PPTCO Staging ‘In the Heat of the Night’; WYEP’s Alternative Souper Bowl (Sun., 2/4/18)

1) Several top actors have excelled in adaptations of John Ball’s 1965 novel, In the Heat of the Night. The 1967 movie starred Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs, an African American police detective from Philadelphia involved in a murder investigation in a small backwoods town in Mississippi. Rod Steiger played the town’s racist police chief, William Gillespie. Tibbs is initially a suspect in the murder of a wealthy industrialist in the town. After his story checks out that he is indeed a police detective, Tibbs assists the police chief in solving the case. Steiger won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the film won Best Picture. The NBC and then CBS TV series of the same name provided a solid role for Carroll O’Connor in the role of Chief Gillespie from 1988 – 1992 opposite Howard Rollins as Detective Tibbs. Now Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company is staging a theatrical adaptation of Ball’s novel by Matt Pelfrey. Directing for PPTCO is Monteze Freeland. 3 p.m. Performances through March 11. Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, 937 Liberty Avenue, 3rd floor, Cultural District. (MV)

2) Before you settle in with more food than you can imagine for the big game, consider helping out our less fortunate neighbors by attending WYEP’s Alternative Souper Bowl. Local musicians will be performing live sets. This year’s lineup includes Dan Bubien, Dinosoul and Lucid Music  Donations of food and household items will be collected for HEARTH to help local displaced women and their children. Noon – 3 p.m. Carnegie Library Main Reading Room. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland.

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