Pittsburgh's City Theatre plans live season with 3 world premieres

City Theatre Company will reopen its doors in Pittsburgh’s South Side for a 47th season including six live and in-person productions featuring collaborations with local and national theater companies, community partners and first-time and returning artists.

Three of the productions will be world premieres, including one that explores immigration in Pittsburgh.

In addition to a five-play subscription series beginning in October, the 2021-22 season will feature plays by middle and high school students as part of the Young Playwrights Festival, the return of the Momentum Festival of New Plays, special events and partnership activities through the community engagement initiative, City Connects.

City Theatre will collaborate with Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse and Los Angeles-based Cornerstone Theater Company for the world premiere of “The Rivers Don’t Know,” by Donora native James McManus, which explores immigration in Pittsburgh.

In developing the play, McManus and director Michael John Garcés conducted interviews and story circles, both in person and virtually during the pandemic, with immigrant community members and partner organizations throughout the city.

The play will be staged Sept. 10-19 at Pittsburgh Playhouse. Admission will be free.

The season “doubles down on the values that make and shape us,” said Artistic Director Marc Masterson. “From deep local roots to internationally acclaimed artists, the upcoming season is a celebration of our art form.”

“When we were forced to cancel performances on Bingham Street due to covid-19, none of us could have guessed how long it would be before we returned,” said Managing Director James McNeel. “We are so very excited to bring folks back through our Big Red Doors on the South Side.”

The main stage season at the company’s headquarters at 1300 Bingham St. includes:

• “Live from the Edge,” Oct. 9-31 — Created and performed by Universes, a National Theater Company of Color, “the performance event tracks the evolution of language from childhood rhymes and community rituals to poetry and theater, hip-hop, gospel, latin jazz and down home blues.”

Founded in The Bronx, New York, in 1995, Universes consists of a revolving set of multi-disciplined writers and performers to present works that fuse poetry, theater, music and dance to explore what it means to be “American.”

• “An Untitled New Play by Justin Timberlake,” Nov. 27-Dec. 19 — Art battles commerce in the world premiere co-production with Pittsburgh CLO. The musical comedy by Matt Schatz pits the idealistic literary manager of a nonprofit theater bent on discovering unsung writers and plays that matter against a boss who chooses a pop superstar to write a hit that will keep the theater from going out of business.

• “The Medium,” Jan. 22-Feb. 13 — Created and performed by SITI Company and based on the work of Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, the play “explores the effect of media and emerging technologies on our perceptions, our psyches, and our personal lives.”

• “Paradise Blue,” March 12-April 3 — Dominque Morisseau’s drama is set in 1949 Detroit as jazz club-owner and trumpeter Blue “must choose between escaping his demons and the human cost of leaving the only home he’s ever known.”

• “The Garbologist,” April 30-May 22 — Another world premiere, Lindsay Joelle’s unconventional buddy comedy presents two New York City sanitation workers in the cab of their 19-ton garbage truck. “Tasked with picking up what the world has discarded, they learn that some things are easier to toss than others.”

Subscription packages will go on sale in August and single tickets to all main stage shows will be available beginning Sept. 7.

Current subscribers with money on account will receive written communications in the coming weeks. Updates will be posted on the theater’s website and social media channels.

For more information call 412-431-2489, email boxoffice@citytheatrecompany.org or visit citytheatrecompany.org.