Carnegie Mellon Dramaturgy

10/13/2026

“Ulster American” at barebones productions

There’s a kind of play that is absolutely on-brand for barebones productions – one that’s edgy, satirical, a little (or maybe more than a little) dark and twisted, and, above all, deeply interested in men and their unearned stranglehold on power. I can imagine artistic director Patrick Jordan reading the first scene of David Ireland’s Ulster American – in which two high status white men, Hollywood star Jay (David Whalen) and successful British artistic director Leigh (Simon Bradbury), discuss whether it’s time for white people to “reclaim” the “N-word” (!) – and thinking “yep, this one’s for us.”...

There’s a kind of play that is absolutely on-brand for barebones productions – one that’s edgy, satirical, a little (or maybe more than a little) dark and twisted, and, above all, deeply interested…

10/02/2026

Looking forward to…

Evening temperatures are dropping, but your Tatler’s calendar is heating up! Typical for fall, there are more events and performances happening than I’ll be able to catch. But you may be able to squeeze in more than I, so here are some upcoming performances that look promising, in chronological order (embedded links take you to ticket pages): This weekend! KST Freshworks presents…...

Evening temperatures are dropping, but your Tatler’s calendar is heating up! Typical for fall, there are more events and performances happening than I’ll be able to catch. But you may be able to sq…

09/28/2026

“In Clay” at City Theatre

I remember vividly the first time I saw someone throwing on a potter’s wheel: I was probably around eight or nine years old, and on a field trip to the historic Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI. Reenactors in “ye olde” costumes demonstrated traditional craft skills in one part of the village, among them a bonneted, aproned woman throwing candlesticks on a wheel....

09/10/2026

A Conversation with Katie Brook, newly appointed artistic director of Quantum Theatre

I was thrilled to get the news yesterday that Quantum Theatre has appointed Katie Brook – a CMU Drama alum and former student of mine – as the company's new artistic director. I've been a longtime admirer of Katie's work, both here in town and in New York (I had the pleasure of catching her captivating production of Liza Birkenmeier's…...

I was thrilled to get the news yesterday that Quantum Theatre has appointed Katie Brook – a CMU Drama alum and former student of mine – as the company’s new artistic director. I’ve been…

08/17/2026

“Come From Away” at Front Porch Theatricals

As I am sure is the case for most of you, I have vivid and detailed memories of the morning of 9/11/2001 and of my disbelief as the day’s events unfolded on live TV. And in the ensuing days, along with the rest of the world, I stayed glued to the news as as the scope and scale of the tragedy became clear and rescue teams worked desperately to find survivors among the rubble of the collapsed towers....

08/09/2026

“The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” at Kinetic Theatre Company (Carnegie Stage)

“Everyone is concealing something,” the great detective Hercule Poirot (Sam Tsoutsouvas) observes in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd as he begins his investigation into the locked-room murder of his neighbor Roger Ackroyd (Darren Eliker). And because this is an Agatha Christie mystery – adapted for the stage with charm and wit by Mark Shanahan – there are a lot of “everyone’s” in the story with things to conceal....

“Everyone is concealing something,” the great detective Hercule Poirot (Sam Tsoutsouvas) observes in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd as he begins his investigation into the locked-room murder of his ne…

07/26/2026

“The Tempest” at Quantum Theatre

What does it take to let go of a tightly held aspect of your identity? That’s in many ways the question at the heart of Shakespeare’s (possibly final play) The Tempest, in a production that wraps director Karla Boos’s thirty-six year tenure as the founder and artistic director of Quantum Theatre. And while I don’t have any reason to believe that Boos has the kind of defining grievance that motivates Prospero (Jeffrey Carpenter) in the play’s beginning, I imagine his journey must resonate deeply with her as she, like Prospero, finds herself at her own moment of “letting go.” …...

What does it take to let go of a tightly held aspect of your identity? That’s in many ways the question at the heart of Shakespeare’s (possibly final play) The Tempest, in a production that wr…

07/13/2026

“Danny and the Deep Blue Sea”: Independent Production at the Rauh Studio Theatre (Cathedral of Learning)

John Patrick Stanley’s 1983 play Danny and the Deep Blue Sea is not so much a story as it is a character study, a vehicle for actors to dig deep into the psyches of a couple of damaged, wounded souls. And under Kelly Trumbull’s direction, actors Shannon Donovan and Michael Patrick Trimm dig very deep indeed, embodying their characters’ crippling fear of openness and vulnerability with exquisite sensitivity and authenticity....

John Patrick Stanley’s 1983 play Danny and the Deep Blue Sea is not so much a story as it is a character study, a vehicle for actors to dig deep into the psyches of a couple of damaged, wounded sou…

04/13/2026

“10 out of 12” at Quantum Theatre

The director Anne Bogart, who was a mentor of mine in grad school, used to describe creating theater as a process in which you discover all sorts of wonderful, inspired, beautiful moments in the rehearsal room “and then you have to kill them” (this, accompanied by a violent gesture of one hand stabbing the other) “so that you can bring them back to life.” ...

The director Anne Bogart, who was a mentor of mine in grad school, used to describe creating theater as a process in which you discover all sorts of wonderful, inspired, beautiful moments in the re…

04/02/2026

“Primary Trust” at Pittsburgh Public Theater

Eboni Booth’s intimate portrait of an awkward loner at a crossroads in his life in her play Primary Trust offers a really juicy opportunity for an actor of Monteze Freeland’s sensibilities and talents. And he takes full advantage of it, offering a portrait of Kenneth, the play’s protagonist, that is in equal parts – and at the right moments – guarded and vulnerable....

Eboni Booth’s intimate portrait of an awkward loner at a crossroads in his life in her play Primary Trust offers a really juicy opportunity for an actor of Monteze Freeland’s sensibilitie…