Rust Belt Rep

Theater about the human condition. We honor Dionysus. We bargain with our landlord.

[Eric Pfeffinger @epfeffin]

The #TonyAwards has valiantly tried multiple ways to present the Best Play nominees -- decontextualized excerpts, elevator pitches, benign neglect. What if the nominated playwrights wrote something new and short and self-contained for the awards show and the cast performed it?

[Eric Pfeffinger @epfeffin]

Just wrote END OF PLAY. Now the hard work begins: writing all the pages that come before it.

[Rust Belt Rep @rustbeltrep]

I volunteer as tribute

[grace @GraceWalkerrr]

imagine if she dated a playwright…not only would she save the american theater as we know it, but literacy rates would increase exponentially!!!!!

[Rust Belt Rep @rustbeltrep]

Notifying our donors that if we want to continue with the season all we need to do is raise one pajillion additional dollars

[Eric Pfeffinger @epfeffin]

But if you’re interested in buying the New Dramatists building act fast, only the first 350 bids will be considered

[Eric Pfeffinger @epfeffin]

I don’t want to produce my own plays in order to work as a playwright any more than I’d want to open and run my own hospital in order to work as an anesthesiologist.

[Eric Pfeffinger @epfeffin]

A front-page New York Times story about how playwrights’ work is getting cancelled by school theater departments for political reasons, that mentions almost none of the playwrights by name, is the most playwrighty thing that’s ever happened

[Rust Belt Rep @rustbeltrep]

Rust Belt Rep regrets to report that due to financial realities our upcoming season, which had been reduced from 6 shows to 3 and then reduced again to 1, has now been reduced yet again to -2. If you're a subscriber this means we're taking away two shows you've previously seen.

[Rust Belt Rep @rustbeltrep]

Starting to suspect we may not be going to win a Tony this year

[Eric Pfeffinger @epfeffin]

Theater people freaking out over that Sara Porkalob interview like “Artists expressing themselves? What next?”

[Rust Belt Rep @rustbeltrep]

Starting to have anxiety about our production of Hamilton where Burr lectures Alexander about the virtues of becoming one of our theater's sustaining donors.

[Eric Pfeffinger @epfeffin]

Happy Lanford Wilson Day, when -- if you've been very good all year -- Judd Hirsch will come and leave a candy box of ashes in your boathouse.

[Rust Belt Rep @rustbeltrep]

The removal of the mask requirement on Broadway is alarming. The removal of the pants requirement is liberating.

[Eric Pfeffinger @epfeffin]

A musical about a writer who's an usher at A STRANGE LOOP on Broadway writing a musical about a writer who's an usher at A STRANGE LOOP on Broadway. It's A STRANGE STRANGE LOOP LOOP, opening 2024.

[Eric Pfeffinger @epfeffin]

Some parts of being a playwright can be a drag. Spending a few hours in a room trying out material with a bunch of brilliant, generous, hilarious actors isn’t one of them.

[Rust Belt Rep @rustbeltrep]

Subscribers love it and our concessions sales are through the roof.

[Rust Belt Rep @rustbeltrep]

I know "ninety minutes no intermission" is all the rage, but we've hit on an even more winning formula: ninety minutes, all intermission.

[Rust Belt Rep @rustbeltrep]

That's like asking Willie Sutton why he robbed banks. Think things through, people.

[Rust Belt Rep @rustbeltrep]

People ask why we charge playwrights to submit plays but we don't charge designers to apply for gigs. But to that we have a very logical and reasoned response: because playwrights will pay.

[Rust Belt Rep @rustbeltrep]

To those who would seek to tear down this local theater for charging its playwrights submission fees, I would just point out that $30 is not exorbitant: that's like eight bags of peanuts, one cup of coffee, four bananas and a jar of hot sauce. Shame, shame.