Across from the towering East Liberty Presbyterian Church stands the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. The Secret Pittsburgh Class recently spent a day with the Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) learning about its history and current mission, and it helped me realize there is much more to this place than a blue neon sign lighting up a classic facade. This theater is a place where a great deal of thought and work is put into uplifting its community and celebrating creativity.
Walking into the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, you are greeted with a timeless lobby. When I first walked in, music was playing softly in the background and we were met by the people of the theater. They introduced themselves, and invited the class to participate in some movement activities. After first introductions, we were taken outside where we learned about some of the theater’s 100 year history. While many things have changed, including the name, the theater’s presence in the East Liberty community has remained constant. I felt the connection between the history of the theater and the neighborhood was accentuated by a community member who, seeing us on the sidewalk, stopped to share her memories and experiences of the theater. When she was younger, she visited the theater when it was still a movie theater and called the Regent. She told us that while the outside has changed and the neon sign has been added, the inside looks very much the same. While she spoke, I understood that theater holds an important place in her childhood memories. And, its continued existence has deepened the connection the KST has with the community in East Liberty as community members like herself have such fond memories of the space.
Moving beyond the classic architecture inside, you are confronted with the current art exhibition space. At the time of our visit, the exhibit space housed art focusing on the reproduction of protest signs. The space holding is small, practically just an extension of the lobby, but it can be powerful with a fine tuned message that makes an impact. The exhibit surrounds the entrance to the performance space and allows guests to have a moment of reflection on visual art and consider how the expression of one art form may interact with another. When we entered the theater itself a rehearsal was in progress for the night’s show, but everyone was on a brief break. As we walked in, the tech crew and performers were gathered around each other. I was struck by how comfortable they looked enjoying their time together, very much at home. The theater space itself is stunning. Even with the house lights on, a hint of the magic of this space, which brings creativity to life, is clear. The classic feel of the facade and lobby is carried in, but it takes a backseat to the emphasis put on the stage. It was bare for the rehearsal, with every curtain drawn up and the backstage area visible. A relatively few number of seats face this stage that is small when compared to the other, grander venues of downtown Pittsburgh. And, this makes the space very intimate, allowing for a close connection between the artistry on stage and the audience.
The neighborhood of East Liberty is extremely important to the KST. Leaving the theater building, we walked through the neighborhood to visit their second building, the Alloy School Studios. The walk between places was not simply to get from point A to B, but it provided a chance to see the actual neighborhood that is so central to the theater. We learned about some of the community’s current struggles, and more specifically, we discussed the current attempts to gentrify the area and resulting forced relocation of many people who had lived in the neighborhood for years. Between the theater and the Alloy Studios stands one of the most recent controversial sites of gentrification, the former site of the Penn Plaza Apartments. In 2015, residents were given ninety days to leave before the complex was going to be torn down to build a new Whole Foods. Many people were forced to relocate outside of East Liberty and the community was enraged. Attempts were made to stop the project and the controversy even led Whole Foods to leave the project for a time. In the end, however, the apartments were still torn down and a Whole Foods stands in their place today. The Penn Plaza Apartments are only one example of the gentrification projects that disproportionately, and negatively affect people of color in East Liberty. The KST aims to empower residents of the neighborhood, as a place for creative expression to be freely supported.
Inside the Alloy Studios, we were once again greeted with a warm, inviting atmosphere. But, this space is more modern than the theater. In the studio spaces, where many productions begin, we took a deeper look into the mission of the KST. At heart, they strive to serve the community of East Liberty as best they can, but this includes much more than just creative productions. The Alloy Studios host dance classes for people of all ages and they have many programs to sponsor creative work and experimentation. There have been many times when the theater organization has been the voice of the community against current issues, whether it was the destruction of a well loved mural or controversy surrounding a public art billboard. This devotion to the community informs much of the actual artistic work done by the theater. And, they strive to specifically serve Black and queer people in their creative expression by being a “homeplace.” A theater as a homeplace may seem odd at first, but the KST has centered the idea around legendary author bell hooks’s essay “Homeplace: A Site of Resistance.” In this essay she explains the concept as follows:
“Historically, African-American people believed that the construction of a home-place, however fragile and tenuous (the slave hut, the wooden shack), had a radical dimension.…one’s homeplace was the one site where one could freely construct the issue of humanization, where one could resist. Black women resisted by making homes where all black people could strive to be subjects, not objects, where we could be affirmed in our minds and hearts despite poverty, hardship, and deprivation, where we could restore to ourselves the dignity denied us on the outside in the public world.” And, importantly, making a homeplace was “about the construction of a safe place where black people could affirm one another and by so doing heal many of the wounds inflicted by racist domination” (42).
While the Kelly Strayhorn Theater may not be a traditional homeplace, it is certainly one for creativity and expression. There is even a panel of artists called the “HomeMakers,” inspired by bell hooks, who work to support and advocate for the KST to ensure the theater continues to be a homplace. And, the Alloy Studios allows a safe space for this creativity to be experimental and prepared for performance while also providing a space for new artists of all ages to join the community and find how it may be a homeplace for themselves.
That night, the KST premiered the show, titled PROPHET: The Order of the Lyricist, I’d seen in rehearsal during our visit earlier that day. Returning at night, the facade was brilliantly lit up by the blue neon sign announcing the theater’s name. Inside, we walked back through the lobby and took our seats in the theater. The stage was still bare with the curtains up and backstage visible, a design choice by the performance group. And for me, it was a reminder of earlier that day, and all the work put into making the productions at the KST possible. As the lights dimmed and the show started, I understood that productions like these are not the singular goal of the KST but the culmination of a long process on the spectrum of all the work that the Kelly Strayhorn Theater does.
Works Cited
hooks, bell. Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. Routledge, 2015.