City Theatre's upcoming schedule includes a play about a lingerie seamstress, a feisty Pablo Picasso and the latest by the writer of "The Vagina Monologues." So where does a production based on a beloved baseball book for pre-teens fit in?

	The legendary T206 Honus Wagner baseball trading card. Click photo for larger image.

Nowhere, which is exactly what City Theatre wants.

"Honus & Me," a play by Steven Dietz adapted from the book by Dan Gutman, is completely different from the adult-themed works the South Side theater usually stages.

It should also expose City Theatre to a different audience, one that theater officials hope to turn into long-term fans.

"It's a new kind of play for us," said Greg Quinlan, City's managing director. "'Honus & Me' is a way of reaching family audiences that we never have had before."

The production is unique in other ways, too. Since it is outside the theater's usual subscription season -- which guarantees about 3,000 already-filled subscriber seats -- it needed a unique marketing campaign to sell the play as well.

City Theatre Randall Newsome plays Honus Wagner in "Honus & Me." Click photo for larger image.

It started that late last year, teaming with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Dick's Sporting Goods and the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum at the History Center to cross-promote the play and other baseball-related activities.

The theater pitched the idea with a reading of the play for Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy and team marketing officials and found it was directly aligned with the team's own family-friendly efforts, said Brian Warecki, the team's director of business communications.

"After the reading it was obvious that this would something we were very interested in supporting," he said in e-mail.

The Pirates turned over their luxury box mailing list to the theater and gave it booths at PiratesFest and the team's open house at PNC Park. City Theatre printed 260,000 "Honus & Me" fliers, which included coupons for the four institutions.

Response to the play was immediate from fans both of the Pirates and of the book, which is assigned in many local middle schools, said the theater's marketing director, Jeremy Kraus.

	Honus Wagner played shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1900 to 1917 and was one of the five original inductees into Baseball's Hall of Fame. Click photo for larger image.

"I was completely surprised by the big sports jocks -- huge guys, all dressed in Pirates gear, who you would never ever see at a City Theatre show -- take the flier and say, 'Oh, finally a play I can go to. My wife drags me to all these musicals and finally a play about baseball. I'm there -- I can't wait.'"

The theater is reaching out to the new audience further, by selling peanuts and Cracker Jack in the snack bar and scheduling family-fun days on May 13 and 20. It is moving up its Saturday showtimes to 2 and 5:30 p.m. (and deleting the usual 9 p.m. performance) in another bow to family hours.

"We are interested in how the family audiences respond," said Quinlan. "People are always concerned that all the arts organizations are reliant on older subscription audiences. This is one way to see if we can get families to commit to coming to City Theatre on a regular basis."

In "Honus & Me," 12-year-old Joey Stoshack (played by Marcus Stevens, 25, of "Forever Plaid") is struggling with his parents' separation and his lousy skills at the plate. He is cleaning out a neighbor's attic when he finds a rare, expensive and -- as it turns out -- magical baseball card for the legendary Pirates shortstop.

Wagner (Upper St. Clair native Randall Newsome) transports Joey and the audience to the 1909 World Series against surly Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers. With a cast of eight, the show goes into previews this week in the theater's 272-seat main stage.

City Theatre Marcus Stevens is Joey Stoshack, who finds a magical baseball card. Click photo for larger image.

The play world-premiered March 31 at the Seattle Children's Theater. A Seattle critic said playwright "Dietz clearly understands the complex minds of children. This is easily the smartest children's play in recent memory." Gutman's 1997 book, geared toward readers age 9-12, was also made into a 2004 TV movie for TNT.

So, a beloved Pittsburgh sports legend comes back to life to take fans on a trip down memory lane: Sadists seeking to dig the cleats into somebody at City Theatre, Ty Cobb-style, can just ask if it's copying rival Pittsburgh Public Theater's popular one-man play "The Chief," starring Tom Atkins as the late Steelers founder, Art Rooney.

"Ours is a full-blown production. That is what most people are used to when they go to see a play," said Kraus. "A lot of people are surprised when they go and see one person on stage basically doing a monologue.

"'The Chief' was a huge success, and we can only hope audiences turn out for ['Honus & Me'] as they did there, but it's a very different type of show. 'The Chief' wasn't geared toward families or kids at all."

Even if "Honus" is a new kind of production for the theater, Quinlan added, the usual laid-back vibe of City will be the same. If audiences like that -- the same way they like Pirates games -- perhaps it can make some new fans.

"We want people to be comfortable and have a good time -- we're on the South Side and the South Side has sort of a vibe, and we're absolutely part of that. It's a place to come and hang," he said. "Yeah, you can be fancy if you want, but we're really about having a theater home for everybody."