Point Park University to open new Pittsburgh Playhouse this fall

by: Kaelei Whitlatch

Photo: Kaelei Whitatch The future Pittsburgh Playhouse

For nearly eight decades, Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse hosted hundreds of theatrical and dance performances in its Oakland location. The University had its goodbye celebration to the building on June 18 in preparation for its new location.

Opening this fall, the Forbes Avenue theatres, costume/prop shops, classrooms, and dance spaces will provide a “better quality and larger space” according to Chair for the Department of Theater Aaron Bollinger.

“We do have a lot of exciting things coming up. Part of that includes planning due to the transition into a new space,” Bollinger said. “We love tradition, but we had to change it up with a new playhouse.”

Producing Director Kim Martin is excited to work in the “brand new, better” $60 million building.

“The new building offers new facilities and training, and it is state of the art,” Martin said. “We can now work with new, incredible toys to use to develop future artists.”

The theater offers three new performance spaces; The PNC Theater holds over 500, the Highmark Theater seating 200, and the black box theater seats 100.

Bollinger said that the new black box space is “very unique.”

“There is a portion of the wall that can be opened up to an outside courtyard. There can be shows where the audience is watching the show inside and the plays are being performed outside, or vise-versa,” Bollinger said. “It could also be held completely indoors because of weather. It’s also much more intimate and the performers are in the laps of the audience. You can also move the seats around to different orientations.”

Bollinger also told of new performance types, including comedy shows and donor events.

“In the new space, we’re bringing in some rock n’ roll shows. We’re also going to have a guest speaker series,” Bollinger said. “So (the new playhouse) is really opening up new opportunities for our students.”

Windows are not normally found in theaters, but Bollinger tells of the new light being brought into the playhouse.

“A lot of our spaces have windows, which is very unusual for a theater to have windows looking in. Usually theaters like to be in the dark and be able to turn off the lights and not have any light peeking in,” Bollinger said. “But from the streets, people can look in and see the work that is being done. This will happen until we have a show, then curtains will be drawn and we’ll have a performance.”

One of the biggest changes Bollinger described was the year-long hiatus of the Playhouse Jr., the country’s 2nd oldest children’s theater program.

“We didn’t know how to adapt it to the downtown atmosphere, one of those being the buses. Before, when we were in Oakland, it was easy for the buses to pull up and load,” said Bollinger. “Here, we’re dealing with downtown roads, so things will have to work out. We hope to bring it back in some other format with maybe a redesign. So we’ve put that on hold this year.”

Bollinger told of the new quality of the playhouse preventing arguments due to separate areas.

“We open up to everything we’re used to, plus more. We’ll have more spaces, we’re not trying to work overtop of ourselves,” Bollinger said. “We used to have classes in the same spaces we were trying to build and paint scenery, so now there’s separate spaces for all of that.”

Martin agreed, as she witnessed for herself the disagreements between students.

“Our paint shop artisans had to share their shop. So they used to fight over time and space with other students being taught there,” Martin said. “Students had to hold their class while the painters were at lunch. In the new facility, everything is separate. There’s a separate paint shop, scene shop, and classrooms, so we don’t have to fight over space anymore.”

As for the future, Bollinger detailed the true purpose of the new playhouse.

“Our purpose is not the public. At the same time, we do want to entertain the public. The public is a big part of a production,” Bollinger said. “Performing on an empty stage with no audience is pointless. So they are a part of the art, and we are adjusting to new audiences.”

Bollinger believes this new theater and dance space will be more influential to the work of students than the theater community.

“The playhouse was designed to be a laboratory for our students, not necessarily a performing arts center for Pittsburgh,” Bollinger said. “So the difference there is not about selling tickets and seats as it is about the work that is going on the stage.”

The new Pittsburgh Playhouse will open with a kickoff gala, a “big reveal that (the theater) doesn’t normally have at a normal playhouse season,” Bollinger said.

After the gala, the playhouse will open with its first musical production of “Cabaret” in late October. According to the Pittsburgh Playhouse media page, other future performances include “Coram Boy,” “Vinegar Tom,” “Sunday in the Park with George,” and “History Boys.”
For more information, visit the Pittsburgh Playhouse website.

Photo: Kaelei Whitlatch
The construction site of the future playhouse