City Theatre Announces Season Directors and Artistic Department Restructuring Clare Drobot to serve as Artistic Director and co-lead the organization in collaboration with Managing Director James McNeel

 

City Theatre Company, Pittsburgh’s home for contemporary plays located on the South Side, is thrilled to announce the directors for its 2025/2026 season as well as changes to the artistic department structure. 

 

In the fall of 2021, City Theatre announced a new shared leadership model, promoting artistic staff Clare Drobot and Monteze Freeland to co-lead the organization alongside artistic director Marc Masterson and managing director, James McNeel. After Masterson retired in 2024, Drobot and Freeland shared the Co-Artistic Director title for the 2024/25 season. With Freeland moving on from City Theatre to serve as Artistic Director at Alumni Theater Company in May, the board of directors has voted to make Drobot the sole Artistic Director of City Theatre, leading alongside Managing Director James McNeel.

 

“There is no greater champion for new plays in Pittsburgh than Clare Drobot,” said Board President Barbara Rudiak, “and we are thrilled to appoint her to serve as Artistic Director. Clare is a tireless advocate for playwrights, intentional and meaningful community engagement, equity on and off stage, and for ensuring that theater is not only relevant but evolving to meet this changing world. Some of City Theatre’s most daring and ambitious projects – from originating F**k7thGrade by Jill Sobule and Liza Birkenmeier to this season’s Another Kind of Silence – are a result of her tireless efforts and vision.”

 

A trained dramaturg, Drobot joined City Theatre in 2015 as Director of New Play Development. Prior to being appointed as Co-Artistic Director, she also served as Associate Artistic Director to Masterson. In addition to her new play development work through commissions, productions, and the Momentum Festival, Clare was integral to the creation and implementation of the organization’s City Connects community engagement initiative, which was created in early 2017 and has featured partnerships with over 120 nonprofit organizations. Rounding out the artistic department this season to work with Drobot (and longtime Director of Education and Accessibility Katie Trupiano) is Artistic Associate Melva Graham and freelance Associate Producer Miso Wei.

 

“It’s an honor to continue to collaborate with James, the staff, and board to champion and shape City Theatre’s artistic vision. I’m deeply grateful to Monteze and Marc for our work together and can’t wait to introduce audiences to these vibrant theatrical worlds,” Drobot shared. “The six dynamic artists—four of whom call Pittsburgh home—at the helm of these productions are leaders in the field. Get ready for an electrifying season with three world premieres, a hit Broadway comedy, and a reinvestigation of one of City Theatre’s most iconic titles.”

 

Furthermore, City Theatre is officially announcing the directors for the 2025/2026 season, featuring an eclectic mix of first-time and returning artists to the organization. Building on recent collaborations with  Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama, five season directors are on faculty at CMU. 

 

The season’s directors include Kaja Dunn, Rick Edinger, MoMo Holt, Adil Monsoor, Robert Ramirez, Dexter J. Singleton, and Kim Weild. 

 

Another Kind of Silence by L M Feldman (September 20 – October 12, 2025). 

An NNPN Rolling World Premiere.

Directed by Kim Weild

Direction of Artistic Sign Language by MoMo Holt

 

“I’m honored to be working on the world-premiere of L Feldman’s Another Kind of Silence as part of this season at City Theatre,” said Director Kim Weild. “It is a beautifully lyrical, tender, intimate, and evocative play asking what it means – and what it costs – to be fully seen and heard.”  

 

Kim Weild is an award-winning theater director, educator and researcher and Co-Artistic Lead, of On Your Imaginary Forces – a company focusing on the exploration of Access Aesthetics and Disability Performance currently in a multi-year residency at The Public Theatre in New York. She is chair of directing at CMU School of Drama and previously directed at City Theatre for its 2020 production of Cry It Out. 

 

“I am thrilled—on so many levels—to be part of Another Kind of Silence, L Feldman’s most complex and deeply felt play to date,” said MoMo Holt, DASL. “Under the direction of the dynamic Kim Weild, City Theatre is producing Another Kind of Silence with integrity, artistry, and boldness.”

 

Ms. Holt is an Assistant Professor in the Theatre Program at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. She has a notable career and is not only an actor and member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA but also a director, playwright, DASL (Director of Artistic Sign Language), and Certified Deaf Interpreter. Holt is also one of the pioneering Sign Masters in Washington, DC, where she helped establish the term DASL. Holt will also perform in Another Kind of Silence and is the ASL translator for the project.

 

 

Louis May Alcott’s Little Women by Lauren Gunderson (November 15 to December 7, 2025). A Co-World Premiere.

Directed by Kaja Dunn.

 

“To finally be able to work in my home city with such an incredible team of actors and designers, I’m so excited to direct this show at City Theatre,” said Kaja Dunn, Director, who recently collaborated with Gunderson on her play A Room in the Castle (Folger Shakespeare Library/Cincinnati Shakespeare Company). “It is the story of love, strength, creativity, and family. Lauren’s version of the play highlights the revolutionary and dynamic insistence of these women to live life on their own terms, in the midst of a

fractured nation, all while reminding us of the love stories we share with friends, siblings, and partners.”

Ms. Dunn has worked previously at City Theatre but this production will mark her directorial debut with the company. She is an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama. An intimacy professional, diversity consultant, and associate faculty at Theatrical Intimacy Education. Kaja is a member of SAG-AFTRA, director, and activist with performances in over 40 productions in five countries.

 

 

Malcolm X and Redd Foxx Washing Dishes at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack in Harlem by Jonathan Norton (January XX to February XX, 2026). A Rolling World Premiere. Directed by Dexter J. Singleton.

 

“Jonathan Norton is an amazing playwright who captures the heart and soul of these two American icons at a pivotal time in their youth,” commented director Dexter J. Singleton. “Many people know of who these men would eventually become and this world premiere comedy shows audiences where they got their start."

 

Mr. Singleton previously served as Dramaturg on City Theatre’s 2024 production of Fat Ham. He is the Founding Executive Artistic Director of Collective Consciousness Theatre (CCT), a social justice theatre in New Haven, CT and the Senior Artistic Associate/Director of New Play Development at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, AR. TheatreSquared commissioned this production and is co-producer with City Theatre and two other theatres.

 

Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector (March 7– 29, 2026). Pittsburgh Premiere.

 

Directed by Adil Mansoor

 

“I cannot wait to work with Pittsburgh artists to bring Jonathan Spector's hilarious and timely Eureka Day to life,” said Adil Mansoor, director. “I have worked in schools before, and I know these people, I am these people! I am confident the Pittsburgh audience will not only roll over laughing, but they will see familiar and necessary conversations play out on the City Theatre stage.”

 

Mr. Mansoor is making his directorial debut for City Theatre. He is a Pittsburgh-based theater director and educator centering queer folks and people of color. He has developed new work with The Public, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Playwrights' Center, Mercury Store, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and others. Mansoor holds his MFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon University where he is Special Visiting Faculty in the John Wells Directing Program.

 

Hedwig and the Angry Inch by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask (May 2 – June 7, 2026) At the Greer Cabaret, in partnership with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. 

Directed by Robert Ramirez

Music Supervision by Rick Edinger

 

"I'm so excited to be making my directorial debut at City Theatre," shared director Robert Ramirez. "Pittsburgh has a thriving queer performance community, and I am honored to be working on this very important piece of Queer theater, with some absolutely stellar collaborators. I'm so happy to have made my home in Pittsburgh, a city that truly values art."

 

Mr. Ramirez is a nationally-recognized actor, director, voice artist, and voice and speech coach at theaters across the country including the NY Public Theater, the Guthrie Theater, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Denver Center, Cleveland Playhouse, Hartford Stage, the Alley Theater, Quantum Theatre, and American Players Theatre, as well as numerous Shakespeare festivals in every region. He currently serves as Head of the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University.

Mr. Edinger is a proud queer AAPI music director, arranger, conductor, pianist, and vocal coach. He is the chair of acting and music theater as well as an associate professor of music theater at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama and the Co-Artistic Director of the CMU Center for New Work Development.

 

TICKET INFORMATION  

 

Subscriptions and Single Tickets are currently on sale for the 2025/2026 season, which begins performances on September 20, 2025.

 

To Contact the Box Office and/or Purchase Tickets:

 

•       Call: 412-431-CITY (2489)

•       Email: BoxOffice@CityTheatreCompany.org 

•       Web: CityTheatreCompany.org

 

ABOUT CLARE DROBOT

Clare Drobot (Artistic Director) has been a member of City Theatre's Artistic Leadership since the fall of 2021. She joined the staff at the theater in 2015 serving as the Director of New Play Development and later as Associate Artistic Director, and then Co-Artistic Director. A dramaturg, playwright, and producer Clare has worked in various capacities at Premiere Stages at Kean University, Laura Stanczyk Casting, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The McCarter Theatre, The BE Company, Play Penn, and New Dramatists. Her credits as a playwright include work showcased in Ars Nova’s ANT FEST and through the New Hazlett Theatre’s CSA Series among others. She has dramaturged and developed work with Stephen Belber, Liza Birkenmeier and Jill Sobule, Chisa Hutchinson, Matt Schatz, Anna Ziegler and many more writers and directors. She serves on the boards of the National New Play Network and Brew House Arts and is a member of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s Generations Speakers program. She was a member of the inaugural Global Fellows Cohort through the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh and is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh (LP XXXVIII). BA/BFA Carnegie Mellon University, member of LMDA.

 

ABOUT THE DIRECTORS

Kim Weild is an award-winning theater director, educator and researcher and Co-Artistic Lead, of On Your Imaginary Forces – a company focusing on the exploration of Access Aesthetics and Disability Performance currently in a multi-year residency at The Public Theatre in New York. As founding Artistic Director of Our Voices, a collective of d/Deaf, disabled, HOH, hearing and non-disabled artists dedicated to creating bold, innovative cross-cultural/interdisciplinary, adventurous performances of the highest caliber. Weild’s work weaves together complex matrices of movement, sound, images, vibrations, textures, media and languages. Recipient of two separate commissions from NYC's High Line to create bi-lingual (ASL and Spoken English) productions, she directed and collaborated on the world premiere ASL translation of Harold Pinter's A Kind of Alaska, for N.Y. Live Arts/Live Ideas: Celebrating the worlds of Dr. Oliver Saks. As director of Keith Hamilton Cobb's widely acclaimed play American Moor, (published by Methuen Bloomsbury), Kim shaped the play over the course of eight years leading to its presentation at Shakespeare’s Globe London and Off-Broadway premiere. It is part of the permanent collection at the Folger Shakespeare Library, filmed for Lincoln Center, and is taught at universities throughout the U.S. and Europe. Weild is a Drama Desk Award nominee for Unique Theatrical Event, recipient of the N.Y. Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Performance Art Production, has been recognized with the Eliot Norton Award, two IRNE Awards, two AUDELCO Awards, and a N.Y. Times Critic's Pick. In 2022 she was a finalist for the Alan Schneider Director Award. Weild is Chair of Directing at Carnegie Mellon University.

 

Monique "MoMo" Holt is an Assistant Professor in the Theatre Program at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. She has a notable career and is not only an actor and member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA but also a director, playwright, DASL (Director of Artistic Sign Language), and Certified Deaf Interpreter. One of her highlights includes playing the role of the Duchess of York in Richard III at the New York Shakespeare Festival, directed by Robert O'Hara and co-starring Danai Gurira as Richard III. Holt is also one of the pioneering Sign Masters in Washington, DC, where she helped establish the term DASL. She is passionate about empowering Deaf individuals and actively trains them to become DASL in various fields, including theatre, film, TV, museums, and public service announcements. Currently, MoMo is authoring the DASL Handbook. She holds a BFA in Acting from NYU/TSOA and an MFA in Theatre from Towson University.

Kaja Dunn is an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University Purnell School of Drama. An intimacy professional, diversity consultant, and associate faculty at Theatrical Intimacy Education. Kaja is a member of SAG-AFTRA, director, and activist with performances in over 40 productions in 5 countries . Directing Work Includes: Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Cincinnati Shakespeare: A Room in the Castle (world premier), Cape Fear Regional Theatre: No Child, California Center for The Arts: Hairalouges , Playwrights Project, Old Globe: Plays By Young Writers Festival.  Staged Readings or Pandemic Performances; Triad Stage: Freedom Hill,  Studios of Key West and NC Black Rep: Jeffery Manor,  Playmakers Rep (Readings) :Edges of Time,  Noms De Guerre. Educational: Blues for an Alabama Sky (UNCC), Suessical, Twilight Los Angeles, As It Is In Heaven, Telling Stories (Cal State San Marcos). She is a recipient of the Kennedy Center’s National Medallion for her work on theatre and race and a Kennedy Center Regional Recipient for Innovative Teaching.  Resident Intimacy and Cultural Consultant for Folger Theatre, and associate professor at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Intimacy work includes: Broadway: A Strange Loop (Assoc. Intimacy Director); Television: The Best Man, Final Chapters, Harlem, Mayor of Kingstown, The Equalizer.

Two River Theatre: Wine In The Wilderness; Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, Our Verse In Time To Come, Metamorphoses, The Reading Room; Arena Stage: American Prophet; Denver Center for the Arts: Choir Boy, 5th Ave; ACT Theatre (Seattle): Choir Boy; St. Louis Rep.: Private Lives, Confederates; Penumbra Theatre: Sugar In Our Wounds; She has presented on issues of equity and diversity in theater for theaters and universities, Actors’ Equity Association as their racial consultant, The Women’s Theatre Festival, Blumenthal Performing Arts, MICHA, North Carolina Theatre Association (Keynote Panelist), Children’s Theatre Charlotte, Anti-Racism and Decolonization at University of London Goldsmiths, SETC and SETC Theatre Symposium, KCATF and The Association of Theatre in Higher Education, among other places. She has been on the Executive Board of the Black Theatre Network and Black Theatre Association. Publications: Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook, Arden Contemporary Shakespeare, Intimacy Direction For Theatre, Theatre Symposium, American Theatre Magazine, HowlRound, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (UK). Other Awards include Playwrights Project Excellence in Arts Education;  Her favorite role is mom.

 

Dexter J. Singleton is a multi-hyphenated theatre artist from Detroit, MI. He is the Founding Executive Artistic Director of Collective Consciousness Theatre (CCT), a social justice theatre in New Haven, CT and the Senior Artistic Associate/Director of New Play Development at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, AR. Since 2007, Collective Consciousness Theatre has reached thousands of youth and adults with plays and workshops across the U.S. and Europe. They have produced the work of playwrights Dominique Morisseau, Robert O’Hara, Idris Goodwin, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Katori Hall and others. At TheatreSquared, he supports artistic programming and leads all new play development efforts which include playwright commissions and being the lead producer of the nationally recognized Arkansas New Play Festival that takes place every season and invites playwrights from around the country to develop new work. As a director, Dexter’s work has been seen at TheatreSquared, Primary Stages, UConn/Connecticut Repertory Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, University of Michigan, University of Arkansas, Long Wharf Theatre, Passage Theatre and others. Recent credits include A Raisin in the Sun, A Christmas Carol, Detroit ’67, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Blood at the Root, Kill Move Paradise, Skeleton Crew, The Royale, Black Book and Topdog/Underdog. Dexter is a member of the Artistic Ensemble at Long Wharf Theatre and teaches undergraduate Directing courses at Yale University.

Awards: Broadway World Regional Best Director of a Streaming Production (Kill Move Paradise), Artistic Excellence Award from the State of Connecticut, and The Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival Distinguished Director of a Play (Black Book).  

 

ADIL MANSOOR  is a Pittsburgh-based theater director and educator centering queer folks and people of color. He has developed new work with The Public, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Playwrights' Center, Mercury Store, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and others. Directing projects include Daddies by Paul Kruse (Audible), Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Hatch Arts Collective), Kentucky by Leah Nanako Winkler (Pittsburgh Playhouse), and Plano by Will Arbery (Quantum). He often works as a dance dramaturg, having collaborated with choreographers Slowdanger, Staycee Pearl, Dahlia Nayar, and Maree ReMalia. Mansoor’s solo performance Amm(i)gone was produced Off-Broadway by PlayCo, The Flea, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) as part of a national tour. Amm(i)gone is a National Performance Network Project co-commissioned by KST and The Theater

Offensive.  Mansoor is a founding member of Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective and the former Artistic

Director of Dreams of Hope, an LGBTQA+ youth arts organization. He was part of the inaugural Artist Caucus gathered by Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf, St. Louis Rep, and Woolly Mammoth. He was a Sundance Art of Practice Fellow, a Gerri Kay New Voices Fellow with Quantum Theater,  and received the 2024 Emerging Artist Carol R. Brown Award. Mansoor holds an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University. https://www.adilmansoor.com/  

Robert Ramirez is thrilled to be making his City Theater debut! He has worked as an actor, director, voice artist, and voice and speech coach at theaters across the country including the NY Public Theater, the Guthrie Theater, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Denver Center, Cleveland Playhouse, Hartford Stage, the Alley Theater, Quantum Theatre, and American Players Theatre, as well as numerous Shakespeare festivals in every region. He was a member of the Recorded Books repertory company in New York City for over 20 years, credited with multiple award-winning audio-book titles. Robert is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, the National Theatre Conference, and the Voice and Speech Trainers Association. He attended the Los Angeles Theatre Academy acting conservatory at Los Angeles City College and earned his MFA at the University of Delaware's Professional Theatre Training Program. Robert is currently the Head of the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University.

 

Rick Edinger (he/they) Proud queer AAPI music director, arranger, conductor, pianist, and vocal coach.

Recent Music Supervisor/ Music Director Highlights:  The Life of Death (Upcoming Workshop; Sammi Cannold, director/ Andy Blakenbuehler, choreographer), The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson

Musical (La Jolla Playhouse/ Signature Theatre Arlington; Christopher Ashley, director), The Visitor (The Public Theater; Daniel Sullivan, director), Trading Places (Alliance Theatre; Kenny Leon, director), Songs for a New World (New City Music Theatre; Miles J. Sternfeld, director), Joy: A New Musical (George Street Playhouse; Casey Hushion, director), In the Mood (Workshop; Kenny Leon, director), The Amazing Mr. X (Workshop; Jenny Koons, director), The Brass Teapot (NAMT Festival; Catie Davis, director).  NAMT: Board of Directors, Festival Committee/ Consultant (The King of Harlem, Wonder Boy, Interstate, The River is Me, Maya, Hart Island). Faculty: Chair of Acting & Music Theater and Associate Professor of

Music Theater at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, Co-Artistic Director of the Carnegie Mellon University Center for New Work Development. Website: www.rickedinger.com.  Instagram: @rickedingernyc

 

 

 

ABOUT CITY THEATRE:  

Founded in 1975, City Theatre is in its 51st season as Pittsburgh’s home for bold new plays. Located in the historic South Side on its four-building cultural campus, the company produces a season of regional and world premieres; its renowned Young Playwrights Festival, now in its 26th year; a season-long reading series of new works in progress; and the annual Momentum Festival. City Theatre’s mission is to provide an artistic home for the development and production of contemporary plays that engage and challenge a diverse audience. Its vision is to be the best mid-sized theater in America. Organizational core values are: Community; Collaboration; Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Accessibility; and Creativity. With an annual average operating budget of over $3.3M, City Theatre is the largest performing arts organization not located in Pittsburgh’s downtown Cultural District and is a constituent and core member of the League of Resident Theaters (LORT), Theatre Communications Group (TCG), and the National New Play Network (NNPN). Clare Drobot serves as Artistic Director alongside Managing Director James McNeel. The current full-time staff numbers 24 with over 125 additional part-time, artist, and contractor staff employed each season. City Theatre is governed by a board of 21 community volunteers (Barbara

Rudiak, board president). Major support for the 2025-2026 season is provided by the Allegheny Regional Asset

District, The Shubert Foundation, the Arthur J. and Betty F. Diskin Cultural Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, The Heinz Endowments, and major donors supporting City Theatre’s ‘Next Act’ 50^th Anniversary Campaign. Learn more at CityTheatreCompany.org.