The Playhouse, in Pittsburgh, PA, is home to the Conservatory season, featuring undergraduate productions, and the Rep season, boasting professional Equity performers and graduate students.
The Conservatory season will feature the world premiere of the musical Time After Time, based on the movie and novel of the same name, about H.G. Wells taking his own time machine to 21st-century New York in search of Jack the Ripper.
The musical has book and lyrics by Stephen Cole and music by Jeffrey Saver. Performances will play Feb. 25-March 14, 2010. Gabriel Barre directs.
Here's how the show is billed: "Love and murder intersect in the science fiction musical Time After Time. John Leslie Stevenson, also known as the serial killer Jack the Ripper, has escaped authorities using a time machine invented by his friend H.G. Wells. In an attempt to return Stevenson to his proper time, Wells follows him into the future, only to fall in love with the murderer's next victim. Will Wells be able to save her? Or will he fail to rein in the 19th-century terror he has released upon New York City?"
The professional Rep season will offer the world premiere of A Confluence of Dreaming by Tammy Ryan. John Amplas will direct the production, to run May 27-June 14, 2010. According to the Rep, "A Confluence of Dreaming tells the story of Carol, an underappreciated and seemingly invisible suburban homemaker who finds herself wondering what the hell happened to her life. She rediscovers long-lost thrill and passion in the secret, sexy world of cyberspace. As her husband obsesses over their local property tax assessment and the cost of their current kitchen renovation, the state of their marriage (along with their roof) is about to collapse under the weight of what they haven't addressed.
"Their 17-year-old 'activist' daughter, who is about to leave the nest and save the world, is torn between going to college or Tibet. Taking place in Pittsburgh during the summer of 2001, Carol solicits a face to face meeting with her online lover in New York City. When fantasy collides with reality in his studio apartment, Carol confronts the choices she's made against the desires she has suppressed in the quest for self-fulfillment."
The Rep season also includes:
