Impresario striving to bring live theater to Mon Valley

By Dave Zuchowski

Elizabeth Huffman’s experience with the world of theater began early.

At age 6, while in first grade, she took on the role of the Narrator in Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Ugly Duckling.” The experience made such a positive impact on her that it “sealed her fate” and her desire to become a performer. The now seasoned actress, director, playwright and teacher has made theater a lifelong career that has taken her all over the country and the globe.

Born and raised in New Eagle and now residing in Monongahela, Huffman’s international endeavors have recently taken on a regional, and, more significantly to the residents of the Mon Valley, a local emphasis.

On the heels of taking over as artistic director this past February of Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre in Pittsburgh, she and a committee of residents from Monessen, New Eagle, Belle Vernon, Monongahela and Connellsville are committed to bringing live theater to the greater Mon Valley.

“As we proceed, the committee is ever-growing,” she said. “I see our area as under-served as far as theater goes, and many residents don’t like to drive to Pittsburgh to see live productions. But there is a demand for and an interest in theater in the Valley, judging by the number of people who pack theaters for local high school productions.”

Currently, Huffman is taking the current year to raise money for the recently dormant PICT theater so she can hire staff and start production. To this end, she and her board are applying for grants and soliciting support from individuals, businesses and corporations with a goal of raising $500,000.

Once PICT resumes staging plays, hopefully as many as four a year, she hopes to bring them to venues in the Mon Valley. Packing the production’s costumes, set, props and lighting into a vehicle large enough to hold everything, she likes to perform the plays at venues like churches and warehouses. Sites she’s already scouted out as possible places for production include the Monessen City Park Amphi- theater, the Grand Theater in Elizabeth, the Harold Betters Band Shell and the Edwin S. Potter Theater in an old school in Connellsville.

She’s even exploring the possibility of staging the plays in the theater at her old alma mater, Ringgold High School, after it’s completely renovated. Dramatic works she plans to produce include American classics, comedies, contemporary retellings of classic plays, plays from around the world and Shakespeare.

She’s also toying with the idea of doing a devised play created by PICT with multidisciplinary artists and finding “refugee playwrights” from around the globe who want to tell their stories in dramatic form. However, she’s not going to produce plays locally independent of PICT.

“I’m interested in telling stories that are relevant to who we are today,” she said. “It’s going to be a unique company, and we’re moving forward as best we can.”

Huffman hopes to raise $75,000 to implement her plan in the Mon Valley with a team looking for support from individuals, businesses and corporations. She feels that five or six Mon Valley boroughs can raise the needed funds and that once the community sees her work, they will support it.

“Bringing live theater to the area in which I was born and raised has been an idea I’ve had all my life,” she said. After graduating from Ringgold High School, Huffman studied theater arts at California University of Pennsylvania, now Pennsylvania Western University. Following an early move to New York City, she co-created The Beacon Project with colleague Stuart W. Howard, where the classical theater company focused on neglected classics alongside new works imbued with a strong use of poetic language.

Invited to act and direct with the prestigious Classical Theatre Lab, she left New York for Los Angeles, where she eventually became CTL’s artistic coordinator from 1997 to 2004.

In 2005, she formed her own classical theater company, ICAP, which was comprised of 40 actors from around the world. For the next three years, the company performed in its home theater in Los Angeles and at European festivals.

In 2009, Huffman served for two years as interim artistic director for the Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon. She also teaches Shakespeare and classical theater worldwide and offers online classes and coaching for actors in film, television and theater.

This October, she’s flying to Kuwait to teach two week-long workshops in a fine arts school, one on Greek chorus and one titled Behind the Mask: Acting without Words. She’s then flying to Cairo to speak to directing and acting students at the American University in the Egyptian capital.

She’ll end her month in San Francisco as a speaker representing PICT at the Middle Eastern North African Theatre Makers Association convention.

As an actress, her most recent roles were Claree in “Steel Magnolias” at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre this past season and her solo show, “Not My Revolution” at Carnegie Stage in 2021.

Her last directing project was Amor Añejo, a bilingual Day of the Dead play she also wrote for Milagro Theatre in Portland in 2019.

“The Mon Valley is where I come from, and it is where I now live, having returned after many years working on the West Coast and internationally,” she said. “I have a great love for the entire area but especially for Monongahela. I respect the people, and I see progress happening all through the area.”

“I hope to be able to share my work as a professional theatre artist with the community and bring our excellent educational programs to the high schools for the benefit of us all,” she continues. “As one of my audience members from Monongahela said after seeing one of my plays: ‘Go see this. Culture is cool!’ I love that.”

Those wanting to donate to further PICT Theatre’s endeavors can do so online at picttheatre.org or by check sent to Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre, P.O. Box 8168, Pittsburgh, PA 15217.