Friday, April 28, 2023
Dueling Debuts: 'Young Americans' at Pittsburgh Public; 'American Fast' at City Theatre
onstagepittsburgh.com: If you’ve been planning your local theater-going for the next month, you must have noticed the coincidence.
It’s not that Pittsburgh Public Theatre Downtown and City Theatre on the South Side open shows within a week of each other – nothing new there. But for April and May, their overlap cuts a little closer than just timing.
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2 comments:
I really enjoyed the specificity of this article in its comparison of the two theatres, Pittsburgh Public and City Theatre and their current shows. Not only was the small summary of each theatre interesting as I haven't done much researching myself on either of these theatres despite they are so close now, but I really understood what Eberson meant in the point of the article in regards to the shows. They open and close in relatively close periods, but both of their plays, Young Americans and American Fast expose their audience to narratives about non-white people’s experiences in all-american activities. In Young Americans, an immigrant’s difficulties in this society is exposed on an American road trip. In American Fast, a Muslim girl runs into a dilema of making the championships at the same time Ramadan begins creating an issue of fasting for her faith or breaking fast early for her goals/team. I think it’s an interesting comparison and a very solid one at that.
The coincidence here is actually pretty insane. Both shows opened three days apart, both are two words, one of which is American), both premiered in Portland, Oregon, and both are playing here in Pittsburgh. The stars really aligned to make this happen. I don’t know a lot about how theater companies decide what productions will be part of their season, but I would imagine that they probably try to avoid situations like this.
As for the plays themselves, both look really interesting. Personally, I would like to see Young Americans. Both plays deal with non-white identity and belonging in America. Young Americans is about a young man driving from Washington DC to Washington State, then making the reverse trip twenty years later. American Fast is about a young basketball player and her religion, and how the two conflict. Theater is such a good way to convey another experience that may be unfamiliar to the audience.
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