Current Season

Logan Culwell-Block | Playbill

Find out which colleges and universities had the most alumni performing on Broadway during the 2018–2019 season.

Season ticket packages go on sale Monday, July 22, for the 2019-2020 Media Innovators Speaker Series, featuring CNN’s Jim Acosta.

Point Park University

“The event was a huge success and the first of its kind for both Pittsburgh and Point Park. We brought together three professional sports teams while raising money for AbleGamers"

Architect Magazine

The largest project the university has ever undertaken, the long-awaited Pittsburgh Playhouse at Point Park University has substantial impact on both the university and on downtown Pittsburgh.

Bob Hoover | Pittsburgh in the Round

Point Park University’s $74 million theater complex Downtown will be paying dividends during its second season of operation this fall.

Adam Hetrick | Playbill

Pittsburgh Playhouse has announced its 2019-2020 season, which will include the world-premiere musical Pump Up the Volume, based on the 1990 cult film starring Christian Bale, and the Jason Robert Brown-Alfred Uhry musical Parade, helmed by Tony Award winner and Point Park University alumnus Rob Ashford.

Playhouse welcomes world premieres, gripping works, captivating dance productions and the thought-provoking Media Innovators Speaker Series.

Sara Bauknecht | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

How do you top the unveiling of the new Pittsburgh Playhouse and being named one of the best college dance programs in the country? Point Park University’s Conservatory Dance Company hopes a new full-length work from Kiesha Lalama will do the trick.

Sharon Eberson | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Tony- and Emmy-winning director/choreographer was at the Playhouse Tuesday to announce that he will lead Point Park University Conservatory students in a production of the musical “Parade,” in a just-announced season packed with buzzy projects.

Steve Sucato | Pittsburgh Current

Following in the footsteps of prior programs on the season, the Spring Dance Concert is a mixed repertory program featuring works by high profile choreographic names and Point Park alumni.

Ted Hoover | Pittsburgh Current

On top of everything else offered by this precise and entertaining production, just hearing the sumptuous words Bennett spills out over the footlights is its own unique treasure.

Mike Vargo | Entertainment Central Pittsburgh

Alan Bennett’s The History Boys proves that a Tony Award-winning play and hit movie can be made about history students and teachers. Of course, there’s drama and comedy involved.

Ted Hoover | Pittsburgh Current

Sunday is testament to the improbability of art and the liberation that comes when it does happen. 

Rick Handler | Entertainment Central Pittsburgh

Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Sunday in the Park with George... received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama but no major Tony Awards, a rare distinction. It’s a serious musical, about art and the challenges of being an artist. Inspired by the life of painter Georges Seurat, it takes great artistic liberties with the true story of his life.

Michael Buzzelli | Burgh Vivant

“White, a blank page or canvas. The challenge: bring order to the whole, through design, composition, tension, balance, light and harmony.”

The power of one particular painting spans a century in Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Sunday in the Park with George.”

Rick Handler | Entertainment Central Pittsburgh

Here in Pittsburgh, Point Park Conservatory Theatre pays tribute by staging Churchill’s Vinegar Tom. The subject is persecution of alleged witches in England during the 1600s.

Tim Schooley | Pittsburgh Business Times

The Master Builders’ Association of Western Pennsylvania, Inc. celebrated the winners of its Building Excellence Awards.

Brian Pope | Pittsburgh in the Round

George Seurat is notable for employing the meticulous painting technique known as pointilism. Stephen Sondheim uses successive staccato notes throughout his sweeping and introspective score for Sunday in the Park with George to mimic the motion and impact of George’s brush repeatedly dotting the canvas. Literally and figuratively, these dots make up the bigger picture.

Ted Hoover | Pittsburgh Current

There’s not a writer at work in the theater with a greater intelligence or a more singular theatricality than Churchill. Not one of her plays is “easy” and I don’t think anyone ever walked out of a Churchill show saying “gee, that was fun.” If you leave a Churchill play without a blown mind, then you weren’t paying attention.

Mike Vargo | Entertainment Central Pittsburgh

When Caryl Churchill turned 80 last year, articles in the British press paid tribute to her status as the grand dame of feminist theater and one of the most unconventional, “unpredictable” modern playwrights. Here in Pittsburgh, Point Park Conservatory Theatre pays tribute by staging Churchill’s Vinegar Tom.

Rick Handler | Entertainment Central Pittsburgh

The subject is persecution of alleged witches in England during the 1600s. In that respect the play is similar to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible—if you can imagine a Crucible with sex scenes, execution scenes, and raunchy songs.

Steve Sucato | Pittsburgh Current

Six of the dance department's talented instructors will get to show off their choreographic and staging skills in Conservatory Dance Company’s upcoming Faculty Dance Concert, February 21-24 at the University’s George Rowland White Performance Center.

Katie Blackley | 90.5 WESA

A fresh take on an American classic is premiering at Point Park University’s new Pittsburgh Playhouse. It’s the first major production on the mainstage of the new facility and, according to artistic director Ron Lindblom, represents what the theater was designed to accomplish.

Christopher Rawson | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

With all respect to author, adaptors, star and director, I walked out of the world premiere of “The Old Man and the Sea” overwhelmed by the design — ingenious, gorgeous and eloquent.

Robin Young | 90.9 WBUR

The stage adaptation of "The Old Man and the Sea" the two wrote together will open at the Pittsburgh Playhouse of Point Park University on Friday, in partnership with RWS Entertainment Group.

On Cuba News

Hemingway exhorted his friend Hotchner to someday make his adaptation of "The old man and the sea". Hotchner promised he would try.

Sharon Eberson | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Ron Allan-Lindblom had a list of the usual reasons for exiting after 20 years as artistic director of the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Point Park University’s Conservatory of Performing Arts.

Candy Williams | Trib Live

It’s an exciting time of “firsts” for Point Park University’s new Pittsburgh Playhouse as it prepares to present its world premiere stage adaptation of “The Old Man and the Sea” Feb. 1-17.

Vanessa Thorpe | The Guardian

AE Hotchner, 101, believes his play, which opens this week at Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse, will bring the work of Hemingway to a younger audience.

Kristen de Groot | Associated Press

More than 60 years [after the film adaptation], Hotchner has kept his word. His stage adaptation of “The Old Man and the Sea,” a brief novel published in 1952 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, premieres at the newly renovated Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse February 1.

Josh Plainse | Bookstr

AE Hotchner, a friend and longtime biographer of Hemingway’s during the time in which The Old Man and the Sea was written, promised Ernest he would adapt the novella before he died. Hotchner’s life-long devotion to his friend is a blissful sense of pride in the only immortal thing that has ever existed; the sanctity of human connection.

Mike Vargo | Entertainment Central Pittsburgh

February is the shortest month, which translates to more shows per day than many Pittsburgh theatergoers may be used to. Some high-profile shows include... the world-premiere adaptation of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea at the new Pittsburgh Playhouse.

Ellwood City Ledger

Sharon Eberson | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"The Old Man and the Sea" — A world-premiere adaptation of the Pulitzer- and Nobel-winning Ernest Hemingway novella is presented by Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse, with Tony-winner Anthony Crivello (”Kiss of the Spider Woman”) as Santiago and playwright Tim Hotchner in residence.

Pittsburgh Quarterly

The Pittsburgh Playhouse at Point Park University made its debut Oct. 11, opening its doors to a new era for the school, its students, theatergoers and the city. It’s built to impress.

Sharon Eberson and Christopher Rawson | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“A Devil Inside,” Playhouse Rep - The final professional production at the old Pittsburgh Playhouse was an unexpected treat... especially in the directorial hands of Kim Martin and a slick cast, wacky American slapstick.

Bill O'Toole | Next Pittsburgh

Opened to the public in October of 2018 with a production of “Cabaret,” this 90,411-square-foot space brings Point Park’s nationally recognized theater program into the heart of Downtown Pittsburgh.

Steve Sucato | Pittsburgh City Paper

Stellar works from four world-renowned choreographers contributed to one of the Point Park University’s student dance company’s best overall productions in years.

Adam Hetrick | Playbill

Tony Award-winning actor Anthony Crivello (Kiss of the Spider Woman) will play Santiago, the aging Cuban fisherman, in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. The new stage adaptation will make its premiere beginning February 1, 2019, at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

Sharon Eberson | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Theater companies in and around Pittsburgh compete for patrons, actors, funding and even the rights to put on certain shows. But in the spirit of the holidays, it seems appropriate to point out that camaraderie far outweighs the rivalry.

George Hoover | Pittsburgh in the Round

Point Park University’s Conservatory Dance Company opened their Winter Dance Concert on Friday, the first full production in new Pittsburgh Playhouse’s PNC Theatre.

Carley Bonk | Point Park's The Globe

The Pittsburgh Playhouse will be the location of the worldwide stage adaptation premiere of Ernest Hemingway’s Pulitzer Prize-winning piece, “The Old Man and the Sea” this February.

Steve Sucato | Pittsburgh City Paper

With such a lineup of choreographers and works, the production has the potential to be one of the year’s best.

Broadway World

Point Park University's Conservatory Dance Company opens Winter Dance Concert, the first production to hit the brand new Pittsburgh Playhouse's PNC Theatre stage in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Mike Vargo | Entetainment Central Pittsburgh

Point Park University’s Conservatory Theatre stages a gripping drama based on incidents from British history.

Sara Bauknecht | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

How do you build a show for a brand new theater? With an all-star group of choreographers, hard-working dancers, hours of rehearsals and a few prayers, of course.

Ted Hoover | Pittsburgh Current

I think they had to wait for the new space to be ready because an evening of this volcanic power might have blown down the walls of the old Oakland site.

Brent Lang | Variety

Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse is collaborating with entertainment production company RWS Entertainment Group to identify and put on new theatrical productions.

The Pittsburgh 100

The Pittsburgh Playhouse of Point Park University has reopened in its new downtown location, and it’s beautiful.

Michael “Buzz” Buzzelli | 'Burgh Vivant

There’s a lot more to “Cabaret.” The show has some really fun musical numbers like “Don’t Tell Mama,” “Two Ladies” and “Maybe This Time.” Each song – every note – performed by an astounding young cast.

George Hoover | Pittsburgh in the Round

Director Zeva Barzell has brilliantly deconstructed the show and taken it back to its core, necessitated in part by the physical constraints of the Rauh Black Box theatre, the smallest and most intimate of the theatres at the new Playhouse.

Broadway World

Point Park University's Conservatory Theatre Company opens its inaugural season at the new Pittsburgh Playhouse with the Tony Award-winning musical, Cabaret.

George Hoover | Pittsburgh in the Round

This offering is four pieces by both emerging and established choreographers. It was a lovely night with no point shoes or ballet slippers!

By Brian Pope | Pittsburgh in the Round

More than 50 years after its premiere, Cabaret is poised to start another revolution, this time much closer to home. A new production of the show will be the inaugural production of the school’s gorgeous new Playhouse downtown.

By Barbara Vilanova | Point Park University

After 28 months of construction, the painstaking deconstruction and reconstruction of three historic-facades, and the unprecedented restoration of a 22 stained-glass-paneled ceiling from Pittsburgh’s historic Stock Exchange Building, the gleaming new Pittsburgh Playhouse is ready for its close-up.

By Mary Pickels | Trib Live

Point Park University’s Conservatory of Performing Arts' most recent honorable ranking is number eight on Playbill.com’s list of the Ten Most Represented Colleges on Broadway.

By Steve Sucato | Pittsburgh City Paper

The 2018-19 campaign is a stellar repertory mix that includes works by choreography giants Nacho Duato and Christopher Wheeldon, as well as Pittsburgh-native Kyle Abraham. 

On Stage Blog

#9 - Point Park University - An already excellent program that keeps getting better.

By Mick Stinelli | The Globe

The Playhouse, which remained a hard hat site until the end of the summer, has been a dream-in-development for years. Now, it is becoming a reality.

By Sara Bauknecht | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A bravo is in order for Point Park University’s dance program, which landed on OnStage Blog’s yearly list of top 25 college dance programs in the country.