March 2–April 2
Pyretown
Tobias Forrest
Chandler Vinton
City Theatre will present the contemporary two-character drama Pyretown from March 2 through April 2, 2006, in City Theatre’s Lester Hamburg Studio. Pyretown was written by John Belluso, an award-winning playwright who has used a wheelchair since age 13 and whose work often explores issues of disability. This Pittsburgh premiere will be directed by Diane Rodriguez, Associate Producer/Director of New Play Production at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
Pyretown stars Chandler Vinton (well known to City Theatre audiences from her appearances here in Mercy of a Storm and Fair Game) and Tobias Forrest (a Los Angeles-based actor who has used a wheelchair since a diving accident in 1998). City Theatre has been awarded a grant from the FISA Foundation to promote community inclusion of people with disabilities.
Pyretown is the beautifully drawn story of the relationship between Louise and Harry, who despite their differences form an unusual bond. Louise, 39 and the mother of three young children, is living off Welfare and Medicaid while separated from her abusive husband. Harry, 23, was paralyzed in a diving accident at age 16, uses a wheelchair, collects Social Security Disability, and takes classes at a community college. While each is marginalized by circumstances, both Louise and Harry are burning with a variety of desires: physical, material, and emotional. Belluso has great success depicting these conflicting wants and needs, and packs his very contemporary story with authentic detail and deeply felt observation.
The design team for City Theatre’s production of Pyretown includes Victoria Petrovich (Scenic), Angela M. Vesco (Costumes), C. Todd Brown (Lighting), and Elizabeth Atkinson (Sound).
John Belluso was the NEA/TCG playwright-in-residence at Trinity Rep and a Resident Artist at the Mark Taper Forum. He is the recipient of recent awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Berrilla Kerr Foundation. His other awards include the Mark Taper Forum’s Sherwood Award for Emerging Theatre Artists, the VSA-Arts Playwright Discovery Award, an artist residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts, the John Golden Playwriting Prize, and the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing Program’s Graduate Playwriting Award. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing Program, where he studied with Tony Kushner, John Guare, Tina Howe, and Eduardo Machado, among others. John collaborated with legendary theatre director Joseph Chaikin and composer Elizabeth Swados on a theatre piece about the experience of disability.
City Special: Beyond Victims and Villains
Sunday, March 19
Renderings of disability onstage have often been outer signs of a character’s inner qualities (Tiresias’s blindness as a metaphor for his inner vision, Richard III’s hunchback as a manifestation of his villainy, Laura Wingfield’s clubfoot as a symbol of her fragility). Victoria Ann Lewis, an actress and expert on disability and the theatre, discusses the fascinating history of stage and film images of disability and how contemporary playwrights with disabilities have taken control of reimagining the disabled body onstage. The performance of Pyretown begins at 2 pm. Lewis’s post-show talk is free and open to the public.
City Theatre is committed to providing an environment that is inclusive and welcoming to all patrons. City Theatre’s public spaces are wheelchair accessible and accessible seating is available in the Lester Hamburg Studio Theatre and Mainstage. It is strongly recommended that patrons reserve tickets in advance and identify any special seating needs to our box office staff. For more detailed information regarding our Access Services, please visit the accessibility page of our website.
Preview Week Performance Schedule
Thurs. & Fri. March 2 & 3 at 8 pm
Sat. March 4 at 5:30 pm
Sun. March 5 & Tues. March 7 at 7 pm
Press/Opening Night is Weds., March 8 at 8 pm.
Regular Run Schedule
Tuesdays at 7 pm
Wednesdays thru Fridays at 8 pm
Saturdays at 5:30 & 9 pm
Sundays at 2 pm plus Sunday, March 19 at 5:30 pm
Tickets
$15 to $40
Students and age 25 and younger may reserve $15 tickets in advance.
Senior rush (age 60 and older) begins at the Box Office two hours before showtime.
To buy tickets, call the Box Office at 412.431.CITY or click here to buy online.