Framingham Native Has Breakout Role in Pittsburgh Theatre Company's Newest Production

Framingham native Amanda Kearns will debut tonight, March 14 in the role of Sylvia in TRIBES, a play at the City Theatre Company in Pittsburgh.

Kearns is finding theatrical success in her breakout role as Sylvia in Nina Raine’s new play, TRIBES, about a hearing impaired young man and his family’s unconventional ways.

"Verbal jabs fly in this stirring new play about Billy, a deaf twenty-something who is adept at lipreading the brash discourse of his hearing family. It’s tough to get a word in edgewise around the dinner table, but when Billy falls for Sylvia, a woman who’s losing her hearing, everyone is forced to learn a lesson about listening," states the Pittsburgh Theatre Company.

Kearn’s character connects with Billy, the hearing impaired man, to find out what it means to have a voice.

Kearns, who won the 2008 Douglas Ingalls Audition Monologue Award, has made Philadelphia her new home.

The former Framingham High graduate received acting awards through the Massachusetts Educational Theatre Guild's High School Festival and was an active member of the Framingham High School Drama Company.

Kearns' BFA at University Arts Acting program offered her an excellent opportunity during college, which inspired her to break into the acting field.

Playing challenging roles such as Polina in The Seagull, Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol laid the foundation 
for a local Philadelphia presence which lead to more than 10 productions post-graduation including a female version of the 1-person show, Savage Love at the Rebel Yard Theatre.

TRIBES just finished a two-month run at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, in which Kearns played Sylvia in that production, too.

The Wall Street Journal called TRIBES, during its Philadelphia run, the "best-written, best-plotted, most daring, and funniest new play in recent years."

TRIBES will be staged in Pittsburgh through March 30. Tickets start at $35.