Big news on the internal front: Confluence Theater of Pittsburgh (CTOP) has hired its staff. We committed to filling roles from legacy PPT and CLO staff first. That work is done. The core team is set, with just a few final roles still being filled.
On Thursday, September 17, we gathered as a full staff for the first time. It was part reunion, part introduction: old colleagues reconnecting, new colleagues meeting the people they’ll be building alongside. We spent the time talking through what’s coming up, from the Prologue Season into Season #1. Honestly, it felt like the moment this company stopped being an announcement and became a living, breathing room full of people.
A few new positions will be posted soon for external applicants. If you know someone who’d be great for what’s ahead, keep an eye out.
We’re building a company that will produce year-round. CTOP productions will fill downtown stages at the O’Reilly, the Byham, the Greer, and more. Beloved plays, blockbuster musicals, and future classics: work that honors our legacies while welcoming new audiences through the door. And the stage is only part of it. Expanded education programs and community events will bring that same energy to people of all ages, all year long.
One of those future classics is already making noise, and it hasn’t even opened here yet.
From New York Hit to Pittsburgh Premiere
While we were gathering our staff here, Jacob Ming-Trent has been having a moment of his own. Ming-Trent, now based in New York with real roots in Pittsburgh (CAPA and Gene Kelly Awards alum), wrote and performs his solo play How Shakespeare Saved My Life, currently running at the Public Theater, presented by Red Bull Theater. You may recognize him from the stage already; he was recently seen as Uncle Jocko in the Audra McDonald revival of Gypsy. This fall, his play makes its Pittsburgh premiere with us, built here with our own new set, as the first show ever presented under the CTOP name.
The story traces back to a classroom at age 12, when a teacher handed Ming-Trent the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V to read aloud. “It felt like I had agency for the first time,” he said in a new TheaterMania interview. “I had purpose.” That moment set him on a path that runs through Berkeley Rep, the Folger, and now the Public. This fall, that path leads home to Pittsburgh.
TheaterMania asked him what’s surprised him most about the show’s run. “I was convinced older white people would say, this is not the show for me. But they love it. It’s crazy. It’s for everybody,” he said. And when he talks about why he wrote it, it comes back to a promise to his younger self: “I remembered myself homeless at 15, 16. Not having a place to live and all that stuff, I thought, ‘Man, that kid needs to hear this.’” Read the full interview here: How Shakespeare Really Did Save Jacob Ming-Trent’s Life.
This run is 14 performances, November 11 through 22, and then it’s gone. That’s it. No extension, no second chance next season. If you want to see the show New York is talking about, performed by an artist with real Pittsburgh roots at the height of his career, this is the window. Get your tickets now at ConfluenceTheater.org before this flash of lightning passes through town.