PLAYBOX

Fearless Theatre and Innovative Training Labs—built in Pittsburgh.

1984

Help launch Playbox’s first-ever production: Orwell’s 1984. Your gift funds sets, costumes, props, and supports fearless ART in Pittsburgh!

Pittsburgh, PA, US

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Fiscally Sponsored by Fractured Atlas

Help Launch Playbox’s First-Ever Production

This December, Playbox will produce our very first show: George Orwell’s 1984 at the Three Stories Theater, 937 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15222. Performances run from December 4 to 7, 2025, with an understudy matinee on Saturday at 2:00 PM.

This campaign directly funds the production. Every dollar goes toward:

Sets, costumes, props, and other essential production expenses
Supporting our designers and production team
Compensating our actors for their work

Right now, everyone involved is volunteering their time to bring this project to life. Your support helps us move from an all-volunteer effort to one that compensates the artists and designers working so hard to make our version of 1984 possible.

Your contribution also covers the behind-the-scenes essentials—like rehearsal space, marketing, and outreach—while laying the groundwork for Playbox’s future projects.

Set Design by Viscaya

Our set designer, Viscaya, is crafting an immersive, minimalist environment that captures the stark world of Orwell’s novel. Please see the Storyboard ideas she has for the set:

1984 Storyboards 1.pdf 3.41 MB

Why 1984?

Orwell’s story of surveillance, control, and resistance feels more urgent than ever. Our ensemble-driven staging strips the play down to its essentials—raw performance, inventive design, and Americanized.

Our Cast & Crew

Cast

Carly Chotiner — Parsons (Understudy) / Loudspeaker Voice
Christian Miranda — Big Brother Voice
Collin Goddard — Second Guard
Darby Baublitz — Waitress
Emily Elder — Landlady
Eric Molina — Syme (Understudy) / Messenger / Coffee Vendor / Martin
Jenna Chung — Landlady (Understudy)
Jordan Coury — Syme
Kamran Mian — First Guard
Margot Allison — Julia (Understudy)
Nicole Brady — Gladys
Nick Mitchell — Goldstein
Ryan Rattley — Winston Smith
Sarah Dugan — Gladys (Understudy)
Trent Wolfred — O'Brien
Trinity Griffin — Parsons
Veta Piscitella — Julia

Production Team

Matthew Allen Craig (M.A.C.) — Director

Mars Hallman — Production Stage Manager
Spade You — Assistant Stage Manager
Darby Baublitz — Assistant Stage Manager
Zoie Sabreah — Intimacy Coordinator
Cloe Joos — Assistant Props Manager
Kostadena Hartley — Co-Costume Designer
Bunny Brand — Co-Costume Designer
Robert Wilt — Lighting Designer
Cody Duke — Sound Designer

Greg Suehr — Treasurer
Marc Palombo — Producer

About Playbox

Playbox is an experimental, actor-led ensemble committed to creating innovative training labs and producing fearless theatre to transform the Arts in Pittsburgh. We produce bold new work, reimagine the classics, and run weekly training labs where artists take risks, collaborate, and grow together. 1984 is our first BIG step in building that vision for Pittsburgh.

Your gift—no matter the size—has an immediate impact. It helps us cover production costs, build a creative home for artists, and share fearless theatre with Pittsburgh audiences.

We can’t do this without you. Thank you for your consideration in helping launch Playbox with George Orwell's 1984.

Director’s Statement – M.A.C.

On January 9th 2021, Donald J. Trump was banned from Twitter, his son Donald Trump JR, tweeted “We are living in Orwell's 1984. Free-speech no longer exists in America.” That tweet was meant to sound the alarm against censorship, but ironically, just a few years later, when the Associated Press refused to use Trump’s invented term “Gulf of America,” his administration barred them from press access to the White House. Isn’t that censorship, too? Isn’t it a direct contradiction of the free-speech principle they claimed to defend?

October 27, 2022 Elon Musk the new owner of Twitter released the Twitter files. This was to shed light on the government influence that was upon twitter. In October 2020, Twitter had blocked links to a story that the New York Post created regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop. The FBI had previously warned social media companies about a “hack-and-leak” operation which lead Twitter to believe that this was Russian disinformation, though there were no clear evidence to support these claims. Even at the time internal staff at Twitter questioned the move, however they were just doing what the Government Agency was telling them. This is what Orwell would call Big Brother.

What do we do with this? How do we reconcile that both sides of our political spectrum engage in censorship? That both Republicans and Democrats restrict speech, spread fear, and manipulate truth? We live in a country where people vote not for hope, but for the lesser evil. But the truth is it’s all evil. In America we can all feel that something is wrong, we are dehumanized daily, unpersoned, disconnected, and manipulated to points of no return by our government.

This is the world Orwell feared when he wrote 1984. He wasn’t prophesying, it was a warning. He saw the rise of fascism, the manipulation of truth, the stripping away of individual thought. He was a man who had nothing to lose, he was facing something scarier than Big Brother, death.

I believe America has lost the plot of the “free country” it once claimed to be. I have friends in Texas terrified their families could be taken by ICE. We pretend to be free, but are ruled by fear, by systems, institutions, and ideologies that tell us what to think, who to trust, and what we’re allowed to say.

This play is more relevant than ever today, we have total Government corruption. It is no longer for the sake of the people, was it ever that? In many ways our society resembles Oceania’s totalitarian state. When this show has been produced in the past, it is always a sly and a hope that people will see the comparison within our own country. After all, 1984 was set in London, but does it have to be? Can we bridge the gap completely to our country and set it in a futuristic America. I believe we can. I know we can.

M.A.C.’s Concept

Oceania is America. Big Brother is Uncle Sam. Our telescreens are our phones. Everything is Americanized, stapled with the flag of the United States. This production is in-yer-face, not shying away from war, not shying away from the issues currently infecting our country. This is HELL.

Propaganda is red.
Surveillance is white.
Censorship is blue.

WAR IS PEACE | FREEDOM IS SLAVERY | IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH