New theaters, productions and companies of all shapes and sizes are popping up in and around Pittsburgh with a mind-numbing frequency.

Take the off-the-grid production of “Orphans,” a 1983 black comedy that is perhaps best known for the rocky 2012 Broadway revival starring Alec Baldwin and Ben Foster. It’s about two orphans living in poverty, with the eldest supporting his simple-minded brother through petty thefts. They kidnap a rich older man, who turns out to have his own agenda and becomes the boys’ father figure.

“It has three juicy roles in it, and the two young men’s roles are showcase roles, as is mine. And it’s about family,” said Ken Bolden, who when he is not acting teaches Introduction to performance at the University of Pittsburgh. He stars in “Orphans” with his former Pitts students Max Pavel and Dylan Marquis Meyers.

“For me, it’s three people who you might normally cross the street to avoid, but the play shows they are worthy of love and able to give love, in their own warped and damaged way. And it’s really funny.”

The production that opens Thursday in Lawrenceville sprang from an audition and set in motion a chain reaction of people springing into action to make it happen.

Sounding a bit like his “Orphans” character, Harold, Mr. Bolden said, “I have kept in touch with my former students and two of them are like the sons I’ve never had. One of them, Max, auditioned for ‘Orphans’ in L.A. and fell in love with the show. He approached me about doing it with another student, Dylan Meyers, and that’s how it all began.”

The “Orphans” team includes director Ingrid Sonnichsen, who owns Broadway, national and regional credits and who has taught at Carnegie Mellon University, and Hank Bullington, a Pittsburgh-based scenic and video designer whose recent work includes “The White Chip” for City Theatre and “DODO” for Bricolage.

“Max and I and Ingrid Sonn have been studying privately with Cotter Smith,” Mr. Bolden said, “and we thought that ‘Orphans’ would make a perfect fit in doing Active Analysis.”

Active Analysis

Mr. Smith is the stage and screen actor who came to Pittsburgh as part of the Netflix cast of “Mindhunter” and liked the city so much, he decided to stay. He immediately put down roots in the theater community, where he has been holding workshops in Stanislavski’s Active Analysis acting technique.

Most people when they hear “Stanislavski” think method acting — emoting to find the character, in the manner of a James Dean or Robert De Niro.

Mr. Bolden said that Stanislavski didn’t stop there.

“When he was dying and under house arrest by Stalin, he disavowed everything he had been teaching — all the stuff that Western actors were basing their acting styles on. In secret, with a group of actors, he developed a new style called Active Analysis. It was suppressed when he died and didn’t come out until Stalin died. And now all acting in Russia is based on this system, and it is just now being translated into English. … Juilliard teaches it, and a couple of other places, and Cotter.”

In the Active Analysis method, actors approach the work first through movement and improvisation — the text is the last piece of the puzzle in creating a character.

“In Pittsburgh, this is the first production that has had its rehearsal process based in this system,” Mr. Bolden said.’

This upstart “Orphans” production that began without a company or a venue has been the beneficiary of an Indiegogo fundraiser and loads of good will from the theater community. Quantum Theatre has supplied the seating. City Theatre has donated equipment. Pittsburgh Public Theater’s production stage manager, Fred Noel, stepped in for a week when the play’s stage manager was absent.

“A lot of people have been very kind,” Mr. Bolden said.

A big piece of the puzzle fell into place when the production “found this amazing space in Lawrenceville called Aftershock,” he said. “It’s still a work in progress, but they are putting in bathrooms, thank God.”

Aftershock Auditorium

The former Slovenian Auditorium on 57th Street, between Butler and Carnegie streets, was long in a state of disrepair when it was acquired by Carnegie Mellon alumni Andrew Minton, Larissa Jantonio and Andrea Romero.

They are still renovating the space that was opened around the turn of the 20th century as a community theater.

In October, it was the site of “Angelmakers: Songs for Female Serial Killers,” a new musical by the local company Real/Time Interventions.

Aftershock was founded on the premise that a venue was needed for “high quality art that is relevant, accessible and affordable to the growing population of Millennials and Gen Xers,” according to the website. Mr. Bolden said the dark comedy “Orphans” fits the Aftershock mission “perfectly.”

“Originally when the play was done, the acting was very revolutionary, very rock ‘n’ roll,” he said. “It has that energy, and it’s rough, and it’s violent.”

“Orphans” is now ready to rock ‘n’ roll, which fits perfectly in another way — it’s a show that gets by with a little help from its friends.

Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.

First Published: May 30, 2018, 4:00 p.m.