By Ty Greenwood
Directed by Maurice Redwood
April 4th – April 20th 2026
Carter Woodson Redwood Theater
Madison Arts and Entertainment Center
World Premiere

Ty Greenwood’s Paradox of Education is a bold and unflinching look at the cost of ambition and the pursuit of belonging within America’s higher education system.

Commissioned by Asolo Repertory Theatre, Michael Donald Edwards, Producing Artistic Director, Linda M. DiGabriele, Managing Director. Asolo Repertory Theatre, located in Sarasota Florida, presents up to 10 productions each season, including contemporary works, beloved classics and provocative musical theatre experiences.

Videotaping of the performance is prohibited. Paradox of Education is sponsored by Dr. Michael Ramsay – Board President.

Cast

Ebony James	Krystal Waller
Emmerson Wilson	Brenden Peifer*
Zara Black	Tajionna Clinton
Miles Brown	Amon Jamaal
Makeda Washington	Marissa Lily
Xavier Carter	Manny Walker
Admissions Counselor	Melissa Edmond
Baldwin Transitions (voice)	Charles E. Timbers Jr
President Woods (video)	Stacey Rosleck
Faculty (video)	Richard McBride

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association

Setting

Present day. A “PWI” (predominately white institution) private college campus, the admissions office, an off campus apartment, a large study/meeting room on campus. About 30 miles south of the city of Pittsburgh. The college is named Madison & Taylor University (MTU) after Presidents James Madison and Zachary Taylor who were both slave owners. The college mascot is the Madison & Taylor “Tomahawks.”

Artistic Director’s Note

Welcome to the opening of our 24th season! This season is curated by my good friend and our longtime Artistic Associate Monteze Freeland. I’m super excited for this season and to see his chosen playwrights’ work fully realized on our stages.

Very rarely are we able to produce a season with a theme. It’s really difficult because we only produce plays by Pittsburgh playwrights; however this season I believe we can say that our theme is “Young Voices”. Monteze has put together a very promising season with a collection of fresh energetic voices.

This offering also gives us more hope of attracting our future theatre goers. So please spread the word and encourage non-traditional or part-time theatre goers to come see these plays so that theatre can thrive and continue to be a safe haven for artist and patrons alike to escape these dark times for not just the arts but for mankind as a whole.

– Mark Clayton Southers

Season Curator’s Note

Dear Friends, Supporters and Members of our Community,

First and foremost, thank you for choosing to spend time with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company (PPTCO) today. Founder and Artistic Director Mark Clayton Southers has created a home where local and national artists alike can share their craft, supported by a level of trust and belief that gives bold storytelling the runway it deserves.

As a longtime Artistic Associate of PPTCO, it has been an honor to curate a season that reflects the complexity, brilliance, and urgency of stories that have the potential to shape our lives. Choosing the playwrights was not difficult. Our region is rich with emerging voices, many of whom are carrying stories that deserve a stage.

The work you are about to witness is inspired by one of the most tenacious voices in American history, James Baldwin. In 2020, Ty Greenwood was invited to create a piece for Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota at the recommendation of Tomé Cousin. That experience proved transformative and gave rise to Paradox of Education. When I first read the play, its bold and unflinching portrait of young Black students navigating systems of privilege that rarely extend to them struck me with profound force. I lived it, and I knew others had as well. It is storytelling that is necessary, immediate, and deeply human.

Across the country, many companies have grown hesitant to take risks on new names and emerging playwrights. I believe we must resist that impulse. We must listen to the voices of those who are living and writing from the truth of this moment. The future of theatre depends not on retreating into the familiar, but on embracing the vitality of new stories and the imagination of younger generations.

So we invite you to return throughout the season, bring a friend, and spread the word. Come experience stories you may have never encountered before, stories that may surprise you, challenge you, and perhaps even heal a part of you that did not know it needed tending.

That is the power of the work that lives on the stages of the Madison Arts Center.

– Monteze Freeland

Playwrights’ Note

I was commissioned by Asolo Repertory Theatre to write a play inspired by James Baldwin for their first Ground Floor Playwright Commission. James Baldwin is my favorite writer of all time. The challenge for me was figuring out what topic I wanted to write about and how to merge it with Baldwin.

It was 2020, the height of Covid and I had just graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with an MFA in Dramatic Writing. I was thinking a lot about my educational journey and my experiences at PWI’s (predominantly white institutions). And then I came across Baldwin’s 1963 essay, A Talk to Teachers, where he says, “The Paradox of Education is that education aims to create critical thinkers who, upon becoming conscious, begin to examine and challenge the very societal structures that educated them. This creates tension, as society desires obedience while true education fosters resistance and change.”

This really resonated with me. I began to think back to my time in undergrad at Washington & Jefferson College (W&J) and how true this quote was to my lived experience. I based the play on my time at W&J and the challenges I and other Black students faced on campus. All of the characters are based on people I knew personally, conversations that took place in classes and troubling events that took place on campus.

I returned to teach as an adjunct professor at W&J in 2025…8 years after graduating, and unfortunately, not much had changed as far as the culture of the campus and the problematic experiences Black & Brown students face on campus. I think now more than ever a conversation about higher education is relevant and needed. My hope is that my play will be thought-provoking, start conversations and maybe even impact and influence change.

– Ty Greenwood

Director’s Note

As a director, it has been a privilege to help shape this narrative alongside a cast and creative team who approached this work with courage, vulnerability, and truth. Every moment on this stage is rooted in authenticity and an effort to honor not only these characters, but the real people they represent. My hope is that this production invites reflection, sparks conversation, and creates space for empathy, for understanding, and for continued dialogue. It is a reminder that education extends far beyond the classroom, and that the journey toward belonging is one we must all take part in shaping. Many thanks to Mark and Ty for the opportunity to be a part of this world premiere production and for trusting in my vision.

– Maurice Redwood

About the Cast

Tajionna Clinton (Zara Black) is thrilled to return to the stage with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. She was most recently seen in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2025) and has appeared in numerous productions with New Horizon Theatre, including Front Porch Society (2019), Detroit ’67 (2018), The Green Book (2022), American Menu (2023), Chicken and Biscuits (2023), and Nacirema Society (2024). A graduate of Slippery Rock University, Tajionna made history as the first student from the university to win the Irene Ryan Acting Award in 2018. She advanced to the national level, where she earned the Classical Play Award for her portrayal of Cleopatra. This achievement led to an opportunity to tour Canada and study at the Shaw Festival.

Expanding her work into film, Tajionna collaborated with Long Knuckles Studios on Love You to Death (2019), which received multiple honors at the 4K Film Festival, including Best Overall Film and Audience Favorite. She reunited with the studio in 2023 for Mallory, which won the Rulebreaker Award at the same festival. In 2021, Tajionna joined the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival, where she portrayed a Benin princess, sharing and celebrating the history of African Renaissance royalty. Tajionna is deeply grateful to her family and friends for their unwavering support and for sharing in her artistic journey. She dedicates her performance to them.

Melissa Edmond (Administrator) has been a lover of the performing arts since age 3. She’s a graduate of Pittsburgh CAPA where she studied vocal music. Her talents could be seen at Pittsburgh Opera as well as Pittsburgh CLO. She’s also had the privilege of performing as an opening act for artist like Kelly Clarkson, Black Eyed Peas, and Josh Groban. It’s her pleasure to be performing in the premiere run of Paradox of Education.

Amon Jamaal (Miles Brown) is a 28 year old rapper, singer/songwriter, musician and actor from the east side of Pittsburgh by way of Braddock. He attended Winchester Thurston School and graduated from Woodland Hills High School where he was a star athlete. Going on to later attend Slippery Rock University and major in business marketing on a scholarship, Amon is no stranger to the stage and bright lights. Although he is a former highly touted athlete, Amon has been acting since the age of 5, first gracing the stage as the “Little Giant” in a musical for Winchester Thurston. Throughout middle/high school he joined the locally renowned Alumni Theatre Company where he has been a huge part of the ensemble as well as having some lead roles. Performing in both Aida and Rent, Amon went on to compete in the August Wilson Monologue Competition and performed those monologues around the city with ATC. As of late, he was recently in productions of Stick Fly and Descendants both performed by the Alumni Theatre Company as well as Lorenzo Boone’s The Awakening. Amon is extremely excited for his new role as Miles in Ty Greenwood’s Paradox Of Education. This evening he attributes his performance to God and family, and cannot wait to give the audience a night to remember!

Marissa Lily (Makeda Washington) is a proud Musical Theatre graduate of the American Musical & Dramatic Academy in New York City and currently works as a Production and Costume Assistant on major network television and film productions in Pittsburgh. A multifaceted creative, Marissa shines both on stage and behind the scenes. She believes that with faith and a positive attitude, and a little sparkle of determination, anything is possible.

Some of her recent credits include Mayor of Kingstown, Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s The Choice, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company’s Sanctified and Dinah Washington Christmas, as well as Lee Daniels’ The Deliverance. When she’s not on set or performing, Marissa dedicates her time to the next generation of artists at K-Theater, where she teaches dance and creative arts, encouraging young creatives to find their voice, confidence, and joy through storytelling.

Brenden Peifer* (Emmerson Wilson) is proud to be back with PPTC. He has been a regular on Pittsburgh regional stages, and most recently appeared in Little Women (Laurie) at City Theatre Company. At the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, credits include Twelfth Night (Sir Andrew), A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Harlem (Demetrius), A Raisin in the Sun (George Murchison), and August Wilson’s Two Trains Running (Sterling). Other credits include Fat Ham (Tio) at Cleveland Playhouse, Hamlet (Laertes) for Quantum Theatre, Skeleton Crew (Dez) for barebones productions, One Night in Miami (Jamaal) at City Theatre Company, and many more shows for the New Hazlett’s CSA Series, Bricolage Production Company, New Horizon Theatre, FolkLab, and PPT’s PlayTime series. He is based in Washington DC. Instagram: @brendenpeifer

Charles Timbers (Baldwin Transitions: voice) has been a performer for more than 35 years; appearing in over 30+ plays in Pittsburgh, and across the country, and he is an active member of SAG/AFTRA. When he is not acting, Mr. Timbers is a full-time Certified Registered Nurse Practitioner with greater than 40 years’ experience. Chuck is a collective member and board member of the Demaskus Theater Collective. Mr. Timbers has been seen in multiple productions with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Co., most recently in Sanctified and The Bluegrass Mile, which was also selected and performed at the International Black Theater Festival this past summer 2024 in Winston-Salem N.C. Charles also played the role of Cutler in the production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at the Short North Stage Theater in Columbus, Ohio where he received the Excellence in Acting Award 2016 from the Theater Roundtable of Columbus. He has performed with New Horizon Theater Co. and Kuntu Repertory Theater Co. He was seen in The Summer King with the Pittsburgh Opera. He has also appeared with the Mendelssohn Choir in the production of Let My People Go: A Spiritual Journey Along the Underground Railroad as the narrator. Charles was also executive producer and narrator for the short film documentary Black Mary. His film credits include several local and national TV commercials, industrial and student films, Rehabilitation of the Hill, and Dead and Alive. He played the role of Dr. Hayes in the ABC TV movie The Jacksons: An American Dream. Charles also was seen in the award-winning tribute to Martin Luther King Spirit Everlasting with the August Wilson Center here in Pittsburgh. Charles also performed in The Bold and the Sanctified in Chicago with Sherri Lynn.

Manny Walker (Xavier Carter) AKA BrothaMans is from the East Side of Pittsburgh. He is a self-taught songwriter, producer and poet, with musical theatre and marching band (drumline) background. While balancing the many responsibilities of being a recording artist and owner of Man Made Studios, BrothaMans has found his way back on stage, acting and singing last year in Javon Johnson’s Sanctified. He also completed his August Wilson debut as Sterling Johnson in Two Trains Running (both productions with Pittsburgh Playwrights), and an additional musical Get Ready with New Horizon. You can find Manny’s music streaming on all platforms including YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music as “BrothaMans”.

Krystal Waller (Ebony James) is a local freelance actress, acting coach, and teaching artist. Graduating with an MFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Louisville in May 2025, she began her performance career at the tender age of 4, when she began dancing. Her most recent roles include: LaRue (A Dinah Washington Christmas, PPTCO), Clyde (Clyde’s, UofL), Escalus (R&J, KY Shakespeare), Balthazar/2nd merchant (The Comedy of Errors, KY Shakespeare), Adrian (The Tempest, KY Shakespeare), Black Mary (Gem of the Ocean, UofL), and Lou Bessie (The Old Settler, UofL). Krystal also received a B.A. in Africana Studies with a minor in Theatre Arts from the University of Pittsburgh in April of 2020. She is committed to centering Black, female voices and uplifting Black feminist stories through a sociohistorical lens with her theatrical work. In her master’s thesis, she created a Black Femme performance praxis that decenters the White gaze while empowering Black women to tell their stories through their authentic voices. Additionally, she was assistant director for UofL’s 2024 production of Miss Holmes. This performance is dedicated to all Black femmes that will hopefully see a beautiful reflection of themselves represented on stage, with love.

Creative Team & Staff

Playwright	Ty Greenwood
Director	Maurice Redwood
Stage Manager & Asst. Director	Ashley Renee Southers
Sound Designer	Wayne Gaines
Lighting Designer	Tony Clayton
Lighting Tech	Ashley Renee Southers
Hair, Makeup & Costume Designer	Cheryl El-Walker
Assistant Costumer	Katy Cotten
Scenic Designer	Mark Clayton Southers
Scenic Carpenters	Marcus Carl Southers, Rickey Odell
Scenic Build	Andre Joseph Clayton Southers, Mark Clayton Southers, Sam Lothard
Scenic Painter	Ernest Bey
Props	Sarah Gracie Jackson, Ashley Southers & Shanita Bivins
Set Dresser	Austin Sills
Front of House	James Howard
Crew	Andre Joseph Clayton Southers, Marcus Carl Southers
Greeter	Mama Cocoa

About the Creative Team

Ty Greenwood (Playwright; he/they) is a Black/Queer artist, activist and educator from Pittsburgh, PA. Ty has a BA in Communication Arts with an emphasis in Rhetoric and Honors in Theatre from Washington & Jefferson College and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University. They have been commissioned, collaborated and supported by City Theatre, Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Ashland New Plays Festival, The Hansberry Project, True Colors Theatre Company, Alumni Theater Company, Kemp Powers Commission Fund for Black Playwrights, Flugelman Productions (UK), Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, Emma Bowen Foundation and the Mid-America Theatre Conference. Recently, Ty directed a production of Lysistrata at Seton Hill University, and a production of Polaroid Stories by Naomi Iizuka at Washington & Jefferson College in 2025. Ty’s work focuses on telling stories that are not damaging to the identity, existence and bodies of Black people, but rather are empowering, unapologetic and radical in nature.

Maurice Redwood (Director) is happy to be making his Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company directing debut with this production of Paradox of Education. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, he has built a resume as an actor, director and filmmaker in Pittsburgh over the past 20 years. He has always been passionate about telling stories from the African-American perspective, as well as making meaningful contributions to the artistic community in Pittsburgh and beyond. In 2014, Maurice co-founded Pittsburgh-based production company CREW Productions LLC, which provides production and media services to local artists, arts organizations and arts supporters. In 2019, Redwood Media Group, LLC was born to produce original and commissioned film works by local creators. The first feature film from Redwood Media Group, House of Stones, written and directed by Maurice, is available on YouTube. The next film from Redwood Media Group, Unjustified, is currently in post-production. Maurice, along with his brother Carter, was a 2023 August Wilson House fellow at Duquesne University in partnership with August Wilson House. He most recently directed Black Nativity Pittsburgh, produced by the Shona Sharif African Dance & Drum Ensemble.

Notable stage and screen credits include: Stage – August Wilson’s Fences, Jitney, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Radio Golf (Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Co.), One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Barebones Productions Co.), Lower Ninth (Caravan Theater of Pittsburgh), Shakespeare’s King Lear (Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theater), Pill Hill, Too Heavy For Your Pocket (New Horizon Theater), and Black Nativity (Shona Sharif African Dance & Drum Ensemble); Film – House of Stones (Redwood Media Group), Per-Sep-Shuhn (TeeJay Vision Films), Chocolate for Life (UWebTv Studios), Holding Rough (J. Savitz Films) ; Directing – Black Nativity Pittsburgh, House of Stones, Unjustified, Birthday at Tiffany’s (staged reading).

Tony Clayton (Lighting Designer) is a Pittsburgh-based lighting designer and technician who brings a keen visual sensibility and collaborative spirit to every production. He’s a graduate of Indiana University. Tony currently serves as a lighting designer and lighting technician at the New Hazlett Theater. His most recent design credits include Fences as part of the August Wilson Experience with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. Tony is excited to bring his artistry to Paradox of Education by Ty Greenwood.

Willa “Katy” Cotten (Assistant Costumer), affectionately called “Katy”, is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From 2003 to 2008/2015 she was cast in several small roles in the Langston Hughes play Black Nativity, directed by Oronde Sharif, and in 2006 was nominated by the AACTA (African American Council for The Arts) Onyx Awards as best supporting actress in a musical or revue. As a part of the Kuntu Repertory Theatre under the direction of Dr. Vernell Lillie, Katy was cast as Sarah Vaughn in a Rob Penny production entitled Clean Drums (2009) and was also cast as the wife of the great Negro Baseball League pitcher Satchel Paige in Among the Best (2009). Katy was cast in several roles in Raisin, the musical based on Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (2010); her roles included an understudy for Beneatha, Althea the bar proprietor, and several dance numbers. She was cast as an ex-wife in the play entitled I Gotcha, The Story of Joe Tex and the Soul Clan (2010), a New Horizon Theatre production. Katy also experienced her first Pittsburgh Playwrights Black and White festival in a lead role in 2014. In 2018, as a part of the Washington Community Theater production of Hairspray, she was cast as Motormouth Maybelle. In 2024, with Pittsburgh Playwrights, she was cast as Dinah Washington’s mother and a background vocalist in Dinah, a musical about the life of Dinah Washington, and the following year, in Sanctified, written and directed by Javon Johnson of Tyler Perry’s Oval, where she was cast as an elder of the church named Sarah. Katy has also been costumer or assistant costumer on several plays with Pittsburgh Playwrights. In 2024 she was cast as Grandma Sadie in The Awakening by Lorenzo Boone, a Gold Pyramid Screen and Stage production, and in 2025 she appeared in Sistas: The Musical, a New Horizon production. Katy is grateful for every opportunity given to her by God to use her gifts.

Cheryl El-Walker (Costume Designer, Hair & Makeup) is an award-winning costume designer and makeup artist who is also a veteran stage actor from Pittsburgh. She is the resident costume/makeup artist for the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. Her creative work in various venues has earned her several Onyx awards from the African American Council of the Arts (AACTA): Best Make-up Artist (2007); Best Costume for a Musical for Christmas Is Coming Uptown (2008); Best Leading Actress for Freeman (New Horizon Theatre, 2008); Best Costume Design for a Play (Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012) and the PPTCO 2012 Legacy Award. In 2013, Cheryl debuted another one of her skills and received PPTCO’s Theater Festival in Black and White Award for Best Director. Most recently, Cheryl handled costumes, makeup and hair for Sanctified, Dinah and Radio Golf in PPTCO’s 2024 and 2025 seasons, while also performing in the first two, and appeared in The Nacirema Society for New Horizon. Cheryl is an alumna of Point Park University and is pleased to announce that she has done costume, makeup and special effects for all ten August Wilson plays.

Monteze Freeland (Artistic Associate, Season Curator) is the Artistic Director of Alumni Theater Company and a multi-hyphenate theater maker with more than 30 years of creative experience as an actor, director, writer, producer, instructor, and arts advocate. A graduate of Point Park University and a proud product of Baltimore’s historic Arena Players Inc., his work is grounded in artistic excellence and a deep belief in the power of arts education.

Freeland has held several leadership roles across Pittsburgh’s theater community, including Artistic Associate at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, Director of Education at Quantum Theatre, and Co-Artistic Director at City Theatre Company, where he directed six productions and produced more than thirty performances, readings, and events.

As a performer, he has appeared in more than 35 productions across the region. His writing has been commissioned by organizations including ASOLO Repertory Theatre, City Theatre Company, New Hazlett Theatre, Bricolage Production Company, and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company.

His honors include Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Performer of the Year, City Paper’s Pittsburgh People of the Year for Theater, and a City of Pittsburgh Proclamation recognizing his artistic impact.

Wayne Gaines (Sound Designer) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wayne is a skilled designer/technician with over 25 years of experience in audio/visual design and production for television programs, commercials, radio, theatres, feature films, documentaries, arena/auditoriums and churches. He began his career in sound design and technology with Braddock Films in Pittsburgh, PA. Among his credits is the award-winning documentary, Struggles in Steel. He is also the 2006 Onyx Award winner for his sound design for Seven Guitars, the 2007 winner for Sarafina, and the 2008 winner for Good Black Don’t Crack, all productions staged by Kuntu Repertory Theatre of Pittsburgh, PA. Waynes has worked with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater on Ubuntu Holiday and most recently Sanctified and Two Trains Running. Wayne is pleased to be working with us again.

Sarah “Gracie” Jackson (Prop Master), also known as DJ GSmuvee and Tha Elixir, is a Pittsburgh-based creative artist, teaching artist, and theatre professional. A proud Wilkinsburg native, she blends spoken word poetry, music, and technical theatre to inspire young people across the region. Sarah has worked as a Prop Master and Assistant Stage Manager with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company and BETTS Productions, while also leading arts education programs for students in grades K–12. Passionate about cultural storytelling and youth empowerment, she uses the arts to uplift voices, build confidence, and create meaningful community connections through performance, education, and creative expression.

Ashley Renee Southers (Stage Manager, Assistant Director, Lighting Tech) has always had a deep passion for the arts. She loves working alongside her family at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company and proudly considers herself a D-I-A-P—a “Do-It-All-Person.”

Ashley graduated from Point Park University in 2018 with a Bachelor’s Degree in English/Creative Writing. Her creativity extends across many disciplines, from directing and writing to stage management and production. She recently co-directed with her father, Mark Southers, on the Alumni Theater Company’s production of Love Is…, a one-act play written by Michael Curry (Love Is, Love Ain’t). She also directed a staged reading for TyLie Shider on behalf of the Pedantic Arts Residency, in conjunction with the August Wilson Archive, titled Primary Sources at August Wilson House.

Ashley finds joy in challenging herself artistically and continuing to grow as a multi-faceted creative. In her free time, she loves writing, watching movies, and spending time with her family, close friends, and her two beloved dogs, Mama Cocoa and Bentley.

She would like to thank her father, Mark Southers, for being a lifelong source of inspiration, guidance, and support in her journey.

Ashley is honored to share her love for storytelling through the work she creates and brings to life on stage.

Mark Clayton Southers (Scenic Designer, Producing Artistic Director) and his family reside in Pittsburgh’s historic Hill District. He is the founder and producing Artistic Director of the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company.

His very first play When the Water Turns Clear was produced at Chicago’s ETA Theater. His second play Ashes to Africa was a finalist at the 2001 Dayton Playhouse Future Fest. His third play Ma Noah was the recipient of the 2004 Theodore Ward prize at Columbia College, Chicago.

He has written over 20 full-length and one-act plays including the poem play Angry Black Man Poetry aka End Angered Species which had a successful run at Teatr Śląski in Katowice, Poland in 2009 and Miss Julie, Clarissa and John which ran at the 2017 National Black Theatre Festival and also had a three-week run in 2017 at Scotland’s prestigious Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

He has a series of three plays which make up his Culture Clash Series. They include Hood Winked, James McBride and I Nipoti.

Inspired by his mentor August Wilson, Mark has also set out to complete his very own collection of ten plays each taking place in the 1800s. To date he’s completed eight full-length plays, including The Bluegrass Mile, which premiered in October 2023 with the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, and The Coffin Maker, which premiered in May of 2024 with the Pittsburgh Public Theater.

Mark is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and the former Artistic Director of both the August Wilson African-American Cultural Center in Pittsburgh PA and the Short North Stage August Wilson Festival in Columbus Ohio.

For more information please visit: www.markclaytonsouthers.com.

In Memoriam

We at the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company mourn the loss of our dear friends Ernest McCarty and his wife Patricia Kearney. They both have been great contributors throughout our company’s entire existence—Patricia as a philanthropist and Ernest as a playwright, musician, director and, most importantly, as a mentor for Mark Clayton Southers and many others on our stage and behind the scenes.

Ernest McCarty’s plays will live on through our stage productions and he and Patricia will forever be in our hearts and minds as we continue to work on providing great art for the city of Pittsburgh. We offer our sincere condolences to their families and their circle of friends.

PPTCO Staff and Board

See our staff and board members here.

Special Thanks

Stacey Rosleck
Richard McBride
Charles E. Timbers Jr.
Ernest Bey
CREW Productions Studio
KDC Printing
Neicy Readie Southers
Andre Joseph Clayton Southers
Steven Doerfler
Michelle Belan
Rodney Poteat
Nedra Davis

Video and Audio recorded at CREW Productions Studios

Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company thanks the following for supporting our season of plays and special projects:

We also thank our donors! Click for a complete list, and learn how to become a PPTCO donor.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association

Printed program design and editing by Michelle Belan.
Online program design and editing by Steven Doerfler.