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Breadcrumbs - Talk about into the Woods

       From childhood do you remember the story of Hansel and Gretel?   How two siblings  venture into the woods leaving behind a trail of bread pieces to guide them back home? Ah fortune! Imagine the anxiety, the distress, they must feel when some forest critter (I forget which one) eats their roadmap back to the safety of hearth and home. In the play Breadcrumbs , actress Virginia Wall Gruenert convincingly suggests some of the same horror the siblings must have felt lost in the darkness of the woods. As the aging writer, Alida she’s somewhat asea, adrift by the onset of dementia. As the play opens we see her in an almost sleepwalking state, following along on a darkened stage past an string of tall black trees whose images appear on a line of delicate material that shivers in the breeze. With each step she pulls of a post it note that holds one word. After repeating it to herself, she casually lets it fall to the floor. As a writer words are very...
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Prepare to be Hypnotized | Garden Party: Gothic Entertainment Announcement 🦇

    PREPARE TO BE HYPNOTIZED Garden Party: Gothic Friday, June 12, 2026 | GA: $125 | VIP: $375 Step out from the shadows and onto the dance floor for Mattress Factory’s biggest party of the year,  Garden Party: Gothic. Your support keeps Mattress Factory in the black. 100% of Garden Party: Gothic proceeds benefit the artistic, education, and community outreach programs that make Mattress Factory a pillar of the arts. And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for: The official Garden Party: Gothic entertainment announcement is here. As always, Garden Party will be MC’ed by the ever-ethereal  Kat De Lac.  ðŸ’ƒ RESERVE YOUR TICKETS HERE ENTERTAINMENT From haunting melodies to high-energy dance floors, performances will echo through the night across multiple stages from the following acts: CARSICKNESS Pittsburgh punk legends. 'Nuff said. slowdanger A performance entity made of anna thompson and taylor knight, creating work at the intersection of dance, sound, and techno...
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Our Town- A Parochial Drama with Universal Implications

  The Cast of Our Town Photo Credit all to Kgtunney Photography I remember reading Thornton Wilder’s homey play, Our Town , while still in high school. Young, naïve and wet-behind the ears, I, living in a small Western Pennsylvania town at the time, related to the play on a visceral level. Richeyville, where I grew up starting at age 12, was enough like   Wilder’s Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire to strike a familiar chord. Both had a soda shop, paper boy news deliveries, dairy delivered to the front door and a homespun atmosphere where folks took their time and lived mostly uneventful lives among tree-lined streets and middle-class sensibilities. Years later, now middle-aged, I saw my first live performance and spent much of the experience comparing it to the memories of my youthful introduction to the drama as well as feeling it again with a sense of nostalgia. Wilder wrote the work in 1938, but set it a few decades earlier in the years 1901 to 1913. Apparently a simp...
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Big bows this Spring

  (photo credit: David Allen for Opera San Jose) Falstaff Join us for the final opera of our 2025-26 Season... and  Christopher Hahn's final opera as General Director of Pittsburgh Opera ! Verdi's  Falstaff  comes to  Benedum Center  from  April 28th through May 3rd . Beloved buffoon Sir John Falstaff has fallen on hard times. But being a ladies’ man (or so he’d like to think), he drunkenly schemes to cash in on his wit and charm by wooing the wealthy wives of Windsor, Alice Ford and Meg Page. However, when these women uncover that he has sent them both identical love letters, they hatch a plan of their own to teach Falstaff a lesson he won’t soon forget! The music matches the merriment and mischief of this madcap romp. See why Verdi’s buoyant comedy, based on Shakespeare’s  The Merry Wives of Windsor , is considered one of the best comedic operas of all time! FREE   childcare is available  at our  Sunday matinee performance ! Or, l...
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