• This week has three major openings -- "The Brothers Size" at City, "The Lady With All the Answers" at the Public and "The Goat" at Playhouse Rep. Some reviews will be a few days late, because I'm off to New York with the Post-Gazette fall ShowPlane.

• In this week's On Stage podcast, I interview the Western Pennsylvania native who was August Wilson's collaborator for six years and now puts his mentor's example to good use as a playwright. He talks about his plays set in the Western Pennsylvania countryside, the influence of Wilson and what it's like to come back to the Public, where he worked in the 1990s. The large audience at the Public's Monday reading of his "Stayers and Goers" included such theater people as Tammy Ryan, Patrick Jordan, Sala Udin, Mark Southers and Kenny Leon, Todd's Atlanta colleague.

• Jason Coll has stepped down as associate artistic director of Pittsburgh CLO to return to writing and independent producing. Kudos for bravery; we hope for big things.

• Tami Dixon and City Theatre have been awarded a Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship to develop a performance piece about the South Side Slopes. Said City's Tracy Brigden, "I love working with Tami. She is smart, skilled, creative and fearless." Included is $20,000 and up for performer and theater.

• The five-year transplant anniversary of Alexa Zellers, daughter of Rob Zellers (popular head of education at Public Theater), will be celebrated at a public Leukemia-Lymphoma Society benefit party, Saturday 8 p.m. at August Henry's, Downtown.

• Open Stage Theatre presents the local premiere of "Vesta," a play about one family's struggles with end-of-life issues, featuring Rita Gregory, Laurie Klatscher, Art Terry, Kevin Brown and Shani Alexander. It's Saturday at 5:30 p.m., John Knox Room, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, 616 N. Highland Ave.; free, open to the public; hors d'oeuvres at 5 p.m. with a discussion of the play to follow.

Paid admissions at city's pro theaters for the week ending Nov. 16:

LadyAnswers/Public (64%) ... 1,930

LongStoryShort/City (57%) ... 1,064

Love,Change/CLO Cab. (51%) ... 712

BrothersSize/City (91%) ... 355

IrmaVep/Open Stage (78%) ... 321

-- Christopher Rawson can be reached at crawson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1666.