Free!Event
Five months after becoming North America’s first host of a giant rubber duck, Pittsburgh gets the same privilege for a very different sort of public art. “Congregation,” a large-scale, interactive video and sound installation, will animate nights in Market Square for three weeks starting Fri., Feb. 21. “Congregation,” created by British media artists Kit Monkman and Tom Wexler (collectively known as KMA), involves a raised projector that casts on the pavement spots and strips of light whose movements are, through a motionsensor, influenced by human interaction. A thermal-imaging camera positioned overhead conveys participants’ movements onto a big screen, so audiences can see the abstract patterns they’re making. The show’s 25-minute cycles, each one unique, are set to music by contemporary composer Peter Broderick. “We have played with the idea that this is the world’s first pedestrian ballet,” says Monkman from the U.K. via Skype. “Congregation” premiered in Shanghai, in 2010, and toured the U.K. It hits Pittsburgh courtesy of the Market Square Public Art Program, a new initiative of the city’s Public Art department and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. And yes, Monkman knows all about the rubber duck. “I think it’s kind of brave programming for Pittsburgh to chose us next,” he says. By contrast, he adds, “Congregation” is “not a spectacle, it’s an experience.” Bill O’Driscoll Dusk, Fri., Feb. 21. Continues dusk-10 p.m. Sun.-Thu., and dusk-midnight Fri. and Sat., through March 16. Market Square, Downtown. www.marketsquarepublicart.com
debate Pittsburgh’s John Dick Winters and Shannon Norman on The Moon vs. The Sun, and Carmen Sandiego vs. Waldo, respectively. Tonight’s show is presented by Race to the Coffin Comedy. AS 8 p.m. 2500 S. 18th St., South Side Slopes. $5. 412-610-2052 or racetothecoffin@gmail.com.
1300 Bingham St., South Side. Free; registration required at 412-431-2489 or www.citytheatrecompany.org.
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Attack Theatre’s new program is an evening of new and reimagined work. “A Tiny Droplet of a Portrait”
FEB. 25
Porgy and Bess
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Alton Brown is an author, TV personality and chef extraordinaire. But he also seems to be a humble charmer. Reflecting on Alton Brown Live! The Edible Inevitable Tour, he says, “I feel we’ve come up with some pretty amazing food demos, and the multi-media segments are solid ... but I do have to say I’m a bit nervous about the singing parts.” A few lucky audience members will assist Brown onstage when his show stops by the Benedum Center, courtesy of the Cohen & Grigsby Trust Presents Series. AS 8 p.m. 803 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $32.25-127.25. 412456-6666 or www.trustarts.org
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You might know Daniel Beaty from his one-man show Through the Night, performed at City Theatre in 2012, or his YouTube-hit spoken-word piece “Knock, Knock.” In either case, you know about his difficult childhood in Dayton, Ohio, in a home damaged by drug addiction and incarceration. The poet, writer and performer is in town to discuss personal empowerment, his own rise to success and his new book, Transforming Pain to Power: Unlock Your Unlimited Potential (Berkley). Tonight’s the book-release (including a short performance by Beaty) at City Theatre, which last year staged Beaty’s Breath & Imagination. BO 6 p.m.
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is the premiere of a duet choreographed by Attack’s Peter Kope and Michele de la Reza to music composed by Dave Eggars and performed by Chatham Baroque. Live music also keys “The Soldier’s Tale,” the classic about a soldier’s deal with the devil. Attack presents its new version of this old company favorite (often performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) with all five of the troupe’s dancers, and Stravinsky’s score performed live by PSO members (or, on March 1, musicians from Carnegie Mellon’s School of Music). BO 7:30 p.m. Also Wed., Feb. 26; Thu., Feb. 27; and March 1. George R. White Studio (Pittsburgh Opera), 2425 Liberty Ave., Strip District. Reservation required; $35 suggested donation. 888-7184253 or www.attacktheatre.com
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Porgy and Bess, 2012’s Tonywinner for best musical revival, tells the story of a man with a crippled leg and a woman with a bad reputation. Tonight, the touring production of the Gershwins’ classic hits the Benedum Center for eight performances in six days.
FEB. 23
Alton Brown
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Nathaniel Stampley and Alicia Mall Horton star, belting hits like “Summertime,” and accompanied by a 23-piece orchestra. The show is part of the PNC Broadway Across America-Pittsburgh series, presented by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the Pittsburgh Symphony. AS 7:30 p.m. Continues through Sun. March 2. 719 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $20-68. 412-4566666 or www.trustarts.org
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{SCREEN} It gets more attention than it used to, but Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep (1977) remains an underappreciated masterpiece of American cinema. This quiet, episodic portrait of a Watts slaughterhouse worker and his family and neighborhood, shot in grainy black-and-white,
pulses with life and understated emotion. Long undistributed because of the expense of obtaining music rights, the film’s lately resurfaced in a restored print, which screens tonight as part of the discountpriced Essential Cinema series at the Melwood Screening Room. BO 8 p.m. 477 Melwood Ave., Oakland. $2. 412-682-4111 or www.pittsburgharts.org
T last time Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project visited the Kelly-Strayhorn The Theater, a dancer’s injury forced the company to alter its program and T present a work-in-progress showing of Beautiful Struggle. This weekend, p tthe contemporary dance company based in Columbus, Ohio, and Burkina Faso returns with the completed version of this thought-provoking danceF theater work. Beautiful Struggle “reflects on questions of belonging … t visibility and invisibility, which are themes often revisited when delving into v the t slippery territories of race, gender and privilege,” says choreographer/ director Esther Baker-Tarpaga. Set to an eclectic soundscape including d West W African rhythms played live, the 45-minute production combines highly physical postmodern, hip-hop and traditional West African dance h styles with bold costuming and props such as a wooden table that stands st in for a slave ship and a slave-auction block. Woven throughout are spokenword recordings of anti-racism activist Tim Wise. Says Baker-Tarpaga: w “I “ would like audiences to think about the struggle of living in a country that was founded upon slavery and how this resonates in contemporary t times.” Steve Sucato 8 p.m. Fri., Feb. 21, and 8 p.m. Sat., Feb. 22. 5941 t Penn Ave., East Liberty. $15-25. 412-363-3000 or www.kelly-strayhorn.org P
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