Pittsburgh Playhouse

Pittsburgh Playhouse is Point Park University's performing arts center located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It houses three performance spaces and is home to The Rep, Point Park's resident professional theatre company, as well as three student companies—Conservatory Theatre Company, Conservatory Dance Company, and Playhouse Jr. The Conservatory Theatre Company offers five productions each year that are performed by undergraduate students at Point Park; this season consists of a mixture of established plays and musicals, as well as occasional new works.

The Conservatory Dance Company offers ballet, modern, and jazz dance productions featuring Point Park undergraduates; these consist of works by established choreographers as well as new pieces choreographed by both students and professionals. The Playhouse, Jr. offers children's theatre performed by Point Park undergraduates; it is the second oldest continually running children's theatre in the United States. Playhouse, Jr. has also participated in the Pittsburgh New Works Festival. The Rep offers four productions performed by professional actors; the season usually consists of a mixture of established and new plays.

The Rep has hosted regional premieres by such playwrights as Amy Hartman, Tammy Ryan, and Edward J. Delaney.

The Pittsburgh Playhouse is an iconic symbol for the city’s culture. For over seven decades, this organization transformed for a small-time puzzle of fifteen single pieces to a united theater organization that mirrored the community oriented feel and the decadence of Broadway. Broadway and radio actors [actresses] were attracted to the Pittsburgh Playhouse and made appearances in certain shows. The Golden Age of the Pittsburgh Playhouse brought an additional theater and new classes for not only adults but also children, Pittsburgh Playhouse Jr. However, over the years, the organization did face a series of financial hardships that have resulted in the changing of ownership as well as the final proposed plans to move the Pittsburgh Playhouse from its original organization from the 1930s.

Prior to the formation of the Pittsburgh Playhouse, the world of theater in the city was faced with a decrease in sales, an economic depression, and a lack of uniformity to attract the masses needed to “keep the lights on”. Over fifteen different theater companies, ranging from burlesque to farce to tragedy, struggled to remain in business within the city. It was not until a proposal to his actress fiancée from the “Pittsburgh culture king”, Richard S. Rauh that an era of cultural boom occurred.

The Rauh family had become a huge benefactor of the arts in Pittsburgh. Supporting the funding of the establishment of the Pittsburgh Symphony and a dozen other social/ cultural organizations by his parents, Enoch and Bertha, Richard Rauh was heir to a substantial fortune from him family shirt business. During his time in New York, he had met and fallen in love with an actress, Helen Wayne. Graduating from Carnegie Mellon, with a degree in performance, Helen became the “sweetheart” of the radio as an actress on the weekly show, The Charm Lady. Smitten by her, Rauh had promised to find her a stage to act on if she would not leave for New York. They were married until his death in 1974.

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