{"id":276246,"date":"2026-09-01T04:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T04:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/276246\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T04:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T04:04:27","slug":"theater-company-announces-new-name-after-pittsburgh-clo-and-pittsburgh-public-theater-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/276246\/","title":{"rendered":"Theater company announces new name after Pittsburgh CLO and Pittsburgh Public Theater merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Theater company announces new name after Pittsburgh CLO and Pittsburgh Public Theater merger<\/p>\n

\"Jordan<\/a>PITTSBURGH \u2014<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Public Theater and Pittsburgh CLO recently closed the curtain on their days as two separate companies. <\/p>\n

The two merged into one company called the Confluence Theater of Pittsburgh. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese two legacy organizations are coming together with 130 years of professional theater here in Pittsburgh, and by coming together, we’re able to do so much more,\u201d said Dr. Brett Crawford, the interim executive director of the new company. <\/p>\n

The name, which was unveiled Monday, was picked based on the more than 3,000 responses from Pittsburghers in a naming poll. <\/p>\n

“The far majority was \u2018pick your own,\u2019\u201d Crawford told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 Reporter Jordan Cioppa. \u201cIt became very clear that the one thing that everybody really wanted was it to feel like Pittsburgh. And to have that sense of what these organizations are doing, right? And that is coming together.”<\/p>\n

Three upcoming productions in November and December will make up what Crawford said is the “prologue season.” The full season will be announced mid-September. <\/p>\n

“We are now going to be producing all year. So, it’s a 12-month operation,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cWe will have more shows for audiences to see, more education and community programs for people of all ages to attend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Year-round production was something onStage Pittsburgh writer and editor Sharon Eberson said she hopes will be sustainable under the new company. <\/p>\n

“I’m still feeling the loss of a lot of things,\u201d Eberson said. “I think it’s really going to be a hard job for them to make this work and not make us forget, but make us feel like this was the right next step for two amazing legacy companies that went away in almost a puff of smoke, really.\u201d <\/p>\n

Eberson said the announcement of the merger last year caused concern when it came to professional artists\u2019 job security. <\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 was the first to report on company-wide terminations<\/a> at Pittsburgh Public Theater in May. <\/p>\n

While Eberson said the Confluence team has made an effort to be more transparent about the merger process, she still had questions about what the change means for the theater community. <\/p>\n

\u201cWill it be a year-round residency for artists?\u201d Eberson asked. \u201cWe haven\u2019t heard a lot about how the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust venues are going to be used.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Confluence, productions and events will be held at five downtown Pittsburgh theaters: O\u2019Reilly Theater, Byham Theater, Confluence Theater Academy, Greer Cabaret Theater and Benedum Center. <\/p>\n

Eberson pointed out that there is an existing organization called the Confluence Ballet Co. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think once again, the artists of Pittsburgh are saying, you know, \u2018What’s your process? How did you come up with this name?\u2019 When it\u2019s associated with other things in Pittsburgh,\u201d Eberson said. \u201cWhereas my feeling at this point is, I\u2019m glad they got it out there, and let\u2019s see where we go from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Crawford, a nationwide search is under way for a permanent executive producer, in addition to other leadership roles. <\/p>\n

Confluence will kick off its prologue season with “How Shakespeare Saved My Life.” The one-man play will run from Nov. 11-12 at O\u2019Reilly Theater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Theater company announces new name after Pittsburgh CLO and Pittsburgh Public Theater merger PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Pittsburgh Public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-276246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}