One night in 1980, my grandmother took me to Pittsburgh Public Theater to see the musical I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road. The theater had been a big part of Pittsburgh culture since the mid-’70s. It drew in people who took theater seriously. As an amateur actress and full-time orthopedic nurse, as someone who craved great storytelling and compelling live performance, my grandmother was exactly that kind of person.

The musical centers on a woman named Heather, a singer-songwriter in her late 30s who has come through a divorce and decided she’s done performing a version of herself that other people find comfortable. Her manager pushes back hard — he wants the old, palatable her. She refuses. The show was written by Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford, a groundbreaking female songwriting partnership, and what they created was something genuinely rare: a rock musical where the songs landed like emotional arguments, each one making the case for a woman’s right to be fully, sometimes inconveniently, herself.

I remember the electric guitar most of all — vivid, almost defiant. And the lighting, those deep oranges and blues that made the stage feel both intimate and urgent. And the vertiginous seating to either side of the main stage.

My grandmother was divorced, fiercely engaged with causes and people she cared about, and truly devoted to theater and cabaret in Pittsburgh, New York, and elsewhere. She once drove all day to New York to see Barbra Streisand’s last performance in Funny Girl, and drove all night back to Pittsburgh. After a couple of hours of sleep, she reported to work the next day … perhaps overtired but elated all the same. She also had a particular love for Alberta Hunter and would insist on being dropped at the Gramercy Park Hotel door for those concerts, absorbing every note alone, then sharing the whole experience with us over dinner afterward. 

Seeing I’m Getting My Act Together, a story of a woman claiming her independence, while seated next to my grandmother, who had claimed her own, made everything sharper and more personal.

I believe she was showing me something that night. That living well takes work, takes nerve, takes a willingness to stop performing for other people’s comfort. I hope I’ve carried that forward. I hope I’ve lived a life she’d recognize as worth the trouble.

Celebrating the Golden Anniversary of Pittsburgh Public Theater

On Thursday, May 7, the Public will host Turning the Page, a book-launch event for Turning the Page: 50 Years of Pittsburgh Public Theater. More than a mere event, though, Turning the Page will be a gathering of the artists and supporters that have made a half-century of theater possible.

Attendees are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite character from the theater’s first five decades. The event is expected to be packed, but the theater is currently accepting waitlist requests.

More Memories of the Public

“My favorite Public production was Steel Magnolias, directed by Marya Sea-Kaminski. That show is a total love letter to womanhood, sisterhood and friendship. I have such fond memories of building relationships with the cast and crew. It was also one of the first plays I ever read, so it will always have a special place in my heart.” — Saige Smith, Actress

“Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard, directed by Eddie Gilbert. Set in the same house in two different time periods, covering topics like history, philosophy, love and death. Featuring two great Pittsburgh actors — David Conrad and Gretchen Cleevely.” — Rob Zellers, playwright, former Pittsburgh Public Theater Education Director

“Mad Forest, by Caryl Churchill, directed by Mark Wing Davey. Set during the Romanian Revolution, with a large cast playing multiple characters both real and fictional. Dramatically staged in the Hazlett Theater.” — Jean Zellers, Retired Advertising Executive

“My favorite production would have been For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange, [produced at the Public in] 1979. Although I was not quite 2 years old at the time … it is quite amazing to think my Turning the Page outfit is being designed by Venise St. Pierre, who also designed the wardrobe for the Public’s production. I am looking forward to being a part of living history on May 7.” — Shaunda McDill, Pittsburgh Public Theater Managing Director

“There were three very different shows in the mid-2000s, right as I was getting started as a theater critic in Pittsburgh, that at that time struck me as defining the scope and quality of what the Public had to offer: The Chief, of course, and Tom Atkins‘ incomparable transformation into Art Rooney Sr.; a terrific production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean; and the world premiere musical The Glorious Ones, by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens.” — Sharon Eberson, Theater Critic and onStage Pittsburgh Founder

“SWEAT at Pittsburgh Public Theater in 2018, by Lynn Nottage and directed by Justin Emeka, remains the most unforgettable theatrical experience I’ve had at the Public. In the final moments, Jerreme Rodriguez and Tony Bingham held the audience in pin‑drop silence, revealing how deeply and irrevocably one life had been changed. I was changed in that moment, too.” — Aja Jones, Pittsburgh Public Theater Chief of External Affairs

“Inevitably, the Public production I have the most memories of is The Chief, the heartwarming and often hilarious spotlight on Art Rooney, Sr. — written by my father, Gene Collier, and Rob Zellers. But setting The Chief aside, I was shaken to my core when I saw the theater’s 2001 production of Medea. The unforgettable ending of that show taught me how shocking and jarring theater could be, influencing me both in my appreciation of theater and my later work as a theater creator.” — Sean Collier, TABLE Arts & Cultural Editor

Story by Keith Recker
Photo Courtesy Pittsburgh Public Theater

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