off the WALL productions at Carnegie Stage A Pittsburgh Theater

We often hear the saying “Life is short, so ____.”  How would you fill in the blank? Here are some common answers: Life is short, so have fun. Life is short, so live life to the fullest. Life is short, so be happy. And the list goes on. But how often to you hear someone say “Life is short, so look past your differences and your struggles and give the gift of acceptance”?  Not typically the first thought that comes to mind, but should it be? After all, what we’re really talking about here is reconciliation. Look at the common answers: have fun, live life to the fullest, be happy. Who is at the center of these responses? Ourselves. But when we start talking about reconciliation and acceptance, it’s no longer only about ourselves. It’s now about our relationship with another. Reconciliations need not be limited to someone with whom you’ve lost touch with or had a huge fight with. No, reconciliations can be life changing even over smaller actions. Any of those ‘little things’ ...

The Mother-Daughter Relationship. Though words cannot really express the depth of the bond, there are countless references to this special relationship. Perform a quick Google search for ‘mother daughter relationship’ and you’ll receive not hundreds or thousands or even hundreds of thousands results. You’ll receive over 350 million results. And that doesn’t begin to account for all the books, movies and even songs on the topic. Take a look on social media, and you’ll find a plethora of posts using #MotherDaughter, innumerable quotes, pins on Pinterest and the list goes on. But as special as mother-daughter relationships are, they are often simultaneously fraught with contention. Even WebMD discusses the topic. There are as many variances within relationships as there are mothers-daughters. But even so, there are also many commonalities, as well as cultural pressures that impact every relationship. In our upcoming production Mother Lode, two independent women deal with end-of-life d...

Mother Lode is off the WALL productions upcoming play. There are so many great reasons to see this play that we’ve select the top seven reasons that make this play stand out. This is a world premiere performance and opens on January 28, 2016 at Carnegie Stage, a Pittsburgh Theater. TOP 7 REASONS TO SEE MOTHER LODE Linda Haston - Photo: Heather Mull The Music: Soulful, old style jazz from the 1930’s – you can’t find that at every street corner in Pittsburgh, but you can find it at C arnegie Stage during the performances of Mother Lode. The Life Story of Two Pittsburgh Women: Mother Lode is based on the lives Pittsburgh actor Linda Haston and her mother Ruth and on growing up in the Hill District. It is also about the stages of their mother-daughter relationship, from contention and discord to acceptance. Style: A one woman show, Linda Haston plays the characters of herself and her mother. Enjoy a Great Story:  Ruth is such a great story teller that you’ll be cap...

Linda Haston - photo: Heather Mull Do you enjoy a great story?  Then our next play Mother Lode is just what you’re looking for.  Although it’s a one woman show, there are two characters: Ruth (the mother) and Linda (her daughter).  And boy can Ruth tell a story!  In fact, she’ll want to tell you her whole life story. How can we describe Ruth?  She’s animated, absolutely a storyteller at heart, joyful, uplifting, and quite simply – a hoot! Linda, on the other hand, doesn’t have time for stories. She’s too busy trying to keep everything together AND take care of her mother.  Her mother is in the final stages of her life and true to her big personality, she also has some big demands of her daughter. Linda would do anything for her mother, she wants to be there for her mother; but she has a career, she has her own bills to pay, and she has her own health to tend to.  So how does a mother-daughter navigate through such troubled waters?  We can’t...

One of our "many" goals is to introduce new voices to the performing arts. Here is an article by Elizabeth (Liz) Beck a senior at Robert Morris. She attended a recent tech rehearsal. “Sometimes it’s the dementia and sometimes it’s her.” This statement, spoken about halfway through Off the Wall’s newest venture, Mother Lode, walks a fragile line that denotes the major struggles we go through as our friends and family age. It transcends generations. It explains the crucial separation caregivers discover in the trenches of the “bad days.” There is a demarcation between the human and the disease—here in this chasm is where we find two women in Mother Lode. In the play, we meet Linda, a devoted but disgruntled caregiver to her mother Ruth, who has advanced dementia and proves to be belligerent to any type of help that does not come from her daughter. Among other things, Linda harbors resentment towards her brother who never pitches in and her absentee father who will not commi...

            Prior to Sunday’s performance of The Harvey WALLbangers’ “We’re Inside You Now,” I had not seen any of their previous performances. After attending, I am grossly disappointed that it’s taken me this long to get on board.             This year’s performance by The Harvey WALLbangers left me wanting more. I’ve always been a sucker for sketch comedy; I watched SNL long before it became cool for kids my age to stay up to watch it. But I think even if I had not been a fan beforehand, I would have enjoyed the performance just as much. The Harvey WALLbangers             “We’re Inside You Now” was presented and paced perfectly. It starts off with the seven WALLbangers introducing themselves and what they like to do in their free time, while generalizations and stereotypes associated with their various activities flashed on the screen behind them. The opening of the show was perfect; it ma...

There’s a stampede in process and it’s not the running of the bulls.  It’s a stampede to get to Carnegie Stage .   People are making reasons to go out of their way to see The Harvey Wallbangers IV: We're Inside You Now.   We don’t know your reason yet, but I’m sure it’s a good one! Here are some of the reasons others are hurrying in. Some are gathering friends, even their Facebook ‘friends’ to celebrate their birthday. We think they may be secretly hoping for a moment to shine on stage. Others, after dieting the first few days of the New Year, are eagerly awaiting Sunday’s brunch*.   Some, looking to stick with their New Year’s Resolution, are looking forward to laughing their *** off . Others are groping for a chance to discreetly make ‘accidental’ contact with their date under the cover of the darkened lighting.  Won’t they be surprised that not much goes unnoticed in our small, intimate theater! Still others, tired of an entire holiday...