www.broadwayworld.com: Three major Pittsburgh theater organizations, City Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Pittsburgh CLO, have confirmed that a previously explored three-way merger will not move forward. In a statement emailed to supporters Tuesday afternoon, leadership from the three organizations said their boards did not reach unified alignment to authorize participation in a proposed three-way consolidation process.
2 comments:
I covered this proposed merger in my investigation into the CLO for my Pittsburgh Scavenger Hunt project this fall and I thought commenting on this article would be a good opportunity to follow up on that. When I looked into the merger in the fall, they were still in conversation about when/how/if the merger would happen, but reporters and audiences were concerned that a merger would compromise the artistic merit of these organizations and would decrease availability of arts entertainment in Pittsburgh. Following up on the decision to not merge now, I was not surprised to see City Theatre being the one organization that didn’t fit into the merger. I had been worried for City Theatre’s future under a merger, considering their unique mission and location. I like City Theatre’s work as an organization that is independent of the rest of the cultural district theaters, so I’m glad that they’re staying independent of the merger. I do, however, hope that they are financially able to support themselves without the merger. As for the other two organizations, I’ll be interested to see if they go through with a merger.
I have been paying some attention to the merger that has been planned for the theatres in Pittsburgh. I think it would be a good idea for people to share community and resources so that everyone can benefit and enjoy theatre together. However, I am sure that there are a lot of obstacles to making this happen. I am somewhat not surprised that City Theatre was the one to back out of the three way merger idea, with their venue being farther away and having different goals with the theatre they are making. I went to City Theatre when we Lorca in a Green Dress there last year. I really liked the intimate space and the challenges and benefits that brought to making theatre in that space. Although, knowing this, I had previously wondered if City Theatre would gain anything from merging with two huge downtown theatres that were nothing like the intimate south side theatre. I hope that CLO and the Public theatre can come to an agreement together that will benefit both companies. I am super excited to seed what comes of the negotiations and if it was change how theatre operate in Pittsburgh in the future.
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