Monongahela

Moderated by Kristi Good, Carnegie Mellon University
Organized by Frederick D. Miller, University of Pittsburgh

Kick off Day 2 of MATC 2026 with a panel discussion featuring local Pittsburgh theatre artists! This 1-hour conversation will dive into the professional, educational, and community theatre within the Steel City!

Panelist

Alex Manalo (she/her) is a Fil-Am actor, producer, director, choreographer, and intimacy choreographer, which she also refers to as a closeness coach. Alex is also the proud owner of Manalo Movement LLC, which aims to provide healthier theater practices, one workshop at a time. Some recent credits: The Importance of Being Earnest (Pittsburgh Public Theater & Baltimore Center Stage) Guys and Dolls, A Musical Christmas Carol, Charlie Brown, South Pacific, and Gallery of Heroes (PCLO) Little Women, Miss Bennet: Christmas At Pemberley, Young Playwright’s Festival (City Theatre) Evil Dead: the Musical (PMT), Avenue Q (Academy Theater) Big Fish (Front Porch Theatricals) Khuraki (Realtime Art) and Bubbleboy The Musical (Arcade Comedy Theater). When not performing, she can be found acting as a patient for University of Pittsburgh medical students, giving a tour of her hometown on a Molly’s Trolley, or choreographing dances for local high schools and studios. Represented by the Docherty Agency. Point Park University Grad. Proud AEA and Filipino American Association of Pittsburgh member. Mabuhay! @alexmanalo_ // http://www.manalo-movement.com 

Panelist

Clare Drobot is the Artistic Director at City Theatre Company and has been a member of the company's artistic leadership since the fall of 2021. She joined the staff at the theater in 2015 serving as the Director of New Play Development and later as Associate Artistic Director, and then Co-Artistic Director. A dramaturg, playwright, and producer Clare has worked in various capacities at Premiere Stages at Kean University, Laura Stanczyk Casting, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The McCarter Theatre, The BE Company, Play Penn, and New Dramatists. Her credits as a playwright include work showcased in Ars Nova’s ANT FEST and through the New Hazlett Theatre’s CSA Series among others. She has dramaturged and developed work with Stephen Belber, Liza Birkenmeier and Jill Sobule, Chisa Hutchinson, Matt Schatz, Anna Ziegler and many more writers and directors. She serves on the boards of the National New Play Network and Brew House Arts and is a member of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s Generations Speakers program. She was a member of the inaugural Global Fellows Cohort through the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh and is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh (LP XXXVIII). BA/BFA Carnegie Mellon University, member of LMDA.

Panelist

Ricardo Vila-Roger is a Pittsburgh-based actor, director, & intimacy choreographer. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder where he studied acting, directing, and voice. While in CO, he worked as an actor, singer, director, scenic painter, and properties designer, and studied performance techniques under numerous teachers (including a week-long Shakespeare intensive with Martin Jenkins, the director of BBC Radio Drama, and a musical theatre audition intensive workshop with Ben Vereen). He received a Peak Area Performance Award (PAPA) nomination for best actor for playing Yvan in the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Repertory Theater Company’s production of Yasmina Reza’s Art. Since moving to Pittsburgh, he has appeared in the regional premieres of Fixing King John and Orange Flower Water as well as the world premiere of Oedipus and the Foul Mess in Thebes with No Name Players. Recent acting work includes the Pittsburgh premieres of Gloria for The Hatch Collective; Noises Off, Murder on the Orient Express, and Indecent at the Pittsburgh Public Theater; & Peribañez with Quantum Theatre. He directed the regional premiere of Dead Man’s Cell Phone — the inaugural production of Organic Theatre Pittsburgh (which was named best new theater company by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). He also directed Pittsburgh premieres of Quiara Algeria Hudes' Pulitzer Prize-winning play Water by the Spoonful and Kirsten Greenidge’s Baltimore at the University of Pittsburgh. Additionally, he has intimacy training with TIE and has been the intimacy director on several shows including Spring Awakening for the Marietta College Theater Department and 39 Steps here at Pitt Stages. He attended the ArtEquity national facilitator training in 2017 and continues his work with equitable practices and anti-racism in the theatre. Ricardo currently serves as the head of performance and teaches performance and directing in the Department of Theatre Arts.

Panelist

Becki Toth is a professional singer, actor, director, and teacher.  A familiar face to Pittsburgh’s theater audiences, you may have seen her onstage with Stage 62, City Theater, Front Porch Theatricals, or CLO–favorite credits include Sweeney Todd (Mrs. Lovett), The Light in the Piazza (Margaret Johnson), and The Drowsy Chaperone (The Chaperone).  She is the co-composer/co-lyricist of the new musical Abduction, winner of an Honorable Mention at the New York Musical Festival (NYMF) in 2019, and second place in the International Search for New Musicals.  She was twice named Pittsburgh’s Favorite Actress by Pittsburgh’s City Paper.  Becki served as the Educational Outreach Director for Saltworks Theater Company for five years and wrote and directed shows for their social issues tour.  She was also on the staff of the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts (1997-2006) as a Department Assistant in Voice, and she created and directed the Musical Theater Elective.  She co-created and wrote Take Home Tales–theater resources for children to perform and enjoy during the pandemic. In addition to her theatrical work, Becki is the Managing Director of the chamber choir Voces Solis and their counterpart Summer Singers, and is active in the Pittsburgh chamber music community as a soloist and chorister. Becki is a member of the Theater Department here at the University of Pittsburgh where she teaches Musical Theater classes and takes joy in advising the vibrant and enthusiastic Musical Theater Club.  She is also a member of the faculty for the CMU Pre-College Program where she teaches Voice Lessons and Song Coaching.  Becki resides in Pittsburgh’s West End with her husband, Matt.

Moderator

Kristi Good (they/she) has been a faculty member in the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University for over a decade. They received their MA at Villanova University, specializing in dramaturgy, and their PhD in Theatre & Performance Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Their scholarship and interests lean toward theatre of trauma and uncovering suppressed narratives, particularly in regards to new play development. Kristi has been a member of the Mid-America Theatre Conference since 2013 and regularly dramaturgs new work in their Playwriting Symposium, which they led as co-chair from 2015-2017. They also serve as the Accessibility Officer for the organization and serve on the IDEALS Committee. Kristi also champions new work by committing their time to new work adjudication for the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis and by being a freelance script consultant for playwrights across the country, as well as a workshop dramaturg. Kristi is also a member of Literary Manages and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and attends their yearly conference. Kristi has published articles in Theatre History Studies, Theatre Topics, and Etudes. Their most recent articles include a dramaturg's manifesto on selecting translated scripts, a feminist microhistory of the women responsible for Pittsburgh's most notorious jailbreak, and a call to action for normalizing the disruption of reproductive health in academia.