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Center Stage

The latest curtain-risings in theater and dance

David Larsen

September Theater Preview: Does the Past Foretell Our Future?

Pittsburgh’s theater calendar for September features a strong and diverse up of plays—including several with subjects from the early 20th century.

they'd like to keep it on the up and up

Quantum’s ‘Tamara’: Dancing in a House of Intrigue While Rome Burns

“Tamara,” a remarkable and challenging play, is intimately brought to life through Quantum Theatre’s Pittsburgh production.

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With ‘Side Show,’ Stage 62 Revives a Cult Classic—and Stirs the Audience

This musical about a pair of real-life Siamese twins, the Hilton sisters, gets into some stirring business about real life for all of us.

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‘Orlando’: a Wild Crossover Story for the Ages. And the Sexes …

Strange things happened on the opening night of Orlando.

From Sci-Fi Spoof to Psychodrama, ‘Acting Out’ Delivers a Bold Bill of New One-Acts

There is nothing in theater quite like an evening of one-acts. If the plays are right you get a greatest-hits effect, a sampling of tightly honed short pieces in different styles and moods. That’s what the Pittsburgh Pride Theater Festival is going for with this year’s offering: two comedies plus two dramas, all of them…

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PICT’s ‘Blithe Spirit’ Wakes the Ghost of Humor Past

If you enjoy plays that eve the spirits of bygone ages and stages, then PICT Classic Theatre—formerly Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre—is the company for you. Although PICT does some contemporary pieces, it specializes in throwbacks, the many works that either were written or are set in the years before the Internet. The group’s 2014…

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Quantum’s ‘Pantagleize’ Is Seriously Entertaining

It’s not easy to do wacky physical comedy about a dead-serious subject. And when the time comes for theater reviewers to give informal recognition for Best This and That of the current season, Quantum Theatre’s Pantagleize will be on my list for several awards. One would be Best High Five Seen Anywhere. If you are…

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Why ‘Tribes’ Might Be the Play of the Year

How good a play is Tribes? To answer properly, I’d have to be all thumbs. Then I could give it ten thumbs up. Or nine, anyway. Maybe it falls a bit short of perfection. The point is that multiples and superlatives are needed to describe this play by Nina Raine, currently at City Theatre, because…

we do." June is quoting her missing brother

‘Madagascar’ at Quantum: a Midwinter’s Tale of a Strange Fall

One of the oldest themes in drama is the downfall of a great family. In such ancient Greek plays as the Oresteian Trilogy, or in Shakespeare’s King Lear, it is a royal family that comes to grief. In J.T. Rogers’s Madagascar—now being performed by Quantum Theatre—we follow the misfortunes of an upper-class American family, members…

which they will learn is a terrible futures market.|This Sherlock (David Whalen) is doing it the proper Victorian way

Out of the Mists, a Forgotten Sherlock: PICT’s ‘Crucifer of Blood’

In this play, before the action begins or a word is spen, fog rolls in silently. Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre has turned on the fog machine, which serves as a way-back machine. As mists envelop the still-dark stage, it is a sign that we are going back in time. The Crucifer of Blood opens…

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