The Globe: Alumni create new stage play based on life in Homewood
Creators of the play “Birthday at Tiffany’s” pose for a photo.
Photo by Livie Johnston
Alumni create new stage play based on life in Homewood
Written By , • November 19, 2025
“Birthday at Tiffany’s” is a new production hitting the stage at the New Hazelett Theater on Nov. 20 and 21. Point Park University alumna Christine Bethea wrote the drama and comedy, which blends 1980s sitcom nostalgia with issues around racism.
The play is a story that follows a couple in the 1980s from Homewood, the Pittsburgh neighborhood on the east side, who are hosting a birthday party for their 7-year-old daughter who attends a private school. However, everyone seems to have an excuse not to come to the birthday party, Bethea said.
The private school children and families do not want to come to “the hood” as Bethea calls it, and much of the comedy and the drama comes from the excuses that are given for why they can’t show up to the party.
Meanwhile, the couple is trying to keep decency and do the right thing as they also figure out what to tell their daughter.
“And of course there is a surprise outcome. It is how it all ends up and everyone stays sane,” Bethea said.
Mills James, also a Point Park alumnus, said, “I feel like Christine has written a beautiful letter to Homewood, a beautiful letter to Pittsburgh and a wonderful reminder that we are all sensitive people with so much to give.”
James plays Pops in “Birthday at Tiffany’s.” Pops is the patriarch of the family who lends himself to the social chaos while also being a part of peace as well.
“Pops tells it like it is,” James said. “He is the light to the candles on the cake.”
James and Bethea also discussed the connection the play has to everyone.
“All of us want the same things,” Bethea said. “No matter what’s coming out of our mouth and no matter how much we’re fighting it still comes down to the same thing [love and respect].”
James additionally spoke on how characters interact in the play and how they grow as the show goes on.
“We have to hear each other exactly in order to understand each other, and I think [Christine] writes it so beautifully in there because, when these characters actually start to hear each other, they understand each other,” James said.
Bethea and James both attended Point Park prior to when it became a university. Bethea was a part of the journalism and communication program, while James was a musical theater major.
“[It] was an amazing time [with] amazing people,” Bethea said.
During his time at Point Park, James said he was part of one of the largest Black classes in COPA at the time. Despite that, James said there still weren’t many other people of color.
He said his ballet teacher helped him overcome the racism that came with that lack of diversity.
“[Marion Petrov] was my ballet teacher; she loved me and made me know that I was great in an amazing way,” James said. “Because as I said, and at that time in those halls there weren’t a lot of people who looked like me.”
James and Bethea are not the only people who attended Point Park that are in the show. Tanikia Harris, who plays Elaine Myers, and Richard McBride, who plays Ed Myers, are both alumni as well.
Bethea was able to bring this show to the stage after receiving support from the New Hazelett Theater’s Community Supported Art (CSA) program, which helps local performing artists develop and premiere their original work.
This is the thirteenth year for the CSA program, and every year five to three applicant are selected to receive funding.
For those interested in checking out the show, the New Hazelett Theater offers student ticket prices of $10 off regular adult ticket prices.