There are a number of great shows coming to City Theatre during the 2026-27 season. There are also some friends coming to visit the South Side venue — in the form of two companies launching novel collaborations with the storied company.
City Theatre to Host Bricolage Production Company and RealTime Arts in 2026-27 Season
Bricolage Production Company will present the next installment of its long running Midnight Radio series in residence at City Theatre, and RealTime Arts will present a world premiere work on the South Side. Both companies have a long track record of immersive and original work; now, they’ll partner with one of Pittsburgh’s most well-established resident houses.
“Part of our mission [is] to figure out what collaboration looks like in theater at the moment,” says Clare Drobot, City Theatre’s artistic director. “That’s a core value of ours.”
Midnight Radio has become a Bricolage signature — a live recreation of early-20th-century radio broadcasts, using animated narration, lively performances and manually generated sound effects to weave an intricate night of storytelling. Bricolage is planning two separate “episodes” of Midnight Radio, to be performed in the City Theatre’s Lillie Theatre in October and December, respectively.
RealTime, meanwhile, will debut a new work — tentatively titled there is a blue that only children see — based on years of work focusing on Ukrainian folk traditions and conversations. The show, which will feature rock adaptations of folk songs in addition to real-life conversations between American and Ukrainian veterans, will run for two weeks in February 2027 in the Lillie Theatre.
Bricolage and RealTime, Drobot says, create “work that feels … distinct from City Theatre’s, yet I know our audiences will be excited about it.” She specifies that while they’re supporting and collaborating with both companies, “this is a Bricolage production [and] this is RealTime Arts.”
World Premieres and Shows That Will ‘Transport Audiences’
City Theatre’s five-play subscription series will begin in September with In Clay, a one-performer musical about ceramicist Marie-Berthe Cazin. Noting Pittsburgh’s rich visual-arts community, Drobot says, “This is very much a tale about a woman artist finding her voice; it has this magical music … It’s a show that will transport audiences.”
The subscription series continues with Georgianna and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley, the (purportedly final) chapter in City Theatre’s popular series of Pride and Prejudice spinoffs. Two world premieres — Matt Schatz’s Bobby Robotowitz & Allison Portchnik and Christopher Rivas’ The Punchline — will also appear at City Theatre this season, as will the comedy Laughs in Spanish.
Festivals, Guests and a Resident Artist
City Theatre will also continue to host its Momentum Festival and its Young Playwrights Festival; Chicago-based comedy troupe The Second City will return as well. Additionally, the company has created its first season-long Artist in Residence position, hosting playwright a.k. payne as its first resident artist.
Hosting an artist over time is an attempt to “invest and embed in an artist that’s rooted in Pittsburgh,” Drobot says, noting that City will “build this model of really giving her the keys to the theater.”
“This is the model for theater going forward — coalition building and seeing how we can resource-share and create really robust stories that speak to our community.”
Story by Sean Collier
Photos by Kristi Jan Hoover
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