Hello Carnegie - Here comes Off The Wall

And now the latest from the Post Gazette:

Stage Notes: Off the Wall Productions creating new home in Carnegie

July 5, 2012 12:22 am

Off The Wall Productions has a new home for its upcoming sixth season, making the move from Washington, Pa., to Carnegie.By Sharon Eberson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Hans and Virginia Gruenert, the managing and artistic directors of the 6-year-old company, bought an empty building at 25 W. Main St. and are in the process of having it converted to a 94-seat theater with a lobby that can accommodate concessions. A business development grant from the Borough of Carnegie helped to facilitate the move.
"Off The Wall is also opening up our venue to other companies who need a home for a night or a weekend or two, making it the multicultural center we've always dreamed of," Mr. Gruenert said, adding that the stage has been designed with the idea of attracting dance companies and stand-up comedians.
The Gruenerts began the professional theater company in 2007 in Washington, with dramatic programming aimed at an adult audience. The sixth season of a quartet of shows opens Oct. 12 with Sharr White's "The Other Place," in which a biophysicist working on a potential breakthrough in dementia medication finds her own life taking a disorienting turn.
With the company's five-year lease in Washington ending this month, the time was right for the move. Downtown was never an option -- "There are enough theaters in the city" -- but Mr. Gruenert hopes to be a small-theater option for companies looking to lease a stage facility somewhere between the storefront Grey Box in Lawrenceville and the much larger New Hazlett on the North Side.
"Carnegie is right outside the tunnel, it's easy access from the parkway and 79 South and North, it has a giant parking lot that's free after 6 in front of our building," he said. "Plus, with the development grant, they made us feel welcome."


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/theater-dance/stage-notes-off-the-wall-productions-creating-new-home-in-carnegie-643366/#ixzz1zoDcxY1A

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Women Count at at off the WALL

WOMEN COUNT In case you missed the theatre industry’s gender parity movement, here’s a recap: women have been writing plays for millennia and landing productions for centuries.   Over time, they’ve also come to play key roles onstage and backstage.   But female theatre artists of all kinds still find themselves bonking their heads on a glass ceiling known as the “glass curtain.”   Even today, female playwrights, directors, and designers are atypical.   Shakespearian gender-swapping has been mooted as a partial solution; however, such theatrical “novelty” only serves to distract from the main issue – the absence of contemporary dramas reflecting the complexity of women’s lives.   Cross-gender casting fails to question the over-representation of dead and living male playwrights.   It does not address the fact that half our contemporary creative world is missing. In an essay in howlround.com, Jenny Lyn Bader writes: “We live in a world dominated by...
Read more

GHOSTS: A SET IN THE MAKING (PART 1)

Image
In this two-part blog, I’m going to focus not on the play itself, but on the set. Why? Because quite simply the set is astonishing! If you’ve been keeping up with our blogs, you already know that our current production Ghosts is set in the early 1880’s, that it was written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Isben and that though it is a revered classic today, it was considered absolutely scandalous in its time. The exposed secrets and immoralities conflicted with society’s moral taboos. If you’d like to learn more about the history of the play, the storyline, the characters or director, please peruse our recent posts. Scenic Design: Rich Preffer In the meantime, let’s take a look at the set. The set design, by Rich Preffer, captures the essence of the play. The mood. The character. The unsaid meanings and implications. The set itself includes a cage like structure, including a canopy structure, which encompasses the entire set. Looking at the set, you at once feel both the sense of h...
Read more

Celebrating family and friends in 2019

Image
Thank you for making 2018 so special As 2019 starts to gear up, we’re left remembering the many moments we’ve shared with you in 2018. It was a great year and we hope to make 2019 even better! We sincerely offer our most heartful ‘thank you’ to our creative partners, patrons, employees, and collaborators – Carnegie Stage and off the WALL surely wouldn’t be the same without every single one of you who make up our humble little community. From the bottom of our hearts, we’re happy to have you as part of our family. Erika Cuenca - Virginia Wall Gruenert Byhalia, Mississippi, May 2018 If you’d like to join the Carnegie Stage/off the WALL family, consider donating – no amount it too big or too small… and every little bit helps! With your help we are able to pay EVERY single person who works for us – there are no volunteers; only paid employees. We believe all working artists deserve to make a living doing what they love. To help support our cause, consider donating monthly or a...
Read more