Advocate’s work bolstered the arts in Pittsburgh
Chances are, if you attended a Pittsburgh theater or classical music event in the past 60 years, you were a beneficiary of Joan Apt’s contributions to the city’s cultural vitality.
The co-founder of Pittsburgh Public Theater and driving force in local arts and charitable organizations died Saturday at age 93.
“She was fierce in pursuit of goals to make the city better, and the Public Theater is an example of that,” said her son, Jay Apt, a physicist, Carnegie Mellon University professor and former astronaut.
“Determined” is a word often used to describe the woman who many found it hard to say no to once her mind was made up.
“I would say that is an understatement,” Mr. Apt said Monday, noting the corporate, foundation and public support that “stepped up” when his mother came to call.
“She was a visionary, a cheerleader and a wise counselor,” said Ted Pappas, who for 18 years was the artistic director of the Public Theater and will speak at Mrs. Apt’s funeral service Tuesday. “She was my Auntie Mame, and I am forever grateful for her guidance and our many years of friendship.”
The dynamic Mame, from the musical of the same name, is a woman who showers the people in her orbit with good will and gets the job done.
“Joan Apt not only helped create Pittsburgh Public Theater, she remained the company’s heart and soul and its fiercest advocate throughout 45 seasons,” Mr. Pappas said. “She believed in beautiful shows, balanced budgets and joyous opening nights.”
She continued as a board member of Public Theater, rarely missing a meeting, as it transitioned to the leadership of Marya Sea Kaminski and Lou Costelli two seasons ago.
“One of my proudest moments in the theater was leading Joan to her seat on the opening night of ‘The Tempest,’” Mrs. Kaminski said of her own first show as artistic director. “I remember how excited we both were and how lovely she looked as she took my arm and we navigated through the openingnight crowd together. I will deeply miss her. I know many of us will.”
In 1975, with Margaret Rieck, she founded Pittsburgh Public Theater, initially raising $370,000 from corporations, foundations, individuals and the Pennsylvania Arts Council. She served as the company’s first treasurer when the Public debuted with Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” in 1975, at the Allegheny Theater (now New Hazlett) on the North Side. The Public moved to Downtown and into its current home, the O’Reilly Theater, in 1999, with the premiere of “King Hedley II” by August Wilson, the Pulitzer Prizewinning Pittsburgh native whose work was championed by the company from the start.
In a 1999 interview with the PostGazette, Mrs. Apt recalled her early resolve to cultivate a resident theater. “I was determined we were going to have professional
theater here. For me, it was an emotional thing,” she said.
Not long before co-founding the Public, her determination was centered on the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In 1971-72, she planned and implemented the successful subscription sales campaign for the PSO’s move into the newly renovated Heinz Hall.
“Joan Apt has been an incredible volunteer and leader for the PSO for decades,” Melia Tourangeau, president and CEO of the PSO, said in a statement. “Joan first joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Association in 1953 and served in many capacities. She then joined the PSO’s Board of Advisors and subsequently its Board of Directors in 2005. Joan and her husband, Jerry, regularly entertained Pittsburgh Symphony guest artists in their Shadyside home and have wonderful stories from those dinners.”
Ms. Tourangeau added that the PSO would dedicate its upcoming collaboration with Public Theater — “two institutions that Joan loved” — to Mrs. Apt. In February 2021, the theater will contribute scenes to the orchestra’s Heinz Hall concert of Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
Among Joan Apt’s other cultural contributions to Pittsburgh were as a founding board member of Pittsburgh CLO, where she later served as treasurer, and she helped found the American Wind Symphony and the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival.
Her love of the arts was ingrained from an early age. She was born Joan Frank on July 4, 1926, in Wilkinsburg, the granddaughter of Pittsburgh industrialist and philanthropist Isaac W. Frank, and the daughter of Cecelia Kaplan Frank and Robert Jay Frank, an engineer and vice president for sales of Copperweld Steel Co.
When she was 13, her family moved into what has come to be known as the Frank House on Woodland Road, adjacent to the Chatham University campus. The modernist structure was commissioned from architects Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer and inspired Mrs. Apt to later commission an architectural gem of her own.
After graduating from the Winchester Thurston School in 1944, she attended Wheaton College, where she majored in art history. Joan Frank married Jerome Apt Jr. on Aug. 10, 1947, and they resided in Springfield, Mass., before moving to Pittsburgh in 1949.
The Apts turned to Pittsburgh architect and museum curator James Speyer to design their own modernist home, a place where Joan loved to entertain, most recently on her 90th birthday.
Jay Apt left home at age 18 in 1967, but he can recall the parties hosted by his parents and the luminaries who would regularly come to his home to “let their hair down” after a show. Violinist Itzhak Perlman was present at one such gathering, and “I had a great conversation at our house with Bob Prince,” the late Pirates announcer, Mr. Apt said.
Family time had become precious in recent years, and boasting about the accomplishments of her loved ones was a favorite pastime. Sarah Apt shared that her grandmother “had an incredible sense of humor — nothing was too sacred to joke about.”
Although she is best known for her contributions to the arts, Mrs. Apt also volunteered with many charitable causes. She served as Pittsburgh’s chair of the United Way’s Community Fund, citycounty chair of the American Cancer Society, and was one of the founders of the Woman’s Division of the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh. Among the many honors she received was the Governor’s Award for “the highest level of individual distinction with unwavering commitment to family, community and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” and the Carlow College Woman of Spirit award in 2002.
For all that she accomplished, Joan Apt did everything on her own time. Her son Jay recalls that he and his sister, the late Judy Nathenson, rarely saw her as they were getting ready for school in the morning.
“The day didn’t start for my mother until 11 a.m.,” said Mr. Apt, who then had to laugh. “That’s why the funeral service is at 2 p.m. It had to be in the afternoon.”
Mrs. Apt is survived by her brother, Alan I.W. Frank of Pittsburgh; her son, Jay of Pittsburgh; grandchildren David Nathenson, Michael Nathenson, Robert Nathenson, Steven Nathenson, Sarah Apt and Ru Emmons; and five great-grandchildren. Visitation will be 1 p.m. Tuesday at Rodef Shalom Temple, 4905 Fifth Ave., in Shadyside, followed by services at 2 p.m. Burial in Homewood Cemetery will be private. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Pittsburgh Public Theater, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra or a charity of choice.