About

Public Works Collaborative (PWC) has long been focused on telling stories in Toledo.
 

Originally formed as Glacity Theatre Collective, PWC is the new project arm of the 501(c)3 arts organization focused on telling Toledo stories with, for, and about our community.

The theatre company, founded in 2007 by Founding Artistic Director Sue Ott Rowlands, began producing new works and experimental takes on classics. The company's first production, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee had a successful run in an empty Uptown gallery space and established it as a new company in May 2007. Holly Monsos and Cornel Gabara took over the company's management in 2009 when Ott Rowlands moved away. A highlight of Gabara's time as Artistic Director was an invitation to perform the theatrical element of the Stoppard/Previn play with music, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour in collaboration with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall for the first Spring Festival there in 2011. 

In late 2012, Edmund Lingan replaced Gabara as Artistic Director. During his term, Lingan added the Junkbox Theatre initiative to create new work for the company. The first show under this initiative was House of Vinyl, a new musical written by Lingan and Timothy Lake and initially performed in the summer of 2015. The production subsequently won a spot in the 2016 Toronto Fringe Festival.

The current Artistic Director is Matt Foss who has a clear vision for the company of continuing the focus on the development of new work, while increasing public access through community partnerships through Public Works Collaborative. The partnership he established with the Toledo Museum of Art and ProMedica to produce The Art of the Cut event led most recently to an opportunity to make a short film, Sons of Toledo, that focused in more depth on the impact of violence on the Black community, as seen through the eyes of a local barber. The film debuted at the Toledo Arts Commission's Momentum event and has so far been accepted at numerous film festivals and won several awards including a Mosaic award.