the film’s producer. The film stars Helen Mirren as a cross-gendered Prospera, alongside an all-star cast including Djimon Hounsou, Alan Cummings, David Strathairn, Chris Cooper, Russell Brand, Reeve Carney (currently in Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark on Broadway) and Alfred Molina.

The event will take place on Saturday, October 22nd at 7:00 p.m. on the 7th floor of Alumni Hall on Fifth Avenue in Oakland, and is sponsored in part by the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh and The Priory. Disney has generously donated the 35 mm print for this special event.

Lynn Hendee, president of Chartoff Productions and producer of The Tempest, will introduce the film. A “Meet the Producer” reception with Ms. Hendee will be held after the screening. Ms. Hendee, a member of the Producers Guild of America, was previously Vice President of Barry and Enright Productions and before that, a Production Executive with Thorn EMI Films. Her 2005 production of “In My Country,” starring Juliette Binoche and Samuel L. Jackson, was awarded the Diamond Cinema for Peace Award at the Berlin Film Festival as well as the Washington, D. C. based Common Ground Award for Film.

This modern retelling of William Shakespeare’s final masterpiece is an exciting, mystical and magical fantasy. The film stars Academy Award-Winner Helen Mirren (best actress The Queen, 2006) leading a star-studded cast including Russell Brand (Get Him to the Greek) and Alfred Molina (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Tony-Award nominee for Art, Fiddler on the Roof, Red). Exiled to a magical island, the sorceress Prospera (Mirren) conjures up a storm that shipwrecks her enemies, and then unleashes her powers for revenge.

The Tempest was honored as the closing night film at the 2010 Venice Film Festival, as the Centerpiece selection for the 2010 New York Film Festival, as well as the Chicago International Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival and the 2011 Moscow International Film Festival.

American director Julie Taymor is one of the most celebrated and controversial artists working today. Her production of The Lion King earned her the honor of being the first woman to ever win a Tony Award for directing a musical, as well as a Tony Award for Costume Design. Her highly-publicized production Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark is currently running on Broadway. Other films by Taymor include Titus, and Frida, which was nominated for six Oscars, winning two. Her film Across the Universe, a love story set to the music of The Beatles, received a Golden Globe nomination.


For more information about the movie, visit www.tempest-themovie.com.


Tickets for the benefit screening of The Tempest are $25; screening and reception is $35. Youth tickets (under 26) for the screening are $15. (Youth add $10 for the “Meet the Producer” reception.) Tickets are available through Pitt Theatre Arts at 412.624.7529 (or at the box office in the basement of the Stephen Foster Memorial from noon-5 Monday-Friday) or through ProArtsTickets by calling 412.394.3353.
# # #

Importance of Being Earnest Breaks New Ground for PICT

Media Contact:

Melissa Hill Grande

Associate Artistic Director and Director of Marketing

412.561.6000 x203

mgrande@picttheatre.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PICT offers lavish, hilarious, all-male Importance of Being Earnest

Irish director Conall Morrison helms spectacular production he originally created for Dublin’s famed Abbey Theatre

Pittsburgh, PA – July 25, 2011. The Importance of Being Earnest, one of the greatest comedies of all time, opened on Valentine’s Day, 1895. For playwright Oscar Wilde, it was the moment of his greatest triumph and the beginning of his downfall.

Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre pays tribute to the great playwright and his masterpiece with a vibrant and stylish production of his comic masterpiece, anchored by two of Ireland’s favorite sons – Conall Morrison and Alan Stanford – and featuring a cast comprised entirely of gentlemen. Director Morrison’s landmark production, which was a sell-out hit at the Abbey Theatre for two consecutive seasons, begins in The Brasserie Dauphine, Paris, 1900, three months before Wilde's death. In the brief prologue (written by Morrison), we find Wilde breakfasting on champagne and absinthe. Surrounded by the splendor of Art Nouveau and the beauty of the young waiters, he recalls the glory of Earnest, casting the play from the café’s elegant male clientele and assaying the plum role of Lady Bracknell himself.

Morrison joins PICT for the first time this summer, but his credits are legendary. He is a former associate artist with Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, where his adaptation of Patrick Kavanagh’s novel Tarry Flynn and production of Dion Boucicault’s The Colleen Bawn began before transferring for acclaimed runs at Britain’s Royal National theatre. This year, Conall has directed the Abbey’s revival of Brian Friel’s Translations and Arthur Miller’s classic play The Crucible, which was the grand opening production at the new Lyric Theatre in Belfast. He directed the American premier of Boublil and Schoenberg’s musical Martin Guerre for Cameron Mackintosh at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis along with many other productions for the Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, and the English National Opera.

Stanford is well-known to PICT audiences as the director of the stunning 2008 production of Salome and the Pinter Celebration’s much-lauded productions of Betrayal and Celebration. He makes his PICT acting debut as Oscar Wilde/Lady Bracknell in Earnest, though local audiences may remember Stanford for his portrayal of Pozzo in the Gate Theatre’s touring production of Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece, Waiting for Godot, which visited Pittsburgh in 2006. This critically-acclaimed performance has toured the world, and is featured as part of the “Beckett on Film” series. A prominent actor at Dublin’s Gate Theatre for more than three decades, Alan has received, among many other awards and accolades, a Harvey’s Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance as Salieri in Amadeus, and nominations for his performances as Astrov in Uncle Vanya, Higgins in Pygmalion, and Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses. As director and actor, he is widely considered to be one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the plays of Oscar Wilde.

PICT’s 2011 Actor in Residence Leo Marks will play the suave Algernon Moncrief. A company member in PICT’s extraordinary Pinter Celebration, Marks was also featured in PICT’s recent productions of Antony & Cleopatra and House & Garden. The OBIE award-winning actor has appeared at some of the most respected theatres in the country, including The Shakespeare Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Actors Theater of Louisville, the Old Globe, and Intiman. He is also a founding member of New York’s acclaimed Elevator Repair Service.

David Whalen returns to PICT this season to play the charming Jack Worthing. His PICT credits include Pinter Celebration, Doubt, President George W. Bush in Stuff Happens, Julius Caesar, An Ideal Husband, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. For his work in four PICT productions, David was named Performer of the Year by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2007. The Lieutenant of Inishmore was remounted at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis in 2008, winning David that city’s Kevin Kline award for Best Actor. He has performed with some of the country’s most respected companies, including South Coast Repertory, the Shakespeare Theatre of D.C., Folger Theatre, Round House Theatre, as well as Pittsburgh’s excellent City, Public, and Quantum Theatres.

CMU alumnus Will Reynolds and young New York-based character actor Matthew Cleaver were chosen for the plum roles of Gwendolen and Cecily following an extensive national search. Reynolds was in the PICT 2004 production of Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance and recently played Frank Churchill in the pre-Broadway production of Paul Gordon’s musical version of Jane Austen’s Emma at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. His other credits include productions with West Virginia Public Theatre, Goodspeed, and the national tour of Mamma Mia. Cleaver is a recent graduate of Ohio University, where he earned a B.F.A. in Theatre Performance. His one-man show Gay Blues has been performed off-Broadway at Barrow Street Theatre.

The production also features James FitzGerald as Miss Prism, David Crawford as Canon Chasuble, Martin Giles as Merriman, and Dan Derks, Luka Glinsky, Dylan Marquis Meyers and Jordan Matthew Walsh as rent boys and gardeners.

PICT’s production retains the original scenic and costume designs from the acclaimed Abbey theatre production. The Art Nouveau Parisian café set is designed by the brilliant French scenic designer Sabine Dargent, who makes her PICT debut with The Importance of Being Earnest. The costumes are by acclaimed Irish designer Joan O’Clery, with additional costumes by Pittsburgh designer Joan Markert. The lighting design is by Jim French (Pinter Celebration, Rock ‘n’ Roll), sound design by Erik T. Lawson (Hobson’s Choice), and properties by Cory F. Goddard. The Importance of Being Earnest plays August 4-27 in the Charity Randall Theatre.

The Importance of Being Earnest Fact Sheet

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Adapted and directed by Conall Morrison

The Charity Randall Theatre in the Stephen Foster Memorial, Oakland

4301 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Cast: Matthew Cleaver, David Crawford, Dan Derks, James FitzGerald, Martin Giles, Luka Glinsky, Leo Marks, Dylan Marquis Meyers, Will Reynolds, Alan Stanford, Jordan Walsh and David Whalen.

Design Team: Sabine Dargent (scenic design); Gianni Downs (associate scenic design); Jim French (lighting design); Joan O’Clery (original costume design); Joan Markert (additional costume design); Erik T. Lawson (sound design), Cory F. Goddard (properties)

Performance Dates and Times:

First Week:

Thursday -- Friday, August 4 - 5; 8 p.m. previews

Saturday, August 6; 8 p.m. opening night, followed by reception

Sunday, August 7; 2 p.m. matinee, followed by talk-back

Second Week:

Tuesday, August 9; 7 p.m. Professional Tuesday performance

Wednesday – Saturday, August 10 - 13; 8 p.m. performances*

Sunday, August 14; 2 p.m. matinee

*pre-performance discussion at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday

Third Week:

Wednesday – Saturday, August 17 - 20; 8 p.m. performances

Sunday, August 21; 2 p.m. performance

Fourth Week:

Tuesday, August 23: 7 p.m. performance

Wednesday – Friday, August 24 – 26: 8 p.m. performance

Saturday, August 27; 2 p.m. AND 8 p.m. performances

Ticket Prices:

Fri. and Sat. nights: $50; Seniors $48

Tues., Wed., Thurs. nights, and Sat. & Sun. matinees $46, Seniors $44

Preview Thurs. and Fri.: $40 for all seats

$20 tickets available for youth under 25, with valid ID

Call ProArtsTickets at 412.394.3353 or visit www.picttheatre.org

Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre. Great Stories. Well Told

PICT Delivers Theater Triumph with House & Garden

Media Contact:

Melissa Hill Grande

Associate Artistic Director and Director of Marketing
mgrande@picttheatre.org
412.561.6000 x203

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PICT produces theatrical event of the 2011 season!

House and Garden is two full-length comedies which are performed at the same time, in two different theatres for two different audiences, but with the SAME CAST!

Pittsburgh, PA – June 9, 2011. Alan Ayckbourn’s comic triumph House & Garden pits actors, directors and crew against the clock! The most clever duo ever written for the stage, House & Garden are two separate comedies that play in the Charity Randall and the Henry Heymann theatres simultaneously…with the SAME CAST! Actors run up and down a backstage stairwell that connects the two theatres, while audience members sit comfortably for two hours in one of the theatres and watch the play which is set in that location.

House is directed by Andrew S. Paul, and Garden is directed by Melissa Hill Grande. The plays can be seen singly, and in no particular order, and play June 23 through July 17. House will be performed in the Charity Randall, and Garden in the Henry Heymann theatre. Lighting design for House is by Christopher Popowich, and lighting design for Garden is by Cindy Limauro. Designing both shows are Gianni Downs (scenic), Jen Sturm and Steve Buechler (costumes), Zach Moore (sound and original music) and Ricardo Vila-Roger (properties).

The plays are both set in the household of Teddy Platt, a wealthy philanderer awaiting a visit from a Tory power-broker who can establish Platt’s political career. Everything that can go wrong on this most important of days is destined to occur, as Platt’s wife refuses to acknowledge his existence, his mistress (and best friend’s wife) becomes increasingly unhinged as he breaks up with her, his daughter is seduced and discarded by the visiting politico, and his head is turned by a glamorous French actress who is the celebrity guest star for the community fete at the bottom of his garden. Further down the social scale, ongoing conflict is coming to a head between the gardener, the housekeeper and her promiscuous daughter, and the couple who’ve come to set up the fete is headed for marital disaster. Boozers and cuckolds, insanity and depravity all come together for one fantastic story told in two hilarious plays. House primarily concerns Teddy’s pursuit of a political career and deteriorating marriage, while Garden primarily concerns the revelation of Teddy and Joanna’s affair to their spouses and children, and preparations for the neighborhood fete.

Martin Giles stars as Teddy Platt, and Helena Ruoti plays his wife Trish. Giles’ PICT credits include Pinter Celebration, What the Butler Saw, Synge Cycle, BeckettFest, Uncle Vanya and The Gigli Concert. Ruoti’s PICT credits include Antony & Cleopatra, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and What the Butler Saw.

PICT 2011 Actor-in-Residence Leo Marks plays the author and politico Gavin Ryng-Mayne. The OBIE award-winning actor was company member in PICT’s extraordinary Pinter Celebration last season, and he has appeared at some of the most respected theatres in the country, including South Coast Repertory, Actors Theater of Louisville, the Old Globe, and Intiman. He is a founding member of New York’s acclaimed Elevator Repair Service.

Beth Hylton and Nike Doukas return to PICT to play respectively Teddy’s jilted mistress Joanna Mace, and a glamorous French film star he becomes enamored of, Lucille Cadeau. Hylton’s credits include productions with Woolly Mammoth, Ford’s Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Delaware Theatre Company, Everyman Theatre, Olney Theater Center, Weston Playhouse, and PlayMakers Rep. Doukas was featured prominently in last season’s Pinter Celebration. She has an MFA from the American Conservatory Theatre and is a regular presence at theatres throughout Southern California including South Coast Rep and The Old Globe in San Diego. House & Garden reunites Hylton and Doukas with Anwen Darcy (Rock ‘n’ Roll) and Mary Rawson (Copenhagen). The four last appeared together in PICT’s 2008 production of Wilde’s An Ideal Husband.

British-born actors Sarah Manton and David Bryan Jackson bring authentic stiff-upper-lip to Ayckbourn’s comedies in their PICT debuts. Manton, a graduate of the Guildford School of Acting, London, plays the feisty young maid Pearl. Her credits include the world premiere of Tom Stoppard’s Coast of Utopia (National Theatre), the role of Baby in the West End production of Dirty Dancing, and the National Theatre production of South Pacific. She was recently seen in the Pittsburgh Public Theatre production of Ayckbourn’s Time of My Life. Jackson plays Giles Mace, Teddy’s best friend and Joanna’s husband. His credits include multiple productions with The Shakespeare Theatre, Folger Theatre, Studio Theatre, and Olney Theatre Center.

The acting company also features Jon Farris, Michael Fuller, Tressa Glover, Allison Scarlet Jaye, and Sean Mellott.

House director Andrew S. Paul is the co-founder and artistic director of PICT. Under his leadership, PICT has produced more than fifty main-stage productions and completed two successful international tours. His directing credits for PICT include the 2009 productions of The History Boys and Rock ‘n’Roll. Other PICT directing credits include Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Henry IV, and Julius Caesar; the world premiere of Thomas Kilroy’s Henry (after Pirandello); and David Hare’s Stuff Happens and Via Dolorosa. In 2008, Paul directed and collaborated with Hare on the non-English language premiere of Stuff Happens at the Slaski Teatr in Katowice, Poland.

Garden director Melissa Hill Grande is the associate artistic director and director of marketing for PICT. Her Pittsburgh-area directing credits include “When the Moon Has Set” in PICT’s acclaimed Synge Cycle, Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing for Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks, and multiple productions for Phase 3 Productions. She has also directed in Bricolage’s B.U.S. 6, No Name Players’ SWAN Day 2010 and 2011, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Festival in Black and White, and Pittsburgh PRIDE Theater Festival.

House & Garden play simultaneously June 23rd through July 17. House is in the Charity Randall Theatre and Garden is in the Henry Heymann Theatre. Both theatre spaces are located at the Stephen Foster Memorial, 4301 Forbes Avenue on the University of Pittsburgh campus in Oakland. Tickets are $20 to $50 and are available by calling ProArtsTickets at 412.394.3353 or online at www.proartstickets.org.

Free preshow discussions are scheduled for Wednesday June 29th and Thursday June 30th at 7 p.m., and a post-show talk-back with the company is scheduled for Sunday, June 25th following the 2 p.m. matinee performance.

For more information, visit the PICT website at www.picttheatre.org.

The Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre was founded in 1996 to diversify the region’s theatrical offerings by providing Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania audiences with high-quality, text-driven, affordable productions of classical theatre and the works of classical and contemporary Irish playwrights and to significantly improve employment opportunities for local talent in all facets of theatrical presentation and production. PICT is a Small Professional Theatre (SPT) affiliated with Actors’ Equity Association, and a constituent member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. PICT is the Professional Theatre in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh and PICT productions at the Charity Randall and Henry Heymann Theatres are presented in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh – Department of Theatre Arts.

House & Garden FACT SHEET

House & Garden by Alan Ayckbourn

House directed by Andrew S. Paul, in The Charity Randall Theatre

Garden directed by Melissa Hill Grande, in the Henry Heymann Theatre

Both theatres located in the Stephen Foster Memorial, Oakland

4301 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Cast:.Anwen Darcy, Nike Doukas, Jon Farris, Michael Fuller, Martin Giles, Tressa Glover, Beth Hylton, David Bryan Jackson, Allison Scarlet Jaye, Sarah Manton, Leo Marks, Sean Mellott, Mary Rawson, and Helena Ruoti.

Design Team: Gianni Downs (scenic design); Christopher Popowich (House lighting design); Cindy Limauro (Garden lighting design); Jen Sturm and Steve Buechler (costume design); Zach Moore (sound design & original music), Ricardo Vila-Roger (properties)

Performance Dates and Times:

First Week:

Thursday -- Friday, June 23 and 24; 8 p.m. previews

Saturday, June 25; 8 p.m. opening night, followed by reception

Sunday, June 26; 2 p.m. matinee, followed by talk-back

Second Week:

Tuesday, June 28th, 7 p.m. performance

Wednesday – Saturday, June 29 – July 2; 8 p.m. performances*

*pre-performance discussion at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday

Third Week:

Wednesday – Friday, July 6 - 8; 8 p.m. performances

Saturday, July 9; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. performances

Sunday, July 10, 2 p.m. performance

Fourth Week:

Wednesday – Friday, July 13 – 15, 8 p.m. performances

Saturday, July 16, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. performances

Saturday, July 17, 2 p.m. closing performance

Ticket Prices:

Fri. and Sat. nights: $50; Seniors $48

Tues., Wed., Thurs. nights, and Sat. & Sun. matinees $46, Seniors $44

Preview Thurs. and Fri.: $40 for all seats

$20 tickets available for youth under 25, with valid ID

Call ProArtsTickets at 412.394.3353 or visit www.picttheatre.org

Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre. Great Stories. Well Told.