May 2022
The Double V
By Carole Eglash-Kosoff
Directed by Mani Bahia
In 1942, the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper published a letter by a 26-year-old reader, titled “Should I Sacrifice to Live ‘Half American?'” and relating how he had been beaten while trying to enlist. The paper responded by starting a campaign to highlight the risks African-American soldiers were taking in World War II, while being denied their rights at home, and called for a victory not only over “aggression, slavery, and tyranny”, as in the original V For Victory slogan, but also for a victory over racial inequality in the USA. A Pittsburgh premiere.
June 2022
2022 Theatre Festival in Black & White
Co-presented with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust as part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival
Festival coordinator: R. M. Lawrence
PPTCO’s signature Theatre Festival in Black & White returns with a selection of short plays, each paired with a director from a different background. The festival originally paired white playwrights with Black directors, and vice versa, but has expanded to bring together playwrights and directors who may have different religions, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or access/disability needs, for example. This year’s festival will also be an opportunity to showcase the talents who have been participating in our Ground Up Theatre training program, making the event a true building block of theatric development in Pittsburgh.
Free to the public! Each of the two programs includes three one-act plays, and each program runs about 90 minutes.
August-September 2022
Jitney
By August Wilson
Directed by Mark Clayton Southers
An outdoor production at August Wilson House, 1727 Bedford Avenue in the Lower Hill
“Nothing short of magical” – Dr. Tiffany Raymond, onStage Pittsburgh
August Wilson’s Jitney is a compelling drama which depicts the lives of the drivers at a jitney cab station in the Hill District in 1977. PPTCO first produced this August Wilson classic in 2010. Co-presented with August Wilson House. Learn more about our phenomenal cast or read the Jitney program!
“The play dazzles…. Wilson’s dialogue is poetic, filled with wit and verve and the cast is superb.” – Michael Buzzelli, Burgh Vivant