“Noises Off” at the Pittsburgh Public Theater
“Noises Off is a delicate and complicated machine of a play, and director Margot Bordelon has assembled its many moving parts with finesse.”
The Afterlife of Gertrude Stein
Walking through Gertude Stein’s biographical and literary legacy with devotion in Francesca Wade’s “Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife.”
“First Lady” at PICT Classic Theatre
“The play is set in a ‘modern banana republic’ in a vaguely defined Mesopotamia, in the midst of a popular uprising against an oppressive authoritarian president.”
Robert Gibb’s Rust Belt Poetry
Robert Gibb is a real poet, which says a lot.
Skating with Lori Jakiela
Jakiela is a master of an essay form that is distinctly her own, a kind of integrated collage style that brings together her background as a journalist and the author of collections of poetry, weaving together quotes, facts, musings, digressions, and stories.
Campus Weird
"Collegiate Gothic" Skewers Academia (and Ohio) in Fine Form
Jan Beatty – Poet. Madwoman. Ally.
Write the poem you’re afraid to write. That’s the mantra-like advice Jan Beatty has been prescribing to budding poets of all stripes for over three decades, as the now-retired professor has seemingly had a guiding hand in the education of every writer in Pittsburgh.
Jobbing with Dave Newman
For many working-class folks, the job can become an integral part of who they are, a reason to be. Yet when pressed to share his views on jobs as identity, Newman cuts against the grain, saying “I try to separate the idea of work and jobbing. Jobbing is what most of us do to pay the bills. Work is what keeps us alive and sane. Writing is work. Cooking dinner is work. Gardening is work. Work is a creative task that is essential.