Anatomy of a Theater Merger: Why We're Doing This
What do we owe our city, and how do we build something worth more than the sum of what we're giving up? This week, a deeper exploration of the "why" behind the merger.
A great city deserves great locally produced theater.
There’s a version of today’s newsletter that opens with a balance sheet. We walk you through the (at times difficult to accept) insights from the feasibility phase and months that followed. The merger becomes an obvious triage to keep both organizations afloat.
That version is true. But it’s not the whole truth.
The leadership recognized this as a moment to build something better, not just bigger. With some reworking of excellent source material, their vision was to build a new organization, unique for its size: financially stable, artistically ambitious, and operationally efficient. A cultural engine with deep regional impact.
Simply: an awesome local theater company that matters to its community.
Our Vision
To bring Pittsburgh together through bold, artistically ambitious theater
To build on proud legacies
To create unforgettable experiences
To grow theater audiences
To expand opportunities for theater artists in Pittsburgh.
When 1+1 equals 1
Imagine that the red bricks here are the Pittsburgh CLO. Every red brick represents their core reason for being: The Celebration of Musical Theater.
The focus is clearly - and only - on musical theater. At the top, you have excellent classic, proscenium musical theater productions. In the middle, there are some gaps - these represent the “experiments” of developing new musicals, or smaller shows in alternative venues.
At the bottom, there’s a robust education layer. The CLO Academy and related programs are excellent on their own and at times even transcend the core product, creating the next generation of musical theater artists.
Pittsburgh Public Theater has an altogether different shape. With musicals, classics, and new works mixed into a traditional season, their core programming was more “well-rounded,” built for theater lovers of all types.
Unlike CLO, however, the overall organization appears unbalanced, and the foundation too small. Developmental work and successful programs have grown in a few areas and the industry relationships are deep. But the artistic excellence isn’t appropriately supported.
There are obvious gaps in both organizations.
Throughout this process, we’ve had a lot of suggestions about how to “merge” or as we think of it, “unify.”
One of the most common suggestions is to simply combine the administrative staffs and allow each organization to keep doing what they do best. While that strategy preserves what many people love, it also allows many gaps to remain - each of which is a future risk or missed opportunity.
Our new model
Something really magical happens when we fully blend our knowledge, experiences, and opportunities.
Consider the visual below. It looks smaller, and in year one, it will be. However, there are fewer gaps and the blending and integration is central to it all.
We will still have main stage productions - musicals, contemporary plays, and classics at the top. Now, however they dip and span differently. This is where we see the work of emerging artists and introduce new types of theater experiences.
Education is embedded across all aspects of the work, expanding apprenticeships, fellowships, and workforce training. The Academy, Gene Kelly Awards, and Shakespeare programs remain a strong foundation for youth.
Utilizing smaller or nontraditional spaces, we will support developmental programs led by a mixed-discipline resident company - offering more opportunities to more artists, and allowing audiences to peek behind the curtain.
Finally, and crucially, in this model, we can open our arms wide. We are prioritizing our audience experience - from preserving affordable ticket prices at every show to offering community engagement before and after performances - we want you to feel welcome sharing space with us.
The Critical Path
This is a phrase we use a lot. It refers to the steps we need to take to get to our first opening night. Over the next 10 months, we are working to:
Re-negotiate terms with key vendors and lease holders
Finalize programming and begin contracting/producing work
Complete the merger! Target: July 31, 2026.
Announce Name, Brand, and Website
Announce core 2027 programming
Develop new policies, procedures, and benefits plans
Hire all staff roles
Hire President & Executive Producer
Launch Founders campaign
Start selling tickets and packages
Unify staff offices / processes / technology
Begin Artistic Director search
Re-negotiate union agreements
Launch Prologue season
Begin inaugural season rehearsals
LEGO visuals & narrative created by Tom McGough, Chair of the Interim Board.