Friday was one of those packed Pittsburgh theater days.

Composing team Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty by the Public Theater poster for their new musical. Click photo for larger image.

Starting in late afternoon, I did a couple of interviews with Allen Gilmore and Pascale Armand, playing Brutus and Portia in "Julius Caesar" for PICT (and later, Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice in "Stuff Happens").

Then I went to pay my respects to the family of Bessie Mae Rawls, who had passed away at 102. (You could read Nate Guidry's obituary.) She was the force beyond a famous Hill District restaurant in the '50s and '60s and fed August Wilson many times, as he told her when he sent her greetings on her 90th birthday. Hers is an amazing story, almost an August Wilson play on its own, and I hope to write about it some day after talking more with her family.

Meanwhile, the Dramatists Guild had come to town. Its weekend festivities at the Public Theater began Friday evening with a Q&A with lyricist Lynn Ahrens and composer (and Dormont native) Stephen Flaherty, who are here working on the world premiere of their new musical, "The Glorious Ones." I came in late, so I missed juicy tidbits about "Ragtime," "Once on This Island"and their other shows. I did hear they're re-working "My Favorite Year," which gets a lot of play in high schools but never had a fair chance on Broadway."

Chatting afterward, they were as friendly as ever, but then, also as ever, Stephen dashed off to put in some time on the computer, capturing ideas that arose during that afternoon's rehearsal.

Patrick Jordan, left, helps birthday boy Peter Kope, cut the cake. Click photo for larger image.

Then I went to my evening's show -- the actors-and-holograph "La Tempete. And Mary and I concluded the day at Peter Kope's typically lively 40th birthday party at Attack Theatre's studio on Penn Ave.

Dramatists Guild

Following the Ahrens-Flaherty Q&A, there was a master class originally limited to 25, but I hear they crammed in 40. And Saturday morning was the big DG Town Meeting, still at the Public Theater, attended by a surprising 53 playwrights.

I wasn't there, but playwright/teacher Maureen McGranahan gave me a full report, which points out that this represented a lively grassroots community of dramatic writers.

Gary Garrison, the Executive Director of Creative Affairs at the DG (as of January) presided, along with Gary Bossler, Director of Publications, and Julie Tosh, the newly appointed regional representative for the greater Pittsburgh area, one of ten nationally.

This is part of the DG's new initiative to improve support and services to dramatists living outside New York. Saturday's town meeting, organized by Rob Zellers and Tammy Ryan, was also part of this initiative and was the first to take place.

Garrison described the DG as a service organization with some 6,000 members, that, as he put it, seeks to function "as your father, your advisor, and your best friend," providing model contracts and advocating for dramatists in many ways. He hopes to expand programming, especially outside New York, like the DG's Friday Night Footlights reading series and a national mentoring program.

Bossler spoke about the DG's bi-monthly The Dramatist, its yearly Resource Directory and its list of theatres that produce new work. Much is available to members on the DG's website, www.dramatistsguild.com. Writers can maintain their own web pages on the DG system, and Garrison wants to enable them to store their scripts online in PDF format as well.

Attack Theatre's Peter Kope and wife Michele de la Reza move this fast on the dance floor, but they're collaborating all the time. Click photo for larger image.

In the general discussion, some in the group expressed frustration at barriers to local playwrights among the city's professional companies. Some pointed out that those barriers may have stimulated Pittsburgh's vibrant smaller companies, several of which were on a panel to talk about what they are doing to develop new plays.

For a much fuller description of the DG and the following panel, follow this link to Maureen McGranahan's longer report of the day's discussions.

Collaboration

This is me speaking again. To my mind, a small but hopeful aspect of the DG's gathering is that space was provided by the Public Theater. As the flagship company in town, it ought to make space for such community events, but I don't think the record has been good. Like every theater here, the Public is usually too centered on its own work to have time to foster others.

Pittsburgh is known to have a personally friendly theater community that welcomes, for example, new actors. But institutionally, this is a very uncollaborative theater city. There isn't even a league of Pittsburgh theaters, the sort of group that in other cities allows established theaters to help new ones, that sponsors joint auditions and gives out yearly awards and such.

So any small collaboration, such as providing a space for playwrights to talk with other theater groups, is welcome. Maybe there's a more collaborative future in the offing.