Rubblebucket in Concert at Mr. Smalls; Prime Stage Running ‘Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story’ (Fri., 1/17/25)

1) Rubblebucket mixes indie, jazz, and psychedelic rock. The band started a dance party during its set at the 2016 Thrival Music Festival. The party culminated with the band parading through the audience during “Came Out of a Lady.” Alex Toth sat on one concert-goer’s shoulders while still playing the trumpet. Singer and saxophonist Annakalmia Traver then announced it was his birthday. Toth and the audience couldn’t have looked happier. Traver and Toth met at the University of Vermont as music majors; Rubblebucket, active since 2007, is based in Brooklyn, New York City. The band has played “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and NPR’s “Tiny Desk.” In 2024 Rubblebucket released a studio LP, The Year of the Banana, and an EP, Rattlesnake. Be sure to bring your dancing shoes to Mr. Smalls Theater.  Special guest is Hannah Mohan. 8 p.m. 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. (C.M., R.H.)

LOOK FORWARD: THE RUBY BRIDGES STORY by Natalia Temesgen. Prime Stage Theatre. January 17 – 26. 

12-year-old Saniya Lavelle plays the role of Ruby Bridges.

2) Pittsburgh’s Prime Stage Theatre produces plays that have educational as well as artistic value, with programming targeted to youth and teens but shows that adults can also enjoy. The company’s first offering of 2025 is drawn from history—Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story. Bridges, now in her 70s, was just six years old in 1960 when she became the first African-American child to attend a previously all-white elementary school in Louisiana. The ordeal she faced can be hard to fathom today. Residents of New Orleans who’d been used to a segregated society picketed the school and threatened little Ruby. She had to be escorted to school by U.S. marshals and ate only lunches brought from home to preclude poisoning. White parents in the district kept their children home until one family crossed the line. Look Forward, by playwright Natalia Temesgen, dramatizes these and other events—including the debate between Bridges’ own parents over whether to let their daughter serve as a pioneer of integration. See Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story in the New Hazlett Theater. 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side. (M.V.) 

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