City Theatre began its existence in June of 1975 as the City Players. Under the direction of Marjorie Walker, the company of nine, made up mostly of Carnegie Mellon graduates, debuted with James Rosenberg's The Life and Death of Sneaky Fitch. The City Players, funded by a Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) grant, were part of the City of Pittsburgh's Department of Parks and Recreation, and gave free performances in schools, parks and housing projects. The company shared their renovated performance space, in the North Side's Allegheny Center, with the newly formed Pittsburgh Public Theatre. City Player's first two years included popular productions of Dracula, A Christmas Carol, The Beggar's Opera, and Jewel Walker's Tuesday and The Circus. CMU graduate Mark Lione became Artistic Director in 1977, but by 1978, Pittsburgh Public Theater's schedule necessitated its occupying the space year round, and the City Players became a touring company again.
The troupe wasn't homeless for long. Within a year, the chairman of the University of Pittsburgh's Theatre Arts Department, Attilio “Buck” Favorini, offered the company a residency. The City Players, now a group of 12 that included actors and designers, changed its name to the City Theatre. They continued touring, as well as working with the newly formed Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival. In 1979, Steve Wyman was hired to head the newly christened company, and under his tenure the group offered an eclectic mix that included an adaptation of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and a highly successful production of David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago.
In January 1981, the termination of CETA funding forced City Theatre to restructure. The University and the company mounted a search for a new artistic director, which resulted in the hiring of Marc Masterson, a recent Carnegie Mellon University graduate. He streamlined the company, hiring a team of four actors: John Hall, Michael Cook, Larry John Meyers, and Holly Thuma, who spent their days touring schools, and their evenings rehearsing and performing for City Theatre. The company chose to inaugurate its new 115-seat performance space, on Bouquet Street in Oakland, with Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class, directed by Jed Harris.
It was a dramatic beginning in a space that remained the company’s home for the next decade. With the mission focused on the performance of contemporary American drama, the small black box theatre was the site of many productions that helped solidify the company’s reputation for producing innovative and quality work.
By the mid-1980s, change was in the wind again for City Theatre. The University of Pittsburgh had slated the Bouquet Street theatre for demolition. Concerned with the uncertainty of the company’s future, City Theatre’s board of advisors suggested a separation from the university. In 1987, City Theatre incorporated as City Theatre, Inc., a not-for-profit performing arts organization. The search began for a new performance space with efforts focused on Pittsburgh’s South Side, and the former Bingham United Methodist Church, located on 13th and Bingham Streets, was settled on. A total of three buildings were included in the parcel, and the spaces became City Theatre’s current 270-seat mainstage and second smaller theatre, the Lester Hamburg Studio. Architect Leonard Perfido designed the project and in two years, November 30, 1991, the company was able to open the doors.
Since then City Theatre’s growth has continued on the physical and fiscal level. In 1998 the former Pittsburgh Irish Club was purchased and remodeled to become the Charles Morris Building, housing a costume shop, paint shop, and two rehearsal halls.
In August of 2000, Marc Masterson, City Theatre Producing Director for 20 years, took the job of Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky. City Theatre immediately began a national search for a new leader, and in May of 2001, Tracy Brigden began as Artistic Director. Under her leadership City Theatre remains committed to the development of new plays and to producing the finest work from nationally recognized theatre artists.
In 2004, under the leadership of Managing Director David Jobin, City Theatre purchased a former steel rolling plant on Bingham Street that more than doubles available space. In the coming years the land will be developed, first for theatre parking, and then for uses still to be determined.
In 2005, Jobin left City Theatre to become Managing Director at San Jose Repertory Theatre in California. In August of 2005, Greg Quinlan was hired as City Theatre's new Managing Director. He came to Pittsburgh from Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland.