Longtime artistic director Marya Sea Kaminski is taking her curtain call at Pittsburgh Public Theater.
Kaminski joined the company in 2018 after an acclaimed tenure at Seattle Repertory Theatre and led it through the pandemic, a uniquely challenging time for performing arts groups.
The Public, based in Downtown’s 650-seat O’Reilly Theater, is Pittsburgh’s largest independent theater company. Kaminski will remain on the job until July, and close the group’s 50th season by directing a new musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy “Twelfth Night.”
“It has been an incredible honor to lead Pittsburgh Public Theater through this period of catalytic change for the company and in our field,” she said in a statement.
Notable productions during Kaminski’s tenure included her own adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and hits like “Little Shop of Horrors” and the world premiere of the musical “Billy Strayhorn: Something to Live For,” about the Pittsburgh jazz legend.
Under Kaminski, the Public staged works ranging from classics and crowd pleasers — “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “A Christmas Story: The Play,” “Murder on the Orient Express” — to newer plays like Lauren Yee’s “Young Americans.” The company made room for local voices too: The 2023-24 season, for instance, concluded with the premiere of Pittsburgh playwright Mark Clayton Southers’ “The Coffin Maker.”
Kaminski also greatly increased diverse representation on stage at the Public, with productions like “A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Harlem,” and launched initiatives like the Resident Artist program, whose first participant, Justin Emeka, directed the latter.
During the pandemic, many performing arts groups turned to online programming. The Public was especially quick to respond. Kaminski launched Public PlayTime, a series of more than 30 staged readings that began less than a week after the initial lockdown began and involved more than 100 artists from around the country.
Kaminski will remain at the Public through June. In her final show, “Twelfth Night,” she will direct dozens of citizen artists onstage alongside professional performers. The show is part of the new Public Works program.
Kaminski plans to remain in Pittsburgh and continue to work in theater, according to a Public spokesperson.
