Dan Giles to Present THE PITTSBURGH FREE PRESS At The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute

The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute will present Dan Giles' new play, The Pittsburgh Free Press, opening December 12, 2024 at the historic Irma Sandrey Theatre. Directed by Jake Beckhard, the production showcases an ensemble cast of NYU Tisch Drama students.

Dan Giles is the 2024 recipient of the Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission, sponsored by the Lee Strasberg Creative Center. Awarded annually to an emerging playwright, the commission supports the development of an original play tailored for college-age actors each fall. Building on the legacy of The Group Theatre, the program provides an incubating space for the creation of true ensemble plays in New York City and cultivates the next generation of collaborating artists. Past commission recipients include Lucy Thurber, Aniello Fontano, Lila Feinberg, Crystal Skillman, Sarah Gancher, Frank Winters, Calamity West, and Dylan Guerra.

Tickets for The Pittsburgh Free Press are available now at pittsburghfreepress.eventbrite.com.

ABOUT THE PLAY

When a junior reporter decides to pursue a story against her editor's wishes, her actions have unforeseen consequences for the alt weekly where she works, and for the staff doing everything they can to keep it alive. The Pittsburgh Free Press explores the community that forms between people doing work they believe in - how it can give you the most meaningful years of your life, and how it can break your heart.

Featuring: Gail Belelty, Nick Bisa, Emma Duchesneau, Leah Hampson, Rosemari Marotta, Shaakirah Nazim-Harris, Cahal Perry, Marco Quesada, Maddie Schumacher, Olivia Sokale, Sophie Sternberg, and Matthew Wiseman.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

DAN GILES - PLAYWRIGHT

Originally from Massachusetts, playwright Dan Giles is a second-year fellow in The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. His plays have been produced and developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop, New Light Theater Project, First Floor Theater, Haven Theatre, The Great Plains Theatre Commons, among others. He is a recipient of the New Light New Voices Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Screenwriting Award, and the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting. He is an alumnus of Harvard College (AB in English), the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama (MFA), and Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theatre.

Jake Beckhard - DIRECTOR

Jake Beckhard is a freelance stage director and dramaturg. Credits: Broadway: "The 24 Hour Plays 2022"; off-Broadway: "Moscowx6" and "Good For Otto" (Assistant Director, Dramaturg). Recently: "Three Scenes in the Life of a Trotskyist" (The Tank Core). "What Else Is True" (Egg & Spoon, ART-NY Theaters). "An Axemas Story" (Cartwheels Theatrical). "Middletown" (Atlantic Acting School). With creative partner Serena Berman: "The Experiment" (Ars Nova, Westport Country Playhouse), "Études" (Less Than Rent), "sea/sick" (Artilliers / Chinatown Soup), "Yankees" (Corkscrew) and "Sex Friends" (Williamstown), as well as multiple producing collaborations as the Co-Directors of Performance at Chinatown Soup. The Greek Project: "Aias" (The Hangar Theater). "Aulis" (LIU Brooklyn). "Women of Trachis" and "Women of Troy" (Atlantic Acting School). Other selected credits include: "Peter Smith's Diana." (Ars Nova), Sofya Levitsky-Weitz's "Intuitive Men" (Brick, NYC; Odyssey, LA), Selina Fillinger's "The Armor Plays" (The New Group). He is an alum of the Drama League Directors Project, the Williamstown Directing Corps, the Westport Country Playhouse Directing Fellowship, and The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, where he now serves as the program co-director. He is the co-creator, with Bryn Herdrich and Lauren Zeftel, of the series PLAYxPLAY which showcased the short works of a single playwright and has featured writers including Celine Song, Lily Houghton, and Nazareth Hassan.