As planned, Pittsburgh’s two largest theater companies officially merged Friday. But contrary to plan, the new merged group remains without a name.
Organizers of the merger between Pittsburgh Public Theater and the Pittsburgh CLO were scheduled to announce the new name and branding Friday, along with the merged entity’s first season, in an event at the O’Reilly Theater, the Public’s longtime home.
The afternoon event happened as scheduled, in front of about 150 supporters. The completion of the merger was announced by Tom McGough, newly elected chair of the new group’s board of trustees.
“We’re now together, and the two organizations — now that they’re combined — just have such potential to do wonderful things in the Pittsburgh community,” McGough said.
McGough also announced the names of the rest of the 12-member board, including former Public Theater board chair Krysia Kubiak and former CLO board chair Joe DiVito.
But the day’s other announcements looked a bit different than planned.
First, the name. McGough said the merging companies had settled on Forge Theater of Pittsburgh several weeks ago. Then last week, coincidentally, Pittsburgh’s New Hazlett Theater announced its own new initiative, and it was one with a name so similar — ForgeWorks — that merger organizers scrapped their chosen moniker and started over, this time with more community input, including an online poll.
“We’re trying to turn it to our advantage by letting everybody in on the act,” said Tom McGough, who was elected chair of the new group’s board of trustees. “We’ll get there.”
Merger organizers this week also postponed plans to announce their full 2027 season, and instead shared only “a taste,” with more to come in the weeks ahead.
What’s in a name?
The delays were the latest setbacks in a nearly two-year process meant to secure the future of the companies, along with that of initial participant City Theatre.
In January, City dropped out and went its own way. Confirmation that the Public and the CLO would formally merge followed in March.
The merger process was led by Brett Ashley Crawford, a Carnegie Mellon professor of arts management, and attorney Thomas McGough, who chairs the interim board of the merged entity.
Crawford and McGough said the process, originally set to take all of 2026, was expedited at the behest of funders. The tightened timeline for both the legal merger and development of the group’s programming increased the workload, they said.
Then in May — just days after the groups announced their first joint programming — the Public abruptly laid off 11 administrative staffers, generating anger and concern in the local theater community.
Bill O’Driscoll
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90.5 WESA
Tom McGough, board chair, and Brett Crawford, interim executive producer, speak Friday at the O’Reilly.
As of a month ago, organizers seemed to be back on track.
And indeed, fall programming will continue as planned, including November’s Pittsburgh premiere of “How Shakespeare Saved My Life,” an acclaimed one-man play by Broadway and screen actor Jacob Ming-Trent, who grew up largely in Pittsburgh.
But as for a new name, it’s back to the drawing board.
Friday, Crawford unveiled a QR code for a poll with seven alternate names, including Pittsburgh Theater Company, Commonwealth Theater of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Legacy Theater. There is also an option to write in a name.
McGough said the names were finalists in the same process in which, with help from a consultant, merger organizers chose the now-discarded Forge Theater. He said public voting will be just one factor in selecting the new name. The final decision will rest with the board.
The naming process took time and resources, but because of the thought that went into it, and the naming options that remain, said McGough, “The process was worthwhile even if the end result didn’t stick.”
He said there is no hard timeline for choosing a new name, but that the group hoped to settle on one in the next three or four weeks.
Play on
Crawford told the crowd that the new company, created from the city’s two largest theater production companies, would remain the largest in the city that stages its own work from the ground up.
She emphasized that by combining the resources of the two troupes, it would produce work year-round, including during summers and the holiday season.
And she promised that by drawing on existing educational programs like the CLO Academy and the Public’s Shakespeare monologue contest for youths, the new group would have “a single stronger education platform.”
As for on-stage programming, however, the company was not quite ready to announce its full 2027 slate.
Instead, in addition to the previously announced “prologue season” this fall, interim artistic director Kyle Haden announced two titles for next year.
One is Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors,” which he joked was poetically appropriate as the story of two sets of long-lost twins finding each other after years of living just a few feet apart.
The other is Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “Purpose,” winner of both the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for drama and the 2025 Tony for best drama.
No date was given for either production. But Haden noted that as of Friday, tickets are on sale for all shows in the group’s prologue season.