O'Reilly Theater

The O'Reilly Theater is a 650-seat theater building, opened on 11 December 1999, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Located at 621 Penn Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh's Cultural District, the O'Reilly Theater is actually a three-part building: The 65,000 square feet (6,000 m2) theater (with a 150-seat rehearsal hall), a large parking garage called Theater Square, and the adjacent 23,000 square feet (2,100 m2) Agnes R. Katz Plaza.[1]

For the studio theatre in Oxford, England, see O'Reilly Theatre.

O'Reilly Theater
Address621 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
United States
Coordinates40.4432°N 80.0016°W / 40.4432; -80.0016
OwnerPittsburgh Cultural Trust
Capacity650
Construction
Opened11 December 1999 (1999-12-11)
ArchitectMichael Graves
Structural engineerDeSimone Consulting Engineers
Website
www.trustarts.org

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust built the new theater, designed by architect Michael Graves P.A.,[2] to create a downtown home for the Pittsburgh Public Theater theatrical company, as well as to create additional venues for theater, music, and other art performances. The O’Reilly venue features a thrust stage surrounded by the audience on three sides.[1]

To pay for the $25 million cost of construction, gifts to the project included a naming gift in honor of Dr. Anthony O'Reilly from Mrs. Chryss O'Reilly and several current and past senior executives of the H.J. Heinz Company.[1]

The O’Reilly was built by Turner Construction Company,[3] opened on 11 December 1999, with the world premiere of King Hedley II, by the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson.[1]

Pittsburgh Mercantile Library

The building site of the Penn Avenue theater's history began in 1866 with the construction Mercantile Library Hall, a multipurpose library, lecture, and music hall.

Lyceum Theater

The mercantile hall evolved into the Bijou, Lyceum, Academy, and Variety, Pittsburgh's vaudeville houses, and then was razed and paved into a parking lot after the 1936 St. Patrick's Day flood.[1] Teddy Roosevelt spoke at a national convention of the Order of the Moose at Lyceum Theater on his visit to Pittsburgh in July, 1917.[4]

See also

Theatre in Pittsburgh

References
  1. Special Report on the O'Reilly Theater Archived 2006-06-29 at the Wayback Machine. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. - 5 December 1999. - Retrieved: 23 May 2006.
  2. Bellon, K. - O'Reilly Theater, Pittsburgh PA: Michael Graves 1999 Archived 2008-05-16 at the Wayback Machine. - Galinsky. - Retrieved: 2008-06-24
  3. Projects: O'Reilly Theater: Pittsburgh, PA Archived 2007-12-08 at the Wayback Machine. - Turner Construction Company. - Retrieved: 2008-06-24
  4. "The Pittsburgh Press - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
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