My Tale of Two Cities - Coming Home to Pittsburgh

A part of “Pittsburgh’s Homecoming Weekend” celebrating the city’s 250th birthday, Pittsburghers everywhere are invited for a special Thanksgiving weekend red-carpet screening of “My Tale of Two Cities”, a funny and poignant “comeback” story about coming home and one of America’s great cities reinventing itself for a new age. Join Mister Rogers Neighborhood’s Mr. McFeely, Franco Harris and other members of the cast, as we blow out the candles for Pittsburgh’s 250th birthday and sing the city’s unofficial theme song “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and the new “Happy Birthday to Pittsburgh” song by Mike Stout.

5:30-6:30 Fifth Avenue Place. VIP “Cast” Reception where some of the cast members will be on hand and special out-takes from the movie will be screened.

7:00 p.m. Screening at The Byham.

9:00 p.m. Fifth Avenue Place. Pittsburgh Homecoming Party. Celebrate coming home with traditional Pittsburgh cuisine and music by Donora and former Rusted Root band member Jim Dispirito, Carol Lee Espy and Friends.

The evening will benefit the “Youth and Media Program” of Steeltown Entertainment Project and Holy Family Institute which has been restoring hope and transforming the lives of young people in the Pittsburgh region for over one hundred years.

My Tale of Two Cities

Can you return home again to Pittsburgh after you’ve moved to another city?  They say you can't go home again, but that's what Hollywood screenwriter/producer Carl Kurlander (St. Elmo's Fire, Saved By The Bell) did when he accepted a job offer to teach college in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Carl left his home above the LA’s Sunset Strip, with famous neighbors like David Schwimmer, Richard Simmons, and Bud Bundy to return to his hometown.  In the tradition of Super Size Me and Roger & Me, My Tale of Two Cities is a poignant and funny film about coming home, and how people, and cities, reinvent themselves.  It is comeback story of Cufg Kurlander who moved back to the real-life "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" only to find both himself and his hometown of Pittsburgh in mid-life crisis. In an attempt to help his hometown while exploring with honesty and humor whether you can go home again, Kurlander asks his neighbors, from the famous (Steeler Franco Harris and Teresa Heinz Kerry) to his old gym teacher and the girl who inspired "St. Elmo's Fire", how this once great industrial giant which built America with its steel, conquered polio, and invented everything from aluminum to The Big Mac, can reinvent itself for a new age.  Dealing with issues of family, community, and place, Kurlander finds that each neighbor makes a difference in determining how a city--or as this movie seems more timely than ever-- a country, comes back.  With the rest of America wondering the same question about their neighborhoods these days, "My Tale of Two Cities" is a charming, engaging feel-good film that proves "it's never too late to come back!" and that the whole world really is "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

Carl Kurlander worked in Hollywood for two decades as a screenwriter and television writer/producer under contract for Columbia, Paramount, Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, Orion, and Disney Studios, and writing and producing over 150 episodes of television for NBC, Fox, and CBS.  He also wrote "The F Word: How to Survive Your Family" with Louie Anderson.  Kurlander is a recipient of the MCA-Universal Studios Scholar Award and a graduate of Duke University.  He co-founded and is the Executive Producer of the non-profit Steeltown Entertainment Project and is currently a Visiting Distinguished Senior Lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh.

Learn about this more at <a href=”http://www.mytaleoftwocities.com”>My Tale

For more information on how to order tickets for the Homecoming screening of ‘My Tale of Two Cities,’ which will take place on November 28th at the Byham Theater, please buy tickets at pgharts.org or calling 412-456-6666. Ticketing information for both the screening and the Pittsburgh themed after-party is posted there.