Like co-productions, theatres merging operations to save money is hardly a new phenomenon. We’ve covered a few of these over the years, including the Henegar Center’s absorption of Titusville Playhouse in Florida in 2019, or, more recently, Soho Rep’s leaving its longtime downtown NYC space to take up residence (temporarily) at Playwrights Horizons—all this just a few doors down from Second Stage’s part-time residency at Signature Theatre Co. on 42nd Street since the former lost its Off-Broadway space on 43rd. And Seattle Shakespeare Company and ACT Theatre recently morphed into a single entity at Union Arts Center in downtown Seattle.
But recent news out of Pittsburgh represents something new and potentially more significant: Pittsburgh Public Theater, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (CLO), and City Theatre Company announced, via a joint release, that they are exploring joining forces into a kind of over-arching performing arts entity, in a merger that would unite the three largest independent theatres in Pittsburgh. As both the Public and City enter their 51st seasons and the Pittsburgh CLO is going into its 79th, all are reducing their budgets or showing structural deficits due to rising costs and erratic attendance. This comes at a time in which regional theatres nationally are facing slowed ticket sales, rising costs, and shifting funding priorities at both the government and private foundation level.
“Our organizations have begun a collaboration to explore ways we can overcome the same existential challenges faced by regional theatres across America, prompted by shrinking federal arts funding, tightening demands on philanthropic priorities, and the erosion of traditional subscriber models amid ever-widening entertainment choices,” read a statement signed by representatives of the three theatres. These include Pittsburgh Public Theater managing director Shaunda McDill (artistic director Marya Sea Kaminski stepped down earlier this year, with a search for her replacement underway), City Theatre managing director James McNeel and artistic director Clare Drobot (who recently became the theatre’s sole artistic director, ending a co-leadership model of some years), and Pittsburgh CLO executive producer Mark Fleischer and director of finance and administration Angela Langill.
The draft of a report by New York-based arts consulting company Keene Consulting, obtained by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, spelled out some of those “existential challenges”—i.e., that all three companies “are on the self-reported brink of financial failure in the near or mid-term future based on their own financial reporting and projections.” Keene’s recommendations were to explore merging under a single organizational banner, with a single board and three artistic directors for each of the three companies.
“We are now in the very early stages of what will be a highly inclusive process centered on listening, research, and data, which may take several months,” is how the three theatres’ statement puts it. The next step is reportedly an additional $400,000 study to further examine the legal feasibility and other ramifications of a potential merger. As with any merger, consolidation would likely also mean contraction: fewer performances and smaller staffs overall. Pittsburgh Public and Pittsburgh CLO each have budgets around $8 million and staffs of 33 and 35, respectively, while the City Theatre’s budget is around $3.5 million and their staff number is 23.
“As we undertake these efforts, we recognize the many considerations ahead, including the essential diversity of our city’s talented artists, the preferences of our discerning patrons, and the enduring dedication of our staffs who are the lifeblood of our theatre community,” the theatres’ statement continued. “While we have initiated some of the necessary legal, economic and cultural impact studies, our path forward will ultimately be driven by you and the community we serve, not consultants.”
Industry observer and Nothing for the Group newsletter author Lauren Halvorsen astutely noted that City Theatre and Pittsburgh CLO already teamed up, when in 2021 they co-produced the premiere of Matt Schatz’s musical An Untitled New Play by Justin Timberlake. Said Halvorsen, “As organizations continue to grapple with existential financial pressures, the same impulses that drove theatres to share costs, resources, and audiences will inevitably push them toward more permanent structural partnerships.”
