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Wednesday, January 28, 2026
City Theatre will not merge with Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Public Theater
triblive.com: Last August, three major local theater companies — City Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater and Pittsburgh CLO — announced they were considering the possibility of a merger. Today, the companies revealed that such a union is not in the cards — or, at least, not for all three.
6 comments:
DogBlog
said...
I'm actually really surprised to hear about this. I remember at the beginning of last semester during the basic design scavenger hunt project, I spent a lot of time talking with someone from Pittsburgh Public theater and the general consensus was that the financial state of the theater was becoming dire. I remember the person I was talking to, even saying that he wasn't sure if he was going to have a job by the end of when the merger happened. I'm Not sure if the merger not happening is going to end up benefiting or hurting these three theaters, but I am concerned for the overall Financial State of each theater, but especially the Pittsburgh Public theater. I do though understand why City Theater’s board voted not to approve the merger because of how it is structured. I do wonder if there might be renegotiation for a merger between Pittsburgh CLO and Pittsburgh Public theater however.
Without a lot of prior knowledge about the three major local theater companies, I would say their decision will impact the local productions and theater workers, so hearing more about the reasoning behind this decision is crucial to me as a prospective theater worker. I remember Susan’s scavenger hunt project, and some people were being assigned to the Pittsburgh Public Theater and City Theater. I recall researching two small local theater companies here in Pittsburgh. They all have unique characteristics and styles that support them through this long time of existence, with the number of audience members reducing every year since the pandemic. Also, I’ve noticed the location and the age range of the audience members varied between different productions created by different theater companies. I’ve been to the Little Women presented by City Theater, and most of the people there to watch the production were seniors. And this happened to be different from shows happening downtown or all the Benedum shows. The nature of different theater companies pushes them to stretch their strength, and it turns out hard for them to make compromises if the two combined companies were so different before.
I am not really that surprised, more so surprised that they were giving it any thought in the first place. After doing hours of research on City Theatre for Susan’s Pittsburgh scavenger hunt, it’s extremely apparent that they not only strive to be a small family owned theatre company, but also want to stay that way in the long run and not change a thing. Just recently, they opened a new office space, something they had to consider for a while mostly due to it being change. While I don’t think a lot of their operations would change drastically due to merger, there still would be some change which the leaders of the organization absolutely hate, they won’t even open a new theatre space even though they are in the original one they opened still, which is incredibly small. This is not shocking the merger is not gonna happen at all, and I would not be surprised if its completely off the table for the long run.
I brought this situation when it was still undecided a few months ago up to a group of family friends who happen to be both Pittsburgh natives and theatre enthusiasts. Their reactions were nothing short of outright denial that such a merger would occur, as both theatres have incredibly different histories and approaches to the way they are run as theatrical institutions. That being said, the state of both theatres, and the overall regional theatre arts scene, has been extremely dire economically and institutionally with government grants being pulled and an overall lack of outside support for the arts besides the communities they’ve cultivated. Thus, this outcome has me torn between being incredibly happy for the fact that both theatres can remain independent, but still wary and cautious about their futures. Reading this article, it’s good to see that the process was always about prioritizing collaboration, and though a merger isn’t completely out of the question still, I hope for prosperous futures for both the Pittsbugh Public and CLO seperately.
HIP HIP HOORAY! I’m very thankful to know there will not be a merger. CLO and Public theater are still considering this option, which makes me a bit sad, but I am happy to know that they can, at least for now, sustain independently. It is a tragic time for the arts industry but I understand why the merger was so heavily considered. I’m glad to be aware of the current state of these things as I start to develop my career in this city. I’m curious to see if these two theaters end up taking this anywhere, because I really do wish they can each remain independent. I am curious to know if this will impact their next season’s production value since obviously their funding will remain separate, and I know that money was initially the biggest concern as to why they wanted to consider merging. I hope they can maintain a quality production value.
i’m so happy that this did not happen. These two theaters are so different and have such a rich independent history in the city of Pittsburgh. One person during the Pittsburgh Project in basic designed one did the Pittsburgh public and one person did the CLO. These two theaters are very different. They both have unique characteristics and unique styles of theater and I was really worried that if they joined together, we would both lose the like independent fun styles of each theater and we would lose historical ties to the city due to the fact that we are not losing one but two theaters as they join. I’m so happy that they figured out how to stay separate yet. I am worried about the fact that they even had to think about it because that means that their theater presence in Pittsburgh is already on shaky ground. I hope that a renaissance comes their way, and the two theaters make great strives in the city of Pittsburgh in the next couple months to years.
6 comments:
I'm actually really surprised to hear about this. I remember at the beginning of last semester during the basic design scavenger hunt project, I spent a lot of time talking with someone from Pittsburgh Public theater and the general consensus was that the financial state of the theater was becoming dire. I remember the person I was talking to, even saying that he wasn't sure if he was going to have a job by the end of when the merger happened. I'm Not sure if the merger not happening is going to end up benefiting or hurting these three theaters, but I am concerned for the overall Financial State of each theater, but especially the Pittsburgh Public theater. I do though understand why City Theater’s board voted not to approve the merger because of how it is structured. I do wonder if there might be renegotiation for a merger between Pittsburgh CLO and Pittsburgh Public theater however.
Without a lot of prior knowledge about the three major local theater companies, I would say their decision will impact the local productions and theater workers, so hearing more about the reasoning behind this decision is crucial to me as a prospective theater worker. I remember Susan’s scavenger hunt project, and some people were being assigned to the Pittsburgh Public Theater and City Theater. I recall researching two small local theater companies here in Pittsburgh. They all have unique characteristics and styles that support them through this long time of existence, with the number of audience members reducing every year since the pandemic. Also, I’ve noticed the location and the age range of the audience members varied between different productions created by different theater companies. I’ve been to the Little Women presented by City Theater, and most of the people there to watch the production were seniors. And this happened to be different from shows happening downtown or all the Benedum shows. The nature of different theater companies pushes them to stretch their strength, and it turns out hard for them to make compromises if the two combined companies were so different before.
I am not really that surprised, more so surprised that they were giving it any thought in the first place. After doing hours of research on City Theatre for Susan’s Pittsburgh scavenger hunt, it’s extremely apparent that they not only strive to be a small family owned theatre company, but also want to stay that way in the long run and not change a thing. Just recently, they opened a new office space, something they had to consider for a while mostly due to it being change. While I don’t think a lot of their operations would change drastically due to merger, there still would be some change which the leaders of the organization absolutely hate, they won’t even open a new theatre space even though they are in the original one they opened still, which is incredibly small. This is not shocking the merger is not gonna happen at all, and I would not be surprised if its completely off the table for the long run.
I brought this situation when it was still undecided a few months ago up to a group of family friends who happen to be both Pittsburgh natives and theatre enthusiasts. Their reactions were nothing short of outright denial that such a merger would occur, as both theatres have incredibly different histories and approaches to the way they are run as theatrical institutions. That being said, the state of both theatres, and the overall regional theatre arts scene, has been extremely dire economically and institutionally with government grants being pulled and an overall lack of outside support for the arts besides the communities they’ve cultivated. Thus, this outcome has me torn between being incredibly happy for the fact that both theatres can remain independent, but still wary and cautious about their futures. Reading this article, it’s good to see that the process was always about prioritizing collaboration, and though a merger isn’t completely out of the question still, I hope for prosperous futures for both the Pittsbugh Public and CLO seperately.
HIP HIP HOORAY! I’m very thankful to know there will not be a merger. CLO and Public theater are still considering this option, which makes me a bit sad, but I am happy to know that they can, at least for now, sustain independently. It is a tragic time for the arts industry but I understand why the merger was so heavily considered. I’m glad to be aware of the current state of these things as I start to develop my career in this city. I’m curious to see if these two theaters end up taking this anywhere, because I really do wish they can each remain independent. I am curious to know if this will impact their next season’s production value since obviously their funding will remain separate, and I know that money was initially the biggest concern as to why they wanted to consider merging. I hope they can maintain a quality production value.
i’m so happy that this did not happen. These two theaters are so different and have such a rich independent history in the city of Pittsburgh. One person during the Pittsburgh Project in basic designed one did the Pittsburgh public and one person did the CLO. These two theaters are very different. They both have unique characteristics and unique styles of theater and I was really worried that if they joined together, we would both lose the like independent fun styles of each theater and we would lose historical ties to the city due to the fact that we are not losing one but two theaters as they join. I’m so happy that they figured out how to stay separate yet. I am worried about the fact that they even had to think about it because that means that their theater presence in Pittsburgh is already on shaky ground. I hope that a renaissance comes their way, and the two theaters make great strives in the city of Pittsburgh in the next couple months to years.
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