Artistic Director Marya Sea Kaminski Will Depart Pittsburgh Public Theater

Pittsburgh Public Theater announced that its artistic director Marya Sea Kaminski will depart her role effective July 2025 after seven years of service. Kaminski will serve as artistic director through The Public’s 50th Anniversary season, including three remaining productions: Trouble in Mind, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Public Works’ Twelfth Night.

“It has been an incredible honor to lead Pittsburgh Public Theater through this period of catalytic change for the company and in our field,” Kaminski said. “As I step into my next chapter, I am excited to find new, immediate ways to invest in and elevate the next generation of artists and leaders.”

Kaminski joined The Public in 2018, and during her tenure she welcomed more than 800 new subscriber households to the theater. She led the theater through the COVID-19 pandemic and less than a week after lockdowns began launched Public PlayTime with a fireside reading of Henry V, the beginning of a program that would feature more than 30 staged readings from more than 100 artists nationwide, seamlessly maintaining the organization’s critical connection to both art and audience in this formative time.

On stage, she increased diverse representation by almost 400%, broke the company’s all-time box office record with her 2020 production of Little Shop of Horrors, and produced five world premieres, including last season’s smash hit Billy Strayhorn: Something to Live For. Off stage, she dramatically increased The Public’s investment in Pittsburgh-based art and artists through a robust Resident Artist program, the Public Playwrights Collective, the Core Company, and Critical Insight.

“I feel called to respond to this moment in history with a more expansive and personal artistic vision by building innovative collaborations nationally while continuing to call this incredible city my home,” Kaminski said. “And of course, before the end of this season, we are going to create one of the biggest theatrical events of the decade with our Public Works production of Twelfth Night, so our work together is far from over.”

Kaminski will direct The Public’s season closer, a Public Works production of Twelfth Night from June 27–29 as the grand finale of the theater’s 50th Anniversary season. The production will welcome dozens of citizen artists onto the O’Reilly Theater stage alongside celebrated professional performers in a spectacular large-scale musical. Thanks to the generous support of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, this production will be the culmination of season-long partnerships with Vintage Senior Center, Mount Ararat Community Activity Center, the Filipino American Association, the Bhutanese Community Association, and Sarah Heinz House. All tickets will be free to the public.

“The Board of Trustees wishes to thank Marya for her transformational leadership over the past seven years. Her tenure spanned seismic shifts in American theater, underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Marya led the theater through these extraordinary circumstances with grace, passion and enthusiasm, driving the theater’s vision with innovative and groundbreaking productions,” Pittsburgh Public Theater Board of Trustees Chair Bal Srinivasan said. “There is no doubt her imprint on this company will live on well beyond her tenure. We wish Marya the best and deeply appreciate all that she has meant to the Pittsburgh artistic community. We look forward to continuing our work with her through the remainder of this season.”

Pittsburgh Public Theater’s Board of Trustees will launch a nationwide search for The Public’s new artistic director in January 2025 in partnership with Management Consultants for the Arts.

“I am grateful to Marya for seven incredible years of visionary leadership. Her passion, dedication and resilience have guided The Public through both triumphs and challenges, always with an unwavering belief in the power of storytelling. ‘The better part of valour is discretion,’ as Shakespeare wisely said — her courage in navigating difficult times has always been a testament to that. My life is forever changed because of our partnership, and the arts are richer for her creativity, brilliant direction, and leadership. I wish her nothing but more and the best of what she can positively imagine,” Managing Director Shaunda McDill said.

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