the week of august 29 - september 4, 2025

retro roller-skating, princess diana, pittsburgh forever

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scheduling note

I’m traveling and away from my inbox from right now until Monday, September 8th. (If you have recommendations for Stockholm and Oslo, let me know. I can’t wait to be back in a country where everyone knows how to spell my last name.)

Here’s what you can expect in terms of content while I’m on vacation:

• Next month’s Bills, Bills, Bills will publish on Wednesday, September 3rd

• No newsletter on Friday, September 5th

• The weekly round-up will resume on Friday, September 12th

On a separate note: I can always tell (and I deeply appreciate!) when a professor has added Nothing to the Group to their syllabus because I’ll receive fifteen subscription notifications in the span of one minute. Hello to all of the sophomore econ majors trying to get an easy humanities credit!

this week in The Crisis™: pittsburgh

Last month, ACT Contemporary Theatre and Seattle Shakespeare Company finalized their merger—and now Pittsburgh's theatre community is poised for its own consolidation moment.

The three largest theatres in Pittsburgh—City Theatre Company, Pittsburgh CLO, and Pittsburgh Public Theater—are exploring a potential merger. (Per the Post-Gazette, the companies “have been meeting and discussing options since early 2024.”)

This development reflects broader industry patterns that have been brewing for years. In 2023, I wrote about the increase of local co-productions in American Theatre’s Season Preview issue:

The 2023-24 listings include a wealth of co-productions, with jointly produced work comprising more than half of some theatres’ lineups. Co-productions among regional theatres have been a cost-effective season staple for decades. But over the last two years, there’s been a rise in local co-productions, as theatres in the same city or region pair up to produce, instead of the usual long-distance partnerships. There are countless artistic and financial reasons for co-productions (e.g., collaborator affiliations, the project’s development history, the cost of large ensemble casts or elaborate designs), but as companies struggle with house capacity, pooling resources—and audiences—with a nearby theatre is a tactical move.

A merger may seem shocking, but it’s the logical next step for these show-specific collaborations that have reshaped post-pandemic regional theatre. (City Theatre and Pittsburgh CLO already teamed up in 2021 to co-pro the world premiere of Matt Schatz’s musical An Untitled New Play by Justin Timberlake.) As organizations continue to grapple with existential financial pressures, the same impulses that drove theatres to share costs, resources, and audiences will inevitably push them toward more permanent structural partnerships.

For context, here is a useful overview of the three Pittsburgh theatres’ budgets, audiences, and staff sizes, courtesy of the Post-Gazette. (And in the interest of full disclosure: I love Pittsburgh. I worked at City Theatre from 2007-8 as the company manager/assistant to the artistic director, two jobs that should never be done by the same person. May this potential combination be more successful!)

NOTE 9/10/25: Pittsburgh Public Theater contacted me and said that the attendance numbers in the above graphic should be 36,000+ in the 2024/2025 season and 45,000+ in the 2024 calendar year.

Earlier this year, the companies contracted the NYC-based Keene Consulting Group to “explore ways to collaborate, cut costs, and increase revenues.” Keene’s first report, obtained by the Post-Gazette, presents a grim reality:

“All three organizations are on the self-reported brink of financial failure in the near or mid-term future based on their own financial reporting and projections…”

“…Pittsburgh’s unusually dense foundation landscape has historically provided some protection, but this advantage is eroding quickly as foundations change direction…”

“We carefully explained that without addressing the current financial challenges at least one and possibly all three organizations might close within 2-5 years, resulting in substantial job losses and diminished artistic offerings for Pittsburgh”…

…The report proposes three potential models of consolidation while ultimately recommending further “consideration of a full consolidation of all three organizations under one umbrella entity that maintains their distinct artistic missions and preserves their separate brand identities.”

It continues, “A merger of only two organizations will not achieve the same level of success as a three-way merger. Because even a three-way merger is unlikely to achieve the desired financial goals. However, if this is the only practical option, such a partnership could still generate moderate cost savings and operation improvements.”

…Keene’s phase I report proposal suggests a single board and a single CEO, with three individual vision directors for each of the three brands. The report suggests 13 total productions a year and a reduction in full-time staff. The organizations would likely share fundraising and marketing staff and costs as well as production teams as a way to trim costs and increase efficiency. It could result in one or more of the companies performing in different venues or relocating their administrative offices.

In response, a spokesperson for a working group representing the three theaters said, “Even if we determine at the end of a collaborative process that consolidation is the best way to ensure long-term sustainability, there are multiple potential models, and we are far from identifying what, if any, structure may make sense. There is simply so much more work to do.”

For comparison’s sake, ACT and Seattle Shakespeare’s merger had a fairly compressed timeline: the two companies announced “their intention to explore merging” in June 2024; six months later, both boards formally approved the consolidation plan.

Keene is currently at work on the second phase of the report, which will assess and analyze “finances, real estate holdings, marketing, fundraising, calendar, transition planning and the legal challenges to setting up an umbrella organization.”

world premieres

• Damon Cardasis, James Ijames, Sia, and Honey Dijon’s Saturday Church is now playing through October 12th Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop. Whitney White directs and Darrell Grand Moultrie choreographs the new musical about a chance encounter on the subway that introduces “Ulyssess—New York City kid, devoted son and the fiercest tenor at his aunt’s church—to the world of Saturday Church, a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ youth.”

• Mary Glen Fredrick’s fire work is now running through September 21st at Washington, DC’s Theater Alliance in an NNPN rolling world premiere with Kansas City’s Unicorn Theatre and The Vortex in Austin, TX. The “fierce, funny, and haunting new work delving into labor, power, and community [and] illuminating issues of economic disparity and the fight for agency” is directed by Shanara Gabrielle.

• Kristoffer Diaz’s Things With Friends starts performances August 29th at American Blues Theater in Chicago. Dexter Bullard directs the darkly comic “full-bodied Twilight Zone blend with notes of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

• Roxana Ortega’s Am I Roxie? runs September 3 - October 5 at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. The “fiercely funny one-woman tour-de-force navigating the chaos of Ortega’s mother’s mental decline with outrageous humor and unbreakable spirit” is directed by Bernardo Cubría.

• Crystal Skillman's The Rocket Men starts performances September 4th at Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre in Indianapolis in an NNPN rolling world premiere with Atlanta’s Synchronicity Theatre and Angels Theatre Company in Lincoln, NE. Chris Saunders directs “the startling new play in which six women play the roles of the former Nazis who used their scientific skills to flee Germany and settle in the most unlikely place: northern Alabama.”

• Ro Reddick’s Cold War Choir Practice runs September 4 - October 5 at Trinity Rep in Providence, RI. The “bizarre maze of Reaganomics, Cold War espionage, capitalist cult predation, and choir practice, featuring original music and set in the mesmerizing ambiance of a retro roller-skating rink” is directed by Aileen Wen McGroddy.

• Tim Venable’s Adolescent Salvation starts performances August 31st at Rogue Machine Theatre in Los Angeles. Guillermo Cienfuegos directs the new work set “over the course of one night, through a haze of tequila, texting, and Taylor Swift, [as] three teenagers banter, bicker and push each other to the edge of danger—with consequences that could prove lethal.”

productions

• August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson runs August 31 - September 28 at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore. The “Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece about a pair of siblings and the fate of their cherished family heirloom” is directed by Paige Hernandez.

• Sandy Rustin’s The Cottage starts performances September 3rd at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Risa Brainin directs the “fast-paced comedy of manners.”

• Sharyn Rothstein’s Bad Books runs September 3-21 at Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, NY. The “blistering new dramedy about a mother declaring war against her local library, setting off a chain reaction of unimaginable consequences” is directed by Emily Jackson.

• Kareem Fahmy’s Dodi & Diana starts performances September 4th at Mosaic Theater Company in Washington, DC. Reginald L. Douglas directs the “taut and thrilling new play blending astrology with the allure of the royals to ask thought-provoking questions about identity, sexuality, and the power of finding your own freedom.”

• Mirage Auto Depot Ensemble’s DINNER runs September 4-7 at The Brick in Brooklyn. The “multimodal dance theater melodrama about long-time queer friends reckoning with the loss (read: the ghosting) of the group’s figurehead” is written by Mack Lawrence and co-directed by Lawrence and Logan Gabrielle Schulman.

• Manuel Puig’s El Beso de la Mujer Araña (Kiss of the Spider Woman) starts performances September 4th at GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington, DC. Presented in Spanish with English surtitles, the revival of the “powerful meditation on love, identity, respect, and survival under oppression” is directed by José Luis Arellano.

• Julio Torres’ Color Theories runs September 3-22 at Performance Space in NYC. The show “blends stand-up, surreal design, and dream logic into a whimsical exploration of color, emotion, and identity that is equal parts comedy, theater, and art piece.”

festivals

• Abe Koogler’s Deep Blue Sound is now running through September 14th at Portland Theater Festival in Maine. Dave Register directs the “beautiful meditation on our relationship to our neighbors, ourselves, and the natural world around us.”

• The Solo Flights Festival runs September 2-7 at Theatre Aspen in Colorado. The annual developmental festival of one-person shows will feature Sharone Sayegh’s The Goldsmith (directed by Zachary Prince), Gordon Greenberg’s Ghost Tour (directed by Stephen Brackett), Ryan Langer’s Mourning Songs (co-directed by Gregg Wiggans and Jack Cummings III), Alec Silberblatt’s The Vampire
  (directed by Paul Edwards), Dick Scanlan and Marc Kudisch’s Mark Twain Shouldn’t Say Such Things (directed by Scanlan), and Margaret Cho’s Mommy: A One-Woman Cho (directed by Seonjae Kim with additional material by Leah Nanako Winkler).

commissions

• Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced the 2025-26 Science and Technology Project New Play Commissions. The recipients and plays are Lily Akerman (Room 407), Milo Cramer (IO), Annalisa Dias (I Believe in the Night), Cori Diaz (i dream of feminist science), Nelson Diaz-Marcano (A Parguera Story), Michael Feldman (Otter Delight (Working Title)), Amanda Keating (RADIO / QUIET), Fernando Buzhar Segall (The Great Vaccine Revolt of 1904!), Ethan Venzon (Haute Plate), and Marcus Yi (Paper Son).

that’s not a living wage

Here are this week’s featured underpaid job listings, paired with the living wage for a 40-hour work week for one adult with no children in that area and the most recently available 990 data. (You can read more about the methodology here.)

• Marketing Associate at MCC Theater: $40,000 - $50,000 (Full-Time Non-Exempt)

  • Living Wage for NYC Metro Area: $76,934

  • Revenue (2024): $8.87 million | Net Income: -$1.45 million

  • Executive Compensation:

    • Executive Director: $166,186 ($152,827 base + $13,359 other comp) | General Manager: $121,584 ($107,795 base + $13,789 other comp) | Co-Artistic Director: $82,230

• Literary Manager at Playwrights Horizons: $70,000 (Full-Time)

  • Living Wage for NYC Metro Area: $76,934

  • Revenue (2024): $14.17 million | Net Income: -$669,964

  • Executive Compensation:

    • Managing Director: $233,491 ($208,181 base + $25,310 other comp)

    • Artistic Director: $190,648 ($176,028 base + $14,620 other comp)

    • General Manager: $184,903 ($157,411 base + $27,492 other comp)

• Education Programs and Outreach Coordinator at Ford’s Theatre: $50,000 – $53,500

  • Living Wage for DC Metro Area: $64,024

  • Revenue (2024): $26.4 million | Net Income: $10.2 million

  • Executive Compensation:

    • Director: $647,438 ($544,919 base + $102,519 other comp)

    • Director of Development: $197,866 ($186,139 base + $11,727 other comp)

    • Deputy Director & Director of Programming: $217,826 ($181,892 base + $35,934 other comp)

• Management & HR Coordinator at Studio Theatre: $42,000 – $48,000 (Full-Time Non-Exempt)

  • Living Wage for DC Metro Area: $64,024

  • Revenue (2024): $6.82 million | Net Income: -$1.27 million

  • Executive Compensation:

    • Artistic Director: $229,835 ($220,550 base + $9,285 other comp)

    • Executive Director: $194,361 ($190,550 base + $3,811 other comp)

• Assistant Lead Electrician at Northern Stage: $45,305 (Full-Time Non-Exempt)

  • Living Wage for Windsor County, VT: $56,151

  • Revenue (2024): $6.05 million | Net Income: $423,162

  • Executive Compensation:

    • Producing Artistic Director: $142,592 ($136,464 base + $6,128 other comp)

    • Managing Director: $120,736 ($120,183 base + $553 other comp)