Watch the Pittsburgh premiere of "Skeleton Crew," taste soups from around the South Side or check out a touring troupe that blends classical music with slapstick comedy — here's what to do in Pittsburgh this weekend.
Visual Art
In their Silver Eye Center for Photography exhibit “o_Man!,” Chicago-based artist Kelli Connell and Seattle-based Natalie Krick use collage, reappropriation and wordplay to critique “The Family of Man,” the famous 1956 Museum of Modern Art photo exhibit. That sprawling, world-touring show, meant to depict the universality of human experience, was wildly popular but criticized for sentimentality and Western-centrism. Connell and Krick’s take opens Thu., Feb. 22, with a reception and artist talk, and runs through April 13.
Dance
Choreographer and performer Maree ReMalia explores personal and communal grief in her new solo work “with ourselves, with each other.” Using movement and wielding a karaoke mic, she asks, “What words feel meaningful? Where do we feel grief in our bodies and how does it want to move?” Hatch Arts Collective and Casey Droege Cultural Productions present three performances at Garfield’s new performance space Inter- on Fri., Feb. 23, and Sat., Feb. 24.
Theater
Acclaimed playwright Dominique Morisseau’s Obie Award-winning “Skeleton Crew” makes its Pittsburgh premiere at barebones productions. The third of her Detroit trilogy, it’s set during 2008’s Great Recession amidst a tight-knit group of workers at one of Detroit’s last auto-stamping plants. The cast, featuring Pittsburgh legend Etta Cox, is directed by Broadway veteran Tomé Cousin. The show opens Fri., Feb. 23, and runs through March 10.
Food
In midwinter, three hours of soup will strike some as a capital idea. The 19th annual South Side Soup Contest delivers, with 20 restaurants teaming with businesses in the East Carson Street corridor to vie for participants’ votes for best soup, best vegetarian soup and most unique soup. The event, sponsored by the South Side Chamber of Commerce and The Brashear Association, benefits Brashear’s food pantry as well as the Chamber.
Music
Mnozil Brass is an internationally touring troupe from Austria that blends classical music with slapstick comedy. The seven-member ensemble tours stateside for just two weeks each year, and in 2024 one of their 10 U.S. stops is West Allegheny High School, in Imperial. Tuba and trombones in hand, they’ll perform their 30th anniversary show, “Jubilei,” on Mon., Feb. 26.
Film
SUBCINEMA is a new Pittsburgh-based series for avant-garde media, with screenings both online and in person. Its inaugural Remix Culture Week celebrates collage, appropriation and fair use in film. Online screenings begin Mon., Feb. 26, with underground legend Craig Baldwin’s “RocketKitKongoKit” and continues with works by Soda_Jerk, Rodney Ascher and Kelly Sears. The fest concludes March 1 with an in-person showing on 16 mm of Baldwin’s “Sonic Outlaws” at Homestead’s Eberle Studios.
