The Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts is back and expanding its scope, adding premieres from the United States — including some from right here at home — for six weeks in the fall.
Festival curator Karla Boos, the head of Quantum Theatre, has been working with a Pittsburgh Cultural Trust team led by producer Scott Shiller to broaden the experience from previous incarnations in 2004, ’08 and ’13.
“It became immediately apparent to me that America belonged in the festival because our work is international — Pittsburgh’s work is international,” Ms. Boos said. “Where once upon a time, in the origin of the festival, it was more like you were peeking behind a curtain to some distant land.”
From the start, she and Mr. Shiller were on the same page about how to proceed. The result is a festival that is double the length at six weeks (Sept. 21-Nov. 11) and triple the attractions — 30 companies and artists representing more than 20 countries, bringing works to Pittsburgh for regional, national and world premieres.
Before her artistic explorations began, Ms. Boos got to know the Trust team of programmers by inviting them to dinner.
“I plunged into a relationship with these marvelous people,” she said, “and I realized some things about them —-- that Randal Miller, as young as he is, is really a fantastic international voice for the future in dance programming, and he had things he was so excited about, and it was right for him to pursue. I came to understand that Sarah Aziz [Three Rivers Arts Festival and First Night] is so much more sophisticated in her understanding of what I would call urban, place-based art.” Pam Komar’s experience with young audiences also has been an important ingredient, “because we know other countries have concentrated their innovation on children’s programming,” Ms. Boos said.
For Mr. Shiller, whose background is in commercial Broadway, music and dance, the Festival of Firsts was another expression of his interests and part of the attraction of coming to Pittsburgh.
“We started by dreaming about what the festival could be and what the state of arts is around the globe, and that really tapped into Karla’s perspective as both an insider at the Trust and an outsider at the Trust,” Mr. Shiller said.
Ms. Boos, who lived in London for several months after receiving Pittsburgh’s Carol R. Brown Established Artist of the Year Award in 2015, said the timing “was so great, because I had been immersed in a bunch of work from all over the world at the time.” She also began the journey of Firsts while getting to know Joe Melillo, the retired executive producer of the Brooklyn Academy of Music who became her mentor. He pointed her in the direction of the Santiago a Mil International Theatre Festival in Chile, “a significant festival at the beginning of the year — I got the gig in the fall of ’16 and immediately traveled in January.”
She didn’t have to go far for another event on the schedule -— “Chatterton,” by Quantum Theatre, will have its world premiere in Trinity Cathedral, the Downtown Episcopal church. Following in the footsteps of Quantum’s 2014 production of “Tamara,” which was staged in Rodef Shalom Congregation, the audience moves through the landmark cathedral and catches its collective breath for an intermission dinner.
Including local companies and artists was one of the Firsts to emerge from the new programming team. Mr. Shiller brings “a fresh perspective to the Trust’s overall programming,” Ms. Boos said. “He was the one to say, ‘Everything the Trust does can be a part of the Festival of Firsts.’ ”
He was inspired by Ms. Boos’ description of Pittsburgh “as a home base for what was happening in the rest of the world,” Mr. Shiller said. “I became interested in how we could have a larger scope of work and more artists in more venues, and one of the ways to accomplish that was to tap into the great skill and timing and rhythm of what the Trust does in any given year.”
The festival programming includes collaborations with the Dance Council, EQT Bridge Theater Series, Trust Cabaret and the PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh series, for the American premiere of “Hotel” by Cirque Eloize, a 25-year-old Montreal troupe that bills itself as a “driving force in the circus art movement.”
With the world to choose from, both Ms. Boos and Mr. Shiller expressed excitement about securing the Gesher Theater of Israel’s political satire “In the Tunnel,” which will be co-presented with Cohen & Grigsby Trust Presents at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture.
For the 2 million visitors who attend Cultural District events annually, the duration and scope of the 2018 Festival of Firsts provides “new opportunities and new ways to see exciting new shows that they wouldn’t get to see otherwise,” said Mr. Shiller. “With these specific countries of interest and the way we are pushing the boundaries of storytelling, I also think there are audiences that haven’t been to the Cultural District, and through these offerings we are going to be able to entice them to see something that you can’t see anywhere else — and to be able to see it in your own backyard.”
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.
Festival of Firsts programming (additions TBA):
VISUAL ART (free and open to the public)
“NONOTAK” (Noemi Schipfer, Takami Nakamoto; France), world premiere, Wood Street Galleries
“Machine Culture” (international representation), world premiere, SPACE
“Beyond” (Playmodes Studio, Spain), U.S. premiere, EQT Plaza (free; timed-ticketed entry)
“50 Cities-50 Traces” (international art and peace project, 2018-20), world premiere, 937 Liberty Ave.
“Flying Girls” (Peju Alatise; Nigeria), North American premiere, August Wilson Center
“Keny Marshall” (United States-Pittsburgh), world premiere, 707 Penn Ave.
THEATER (tickets required)
“Karoo Moose — No Fathers” (Baxter Theatre Center, South Africa), U.S. premiere, Trust Arts Education Center
“Blind Cinema” (Britt Hatzius, United Kingdom, Belgium), regional premiere, co-presented with Multiple Choice Events, Harris Theater
“Chatterton,” Quantum Theatre, United States-Pittsburgh, world premiere, Trinity Cathedral
“Gab Squad,” from the “Josh and Gab Show” (United States-Pittsburgh), world premiere, Trust Arts Education Center
“Hans Christian, You Must Be an Angel” (Teatret Gruppe 38, Denmark), regional premiere, co-presented with EQT Bridge Theater Series, Trust Arts Education Center, Peirce Studio
“In the Tunnel” (Gesher Theater, Israel), North American premiere, co-presented with Cohen & Grigsby Trust Presents, August Wilson Center
“Joan Didion’s The White Album” (a project by Lars Jan / Early Morning Opera, co-commissioned by Center Theatre Group and BAM, U.S.), world premiere, August Wilson Center
Midnight Radio presents “Larger Than Life: Frankenstein & Karate Man Patrick Kim” (Bricolage Productions, Hanut31 Theater & Gallery, U.S.-Pittsburgh, Israel), world premiere, 937 Liberty Ave.
“Mrs. Krishnan’s Party” (Indian Ink Theatre, India, New Zealand), North American premiere, Trust Arts Education Center, 4th Floor.
PHYSICAL THEATER (tickets required)
“HOTEL” (Cirque Eloize, Canada), world premiere, co-presented withPNC Broadway in Pittsburgh), Benedum Center
“99 — La Morgue” (Ramon Griffero, Chile), American premiere, August Wilson Center
“ESPÆCE” (Aurelien Bory and Compagnie 111, France), regional premiere, August Wilson Center
MUSIC (tickets required)
Eva Noblezada (United Kingdom), regional premiere co-presented with Trust Cabaret Series, Cabaret at Theater Square
“Tago” (Kook Soo Ho, Angella Kwon, Kim Euik Hyoen; South Korea), U.S. premiere (co-presented with Cohen & Grigsby Trust Presents), Byham Theater
DANCE (tickets required)
“Cri des Nago, Ayikodans” (founder Jeanguy Saintus; Haiti), U.S. premiere, August Wilson Center
“Cao sem Plumas” (Deborah Colker Dance; Brazil), U.S. premiere, Byham Theater
“Moon Opera,” (Yabin Wang; China), North American premiere, (co-presented with Pittsburgh Dance Council), Byham Theater
For the most current listings, visit: TrustArts.org/Firsts.
First Published: May 22, 2018, 2:30 p.m.
