Theater Guide October 2026: Pittsburgh Theaters Showcase Autumn Inspirations

As the weather turns, it’s time to think of indoor opportunities that fulfill our human need to connect with people and their stories. More than most art forms, theater provides the greatest opportunity to reaffirm our personal hopes and desires. And, so, we offer our recommendations of the best of what’s available on stage this October in Pittsburgh. Perhaps, you are curious why we Americans can get things so wrong when we are otherwise surrounded by vast networks of information designed to make us more secure in a world of which much is vastly unknown. We’re not talking about Artificial Intelligence, but rather something that theater itself professes and promotes as Active Intrigue. For example, what could go so profoundly wrong when ignorance of culture betrays one’s self-identity (Refugee Rhapsody or Ulster American)? How does the pain of a broken heart beget sheer pandemonium either foreign or domestic (Radio Island or Fishy Woo Woo Part 2)?  When does the fear of death propel the living to love and forgive (Giselle or Hadestown)? And how do we make right from wrong in a world controlled by forces both evil and benevolent (Rigoletto or Pilobolus)? Indeed, our world, like the dramatic stage, can be a mysterious one; it’s either Amusingly Ironic or Artfully Informative. What’s your pick? Here are ours.

Shows are previewed below in two sections, Spotlight Picks for the month and Other Shows of Interest, followed by a look-ahead to Big Shows on the Horizon. Spotlight Picks are listed by run dates. The Theater Guide is created by the theater writers and editors of Entertainment Central including Mike Vargo (M.V.) and C. Prentiss Orr (C.P.O.).

Spotlight Picks

REFUGEE RHAPSODY by Yussef El Guindi. PICT at Carnegie Stage. October 9 – 25.

A young Arab American couple, Sakinah and Fouad, have a chance encounter with Emily, a wealthy socialite heiress, in a Goodwill store. There is some irony in that, because what ensues from their meeting is abhorrent violence so bizarre the ensuing investigation requires the services of a therapist to help answer questions about the motive for the crime. Jealousy, class privilege, desire, race, and a bit of twisted comedy come to play in this rolling world premiere.

Recently staged at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and in collaboration with the Sound Theatre of Seattle, Washington, Yussef El Guindi’s Refugee Rhapsody will unfold at Carnegie Stage. Among many recent honors, El Guindi holds an MFA in Theatre from Carnegie Mellon University and will attend the Sunday, October 11 performance after which he will engage in an audience Q & A. PICT’s artistic director, Elizabeth Elias Huffman, will direct.  25 W. Main St., Carnegie. (C.P.O.)

ULSTER AMERICAN by David Ireland. barebones productions. October 9 – 25.

Even the wokest among us may feel an urge to go transgressive sometimes. Therefore you might be up for a dark-comic satire that “skates on the brink of bad taste,” according to England’s The Guardian. The playwright is a Northern Irishman fittingly named David Ireland, and his characters include a clueless American, hence the title Ulster American. The play graduated from the Edinburgh Fringe to a 2023 London debut starring Woody Harrelson, Andy Serkis, and Louisa Harland. Now barebones productions, a company that portrays capital crimes but won’t use capital letters, brings Ulster American to Pittsburgh. (Actually, to Braddock—same thing, right?) What you get here is a battle over a play within the play. A brilliant Irish woman has written a drama about The Troubles. Unfortunately she’s got a stone-headed director who thinks the story has to do with Brexit, and an American actor with a head full of theories so stinky they would wrinkle Joe Rogan’s nose. Question: When two misogynistic men butt heads with a relatively level-headed woman, who wins? Maybe you do if you catch Ulster American in the barebones black box. 1211 Braddock Ave., Braddock. (M.V.) 

PILOBOLUS: TRIPS (modern dance). Touring company presented by Pittsburgh Dance Council. October 10 only, 7:30 p.m. 

Pilobolus is one of the world’s weirdest modern-dance companies and also one of the most accessible—easy to enjoy regardless of one’s sophistication as a dance fan. The company had its unlikely roots at Dartmouth College in 1971, when a group of students took a dance class and then took it further. Along with their teacher, Alison Becker Chase, they worked in elements of gymnastics and athletics—one student was a pole vaulter, another a fencer—combining these with mime-like physical illusions and physical comedy. After their first shows created a sensation on campus, the word soon spread. Pilobolus went on to perform globally and grew its repertoire, while staying true to a unique artistic vision through decades of changes in personnel. As for the name: Founding member Jonathan Wolken, now deceased, was a Pittsburgh native and son of the prominent biophysicist Jerome Wolken. Jerome had been studying a hyperactive fungus called Pilobolus (pill-LOB-olus), which propagates by shooting spores into the air at amazing speed, and the dancers figured Hey, that’s us.   

Today, Pilobolus describes itself as a “post-disciplinary” company. The troupe has collaborated with artists ranging from cartoonist Art Spiegelman to the alt-rockers OK Go. In recent years they’ve been highlighted guests at the Oscars and performed absurdly updated versions of Houdini’s escape stunts on TV’s “Penn & Teller: Fool Us.” Now Pilobolus brings its feature-length dance piece Trips to Pittsburgh for a one-night blast. Presented by Pittsburgh Dance Council at 7:30 p.m. in the Byham Theater, 101 6th St., Cultural District. (M.V.)

RIGOLETTO by Giuseppi Verdi. Pittsburgh Opera at Benedum Center. October 10 – 18.

In a classic story of privileged lechery, comeuppance and revenge, the Duke of Mantua loves to boast of his sexual exploits as much as loves the womanizing itself. To help in his escapades, his court jester Rigoletto abets him by mocking the cuckold husbands of the Duke’s conquests. But an elder Count confronts the Duke when he learns of his daughter’s complicity in their affair and, so, curses the Duke. Of course, Rigoletto mocks the Count and now he too gets cursed by the Count. Thus lays the intrigue. When Rigoletto returns home to greet his daughter Gilda, he warns her of his curse and begs that she should not leave their house except to attend church.  Little does he know that Gilda has been visited regularly by a poor student with whom she has now fallen in love. 

Verdi was commissioned to write the opera in 1850, along with librettist Francesco Maria Piave, and Rigoletto became an international success by 1852. Rigoletto will open Pittsburgh Opera’s 2026-2027 season under the new leadership of William Powers. Directing the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra is Antony Walker.  At the Benedum Center, 237 7th St. Cultural District. (C.P.O.)

FISHY WOO WOO, PART 2 by Monteze Freeland. Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. October 16 – November 1.

Are we supposed to take seriously a play called Fishy Woo Woo? So seriously that we’d even go to see a sequel, a Part 2? Well, the Fishy Woo Woo franchise may not be serious in the sense that Death of a Salesman is, but it’s seriously good comic theater. The original Fishy—written by the esteemed director and actor Monteze Freeland—premiered in 2024 and scored a rousing hit. (See our review.) That play is an anti-romcom, a riff on the perils of romance. When a man is dumped by his longtime partner, his best buddy and his number one gal pal try to help him through the pain, but neither is a relationship ninja and they turn pain into pandemonium. The silver lining is that the trio’s friendship endures. Which provides a setup for this year’s Part 2, wherein gal pal discovers she’s pregnant and a bizarre Halloween party reveals more than anyone’s costumes can hide. Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company presents Monteze Freeland’s Fishy Woo Woo, Part 2 in the Madison Arts and Entertainment Center, 3401 Milwaukee St., Hill District. (M.V.)

GISELLE  by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, with music by Adolphe Adam.  Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre at Benedum Center. October 23 – 25. 

Classic ballet is loved for its traditional choreography and costumes. But over the centuries, often lost are the story lines on which they’re based. Giselle is the story of a peasant girl who falls in love with Albrecht, a nobleman in disguise. When she realizes that her lover is not who she was led to believe, she dies of heartbreak. Descending into a nether realm of women who died of similar fate—a sisterhood of ghosts who drive their former lovers wild by inducing them to dance until exhaustion—Giselle disclaims her sorrow and spares Albrecht’s life. 

Giselle was first staged in 1841 in Paris. The ballet became a popular vehicle mostly to further the career of its principal ballerina. But in 1911, when Nijinsky performed the role of Albrecht wearing sheer tights, the scandalous costuming became a nearly standard practice for male dancers in classic ballet. Giselle will feature new staging by Adam W. McKinney when Pittsburgh Ballet performs it on the Benedum Center stage. 237 7th St., Cultural District. (C.P.O.)

RADIO ISLAND by Liza Birkenmeier. Quantum Theatre. October 23 – November 15. 

Negotiating with hostage-takers is a tense, high-stakes business. Quantum Theatre’s latest play multiplies both the tension and the stakes. The (fictional) negotiator in radio island is a young woman, a U.S. military veteran, who’s asked to resolve a situation in which pirates have hijacked an oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. And she has to work the job by phone from a spooky setting: a lonely house deep in the Appalachian woods. The house was the woman’s childhood home. She’s been staying there to help her mother recover from an accident, and has brought her girlfriend along for company. But frictions among the three are crackling, creepy revelations unfold, and mysteriously ominous things are happening nearby—all while the crisis deepens on the tanker thousands of miles away. Prior reviews have called radio island a gothic thriller that reflects deeply on themes of isolation and our need for a sense of security. The playwright is Liza Berkenmeier and the director is Katie Brook, recently named Quantum’s new Artistic Director. See radio island at Rockwell Park in a specially constructed indoor venue. 7514 Thomas Blvd., Point Breeze. (M.V.)

HADESTOWN by Anaïs Mitchell and director Rachel Chavkin. Touring company at Benedum Center. October 27 – November 1.

Hadestown, the hiply titled retelling of the classic myth of Orpheus who follows Eurydice into the depths of the underworld, is a lyrical Folk and R&B tribute to the power—and oft-times failure—of love. For those who may anticipate more modern interpretation, or who have no familiarity with the catharsis of Greek tragedy, fear not: there is great joy to be had when realizing others share deep despair in their humble lives, too. Hadestown is really two classic myths syncopating the story of Hades, god of the underworld who marries Persephone, with the tale of Orpheus, son of Apollo (god of music and poetry), who falls madly in love with Eurydice. She is a spectacularly beautiful woodland nymph who, drawn to Orpheus’ lyre, reciprocates his desires. They confess their love, but she dies on their wedding day. Mitchell’s book, shaped and directed by Rachel Chavkin, purposefully breaks tradition by including the mercurial character of Hermes, messenger of the gods who guides souls between the divine and the underworld. The musical’s national touring company presents Hadestown in our town as part of the PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh series. Benedum Center, 237 7th St., Cultural District. (C.P.O.)

University Theater

In addition to Pittsburgh’s professional and community theater companies we have many outstanding university theater programs as well. Check their box office pages for what’s onstage:

Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama
Duquesne University Red Masquers
Point Park University’s Playhouse
Robert Morris University
University of Pittsburgh Department of Theatre Arts

Other Shows of Interest
(Listed by Opening Date)

Thursday, October 8
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors  (Little Lake Theatre)

Friday, October 9
Beauty and the Beast Bed & Breakfast  (South Park Theatre)

Thursday, October 22
Othello of the End Zone (Demaskus at New Hazlett)

Friday, October 30
fireWALL Dance: COVEN (Greer Cabaret Theater)

Big Shows on the Horizon
(Listed by Opening Date)

November 10
The Notebook  (PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh)

November 13
Texture Choreography Project (New Hazlett Theater)

November 14
Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley (City Theatre)

November 24
Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical  (PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh)

C. Prentiss Orr is a Pittsburgh-based writer who covers theater and other topics for Entertainment Central. He is the author of the books The Surveyor and the Silversmith and Pittsburgh Born, Pittsburgh Bred.

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