The O'Reilly Theater is a 650-seat

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

building, opened on December 11, 1999, in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Located at 621 Penn Avenue in

downtown Pittsburgh Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River who ...

's Cultural District, the O'Reilly Theater is actually a three-part building: The theater (with a 150-seat rehearsal hall), a large parking garage called Theater Square, and the adjacent Agnes R. Katz Plaza.Special Report on the O'Reilly Theater
. - ''

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the Alle ...

''. - December 5, 1999. - Retrieved: May 23, 2006. The

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (PCT) is a nonprofit arts organization formed in 1984 to promote economic and cultural development in Downtown Pittsburgh. The "Trust" has focused its work on a 14-square block section called the Cultural District, w ...

built the new theater, designed by architect

Michael Graves Michael Graves (July 9, 1934 – March 12, 2015) was an American architect, designer, and educator, as well as principal of Michael Graves and Associates and Michael Graves Design Group. He was a member of The New York Five and the Memphis Gr ...

P.A., to create a downtown home for the

Pittsburgh Public Theater Pittsburgh Public Theater, or The Public for short, is a professional theater company located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After the retirement of longtime Producing Artistic Director Ted Pappas, The Public began the 2018–2019 season with a new ...

theatrical company, as well as to create additional venues for theater, music, and other art performances. The O’Reilly venue features a thrust stage surrounded by the audience on three sides. To pay for the $25 million cost of construction, gifts to the project included a naming gift in honor of Dr. Anthony O'Reilly from Mrs. Chryss O'Reilly and several current and past senior executives of the

H.J. Heinz Company The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six conti ...

. The O’Reilly was built by Turner Construction Company, opened on December 11, 1999, with the world premiere of

King Hedley II ''King Hedley II'' is a play by American playwright August Wilson, the ninth in his ten-part series, '' The Pittsburgh Cycle''. The play ran on Broadway in 2001 and was revived Off-Broadway in 2007. Productions ''King Hedley II'' premiered at th ...

, by the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

winning playwright

August Wilson August Wilson ( Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of ten plays, collectively called ' (or ...

Pittsburgh Merchantile Library

The building site of the Penn Avenue theater's history began in 1866 with the construction Mercantile Library Hall, a multipurpose library, lecture, and music hall.

Lyceum Theater

The mercantile hall evolved into the Bijou, Lyceum, Academy, and Variety, Pittsburgh's vaudeville houses, and then was razed and paved into a parking lot after the 1936 St. Patrick's Day flood. Teddy Roosevelt spoke at a national convention of the Order of the Moose at Lyceum Theater on his visit to Pittsburgh in July, 1917.

References

External links

O’Reilly Theater homepage1915 image of Lyceum TheaterModern comparison to historic Lyceum site
{{Pittsburgh Theatres in Pittsburgh Tony O'Reilly family Michael Graves buildings Theatres completed in 1999 1999 establishments in Pennsylvania New Classical architecture

Pittsburgh Merchantile Library

Lyceum Theater

See also

References

External links