2012Stephanie Riso and Jeanne Drennan revive what Erik started and with a focus on new work. Meeting in a basement classroom of the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning, both old and new members begin bringing in work in progress and presenting it to the group for comment. Steve Cuden, co-creator of Broadway's Jekyll and Hyde, the Musical, comes to give a talk to members and winds up coming on as MTAP's artistic advisor.
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2014MTAP produces a free reading of Off with Her Maidenhead, the product of a collaboration between Amy Claussen and James Rushin
begun at one of those 2011 meetings. It draws a standing-room audience in Pitt's Studio Theater, and MTAP begins thinking about more public events. We register formally as a group of affiliated artists operating under the name of MTAP—Musical Theatre Artists of Pittsburgh, and our friends at Elisco Advertising contribute MTAP's distinctive logo. |
2015The itch to go public demands attention. Stephanie, Jeanne and Steve conceive of Hot Metal Musicals, a showcase of new member songs. It plays to a full house in the Cabaret Theater at Theater Square, downtown, launching our cooperative arrangement with the Pittsburgh CLO. Later in 2015, members begin self-producing readings, both private and public, of parts or all of their musicals: Jeanne Drennan and David Berlin with Dear Boy, and Sandra Lowell and John Keating with Kitty.
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2016A song in 2015's Hot Metal Musicals registers with one of the producers present, and Murphy's Law by Andy Nagraj and Jonathan Spivey is produced in the spring by the Strand Theatre in Zelienople. MTAP inaugurates the Incubator reading series, presenting public readings of three works-in-progress: Dear Boy, Eva Rainforth's Me, Myself and Others, and Stephanie Riso's The Storm.
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2017Member Frank Gagliano revives his From the Bodoni County Songbook Anthology in a public reading at Carnegie Stage. The second edition of Hot Metal Musicals plays to a full house at the Cabaret Theatre. After a very competitive selection process, Carla Bianco's Kaleidoscope is selected for the sole Incubator reading slot in 2017.
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MTAP continues as an all-volunteer collective dedicated to building new musicals from the ground up. It relies on grants, donations, and partnerships with other arts groups to make its programs possible.