Movies & Plays

ALUMNI THEATER COMPANY PRESENTS TWO NIGHTS OF SHOWSTOPPERS!

Songs in Our Key: An ATC Cabaret

Get ready for an evening of soul-stirring music! Alumni Theater Company (ATC) launches its highly anticipated 18th season with a powerhouse showcase of voices, stories, and harmony in Songs in Our Key: An ATC Cabaret. Our talented ATC vocal students take the mic to deliver songs from stage and screen, includingSister Act, The Wiz, Cinderella, plus many more.

Audiences will experience a joyful fusion of passion and technique as these rising stars reimagine the circumstances of songs we all know and love, blending youthful energy with the emotional depth that defines the ATC sound. Witness their talent shine in real time as they use melody and their story to make the music their own.

“ATC has been a place that has felt like home. This is my third year in ATC, but it feels like I’ve been here forever. They [ATC Instructors] are so comforting and loving, they make ATC the amazing theater company it is today, featuring young Black artists and giving us opportunities of a lifetime. It’s great to be part of such an amazing Black community like ATC.” - Anthony Ferguson

In an intimate cabaret setting, each performer takes the mic, showcasing the results of dedicated vocal training with acclaimed local singers and coaches Chantal Braziel, Monteze Freeland, and Lailonny Morris.

“This season, serving as a vocal coach for Alumni Theater Company has been an incredibly rewarding experience. My greatest joy comes from witnessing those unforgettable moments when students surprise themselves, when their eyes widen in disbelief after hitting a note they never thought they could reach or mastering a technique that once felt impossible. Watching their confidence grow and their voices expand beyond their own expectations reminds me why I love teaching. It’s not just about the music; it’s about helping young Black artists realize the power and potential that’s already within them.” - Lailonny Morris

To deepen the students' understanding of cabaret performance, they will be guided and coached in a special masterclass taught by Pittsburgh Jazz legend Etta Cox, who will impart wisdom from her illustrious career onstage.

Songs in Our Key will feature Professional and Young Artist Ensemble members
Aryanna Booker, Michael Curry, Charlese Dawson, Ka’Miaya Darwin, Andreus Ferguson, Anthony Ferguson, Emoni Green, Marvaya Hampton, Emmanuel Hyacinthe, Yuri Kenny, Saniya Lavelle, Jalina McClarin, Destiny Nwafor, Madison Peacock James Perry,
Shakirah Stephens, Jillian Wiley, Jade Williams, and Shae Wofford.

The evening will also include special performances by Chantal Braziel (11/21) and
Lailonny Morris (11/22), as well as ATC’s Teen Ensemble, led by instructor and
ATC Executive Director Bridgette Perdue.

Music direction and accompaniment will be provided by local musician Ben Brosche.

Performance Details

Location:
Alumni Theater Company
6601 Hamilton Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15206

Dates:
Friday, November 21 - 7 pm - Special guest Chantal Braziel
Saturday, November 22 - 7 pm - Special guest Lailonny Morris

Tickets:
Tickets can be purchased at www.alumnitheatercompany.org/upcoming-events

Tickets will also be available for purchase at the door, subject to availability.

ABOUT LAILONNY MORRIS

Lailonny is a Brooklyn-born, Pittsburgh-based singer-songwriter, nurse, and vocal coach whose artistry lives at the intersection of music, healing, and love. Her voice — rich with soul and intention — has been her companion since the age of three, nurtured in a home where music was as natural as breathing. “Music is in my blood,” she says, honoring her parents’ gift for sound and expression that shaped her earliest melodies.

Through honest and vulnerable songwriting, Lailonny transforms lived experience into lyrical storytelling — exploring mental wellness, vulnerability, love, and the beauty of simply being. Her music invites listeners to peel back the layers of pretense to find freedom in authenticity and to stand boldly in their truth. “I want people to feel seen, to feel safe, and to feel free to just BE.”

A two-time SCALE Fellowship alum (2022, 2024) and participant in the 2023 Intervals Arts Accelerator through the Equity Impact Center, Lailonny continues to expand her creative reach and entrepreneurial vision. Her performances — including SCALE Live at the Roxian Theatre and First Night PGH 2025 LIVE with FRZY — showcase her ability to blend soul, purpose, and vulnerability into a sound uniquely her own.

Through every note, word, and connection, Lailonny is cultivating a legacy rooted in authenticity, healing, and liberation — reminding us that to sing is to love, and to love is to heal.

ABOUT CHANTAL BRAZIEL

Soprano Chantal Braziel is known for the beauty, passion, and magnitude of her voice. She infuses spirit and artistry in every performance, from arias to spirituals. Chantal has a Master's in Vocal Performance from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, and a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance from Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA.

Chantal is a native of Pittsburgh, PA, and currently sings at local performance venues in the area. She is also a fervent teaching artist and works as a voice

teacher at CAPA 6-12 and Sunburst School of Music in Pittsburgh.

Chantal is a passionate classical singer who has performed both locally and internationally, and she advocated for the National Opera House in Pittsburgh, PA founded by classical opera pioneer, Madame Mary Cardwell Dawson, in the Homewood section of the city. When the owner of the opera house, Jonnet Solomon, searched for local artists to help with the preservation, Chantal helped create the Opera House challenge, which was a video of her performing on the steps of the opera house and brought awareness to internationally acclaimed artists through social media-this challenge led to artists and organizations donating to the opera house. Additionally, Chantal helped reinstate the Madame Mary Cardwell Dawson Branch, which is the Pittsburgh branch of the National Association of Negro Musicians Organization.

In 2019, Chantal made her Metropolitan Opera Debut in the ensemble of the 2019/2020 Grammy Award-winning production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess; she returned in the revival of Porgy and Bess in 2021, and she performed in the chorus of the Jessye Norman memorial, held at the Metropolitan Opera. Ms. Braziel also performed in the ensemble of the world premiere production of Pittsburgh Opera's The Summer King: The Story of Josh Gibson.

Chantal was featured on the Classical WQED-FM 89.5 radio station as a guest performer for the station's 50th Anniversary. She performed the National Anthem for the American Professional baseball and hockey teams, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Penguins. She was the featured soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in the Lift Every Voice concert at Heinz Hall and returned to the ensemble of Lift Every Voice in October 2022, and February 2024.

ABOUT ETTA COX

Etta Cox, originally from St. Joseph, Missouri has performed in the tri-state area for many years. She appeared on Broadway in I Love My Wife with Lawrence Hilton- Jacobs, the 1940’s Radio Hour with Dee Dee Bridgewater, as well as a starring role in the Showtime’s production of The Me Nobody Knows

and multiple films, I’m Your Woman (2020), Me, Earl and the Dying Girl (2015), Warrior (2011), The Next Three Days (2020),The Cemetery Club (1993), Bump in the Night (1991),Criminal Justice (1990), Silent Witness (1985) and numerous shows for City Theatre and Pittsburgh Public Theatre.

Etta Cox has been voted “Best Jazz Vocalist” in Pittsburgh for eight consecutive years and has received the Harry Schwalb Award for Excellence in the Arts, was selected as one of the 25 Most Powerful women in Pittsburgh by Pittsburgh Magazine, voted Performer of the Year by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, received Talk Magazine Walter Harper All That Jazz Award, Arts and Letters Award from YWCA and Lifetime Achievement Award from Covenant Church on the Hill.

Ms. Cox holds a degree in Music Education and Voice.

ABOUT BEN BROSCHE

Ben Brosche is a Pittsburgh-based pianist, music director, and accompanist whose work bridges the worlds of theatre, jazz, and collaborative performance. A former Yamaha Child Artist, Ben discovered his love of music early and has since built a career rooted in versatility, empathy, and artistry.

He currently serves as a staff accompanist at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama, where he works closely with students and faculty in both rehearsal and

performance. In the Pittsburgh theatre community, Ben has collaborated with companies including Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Public Theater, The New Hazlett Theater, Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center, Stage 62, and Little Lake Theatre.

Known for his thoughtful musicianship and easygoing collaboration style, Ben strives to bring care, clarity, and creativity to every project—supporting storytelling through sound and a deep respect for the people behind it.

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh

HELL’S KITCHEN, the hit Broadway musical from 17-time Grammy Award winner, Alicia Keys

AKW Entertainment and producers of the Grammy and Tony Award-winning musical HELL’S KITCHEN, the hit Broadway musical from 17-time Grammy Award winner, Alicia Keys, are thrilled to announce the cast for the North American tour when it premieres in Pittsburgh, PA at the Benedum Center, 237 7th Street, from November 4 – 9, 2025. This event is presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, part of the 2025-2026 PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh Series.

Tickets are on sale now. For tickets and information, visit Pittsburgh Cultural Trust official ticket sources: online at TrustArts.org; in person at Theater Square Box Office, 655 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222; or by calling 412-456-4800. Orders for groups of 10+ tickets or more may be placed by calling 412-471-6930, email groupsales@trustarts.org, or submit a group ticket reservation online at TrustArts.org/groupsales.

The North American Tour of HELL’S KITCHEN will star Maya Drake as Ali, Kennedy Caughell as Jersey, Roz White as Miss Liza Jane, Desmond Sean Ellington as Davis, and JonAvery Worrell as Knuck. Joining them on stage will be Stemarciae Bain, Miya Bass, Jaylen T. Bryant, Rashada Dawan, Sherée Marcelle Dunwell, ’Zaiah Ellis, Mae-Lynn Flores, Marques Furr, Destini Hendricks, Jeffrey May Hyche, Alfred Jackson, GiGi Lewis, Christopher Miller, Usman Ali Mughal, Chikezie Nwankwo, Sangeetha “Sang” Santhebennur, Marley Soleil, Beda Spindola, Asten Stewart, Teetee, Sydney Townsend, Timothy Wilson, and Ethan Zundell. Together, this company will bring Alicia Keys’ music and Kristoffer Diaz’s story to vibrant life in cities across the country. For more information about the cast, visit: https://hellskitchen.com/tour/.

HELL’S KITCHEN is directed by five-time Tony Award nominee Michael Greif (Rent, Dear Evan Hansen and The Notebook) and features choreography by five-time Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown, a book by Pulitzer Prize finalist Kristoffer Diazand the music of Alicia Keys.

Your journey begins with Ali, a 17-year-old girl full of fire, searching for freedom, passion, and her place in the world. Along the way, you’ll meet the musical mentor who changes her life, her dynamic family, and the neighborhood that helps her grow. Relatable, raw, and refreshingly fun, HELL’S KITCHEN is a celebration of finding yourself, your purpose, and the people who lift you up.

More than a performance, this experience pulls you out of your seat with Alicia Keys’ greatest hits and brand-new songs written exclusively for the show — brought to life through exhilarating choreography.

Feel the energy of this multi-award-winning musical and experience where dreams begin: HELL’S KITCHEN!

Hailed by the New York Times as a Critic’s Pick that is “thrilling from beginning to end – a rare must-see,” HELL’S KITCHENwon two 2025 Tony Awards and the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Now in its second year on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre, the musical continues to play to rapturous audiences nightly.

The massively talented creative team also includes Tony Award® nominee Robert Brill (Scenic Design), Tony Award® winner Dede Ayite (Costume Design), Tony Award® winner Natasha Katz (Lighting Design), Tony Award® winner Gareth Owen(Sound Design), Tony Award® nominee Peter Nigrini (Projection Design), Mia Neal (Hair and Wig Design), Michael Clifton(Makeup Design), Monet (Associate Director), Ricky Tripp (Associate Choreographer), and Foresight Theatrical (General Management). Casting by Heidi Griffiths, CSA & Kate Murray, CSA. The Production Stage Manager is Veronica Aglow and the Company Manager is Deborah Barrigan.

The music team of HELL’S KITCHEN includes orchestrations by Tony Award® winner Tom Kitt and Tony Award® nominee Adam Blackstone, arrangements by Alicia Keys and Adam Blackstone, music consulting by Tom Kitt. Lily Ling is the Associate Music Supervisor and Emily Orr is the Music Director for the tour.

Aaron Lustbader serves as Executive Producer and Mandy Hackett as Consulting Producer. DML Productions, The Sunshine Group, The Jacobs Family, John Gore Organization, Clara Wu Tsai, Score 3 Partners, No Guarantees Productions, Front Row Productions, Sharpton Swindal Productions, Grove Entertainment, Terria Joseph, James L. Nederlander, Candy Spelling, Universal Music Publishing, Independent Presenters Network, Della Pietra Spark Theatricals, TodayTix ARGU, Julie Yorn, Andy Nahas, Serena Williams/Nine Two Six Productions and The Public Theater are Co-Producers.

For more information, visit Hell’s Kitchen Broadway’s Hit Musical From Alicia Keys, North American Tour: https://hellskitchen.com/tour/
cast biographies: https://hellskitchen.com/tour/the-creative-team.

Fans are encouraged to visit HellsKitchen.com to sign up for tour updates and exclusive content.
Follow along at @HellsKitchenBway.

The Benedum Center, Theater Square Complex and Cultural District are projects of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. For more information: PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh: TrustArts.org/Broadway; Pittsburgh Cultural Trust venue entry requirements:TrustArts.org/welcome; accessibility services, call guest services at 412-456-6666 or visit TrustArts.org/TheaterAccessibility. For more information about Pittsburgh’s Cultural District, visit TrustArts.org/visit and CulturalDistrict.org.

Photo Credit: Maya Drake as Ali in the North American Tour of Hell's Kitchen, the hit Broadway musical from Alicia Keys. Photo by Marc J Franklin.

Maya Drake as Ali in the North American Tour of Hell's Kitchen

Paul Tazewell Wins Oscar for Best Costume Design

Paul Tazewell Wins Oscar for Best Costume Design First Black Man to Win

"We are wishing a huge congratulations to former Carnegie Mellon School of Drama faculty member Paul Tazewell for his historic #Oscar win tonight!

Tazewell was awarded Best Costume Design for his compelling creations in Wicked Movie, the first Black man to receive the honor.” CMU School of Drama

Tazewell was a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama from 2003 to 2006. He was an associate professor and resident artist of costume design.
Paul Tazewell is the first Black man to win the Oscar for best costume design. He won an Academy Award on Sunday for his work on "Wicked."

Tazewell was nominated for an Oscar in 2022 for costume design on "West Side Story" and became the first Black man nominated in the category.

This isn't Tazewell's first big award. He won a Tony for his costumes in "Hamilton."

For his work on "Wicked," Tazewell designed more than 1,000 costumes, which were worked on by 70 people.

Glinda and Elphaba had 60 costumes, each with more than 25 looks for the movie.

In Good Hands, Film

Telling untold stories of a Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital ER doctor

In Good Hands, a powerful short film inspired by the memoir of pediatric emergency-room physician Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, is one of five films selected to compete for the HBO Short Film Award, one of the most prestigious short-film showcases in the country. The five films selected for this exhibition, held at the American Black Film Festival June 11 in Miami Beach, will compete for a $10,000 top prize and automatic qualification for the Academy Awards short film category.

This showcase has featured early films from Ryan Coogler (Sinners, Black Panther), Stephen Caple Jr. (Creed II, Transformers: Rise of The Beast) and Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard, Bob Marley: One Love).

In Good Hands tells the compelling story of Dr. Diana Asante, a pediatric emergency physician navigating the challenges brought on by her last patients of the shift: a white boy unfamiliar with a Black female doctor, and an African American teenager caught in a dire situation with law enforcement. These incidents were drawn from real-life events of Dr. Owusu-Ansah, who works in a nationally recognized children’s hospital in Pittsburgh and also recently consulted for HBO’s The Pitt.

The film was written by Yasmine Crawley, a former CBS Page who currently works as an assistant and production associate at See it Now Studios, which produces documentaries and unscripted series for Paramount+ and CBS. Crawley and Dr. Sylvia participated in the PITTch Storytelling Initiative, which was funded in 2021 by a Richard King Mellon Foundation grant to help create more local career opportunities in southwestern Pennsylvania's growing film industry. In Good Hands was made as a community teaching film with a diverse group of students and community members working in front of and behind the camera, led by a producer/professor with Hollywood experience.

The film features a talented cast, including Chanell C.J. Harris in the lead role of Dr. Asante. After spending 18 years in LA working behind the lens in the music industry, winning ASCAP FILM & TV Award for her original work on the BET hit show Real Husbands of Hollywood, Harris moved back to her native Pittsburgh, where she has curated and created original music for "The Writer's Landscape," a permanent exhibition at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center. The film was shot by cinematographer Haji Muya, a Somali refugee who learned his craft in Pittsburgh, believing that media at its best could do what the city’s famed Fred Rogers suggested, and “make good attractive.”

In Good Hands tackles complex themes of racial bias and equity in the medical field.

“We aim to create positive change through storytelling that highlights the realities and complexities of patient interactions in emergency medicine,” said Dr. Owusu-Ansah, who is also the medical director of Prehospital and Emergency Medicine services at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

The film was directed by Nick Buchheit, at the invitation of his friend and collaborator, cinematographer Muya. Buccheit is a filmmaker and co-founder of Covalent, a video production company headquartered in Pittsburgh. He directs commercials and writes for brands ranging from GoDaddy to Big Brothers Big Sisters. After spending over a decade shaping and guiding narratives for corporate America, Buccheit is championing more personal, creative, and socially reflective stories that showcase his passion for grounded performances and emotionally honest narratives, whether serious, strange, or somewhere in between.

In Good Hands was produced by Carl Kurlander, who returned to his hometown to teach after a career as a screenwriter (St. Elmo’s Fire) and TV writer/producer (Saved By the Bell) He ended up on The Oprah Winfrey Show for leaving Hollywood to teach at the University of Pittsburgh, where he ended up producing a number of award-winning documentaries on the Salk polio vaccine, transplant pioneer Dr. Tom Starzl, and a new film on playwright August Wilson — all Pittsburghers who helped change our world. He is also the founding producer of the Pittsburgh Lens at Pitt’s Center for Creativity, which ran The PITTch Storytelling Initiative.

“We had over 70 entries for PITTch, and what stood out about Dr. Sylvia’s story and Yasmine’s script was how impactful it was, but also how somehow we have yet to see a lead character in a medical drama or movie who is a female African American. Dr. Sylvia’s work to get the Freedom House Ambulance Service story out there and reboot that historic EMS program is inspiring, and it is fitting that when Yasmine was a student at Pitt, she worked on the documentary we are doing on playwright August Wilson, who was also inspired by the compelling stories he found in Pittsburgh,” said Kurlander.

Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah