Art of Wise to play International Black Theatre Festival!
The International Black Theatre Festival just officially announced that our 2025 world premiere Art of Wise has been selected for this year’s festival!
If you’ve helped us fund our previous festival shows, thank you! Now we need your help again. In order to make this a successful production, we need to raise additional funds. Please donate if you can by clicking here. Thank you!
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company has had the honor of presenting three productions at the festival: Miss Julie, Clarissa and John in 2017, Savior Samuel in 2022 and The Bluegrass Mile in 2024. This year’s festival runs July 27–August 1 in Winston-Salem.
From our friends at Mr. Goodbird USA
60 Minutes
60 Performers. One minute each.
While the Pittsburgh theatre scene finds itself in an era of major restructuring, financial turmoil, and conservative programming decisions, Mr. Goodbird USA proudly says “hold my beer.” Foolishly presenting a night of 60 performers, each providing a minute of entertainment, we invite you to get off your phone, come out, and enjoy an evening of stand-up comedians, characters, monologues, poetry, music, and organized mayhem. Fast-paced, frenetic, and fun, it’s 60 Minutes. We’ll sell you the whole seat, but we promise, you’ll only need the edge!!! But also probably the rest of the seat!!!
BURNBABYBURN: an american dream
By a.k. payne
Directed by Karla C. Payne
August 25th – September 13th 2026
Outdoors at August Wilson House
A World Premiere Coproduction with August Wilson House
Set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District and Homewood neighborhoods, BURNBABYBURN: an american dream moves fluidly through time as a young woman, Sky II, embarks on a journey to heal herself and the generations who came before her.
Through photographs that flicker with memory and meaning, she reaches across decades to touch the lives of her ancestors. Four generations of women draw nearer to one another as they confront the truths of motherhood, love, loss, and a city that both holds and haunts their dreams.
In this tender, time-bending story, a.k. payne reminds us that memory is fragile, history is human, and as she writes, “cameras tells lots of lies i cannot make any promises of fact.”
Fishy Woo Woo, Part 2
By Monteze Freeland
Directed by Lovell McFadden
October 16th – October 31st 2026
Carter Woodson Redwood Theater
Madison Arts and Entertainment Center
World Premiere
In 2024, Fishy Woo Woo introduced audiences to a lovable, slightly chaotic crew of elder millennial friends who proved that no matter how messy life gets, the bond is mighty real.
Two years later, the gang has fled Atlanta and settled into a quiet Delaware life, or at least they try to. But when Halloween rolls around, what starts as a night of laughs, costumes, and cocktails quickly turns into a scandalous showdown. Char is the focus of this iteration as she is pregnant but keeping a tight lip about the father…until someone unexpected shows up ready to stir the cauldron.
It is tricks, treats, and total mayhem as this crew faces the ghosts of their past. This is a jaw dropping night they will never forget, even if they wish they could.
A Dinah Washington Christmas
at Jimmy Hyde’s Sugartop Lounge
Featuring Delana Flowers as Dinah Washington
By Ernest McCarty
December 10-21 2026
Pittsburgh Playwrights Cabaret Theater
Madison Arts and Entertainment Center
Our hit 2025 world premiere returns! It’s December 1963, and “Queen of the Blues” Dinah Washington is appearing at a renowned Pittsburgh jazz club for a night of holiday-themed songs, backed with a chorus and blues ensemble. Delana Flowers portrays Dinah, reprising her role from our hit 2024 production Dinah: A Musical Revue, accompanied by some of Pittsburgh’s top musicians. (Not part of our subscription season.)
More Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre News
December 2025: The Trib names the three plays of our August Wilson American Century Cycle Experience as among the year’s top five, and cites Art of Wise‘s cast as “perfection”.
August 2025: Video interview with Sharon Eberson of onStage featuring directors Terrence Spivey, Ashley Southers and Mark Clayton Southers.
August 2025: Video interview with Lisa Smith, KDKA featuring directors Terrence Spivey, Ashley Southers and Mark Clayton Southers.
July 2025: Tressa Glover interviews Mark Clayton Southers for Yinz Are Good podcast.
April 2025: Preview of August Wilson’s American Century Cycle Experience at onStage Pittsburgh.
April 2025: Reviews of Art of Wise from Burgh Vivant, OnStage Pittsburgh, Trib Live, Pittsburgh Owlscribe (spoilers).
March 2025: Reviews of Sanctified from onStage Pittsburgh, Burgh Vivant, Pittsburgh Owlscribe.
December 2024: Radio Golf is named one of the five best productions of 2024 by the Tribune-Review.
September 2024: Check out our time lapse video of the new sign going up for Madison Arts Center’s Carter Woodson Redwood Theatre.
August 2024: Reviews of Radio Golf from onStage Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Tatler, TribLive, Burgh Vivant, Entertainment Central
July 2024: Preview of Radio Golf and more PPTCO news from onStage Pittsburgh.
June 2024: Reviews of Fishy Woo Woo from Entertainment Central, Burgh Vivant, and onStage Pittsburgh.
April 2024: Reviews of Dinah from Burgh Vivant and Pittsburgh Owlscribe, and previews from New Pittsburgh Courier and On Stage Pittsburgh.
March 2024: WQED’s Voice of the Arts podcast interviews Mark Clayton Southers on PPTCO’s 2024 season.
February 2024: We’ve added new photo galleries for our productions of Seven Guitars (2009) and Jitney (2010) as part of our website’s design refresh, plus a new production history page, improved navigation throughout, and more.
December 2023: Two of our plays in our 20th Anniversary 2023 season, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and The Bluegrass Mile, appeared in Sharon Eberson’s Best of Pittsburgh Theater 2023 at OnStage Pittsburgh, as did Karla Payne and Charles Timbers for their work on our stages! Thanks!
January 2023: Pittsburgh Playwrights names theater for actor Carter Redwood!
September 2022: Check out this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about our future plans at Madison Arts Center! Read Tony Norman’s November 2022 article on Next Pittsburgh. And see Pittsburgh Magazine’s March 2023 writeup with photos and video.
In 2021, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre was recognized as one of Pittsburgh’s Cultural Treasures! Read more in this in-depth article (PDF)!
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company thanks the following for supporting our season of plays and special projects:
And our Donor’s Circle and other individual donors.
Thank you!
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre was selected a Pittsburgh Cultural Treasure by Heinz Endowments in collaboration with the Poise Foundation, a national initiative by the Ford Foundation.
Questions? Email us at contactpptco@pghplaywrights.
Mailing address: PO Box 10371, Pittsburgh, PA 15234
Follow Us on Social Media @pghplaywrights
Slideshow photos by J.L. Martello/18ricco, Christopher Chapman Sr., Candace Michelle Perdue, Duane Rieder, Gail Manker, Joy Southers, and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre. Ma Rainey photo by Mark Clayton Southers. August Wilson portrait by Marlon Gist.
AUGUST WILSON’S JITNEY is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
www.concordtheatricals.com