page_title: Theatre in Pittsburgh
section_title: Theatres
hierarchical_section_title: Theatre in Pittsburgh / Theatres
caption_attribution_description: English: Byham Theater in Downtown Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
context_page_description: Theatre in Pittsburgh has existed professionally since the early 1800s and has continued to expand, having emerged as an important cultural force in the city over the past several decades.
context_section_description: Of the theatre companies in Pittsburgh currently in existence, there are a few with a long history of performances. Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera was one such company; staging primarily musicals, it held its first production in 1946 at the Pitt Stadium.  Over the years, the company has moved to various locations throughout the city and currently holds productions in the Benedum Center. The Pittsburgh Savoyards, which specializes in Gilbert and Sullivan (G&S) operettas, came into existence in 1938, and is currently housed in Bellevue and performing in the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall. University of Pittsburgh Stages emerged from various performance troupes at the school in the early 20th century to become the formal company of the school's theatre arts performance training program of the university in the 1960s. The university company became professionally oriented in 1981, and continues to stage several productions throughout the year in their primary facility, the historic Stephen Foster Memorial.  Saint Vincent Summer Theatre, another major fixture of the Pittsburgh area, began in Latrobe in 1969.  The theatre has staged many different kinds of productions over the years, and now produces mostly light farces for a summer theatre audience.  Mountain Playhouse, one of the oldest professional theatres in the Pittsburgh area, made its debut in nearby Jennerstown in 1939.  Similar to St. Vincent, Mountain Playhouse also stages light summer stock fare, including comedies and musicals.  Apple Hill Playhouse in nearby Delmont also stages light comedies and musicals as well as children's theater; it was established in the 1950s. Pittsburgh Playhouse, currently home to Point Park University's conservatory students and resident professional theatre company Playhouse Rep, opened its doors in 1934 as a community theater.  Stage Right was established in the mid-1960s and continues to produce theatre in the Fox Chapel area of Pittsburgh.  Other important theatre companies of the mid-twentieth century include Black Horizon Theater, an African-American theatre troupe that evolved out of a writers' workshop; and peer support group called the Centre Avenue Poets' Theater Workshop; this theatre company held some of the first productions of August Wilson's work.  Pittsburgh Public Theater was chartered in 1974 by Joan Apt, Margaret Rieck and Ben Shaktman and held its first production in 1975.  Staging a wide variety of plays and musicals, from classical to contemporary, the theatre has become a major regional theatre and is currently housed in the O'Reilly Theater.  City Theatre also staged its first production in 1975 as the City Players, a group of recent college graduates that gave free performances in schools, parks, and housing projects.  The company has since evolved to become a major regional theatre that has staged premieres of new works by Christopher Durang, Adam Rapp, Jeffrey Hatcher, Eric Simonson, and Leslie Ayvazian.  In 1980, Attilio Favorini founded the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, a professional theatre company in residence at the University of Pittsburgh which produced Shakespeare at the Stephen Foster Memorial and was successful for many years.
  In the 1990s and early 2000s, a new generation of theatre companies emerged and contributed to Pittsburgh's expanding and lively theatre scene.  Quantum Theatre was founded in 1990 by Karla Boos; it has staged productions of plays, musicals, and operas from world culture in nontraditional spaces around the Pittsburgh area.  The Pittsburgh New Works Festival was established in 1990 as well to provide a venue for new plays by playwrights from all over the country.  Pittsburgh Musical Theater opened in 1990 as another venue for musical theater in the city.  The performance art troupe Squonk Opera was formed in Pittsburgh in 1992 and has gone on to perform in venues across the globe in addition to performing in local venues. Unseam'd Shakespeare Company was established in 1993 and has staged classical and classically inspired plays.  The Summer Company was also estab
caption: Byham Theater
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