When it comes to arts organizations, as a city, Pittsburgh punches well above its weight class.
From the big names like the Carnegie and Andy Warhol museums, to the small Downtown galleries, to hidden gems like Randyland, Pittsburgh tills and cultivates our artistic landscape well. However, none of the many creative groups in the city works quite like Bricolage.
Headed by Jeffrey Carpenter and Tami Dixon, Bricolage has been creating ephemeral, unorthodox and immersive theater projects for the better part of the last 25 years. Among their most well-known projects is the 2019 interactive theater experience “Project Amelia” and their “Midnight Radio” series — an old-school radio show using the classic Foley techniques of that era to create stories through sound alone.
They decided to leave Downtown Pittsburgh after nearly 20 years. Looking for a new space to call home, they reconnected with colleague Dr. Michael Skirpan, whom they had worked with to create “Project Amelia,” their last major immersive event before Covid.
Skirpan is one of the eight co-founders of Community Forge, a nonprofit working to create space and opportunities for local artists, as well as to supplement education through their youth programming. Community Forge is renovating the former Johnston Elementary School in Wilkinsburg, transforming it into a creative workshop that will include, among other things, a community event space and black box theater. That emphasis on community proved important to Carpenter and Dixon.
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