06/23/2026
For the past two weeks, artists from across the country and right here in Pittsburgh have been in residence at the School of Drama, workshopping new productions as part of ColLABo - a production development incubator housed under the Center for New Work that brings theater makers from multiple disciplines together to wrestle with production-related challenges on a project they intend to have produced.
This year’s projects were:
“Happy Birthday Supervisor Robot” (photos 1-4)
NYC-based artists Joshua Gelb (CMU alum), Shoshanah Tarkow, and Andrés Poch worked with CMU students Ryan Yu, Jo Adereth, Truman Zephyr, and alumnus Isaac Jo on media, scenic, and sound design aspects of their theatrical investigation into robots, automation, and labor. They also spent their time at CMU interviewing roboticists from the CMU Robotics Institute, NREC, and Entertainment Technology Center.
“Space Dogs” (photos 5-7)
Pittsburgh-based artists José Perez, Rianne Lindsey, and Shannon Knapp, with support from CMU alumna Abby Bi and a host of local performers and combatants, used their time at ColLABo to begin creating multi-media and soundscape for their live-action, sci-fi, spaceship dogfight.
“The Carlisle Project” (photos 8-10)
With support from Octopus Theatricals LLC, ColLABo served as the first full, in-person gathering of the design team for this multidisciplinary musical song cycle and healing ritual that unravels the complicated legacy and trauma of Indian boarding schools and explores what it means to be Native American now. Led by director Madeline Sayet and writers Ronee Penoi and Annalisa Dias, with support from CMU student Ella Johns, movement faculty Lucas Fedele, and a group of local actors, the team worked on developing the movement vocabulary and storytelling mechanisms through sound and media design.
[Photos 1-7 by Louis Stein]
