The Company’s mission is to provide our region with professional, high-quality musical theater productions featuring Pittsburgh’s broad actor, artistic and technical talent base. Particular emphasis is placed on mentoring young talent in leadership position as well as youth through our internship program, and in hiring creative local talent in music, choreography, scenic, lighting, sound and costume design to create a high level professional vehicle for the directors and artists to realize the vision of their project. We differentiate ourselves from other theater companies with an emphasis on social, cultural and moral issues.
Front Porch Theatricals was formed by Bruce E.G. Smith, a local businessman, and Leon S. Zionts, an attorney and actor, for the purpose of mounting a professional production of the locally written and composed musical, Only Me, at East Liberty’s Kelly Strayhorn Theater in April 2009. That endeavor achieved both artistic and financial success. A key component of their success was the very gracious support of their friends, as well as Pittsburgh’s arts foundation community (The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, among others). Leon then performed in two of Carrnivale Theatrics’ productions in 2010 and 2011 and the opportunity arose to assist the two young producers/directors at Carrnivale Theatrics. Bruce and Leon became co-producers once again in helping to support and mentor Justin F ... view more »
The Company’s mission is to provide our region with professional, high-quality musical theater productions featuring Pittsburgh’s broad actor, artistic and technical talent base. Particular emphasis is placed on mentoring young talent in leadership position as well as youth through our internship program, and in hiring creative local talent in music, choreography, scenic, lighting, sound and costume design to create a high level professional vehicle for the directors and artists to realize the vision of their project. We differentiate ourselves from other theater companies with an emphasis on social, cultural and moral issues.
Front Porch Theatricals was formed by Bruce E.G. Smith, a local businessman, and Leon S. Zionts, an attorney and actor, for the purpose of mounting a professional production of the locally written and composed musical, Only Me, at East Liberty’s Kelly Strayhorn Theater in April 2009. That endeavor achieved both artistic and financial success. A key component of their success was the very gracious support of their friends, as well as Pittsburgh’s arts foundation community (The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, among others). Leon then performed in two of Carrnivale Theatrics’ productions in 2010 and 2011 and the opportunity arose to assist the two young producers/directors at Carrnivale Theatrics. Bruce and Leon became co-producers once again in helping to support and mentor Justin Fortunato and Bob Neumeyer in creating something special with Next to Normal in 2012 and In The Heights in 2013.
In 2014 Bruce and Leon with co-producer Nancy Zionts took full responsibility for the production including hiring the director, music director choreographer and designers to produce the highly acclaimed, Parade written by Jason Robert Brown. Other staff members have joined the company in Marketing and Production Management. In 2015, Front Porch Theatricals produced its first two-show season with The Last Five Years and The Light in the Piazza. Both shows helped advance the reputation of the company as producing meaningful musicals at a very high quality. The company continued in 2016 with two more shows, The Spitfire Grill and Floyd Collins.
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