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Wednesday, February 05, 2003

By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Critic

It's really happening! After years of adroitly making do with the striking but archaic mainstage facilities in the Stephen Foster Memorial, the University of Pittsburgh Theater has nearly reached the end of its $2 million technical refit of the stage and auditorium, soon to be christened the Charity Randall Theatre.

That this was under way is old news, but it became real to me Monday when Buck Favorini gave me a brief tour of the alterations, now nearing completion. Having acted on that stage back in the '70s, I was particularly excited by the expanded dressing rooms (showers!). But the most telling improvements are on stage: stage surface, rigging (for hoisting), grid, extended curved forestage, multiple trap doors, orchestra pit, a multi-ton lighting truss, light positions out front, control booths, increased handicapped accessibility, design detailing, etc., etc.

Changes in the house include reconditioned woodwork and seats, carpeting, a massive sound system and lighting for the impressive vaulted roof. The lobby, to be named for Fred Kelly, Gene's brother, thanks to Fred's son Michael, will have better seating, a display case of Kelly memorabilia and a ticket/concessions stand. Stonework has been cleaned and repointed. Outside, banners and projected images will better mark the building as a theater, not just a gothic bubble on the side of the Cathedral of Learning.

All this will be revealed with the previews of "Much Ado About Nothing" on April 2. The gala opening will be April 4, a week later than originally announced, not because of delays, but to accommodate Pitt administrators' schedules.

With the Charity Randall, the Henry Heymann a floor below and Studio Theater next door, Pitt will once again boast three functioning theaters, as it did before the closing of the Pit (City Theatre's former home) -- each one improved.

Sad news

I've just heard of the death on Saturday of Glen Z. Gress, vividly remembered as the artistic director and chief engine from 1985-96 of the Laurel Highlands Regional Theatre, later the Acting Company, which he and Edward Kinchley Evans co-founded. Adrienne Wehr, one of his favorite actors, reports that Gress died of an aneurysm. As best I can tell, he was only 72.

Glen was company coach, director, designer and actor; Eddie was playwright, sometime director and chief cookie baker. They were a remarkable pair. Among Glen's many achievements, I recall especially his company's 1996 swan song, Eddie's "Joan of Hollywood," in which he played Florian Sainte-Apollo, an aging and bitchy character actress. The play was an outspokenly funny condemnation of a world that values sex and success over emotional commitment. It felt like a farewell.

They moved to a big old riverside house in Emlenton, northeast of Butler. "We're not quitting," Glen said. "We're just moving on." He continued to work, most recently in Pittsburgh, directing "Iolanthe" for the Savoyards in 2001.

Eddie wants time to deal privately with his grief, but friends could write him at P.O. Box 783, Emlenton, PA 16373. No memorial service is now planned, but surely there will be one eventually.

Hurry up, please, it's time

In a few weeks, we'll publish our annual list of high school musicals, so I need e-mail notice A.S.A.P. -- school name, show name, dates.

August Wilson and Kuntu

Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Kuntu Rep will do staged readings of August Wilson's rarely seen "The Homecoming" and his first big success, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," directed by the noted Woodie King Jr., who has been conducting acting workshops this week. The site is the auditorium on the seventh floor of Alumni Hall, 4227 Fifth Ave., Oakland. Admission is free.

Kuntu is still seeking some actors for the readings, both white and black. If interested, call 412-624-7298 or 412-648-2239.

Bottom Line

Paid admissions at city's pro theaters for week ending Feb. 2:

LaMancha/Public (89%) . . . . . .2,696
Sorrows/City (58%) . . . . . . . . . . .1,234