wesa.fm: In February 1946, Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera Association announced its very first season, which began with an outdoor show at old Pitt Stadium. The group — created with help from department store heir Edgar J. Kaufmann, and staging fare like “Brigadoon” and “On The Town” — proved popular enough that the Civic Arena was originally built to house its shows. The CLO moved Downtown to the Benedum Center in 1988, and has been there since.
It's been really interesting to follow this merger between the Pittsburgh Public theater and the Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera. It kind of feels like it's been in this weird ping-ponging state almost. like first it was the Pittsburgh Public theater, Pittsburgh's Civic light opera, and City Theater we're all going to merge, and then towards the end of the year when the deadline was approaching there was a moment where no one was sure if the merger was going to go through it all, and then City Theater dropped out of the merger. It's all just been very wild to watch in real time how different theaters are responding to the financial crises of theater and live entertainment, especially post pandemic. I thought it was interesting that this article also got a statement from Quantum theater because they are also another local theater in Pittsburgh, however they function slightly differently in the sense that they don't have a permanent location, unlike the other theaters. I'm definitely curious to see what will end up happening with this merger and how it will help or hurt both the Pittsburgh Public theater and Pittsburgh's Civic Light Opera.
ReplyDeleteBeing the Relentless optimist I am, I'm hopeful that the Pittsburgh public and CLO merger will be successful. I was pleasantly surprised when coming to college here how vibrant the Pittsburgh theater scene was. The amount of in-town and touring shows throughout the city was inspiring. I hope this merger doesn’t severely cut the number of shows produced by the Public and CLO, if anything maybe this pooling of resources will allow the new organization to create even more shows. I hope the organizations and other Pittsburgh theaters work to create jobs for Public and CLO employees who will be out of a job during the merger, and who might not have a job after the merger. I’m trying to conceptualize this for myself as if the Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse merged together. Which is a slightly different story and set of challenges being that they’re 30 minutes away from each other. But it’s an interesting thought experience nonetheless.
ReplyDeletePittsburgh CLO merger. Pittsburgh CLO merger. Pittsburgh CLO merger. it’s all I ever hear about. The theater scene in Pittsburgh is so vibrant. And I think part of that is the fact that there are so many independent theaters. I wish there was a way to keep the two of them and also give them both the money that they need and deserve instead of them both fearing that they’re gonna have to cut their seasons down and in intern thinking about merging because when they merge both of their season, they’re obviously gonna get cut down. This intern is gonna mess with the theater seat in Pittsburgh, which is already like kind of on a study march towards doom because theater is as an art struggling because people don’t see art as someone that’s important anymore, really. The merger also kind of takes away almost half of everyone’s jobs which is something we really don’t need right now is a hearing true because our jobs are so rickety as is. I don’t know. I think they should come to a conclusion about what they want to do about this and return to admit a couple years instead of stressing out all of their staff and employees like every three months.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I feel like everyone’s been “pondering the Pittsburgh Public-CLO merger” for months and months now. Now that it’s come, I can’t say I’m satisfied with the result of the talks. I think the Public and CLO are such different organizations with such different visions, that it doesn’t really make sense for them to merge. The decision, though, is due to the terrible economic state of the country and their lack of support for the arts. I don’t think Public and CLO will do a bad job together, I just wish they didn’t have to lose their individual identities. I actually think they can produce great works together, as their great minds and resources working together has high potential. It will be very interesting to see what the merger brings, but I do hope if there are better economic times in the future, that they will be able to fulfill their original places in the Pittsburgh theatre niches.
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