PUSSY JONES
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A New Devised Workshop Production
Director/Writer: Gab Cody
Assistant Director: Pria Dahiya
Performance Ensemble: Tami Dixon, Michael Fuller, Laurie Klatscher, Richard McBride, Saige Smith, Sam Turich
Dramaturg: Kristi Good
June 17 & 18 at 7pm Runtime: 90 minutes
The Adventures of Pussy Jones is a “DaDa cabaret” and Artificial Intelligence hallucination that utilizes ensemble-based physical theater practices in service of a comedy centered around the theme: “The Politics of Femininity.” When a theatre-creating A.I. is tasked with exploring this theme, it runs amok, resurrecting some of the 20th century’s greatest literary figures (James Baldwin, Truman Capote, Harper Lee) who in turn resurrect famed novelist Edith Wharton (whose childhood nickname was Pussy Jones) to unravel and catechize The Politics of Femininity for the benefit of their 21st-century audience.
Gab Cody is special visiting faculty in the John Wells Directing Program at Carnegie Mellon University. She creates immersive, devised and site-specific work as well as theater meant-to-be-performed in a theater. She serves as lead writer and co-creator on the immersive urban adventures DODO, (produced in tandem with the Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History and Bricolage Production Company), Ascendants, STRATA and OjO produced in Pittsburgh and at the La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Festival, Daylighitng the Stream an ecological urban adventure produced with Works on Water/Underwater NY on Governor’s Island, NY. Her plays have been staged at the La Jolla Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The August Wilson Center for African American Culture, The Pittsburgh Playhouse, Quantum Theatre, New York City’s New Dramatists and Urban Stages, Coconut Grove Playhouse, and at theaters in Seattle, Chicago, and Sydney, Australia. She has served as a panelist and moderator at the TCG national conference and the Dramatists Guild national conference, leading conversations on immersive and site-informed theater. She served on the Devised Committee at the Dramatists Guild, led by Doug Wright (and including Elevator Repair Service, the Debate Society and Tectonic Theatre company), which produced a new contract template and Devised Theater materials available to all companies working collaboratively. Ms. Cody also produces, directs, and writes for television and independent film.
Kristi Good (they/she) is a freelance dramaturg and theatre educator. Kristi truly digs new work development and regularly dramaturgs for the annual Mid-America Theatre Conference Playwriting Symposium. They are a founding member and co-leader of the Collegiate New Play Development Conference. Their scholarship and interests lean toward theatre of trauma and uncovering suppressed narratives, specializing in topics related to LGBTQIA+, feminism, motherhood, trauma, grief, and “weird”plays.
Kristi has published articles in Theatre History Studies, Theatre Topics, and Etudes. Her most recent articles include a dramaturg’s manifesto on selecting translated scripts (supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute in 2015), a feminist microhistory of the woman responsible for Pittsburgh’s most notorious jailbreak, and a call to action for normalizing the disruption of reproductive health in academia.
Kristi has an MA in Theatre Arts from Villanova University and a PhD in Theatre & Performance Studies from University of Pittsburgh. They are the Accessibility Officer of Mid-America Theatre Conference and an active member of Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas.
Tami Dixon most recently appeared as Harriet in POTUS at City Theatre, as well as in her critically acclaimed one woman show, South Side Stories Revisited and What the Constitution Means to Me. Other favorite roles include Miss Julie in Miss Julie, Clarissa and John with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, and Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire with barebones productions. As the Co-Artistic Director of Bricolage Production Company since 2005, Ms. Dixon has devised and co-directed the nationally acclaimed immersive experiences The Forest of Everywhere, OjO: The Next Generation of Travel, and STRATA. Ms. Dixon received her BFA in Acting from Carnegie Mellon University. Ms. Dixon is the recipient of a TCG/Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship, the Carol R. Brown Emerging Artist Award from The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation, the Tribute to Women Leadership Award for Creative Arts from the YWCA, City Theatre’s Frankel Award, and was named Performer of the Year by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Sam Turich’s work in Hamlet and Jennifer Chang's The Devil is a Lie earned him Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Performer of the Year for 2023. Film and network television roles include Bruce Ismay in the 2023 feature Unsinkable: Titanic Untold, Law & Order, Castle Rock, Fathers & Daughters. Theater acting includes Odysseus in Quantum’s original adaptation An Odyssey, Urban Stages (NYC), Coconut Grove Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Pittsburgh Public Theater, City Theatre, @HERE, Upright Citizens Brigade, THE P.I.T., and Gotham City Improv, where he created the long-running Big Apple Improv Festival winner Off the Top of Our Heads.
Saige Smith(Point Park University ’18) Credits include: POTUS: City Theater, The Color Purple (Squeak), Sister Act (Tina/Ensemble), Puffs (Leanne), Kinky Boots (Pat), A Musical Christmas Carol (Fan/Alice/Belle) – Pittsburgh CLO; A…My Name is Still Alice (Laura) – Front Porch Theatricals; Skeleton Crew (Shanita) – Barebones Productions; Hamlet (Ophelia) – Quantum Theatre; Something to Live For (Production Understudy), Steel Magnolias (Annelle), A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Harlem (Hermia), Murder on the Orient Express (Greta) – Pittsburgh Public Theater; and Clyde’s (Letitia) – City Theatre Company.
Michael Fuller has worked as an actor for over 20 years in the Pittsburgh area. He earned both a BFA in Musical Theatre and an MFA in Voice and Speech from Carnegie Mellon University’s Drama Department. He went on to an internship at the American Repertory Theater, working under the tutelage of Bonnie Raphael with a number of gifted performers, writers and instructors, including Tony Shalhoub and David Mamet. As a professional actor he has appeared in numerous stage productions, including “Death of a Salesman” directed by Arthur Miller’s son, Robert Miller. He was a founding member of Pittsburgh Theatersports, a comedy improvisation troupe.
Richard McBride is absolutely ecstatic to be a part of The Adventures of Pussy Jones, and to be involved with The Women in Theatre Festival. Recent credits for Richard include Larry in SKELETON CREW, Youngblood in JITNEY, Starvling in A MIDSUMMERS NIGHT DREAM IN HARLEM and Mercer Ellington in SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR. Richard is eternally grateful for everyone involved with the production, and for the opportunity to play and explore.
LAURIE KLATSCHER (Harper Lee) is a Pittsburgh based theatre human who loves new play development. Pittsburgh Public Theatre: Marya Sea Kaminski’s all female Tempest. Quantum Theatre: Inside Passage by Gab Cody, Dream of Autumn by Jon Fosse (Sarah Sunde translation/adaptation), Dogface by Dan Jemmett, (remounted Festival de Otono, Madrid), Electric Baby by Stephanie Zadravec, and Chickens in the Yard by Paul William Kruse. City Theatre: Precious Little by Madeleine George, Compleat Female Stage Beauty by Jeffrey Hatcher, and Red Herring by Michael Hollinger. Playhouse REP: Lost Boys Found in Whole Foods by Tammy Ryan, and Endless Lawns by Tony McKay. TV and Film: 2 seasons Outsiders, Blank my Life, Progression, Dear Zoe, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Forked.
Pria Dahiya is a director, media designer and arts writer. She is a proud graduate of Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and an inaugural member of the Pittsburgh Public Theatre's Critical Insight Fellowship. In January 2025, she directed the premiere of My Sister’s Lipstick by Anna King Skeels at the New Hazlett Theater. November 2024, she directed the benefit concert Suite Life for Kelly Strayhorn Theatre, where she was an Artist-In-Residence in Fall 2023. She served as assistant director for the premiere of Adil Mansoor's Amm(i)gone at KST's Alloy Studios in 2022. She is the co-artistic director of New Product Company.