The show will go on for Squonk Opera. The debut of their newest performance-art piece, "Hand to Hand," that had been scheduled for the Three Rivers Regatta will have multiple performances Saturday night in PPG Plaza in Downtown.
When the Regatta was canceled on Tuesday, “probably a dozen different sites” reached out to the Pittsburgh-based troupe, said Jackie Dempsey, Squonk's co-artistic director with Stephen O'Hearn. “We are so grateful to our fellow Pittsburghers and are amazed at the ability of this town to react and to make things happen.”
“Hand to Hand,” featuring original music and 20-foot-high puppet hands, will be performed for free at 5, 6:30, 8 and 9:30 p.m. at PPG Plaza, courtesy of Highwoods Properties, owners of PPG Place. The free shows will be part of Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership’s Saturday Night Market and the weekly Downtown Sound Music Series in Market Square, which will have a full night of music in addition to Squonk's performance.
“Hand to Hand” is designed to “reveal the grandeur and tomfoolery of size and scale.” After Saturday, it’s set to move on to Chicago and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Squonk boasts that its fully operable puppet hands are "the biggest in the world."
Squonk receives grant funding to create works and was supposed to be paid by the regatta, Ms. Dempsey said. The troupe has received a deposit, “but we have had no correspondence from them since they canceled two days before our load in.”
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.
First Published: July 31, 2019, 3:16 p.m.
Updated: July 31, 2019, 3:18 p.m.
