The new play Cosmic Microwave Background is a timely, uncanny look at modern life — and it’s evolving in Pittsburgh, thanks to the New Hazlett Theater.

Julia Fraser’s Cosmic Microwave Background is Made in Pittsburgh and Debuts at New Hazlett Theater

Cosmic Microwave Background, a new play by journalist and playwright Julia Fraser, follows a couple into the desert as they seek to escape the tech-forward grind of the big city. When they arrive, though, a mysterious, persistent hum fills the sky — is it modern technology intruding on the natural world, or something ancient?

It’s a premise as timely as it is intriguing. And it’s being developed and fostered entirely in Pittsburgh.

The New Hazlett’s Community Supported Art — or CSA, a play on community supported agriculture programs — series aims to make the theater an incubator for emerging creators. Artists selected for the program, including Fraser, are given resources and space to develop their work; the series also includes Off the Page, a staged reading series, at which Cosmic Microwave Background made its public debut last year.

“What that does for our playwright and our director is … allow [them] to feel what the room is feeling,” says Melissa Cardello-Linton, artistic director of the New Hazlett, noting the value in an opportunity to “heart it out loud — not just for your friends, but for an audience.”

Cosmic Microwave Background was submitted for consideration under the CSA series, but initially not selected; the theater offered a place in the Off the Page series instead. “Off the Page was created as a way to say, though your piece wasn’t selected for a full production … we really want to bring it in and allow you to do a reading,” Cardello-Linton explains. After that reading, she says, interest was high. “Everyone was genuinely curious about the piece, and where the piece was going to go … this is not a play that there’s a nice little bow on the end.”

New Hazlett Theater Wants to Be Pittsburgh’s Catalyst for New Work

Like the hum in the play, Cosmic Microwave Background lingered — and was selected for the CSA series, a year after the first reading.

For Fraser and the show’s creative team — which also includes Daina Griffith, one of the city’s standout directors and performers — the value in developing the piece over time is self-evident. Cardello-Linton is quick to point out, though, that watching a piece such as this take shape is just as interesting for an audience.

“To have seen it before without a set … and now getting a chance to see it with a full set, with full lighting, with actors who are off book and have really sunk into these characters” is fascinating, she explains.

The CSA program — and the theater’s new Forgeworks residency — go beyond playwrights and theater, hosting composers, dancers and multidisciplinary artists. Forgeworks is currently hosting Ephrat Asherie Dance, who are previewing the new work It’s Just a Smatter of Time at on December 3 and 4 at the New Hazlett before taking it to Manhattan. (The troupe includes Teena Marie Custer, herself a former CSA recipient — who connected with Ephrat Asherie Dance while touring with work she developed at the New Hazlett.)

The goal, Cardello-Linton, is to make the North Side landmark “a catalyst for new work,” across disciplines and genres.

“For me, often in Pittsburgh, people have to leave. They have to go out and become this thing — and all of a sudden, they’re celebrated … My hope is that we can do that here — and we can champion people before the rest of the world knows their names.”

Cosmic Microwave Background is scheduled to premiere at the New Hazlett on November 19 and 20.

Find out what else is happpening around the city in our guide to Pittsburgh’s arts, culture, and entertainment scene.

About the Author

Sean Collier is the editor-in-chief of Shady Ave and the arts and culture editor of TABLE Magazine. Before joining the TABLE Media team, he spent nearly 15 years as a writer, editor and columnist at Pittsburgh Magazine. As the in-house film critic for the top-rated WDVE Morning Show since 2009, he’s been Pittsburgh’s most widely heard voice on movies for nearly two decades. A Pittsburgh native, Sean has since 2020 appeared weekly on KDKA-TV’s popular Pittsburgh Today Live talk show. He’s the co-founder of Vigilance Theater Group and an active stand-up comedian and event host. He can be found on Instagram and Twitter at @seancollierpgh.

Photos From Previous New Hazlett Mainstage productions. Photos by Renee Rosensteel.

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