My name is Shaunda McDill and I am the Managing Director of Pittsburgh Public Theater.

You're the managing director of the Pittsburgh Public Theater.

And to deepen the understanding of our audience, what does that actually mean?

This year, it's a bit unique, given the fact that our artistic director has gone to Oberlin to teach.

And normally there's a dual leadership of a regional theater, or at least a, dual or trifecta.

Sometimes there's a producing director between an artistic director and a managing director, but generally a managing director is responsible for overseeing the operations of a theater, the budget, making sure that they are working to advance board activity and nominating people to the board, to develop that entity.

We are also monitoring all the departments monthly and throughout the year, monitoring cash flow as well as, you know, overseeing, I would say, like the culture of the organization outside of each individual artistic production, the people, the processes and how we do what we do.

So it's the business of making the theater run externally and internally, making sure every one of those processes happens, begins and ends the way that it's supposed to.

Absolutely.

Or creating them, which was very much the case when I came in after Covid.

Recreating or creating those processes.

Okay.

The Pittsburgh Public Theater has been around since 1975 and has grown to occupy a vital place in Pittsburgh's cultural landscape.

What was it about the PPT and your previous experience in theater that made you look at this and say like, yeah, this is the job for me?

Well, at the time, I was working at the Heinz Endowments and Marya Sea Kaminski, who was the artistic director, was in my portfolio, and she let me know that they were going to be entering a search for a managing director.

And I was like, I don't think I want to leave philanthropy to go back into the nonprofit world.

And she really cast her vision for what the public could be and what she had imagined it to be for the region.

And that was squarely inside my purpose.

And that being creating work, making it accessible to all, revitalizing downtown as well as the public with art that would be impactful across all the demographics of Pittsburgh and a place where everyone would be able to come and, kind of like a public square.

She used to say something to the effect of every town or every region needs a public library to learn a public, you know, government in order to to govern.

And you need a public theater so you can emote and come and learn.

And so I think it represented that which was most humane and exciting about the art.

And so I said, yes.

You bring two things to it by immediately.

First, this is kind of like where your job varies during the 25-26 season.

You've had like fun family fare like A Christmas Story, but then you had a really serious think piece like the Ibsen, The Enemy of the People that just closed, and then you have another play before the season is over.

How do you work together to find the balance between what's fun and family friendly, and what's important and thoughtful?

I really do have to say that is primarily the artistic director's job.

I think that coming in with Marya, she really did want to work together as producing partners.

And so we would go back and forth, not necessarily with the artistic vision, because there are titles, you know, we have a long spreadsheet of titles we would love to produce, and every year we're looking at them, and every year there's something new coming off of Broadway, and we want to be producing the preeminent theater work in the region, but we also want to be doing things to your point that stimulate entertain.

That's really in our mission, right?

So really, when we're providing a broad scope of work, it is us fulfilling our mission, which is to challenge, stimulate, entertain.

Those words are actually in the mission of the public theater.

And so I'm really intrigued by the history of the organization.

I'm always blown away by the fact that, like, for instance, the first playwright in residence was Rob Penney back in the 70s, and he's someone who was really, you know, prolific, you know, August Wilson's contemporary.

They were friends, but also very challenging.

I hear that the language was very direct.

He very much represented, communities in Pittsburgh that weren't always put into the forefront.

And so the public has always been committed to community in a real way to diverse voices.

And I'm impressed by that history.

You know, in a management side, I think there's another story to be told about making sure that you're not only putting those voices on stage and people of color performing or of diverse backgrounds, but also that they're on the staff and in management and in positions of governance that make decisions about the future of the theater.

Well, you also reminded me of the pandemic, and that downtown Pittsburgh is still feeling the effects of the pandemic.

So that's another layer to your cake where you've also got to figure out a way to increase traffic downtown.

People bring people back to the theater, in a time that's really, really challenging for a many different reasons.

Absolutely.

I think if you go downtown when you see it is the busiest, it's when everything is in full swing at arts, in the arts, right?

When Wicked is playing at the Benedum.

And we have Enemy of the People and the symphony is in full swing.

That's when you see the streets, you know, really busy and and truth be told, the arts really kept the lights on downtown during this time of, you know, coming back and resurging from Covid.

And I think that it has always been a part, even if you look back in the history when I worked at Heinz, you know, Jack Heinz and the band of Merry Dreamers, as they used to call them, they used arts as a catalyst for economic development in the city, right?

It was we're going to buy up any nefarious properties.

We're going to put museums in there and arts and culture, we're going to build, you know, the symphony we're going to build, because that is what will bring people downtown.

I think we're in a similar this third Renaissance people call it.

The difference is we're not building big buildings.

I think we're trying to program in a way to fill those buildings again and to bring more people downtown.

So I think it's a different type of work, but it is still the same plan, which is to to bring people downtown to be able to see that which they feel is really interesting and intriguing.

And I'd like to also reciprocate and find ways to, work with anchors in communities that already exist that are also cultural anchors.

And how do we work together to, to do both, revitalizing downtown and also, supporting people in the very communities that they're in.

Because it is kind of like taking the temperature of a city.

How vibrant is its downtown?

How accessible is it not just in terms of, you know, true accessibility?

Can you are there enough places for people who are disabled to get in and out of spaces, but also accessible so that somebody who may not have the kind of income that can subscribe all year long to a theater program, can also take advantage of and be a patron of and see that the arts are for them, it's a huge lift.

Absolutely.

For restaurants for, you know, just activity, just for safety.

You know, people talk about the safety downtown.

It's not because all the time, so many bad things are happening, right.

We're in a metropolitan area.

So it's not because there's so much, it's just that you could be on a street by yourself sometimes.

Right.

And and coming from New York, that feels unsafe, you know, like that's where you get nervous because you want traffic, right?

And so I think, it's great when we're all doing that work to your point and bringing in more people downtown.

And it's great to see some of the businesses returning.

And so there'll be, you know, people who are working downtown, but it's also it attracts people to live here.

And I know overall, Pittsburgh has has a challenge with retaining people.

And and a lot of people come and they want to see those amenities.

They want to see that they can get Broadway.

They want to see that they can get other cultural offerings.

They want to see that there is a cultural life that is exciting.

And I think that Pittsburgh has the ability not only to offer that, but to sustain it if we work together.

Very good point.

I was thinking about balance in what it is that you do.

You balance your every day managing director job, but you also co-manage the Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh initiative, which was a program designed, among other things, to provide support for and build awareness of black artists and their work in Pittsburgh.

So Advancing Black Arts was an initiative that was shared between the Heinz Endowments and the Pittsburgh Foundation.

So I had the opportunity to co-lead that.

When I worked at Heinz with Celeste Smith, who was the program officer at the Pittsburgh Foundation, as well as Nicole Henninger, who was working on the program, and some other people in philanthropy.

And the reason why that's important is because people need funding.

You know, the reality is you can have a lot of great ideas, but you need the support to trickle to the places that it would not normally reach.

For some reason, I got this image of water, you know, and if you just put it and its stagnant it's in one place.

But there's all these other places, eventually it will find itself too.

And I feel like oftentimes there are artists or communities on the outskirts that don't know how to navigate philanthropy or know how to receive funding.

And so I think programs like Advancing Black Art in Pittsburgh give us an opportunity to deliberately look at the people who have been the least supported and often the least financed, and find ways to make sure that they have what they need so that they can actually create and continue to contribute to, to the canon of work that we celebrate in the country and in this region.

And, and so that program was really, really, an honor to work on.

I think oftentimes artists are seen as product, right?

It's just about what you produce.

It's not necessarily about you.

And so you have artists that could be starving or not, can't pay their rent or, you know, but it's but we're just enamored with the art itself.

We're not necessarily concerned about the people making it.

And so I think the program did a lot to try to, to rectify that dynamic.

And one example I'll give is if you applied in one year, once we got the Mackenzie Scott Grant, one thing that we did was if you applied at all, we paid you.

Everyone got some sort of award because we understand that it took time for you to complete the application.

How long did that last?

Is the program still alive?

The program is still alive.

You can still go on the Pittsburgh Foundation.

Heinz still supports it.

There's still a partnership.

You can go online to the Pittsburgh Foundation.

There is, ample information.

I think they just closed a round but they usually have two a year I think.

So people definitely should apply and they're doing great things still.

It's a great program.

Any idea how many artists you were able to support?

And, you know, life up during that time, I think hundreds during the time we were there, I mean, I mean, they probably each round there was a significant number, you know, there were a cadre of like art organizations that would get general operating support.

And then there were individual artists, and then there were arts organizations that were seeking project support, or individuals seeking project support.

But I would I would venture to say hundreds.

I mean, I was there for about five years, so that's a lot.

Yeah.

It is, it was great work.

It is great work.

You have an MFA in theater management from Yale.

You've directed, you've produced, you've worked for any number of esteemed theater companies.

And I'm curious about what made you pursue your career.

Was there a young Shaunda who sat down at a community performance of Raisin in the Sun and said, like, this speaks to me.

This is what I want to do.

Like, how did you decide to be the person that you are right now, at least professionally?

I had no clue that I would end up in the arts as a profession.

I will say though, the signs were all around me when I look back in hindsight, I'm like, oh, of course, you know, this makes sense that this is what I'm doing.

And I think it's a combination of things.

First of all, as a young child, my mother started her own nonprofit when I was two, and that nonprofit not only did afterschool, homework assistance and summer youth employment programs, but she would include the arts.

So there was African dance and drumming.

There was trips to to Manhattan to go see Broadway shows.

There was cultural, there was academic, there was mentorship.

So when I was two, you know, my mom had created that program and I was, you know, 9 or 10, probably even earlier, helping her to put together board packets on our dining room table, right?

So in terms of having a vision to serve community in various ways that include cultural advancement, I feel like that was always a part of my upbringing.

But when I was in undergrad, August Wilson was in residence at Dartmouth, and they had a convening on Golden Pond, and that was the first time that I think I realized, oh, there are managing directors, there are administrators, there are accountants, there are many, many fields represented in the field of theater and then regional theater and then the arts.

And although I had seen it in my mother, you never really see, I think your parents in that way when you're growing up.

But as in college, I was like, oh, this is that same work.

And it's all about advancing culture and identity and justice.

And I felt like that's that's kind of how I continue to then pursue arts and culture as a profession.

We both work for nonprofits that seek to provide culturally enriching, experiences for our audiences.

Different mediums.

But I feel like we both try to put good work out there in the world.

So talk to us about why the work that you do and that I do, is is still important in a world where there's screens, there's disinformation, there's reality TV, and there is the lack of funding, that affects all of us in the arts.

Why is this still work that's worth doing?

Oh, man.

I think that for me, it is still the work that really examines who we are as human beings and makes us the most civil.

When I'm sitting in a theater with different people, we don't all have the same background.

We can't just change the channel if we don't agree.

There is an experience that's taking place in that moment with varying perspectives that are engaging with one another through laughter, through sighs, through gasps, even to listen to what people's responses are in that moment is something that is a continual learning.

And and it is truly community.

So I feel the work that you do, the work that we do, gives a voice to people.

And it's still a first voice practice, right?

It is still the playwright or the person that you're speaking with being able to tell their story.

And to me, there's nothing like that.

And I think people will one day, even though the funding is low and and tickets aren't what they used to be because I think people, artists, including themselves, I think one day there will be a yearning for it and a true resurgence.

And already we're seeing our tickets are back to pre-COVID numbers at the theater.

And so that's, you know, inspiring.

And it's letting me know that people still want to be around people.

We still we still might want to share space with each other.

And I think that's important.

For at least two hours a week, we can like each other.

For two hours, you know how?

Its not that hard just two hours.

So is there anything that I haven't asked you that you'd like me to ask you or anything you'd like to tell me about your work, about the theater?

I mean, I just think we say that it's important to fund the arts, and we tell people, you know, it's important to come together.

I don't think people realize the consequences if you don't, right?

And I think what I would want to just say to everyone is like, don't just think about the decision to support the arts or to come out and spend some of your time in community with others as, just a simple act, really think of it as a way to sustain that which we know is best in society, because we will not know until it's gone how important the work is to us being able to learn from one another and grow together and truly be the type of community that we've always said we're striving to be.

I love that it's like, you got to get it while its here Nourish that dream man.

Nourish it for the next generation.

It's our duty and our responsibility.

It is well, thank you so much for saying yes.

It's so good to talk to you.

Thank you for having me.

It was a pleasure.