O'Reilly Theater
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The O'Reilly Theater is a landmark building at 621 Penn Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Cultural District.
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust built the new theater, designed by architect Michael Graves, to create a downtown home for the Pittsburgh Public Theater as well as to create additional venues for theater, music, and other art performances. The O’Reilly is a 650-seat venue featuring a thrust stage surrounded by the audience on three sides.
To foot the $25 million cost of construction, gifts to the project included a naming gift in honor of Dr. Anthony J. O'Reilly from Mrs. Chryss O'Reilly and several current and past senior executives of the H.J. Heinz Company.
O'Reilly Theater is actually a three-part building. Attached is a large parking garage called Theater Square and the adjacent Agnes R. Katz Plaza.
The Penn Avenue site’s theater history began in 1866 with the construction Mercantile Library Hall—a multipurpose library, lecture, and music hall. It evolved into the Bijou, Lyceum, Academy, and Variety—Pittsburgh's vaudeville houses—razed and paved into a parking lot after the 1936 St. Patrick's Day flood.
The O’Reilly opened on 11 December 1999 with the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson's King Hedley II.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1999). Special Report on the O'Reilly Theater. Retrieved May 23, 2006.
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