On May 22, friends and loyal patrons gathered at Quantum Theatre’s warehouse to celebrate the launch of the 2024-2025 season:
A Moon for the Misbegotten: August 2-25, 2024
A bittersweet love story by a giant among American playwrights, A Moon for the Misbegotten is O’Neill’s final work, an exploration of family and the sacrifices we make for the ones we love. Our production, staged at Longue Vue Club in Verona, will bring contemporary resonance to the story in an outdoor production under a real moon.
Quantum is pleased to elevate Director of Production Cody Spellman to the position he’s trained and inclined for this show: Director. From Chicago, he’s following in the Writers Theatre’s footsteps in casting Black actors as the members of the Hogan family. Melessie Clark (The Current War) plays one of the greatest roles ever written for an actress, Josie Hogan, Wali Jamal (Wild) stars as her father Phil, and Jordan Drake as her brother Mike. Brett Mack plays the iconic role of Jamie Tyrone, an actor who graced the stage at Carrie Furnace as Horatio in Hamlet. He is celebrated nationally for his portrayal of Tom in The Glass Menagerie at New York’s Bridge Street Theatre. Newcomer Allen Law rounds out the cast. Stephanie Mayer-Staley, veteran scenic designer, will make the verdant setting of Longue Vue Club magical. Resident lighting guru C. Todd Brown enhances the moon’s lighting design, costumes by Damian Dominguez (The Cherry Orchard), and original composition and sound by Ryan McMasters (Ainadamar, John Gabriel Borkman).
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (An out of the box Experience): November 1-24, 2024
An adaptation of the iconic film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari will be brought to life by the artistic team which masterfully took Pittsburgh audiences on An Odyssey in 2021. Staged in the Union Trust Building theater, guests will experience this sinister carnival inspired equally by German Expressionism and America’s current political landscape.
Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer’s film continues to inspire and intrigue film students and appreciators. Playwright Jay Ball and Director Jed Allen Harris team up again, bringing humor, sophisticated scholarship, and fierce politics to the meaning of the story for today. There’s a character you’ve never heard of who is steering this ship: Helene Weigel, the widow of Bertolt Brecht. She’s on a mission now as she was in the heyday of the Berliner Ensemble, which brought the world Mother Courage and her Children, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, and The Good Person of Szechwan. With Catherine Gowl (An Odyssey, King Lear), Dan Krell (The Current War, When the Rain Stops Falling), Nick Lehane (The Cherry Orchard, The Electric Baby), Jerreme Rodriguez (Scenes from an Execution, Plano), and newcomers Sara Lindsay, Mark August, and Cameron Nickel. Scenic Design by Yafei Hu, enhanced with the great artistry of filmmaker Joe Seamans and cinematographer Mark Knobil (Far Away), with additional design by Joe Pino, C. Todd Brown, and Angela Vesco.
The Return of Benjamin Lay: January 31 – February 23, 2025
University of Pittsburgh’s Marcus Rediker joins forces with Naomi Wallace to bring us The Return of Benjamin Lay, a fierce play based on the book “The Fearless Benjamin Lay” by Marcus Rediker, about a revolutionary abolitionist far ahead of his time, at Braddock Carnegie Library. Disowned for his ‘radical’ ideas of freedom, Benjamin Lay was a towering example of conviction who stood only four-feet tall.
The Return of Benjamin Lay enjoyed great success in London, where it was lauded as the show of the year. MacArthur Genius Award and Obie Award-winning playwright Naomi Wallace collaborated with Pittsburgh’s great historian, scholar, and artist Marcus Rediker (The Amistad Rebellion) to write about a historical figure they considered a must to be heard and seen again. These two engaged Ron Daniels, a longtime Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company who has directed Derek Jacobi, Mark Rylance, Imelda Staunton, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellan – to begin a list of luminaries. And together they sought and found the perfect actor for Ben Lay: Mark Povinelli. A past president of Little People of America, the organization founded in the 1950’s by actor Billy Barty, Mark’s talent is matched by a spirit of activism not unlike the character he portrays. These artists come to Pittsburgh for the play’s further development and American premiere on its way to a New York run. London designers Isobel Nicolson, John Leonard, and Anthony Doran work with Quantum’s local team to stage the piece in the Braddock Carnegie Library, and attendees are treated to this iconic facility’s gorgeous renovation ahead of its March 2025 reopening.
