City Theatre’s mission is to provide an artistic home for the development and production of contemporary plays of substance and ideas that engage and challenge diverse audiences.
City Theatre Company is Pittsburgh’s home for contemporary theatre, with a strong focus on new works, often in their premieres or second productions (and often with the playwright in residence developing the text). City Theatre also commissions new plays, though commissioned playwrights are not chosen through a submission or application process. City Theatre will approach writers from whom we’d like to commission work. We are particularly interested in new, innovative, theatrical plays of substance and ideas that engage the intellect as well as the emotions, and that challenge pre-conceptions about both life and theatre; works of unconventional form, content, and/or use of language; compelling stories; and plays by under-represented voices (e.g., women, writers of color, writers with disabilities). We are always seeking unproduced work, and we accept full-length original plays, adaptations, translations, musicals, and solo plays. We are not presently considering one-acts or children’s plays. In a typical season, we produce seven plays in our two performance spaces, along with MOMENTUM: new plays at different stages (our new works festival), the Young Playwrights Festival (7th to 12th grade playwrights from our region), and one or two special events. Our 272-seat Mainstage Theatre is capable of flexible stage and seating configurations (though we most often use thrust or proscenium staging). Our 120-seat Hamburg Studio Theatre is currently in a thrust configuration.
City Theatre Company does not accept unsolicited scripts, nor does it accept submissions by e-mail. For consideration, playwrights should mail a query letter, along with a resume, a complete synopsis of the play, a character breakdown, a 15- to 20-page dialogue sample (and demo cassette or CD for musicals), and the development and production history of the play to:
Carlyn Ann Aquiline
Literary Manager & Dramaturg
City Theatre Company
1300 Bingham Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
A self-addressed, stamped envelope must be provided to ensure the return of submission materials. Response time for queries is at least several months.
No phone calls.