Public’s new artistic director puts mark on 2018-19 season
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Marya Sea Kaminski officially will step into the role of Pittsburgh Public Theater artistic director on Aug. 1, but she is making her presence known even before she steps up to the plate.
Four of the six plays announced Tuesday for the Public’s 2018-19 season are by women, and another, “The Tempest,” is adapted by Ms. Kaminski. The female-centric version of the Bard’s final play, which she also directs, will have an original score, and the title storm may just include a wintry mix familiar to Pittsburghers.
Ted Pappas, who is leaving as producing artistic director after 18 years, isn’t cutting ties. In March of next year, he will direct “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” one of three 2017 Tony nominees on the schedule. The others are “Indecent” by Paula Vogel and Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Sweat.” Mr. Pappas had reserved the rights to the trio of plays, among others, to help jump-start his successor’s choices for the new season.
Ms. Kaminski’s opening volley will be a 21st-century version of “Pride and Prejudice” by Kate Hamill, a self-described feminist playwright who also has created an award-winning stage version of Jane Austen’s“Sense and Sensibility.”
“I added ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ which I think is a great season opener,” said Ms. Kaminski, who comes to Pittsburgh from Seattle Rep. “I think what Kate is doing, in terms of distilling those adaptations for a modern audience, speaks to my mandate coming to the Public. That is to continue Ted’s legacy — excellent works, brilliant execution — but I really want to stretch familiar titles for a new audience, and I feel like Kate’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ starts that conversation.”
“Sweat,” about the dying steel industry in Reading, Pa., and what it means for workers and their families, is tailor-made for a Western Pennsylvania audience.
“I know how deep that issue runs here,” Ms. Kaminski said. “To me it doesn’t feel like a political issue, it feels like a family issue, a legacy issue, and then of course there’s the politics. And this is my favorite kind of political theater, because [playwright Nottage] actually never talks about politics. It’s all about relationships and the people impacted by those policies.”