Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Elias Huffman

Hi Elizabeth, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?

I began my work in theatre at the age of 6 when I played the narrator Hans Christian Anderson in a school play telling the story of the Ugly Duckling. I wanted to play the beautiful swan but fate (and a prescient teacher) cast me as the storyteller and I have been doing that ever since. Telling stories. Acting, dancing, singing, directing, designing, or producing them.

Throughout junior and senior high school, several years of college while working in a steel mill to pay for it, I studied my craft. I moved to the Big Apple at twenty years old to attend an acting school in New York, taking dance classes, and took a job in Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus as a showgirl for a year dancing and riding elephants, which got me my Actors Equity union card, not to mention a wealth of funny circus stories. I danced in a ballet company in Florida for a few years after that, then moved back to New York to pursue acting. Finally, being lucky enough to attend a course at BADA in Balliol College, Oxford, all of these years of training set the stage for my career in theatre.

When I returned to NYC from Oxford, I formed my first theatre company with my best friend Stuart W Howard, calling it The Beacon Project because we both lived in the Beacon Hotel on the Upper West Side. We produced for five years specializing in neglected classics (the long-forgotten plays of the 17th century) and premiered new works with a strong focus on poetic language. The New York Times got wind of us, started reviewing our work, and declared our small company was the “best company to watch”

I moved to Los Angeles and left the Beacon Project in Stuart’s hands to continue his work with the company. He eventually decided to fold it and moved to Los Angeles to join me and try his luck as an actor in Hollywood. I stayed for 20 years, becoming the Artistic Director of The Classic Theatre Lab, heading a company of over eighty prominent actors, then formed my own international company, ICAP with 40 actors from around the world, that I ran for five years, bringing shows to festivals in Europe and artists from Europe to Los Angeles.

I was invited to act in a play in Portland and, while performing there, I was offered the Artistic Director position at The Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon. So I moved to Portland, stayed in that job for a few years, and then moved on to direct many productions with various companies in the area. During the pandemic, I decided to move back east to my hometown of Monongahela, 40 minutes south of Pittsburgh. Several times I returned to both Portland and Los Angeles to do plays over the next two years then in February of 2023 I was named the new Artistic Director of PICT Classic Theatre, which needed a total rebuild, and that is what I am doing, rebuilding our finances, reputation and audience base and after just a year on the job, we eliminated the debt and I just directed my first show in our season, Andy Warhol’s Tomato.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

Theatre a smooth road?! There is no such thing! Choosing a career in this profession is fraught with uncertainties, rejections, long stretches of unemployment, and dreams repeatedly dashed, not to mention massive self-doubts that one is good enough to ” make it” in this profession.

Many people have day jobs and act in theatre at night for fun, but if this is your actual profession, it is not for the faint of heart. Most people give up that dream because it is not only very hard to sustain, but success is often defined by other people who think that if you are not a film or TV star you are not working and are a failure. You have to have a strong constitution and faith in yourself to keep going and when you can finally give yourself the acknowledgment of success…on your own terms…it makes all of the struggles seem a distant memory. Then they start all over again, because let’s face it, theatre is the poor cousin in the profession and it is always dealing with lack of financial support.

I have yet to attain the big one, acting or directing on Broadway or the London stage, but through many years of challenges, I still have managed to keep the lights on by my chosen profession, whether it is by costume designing, which I did for many years to help pay the bills, teaching (which I still do), or decluttering people’s homes, an unpleasant job that I happen to be good at, which I have also done just to survive.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?

I am the new Artistic Director of Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre (PICT), formerly known as Pittsburgh Irish and Classic Theatre.
The company had been through a rough pandemic period; they were in a significant debt and had to enforce a necessary change of leadership. PICT stopped production for two years, while the board worked to get the company fiscally back on their feet. Through the help of a Heinz grant they were able to pay down some of the debt and to hire a new Artistic Director…me. I knew going in that I was facing a huge challenge to rebuild at a time when theatres everywhere struggled to keep their doors open. But I am intrepid and I like a challenge.

The first thing we did was to change the name of the company replacing “Irish” with “International”. While we still are committed to producing an Irish play each year, I am a global storyteller and I wanted to expand the programming to include plays from other cultural diasporas whose stories are underrepresented in Pittsburgh: Middle Eastern, Asian, Latino, European, African, Native American, and other exotic countries. We now plan to produce an international play every year. I believe this expansion will prove to serve the entire diverse community living here.

Next, I learned about a federal program to help nonprofits recover from the COVID-19 disaster that shut theatres down for a year. So we applied for the program and were granted enough relief money to be able to clear our debt. We held several successful fundraisers including a gala called What do I Wear? 2500 Years of Theatre and Fashion with 25 actors, period costumes with excerpts from the Greeks to the 20th century and a delicious dinner that was a sold out success held at Carnegie Music Hall and Library in Carnegie. We continue to write grants and are working to gather our former donors and are finding new ones to help us in our rebuild. After all of these efforts I am proud to say that we are now producing a modest 24/25 season at our new home in Carnegie Stage in Carnegie PA!

Our first production back was a highly acclaimed production of “Andy Warhol’s Tomato” by Pittsburgh playwright Vince Melocchi that we presented this past September-October. The play was selected from a new initiative that I created in 2023: a reading series called “Bards from the Burgh”. I asked local playwrights to submit their work to me, and I chose four plays to present for the public and the audience completed surveys of their favorite ones. “Andy Warhol’s Tomato” was the favorite and became my inaugural production that previewed at The Warhol Museum for one night before moving on to a three week run at Carnegie Stage .

We aspire to producing one play a year, drawn from the series, to create a pathway to bring their work from the page to the stage. We will have our third annual “Bards from the Burgh” Reading Series at Carnegie Stage the week of July 8-13, 2025 with four new plays from talented Pittsburgh playwrights. The series is proving to be an audience favorite that enjoyed sold out performances in 2023 and 2024. One of the plays from the 2024 series has been chosen for production in our 2025/2026 season, which will be announced sometime in 2025.

Our next production at Carnegie Stage is a both a Classic play and an International production. We are thrilled to present August Strindberg’s 1888 classic “Miss Julie” in a brilliant new adaptation from London by Chinese playwright Amy Ng. The action of the play has been reimagined in Hong Kong in post World War 2 and her version of Miss Julie was a hit in both London and Hong Kong. On April 18-May 4th, 2025, PICT will stage the USA premiere. We are honored to bring Amy Ng to Pittsburgh during the run and we are planning a variety of cultural events surrounding the production from talkbacks with the playwright and other guests, live music, food and art from the Chinese community in Pittsburgh.

Following that we have an Irish play scheduled for June 2025 , a wonderful one man show called “The Smuggler” by Irish playwright Ronán Noone. The play was scheduled to perform in Riley’s Pour House in Carnegie but unfortunately that beloved pub burnt to the ground a month ago. Since it takes place in a pub we are currently seeking another venue to present the play.

We now have a small part time staff and while still we need to raise a lot of money to sustain and complete the season to the standards of excellence that I aspire to, we are on well on our way back!

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?

Every year my church, St Michael’s Syrian Orthodox Church in Monessen, threw a big all-day food and cultural festival that drew people from all over the area to sample our fabulous cuisine, to learn about our culture, and to watch the dancing.

My favorite thing would be to join the ladies of the church, who had baked for months, rolled millions of grape leaves, and worked the booths all day until about 7:00. Then the aprons would come off and they would tell the men to work the booths and they would all go into the main hall and dance the Dabbke, a sort of line dance, to the live Arabic music. My grandmother, aunties, and my mother were all beautiful dancers and I learned from the best in the most joyous celebration of our culture. I loved those festivals so much and they made me proud of my heritage.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pictheatre.org
• Instagram: NewPICTTheatre
• Facebook: Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre
• Youtube: NewPICTTheatre
• Other: https://www.elizabethhuffman.com

Image Credits

Photos by Natalie Rose Mabry and Heather Mull