Ron Allan-Lindblom had a list of the usual reasons for exiting after 20 years as artistic director of the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Point Park University’s Conservatory of Performing Arts.
There was leaving before he’s asked to go, many missions accomplished, turning 65 — you know, the usual for leaving a long-held position. Except in this case, he’s stepping aside, but not away. He’s shedding his role as an administrator, because, well, what’s the fun of moving into a brand-new, state-of-the-art Playhouse if you don’t have the time to play?
Mr. Lindblom talked about the past two decades and looked to the future, wearing, as always, his trademark backward beret, snug in his new office on one of January’s recent deep-freeze days. He was seated in front of a wooden breakfront, adorned with photos and memories.
He’s already making new ones leading up to the Feb. 1 world premiere of “The Old Man and the Sea,” which he sees as the beginning of the next phase of his career at Point Park — “directing, developing new works, and maybe teaching a few grad courses.”
When he arrived in 1998, after running California Repertory Company at Cal State, Long Beach, he expected Pittsburgh to be a short-term stop and “a great launchpad” to running a major theater festival or regional theater.
He and his actress wife, Penny, wound up settling into the Pittsburgh theater scene and the Point Breeze neighborhood that has been home for 20 years. He rattles off the names of people on his street, and then offers, “When I left California after many years, I couldn’t tell you the names of any of my neighbors.”
The Playhouse he first came to was, in the minds of many Pittsburghers, the place where they had their first theatrical experience or where Shirley Jones got her start, rather than an arm of Point Park, which took over the Oakland complex in the 1970s.
The program that he took over in 1998 was known as the Conservatory of Fine Applied and Performing Arts. During his tenure, the college became a university, the professional Playhouse Rep company was developed to go along with the Conservatory of Performing Arts that now offers a dozen undergraduate degrees. Point Park also has built a dance program and facilities that he ranks among the best of the best, and in 2018, unveiled the new Playhouse Downtown.
“I still to this day have found that Pittsburgh has this voice that is as raw and unique to Pittsburgh as Steppenwolf is to Chicago and Magic Theatre is to San Francisco, and my goal has always been to create works that export that voice,” he said.
Developing the rep company “was to have a conservatory that goes from student to professional theater, so as a student you could leave with an Equity card, in theory. And to have an Equity company that is integrated into an academic mission and then to be able to do new works and exploit in a positive way Pittsburgh artists.”
Among his proudest moments, he said, came in 2002, when Point Park’s student musical “Grand Hotel” was chosen to headline the finals of the American College Theater Festival XXXIV at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
“That was monumental for me, to know the potential of this place,” he said.
Another was bringing in Tony Award winner and four-time Oscar nominee Jane Alexander for the world premiere of Thom Thomas’ “A Moon to Dance By.”
“I thought, if you could get the artists in this country to start talking about, ‘There’s something happening at the Playhouse again,’ it will grow from there. What I could bring, that other schools didn’t have, as a freshman you are working on a show with Robert Miller, or you’re running the show that has Jane Alexander.”
Mr. Miller, son of playwright Arthur Miller (“Death of a Salesman,” “The Crucible”), directed several of his father’s works at the Playhouse. “Bob and I developed such a great friendship over the years, and I have a lot of personal moments with Bob and his family — being in Roxbury [Conn.] when Arthur died; planning the memorial with Bob and his family at [Broadway’s] Majestic Theatre, those kind of moments are really touching and unforgettable.”
The musical theater and dance programs began rising in national rankings to a top 10 program despite the decaying facilities at the old Playhouse in Oakland. Among Point Park’s most prominent accomplishments is “most alumni on Broadway,” giving Pittsburgh two of the top 10 last year (Carnegie Mellon was No. 1; Point Park No. 9).
“When I first arrived here in 1998, people used to say, ‘I’m a Playhouse major; I’m with the Playhouse.’ And if you went to New York, it was, ‘I’m from the Playhouse,’” Mr. Lindblom said. “One of the nice things that’s changed now is, if you go to New York, it’s, ‘I’m from Point Park.’”
One of those people is actor-playwright Marcus Stevens, whose new musical “Game On” just finished its premiere run at CLO Cabaret. After graduating from Point Park, he came back as co-creator of the musical “Red,” which got its debut courtesy of Mr. Lindblom and brought Mr. Stevens the 2005 Richard Rodgers Award for musical theater original work.
“His belief in my abilities gave me the confidence to be a professional writer,” Mr. Stevens has said.
The world premiere of “The Old Man and the Sea” that Mr. Lindblom is directing came to him via Point Park alumnus Ryan Stana, CEO and founder of RWS Entertainment Group in New York. The adaptation of Hemingway’s Pulitzer- and Nobel Prize-winning 1952 novella has included collaborating with writers A.E. Hotchner and his son, Tim, and stars Tony Award winner Anthony Crivello. The combined professional cast and crew fits right in with the director’s conservatory vision.
The new building, with its three theaters, a film studio and rehearsal space to match the size of the stages, has “the potential to be this artistic laboratory that I have dreamed about and Paul and I have talked about for years.”
“Paul” is Point Park president Paul Hennigan, whom Mr. Lindblom credits with bringing about the Downtown complex “the right way, by including in the process the users of the building,” from the artistic director to the master electrician.
“We said we wanted a building that could incorporate students across the board, a place where marketing students could come and learn, and an entertainment center and an entertainment business center …”
There is a knock at the door. Mr. Lindblom is being called into a meeting about his successor. He gave his notice in June, on his 20th anniversary, and has planned the upcoming season to finish off his duties as artistic director. Now he is being asked about the national search to replace him.
Mr. Lindblom said part of the focus will be on incorporating the many disciplines that revolve around artists and entertainment and incorporating the entire Point Park community into the possibilities the Playhouse represents.
“The Chronicle of Higher Education is telling us these days that the average student will have 14 careers. Not jobs — careers,” he said. “What we’ve created here is a big canvas that will reveal itself. This place is only limited by the imagination of the people who come here to play in it.”
Starting with the world premiere of “The Old Man and the Sea,” the time for Ron Allan-Lindblom to play is now.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg. Sign up for the PG performing arts newsletter Behind the Curtain at Newsletter Preferences.
First Published: January 30, 2019, 5:00 p.m.
Updated: January 30, 2019, 5:31 p.m.
