Momentum Festival Sneak Preview Presented by City Theatre
Wednesday, May 6, 2020 @ 7:00 PM - 7:45 PMCity Theatre’s iconic Momentum Festival has a new home online. Join Marc Masterson, James McNeel, and others for a sneak peek into the 2020 festival, including an exclusive lineup reveal.
Streamed on The Show Must Go On(line) Pittsburgh channel. (run-time 45 minutes)
City Theatre closes each season with the Momentum Festival: New Plays at Different Stages, which brings some of the most exciting playwrights in the country to Pittsburgh for a weekend of workshops, readings, and artist panels. Momentum is at the heart of City Theater’s mission to lead the new play development conversation on both a national and local level. Since its inception, the program has provided developmental support to more than fifty writers. The festival affords audiences and industry professionals the opportunity to not only see new works in progress, but to actively participate in the page to stage process.
This City Theater virtual episode features Artistic Director Marc Masterson, Managing Director James McNeel, and other festival artists giving a sneak peek into this year’s festival and what it means to bring it online. Marc and James will be speaking about the mission of the festival, announcing the 2020 lineup, and speaking with two of the playwrights.
Even though our doors are shuttered, City Theater is thrilled the festival can have a virtual home and continue to bring new works to the Pittsburgh community.
Marc Masterson, Artistic Director
James McNeel joined City Theatre as its Managing Director in January 2015. He came to Pittsburgh after four seasons in the same role at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, where he was integral in the development and production of 20 new plays (including 10 world premieres and four commissions). Previously, he served as Literature Specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts focusing on grants to nonprofit presses, magazines, and literary organizations, as well as awards to individual poets, writers, and literary translators. While at the NEA he also worked on the development of such national initiatives as Operation Homecoming, Shakespeare in American Communities, Poetry Out Loud, and the National Book Festival. In 2005, James moved to New York City where he was General Manager and project consultant for the arts management firm, The Center for Creative Resources. At the Center, he worked with numerous individual artists and arts organization in all facets of institutional development and was a team leader in the feasibility study, opening, and first year management and operation of The Times Center, owned by The New York Times Company and designed by Renzo Piano. In addition, he was Director of Development and Marketing at the historic Cherry Lane Theatre, located in Greenwich Village. James holds a degree from Shepherd University and studied Arts Management at American University. He is currently a board member of the South Side Chamber of Commerce and is on the national board of the League of Resident Theaters (LORT), the largest theatre association if its kind in the United States.
