OUR TEAM

Artistic Team

Molly Rice

Artistic Director/Lead Playwright, Co-Founder.

  • I am a native-Texan, Gen-X cis white woman with a terminal degree from an Ivy League university, no children and a lifelong disability that has shaped my perspective in a million rich ways. Although I grew up influenced by Texan and Tex-Mex culture and speak Spanish, my forebears are from the Pennsylvania-Ohio area and, further back, Germania, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and Belarus.

    I have always had a musical ability and been enthralled by the complexities of human language. I’ve been writing plays for over 20 years, songs since I was 10 (when I was 19, one of them made the top-100 charts–in Alaska!), and my creative work has been developed, published and produced across the country (more below.)

    I currently use she/her pronouns.

  • My plays have been produced and developed by small experimental companies, off-Broadway houses, and regional theaters; in black box studios, the alleys of Greenwich Village, Salvation Army cafeterias, the World Trade Center, various graveyards, a crumbling Slavic dance hall, midtown cabarets and an East Coast 18th-century mansion.

    My words have been published by American Theater Magazine, The Dramatist, Kenyon Review, Play: A Journal, Indie Theater Now, Clarkson Potter Press, and Heinemann Press, and my projects have been covered by local and national publications including American Theater, the New York Times and the New Yorker.

    Honors include Brown University’s Weston Prize for Playwriting, winner of the Women’s International Theater Festival, Princess Grace Award (finalist), PONY Award (finalist), O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (2-time finalist), nominations for the New York Innovative Theater Awards, the Kesselring Fellowship, the Pittsburgh Mayor’s Award for Public Art, and Global Pittsburgh’s Organizational Diversity Champion award.

    I was a resident artist in New Work Initiatives at Montclair and Pace Universities with collaborators Rachel Chavkin (2019 Tony winner, Hadestown) and Orion Johnstone, and have enjoyed other residencies at Yale/ P73, the Orchard Project, Tofte Lake, Bard College, and the Missoula Colony, among others.

    Projects beyond RealTime include Futurity: A Musical by the Lisps (book co-writer, additional text and story) at ART (Cambridge, 2012) and Soho Rep/Ars Nova (Lucille Lortel Award for Best New Musical, 2016) and THE SAINTS TOUR, a site-specific traveling play that has appeared in neighborhoods across the country since 2009.

    I’ve taught at Brown, Montclair, Pace, Marymount Manhattan, Kenyon College and CMU School of Drama; since 2014 I’ve been on the faculty of the Point Park Writing for Screen and Stage MFA program. My MFA is from Brown University, under Paula Vogel.

Rusty Thelin

Artistic/Executive Director, Co-Founder.

  • I am a Buddhist Viking (meaning as Norse as can be genetically but with Eastern spiritual influences), born and raised in a military family in California by conservatively progressive parents from New England. I spent over a decade each living in Savannah, GA, and New York City before settling in Pittsburgh, PA.

    I have been practicing my stagecraft continuously from a very early age; I also grew up immersed in comic books, games, and escapist fiction and consider myself an expert on all things related to Star Wars and Middle-Earth. I use the he/him/his set of pronouns.

  • I am a graduate of NYU/Playwrights Horizons Theatre School.

    I have worked as a producer, director and in other roles with NYC companies 13P, Clubbed Thumb, Soho Rep, the New Ohio Theater, The Brick and New Georges, among others.

    I graduated from the Commercial Theater Institute and produced the indie musicals ERNEST SHACKELTON LOVES ME by The GrooveLilys; FUTURITY by The Lisps (A.R.T.); STRUCK by Rebecca Hart; SOMETIMES IN PRAGUE by Orion Johstone & Joshua William Gelb; and Molly Rice’s CANARY (NYTW), directed by Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin.

    As a director, I have developed and directed new plays by Lucy Thurber, Maura Campbell, Justin Maxwell, and Molly Rice as well as classics like DEATH OF A SALESMAN, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, and HAMLET.

    I have appeared on stage as a number of Shakespearian characters, including Petrucchio in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, Caliban & the villainous Antonio in THE TEMPEST, and the good Antonio in TWELFTH NIGHT; I was nominated for an Irene Adler Award for originating the role of Jess in PAPER CUP OCEAN.

    I spent 3 years as the Theater Specialist for the City of Savannah, directing and production-managing numerous shows and teaching in the education department. I went on to serve as the Associate Artistic Director for the Savannah Shakespeare Festival, and to teach Theater at Savannah’s Arts High School.

Meet the Board

  • I am a mother of two children, wife to a loving husband, coach to multitudes of high school girls and a business partner. I am an American mutt with a mix of at least English, Scot and Russian Jew from an area that is now Ukraine, but was Russia when my great-grandparents fled. I currently reside in Pittsburgh, where I moved 11 years ago from New York City. I love my adopted city and have transitioned from a 14-year span as a Wall Street Analyst to a slower more family-centered life. I am currently the CFO of Penrose Advisors.

    I was one of the founding Board members of RealTime. I feel it is important to support a growing production company which is creating original work and helps fill a void in the established Pittsburgh art scene.

  • I am a native-Western Pennsylvania, Gen-X cis white woman with an arts management degree from Point Park University. I live in Dormont with my daughter and long-term partner.  I have, but don’t suffer from, ADHD, explaining my constant chatter, movement, and effort, mixed with frequent paralyzation and lateness. I grew up near Yukon, PA, in a log house built by my contractor father and home ec teacher mother. My dad is a painter and a weaver, and my mom is a knitter and quilter. 

    I am the co-founder of The Parking Pad, a concert series started in April of 2021 to employ our musician friends while entertaining music fans in a safe outdoor environment. We commit to equitable pay practices for musicians and technicians and creating a safe and inclusive space for artists and audiences. Community building, collaboration, and engagement has been our mission since our first event, resulting in a growing network of musicians, venues, festivals, and organizations working to further live music in Dormont.


    I am also a founder of Dormont Arts, a nonprofit organization that emerged from the pandemic arts initiative, the Dormont CoronaChoir, a Zoom-led community singalong that “sang from our sidewalks” together each week of lockdown. The success of the CoronaChoir and the follow up art show, Corona Crafted, led to the formation of Dormont Arts.

    Dormont Arts hosts numerous events and manages Dormont Community Garden. We collaborate with Dormont Borough to curate a rotating exhibit of professional artists' work displayed in the Dormont Municipal Building.

    For 25 years, I have worked in the event ticketing industry and have served as a director and secretary for the International Ticketing Association. I am currently the director of Client Success at Activity Stream, specializing in relationship management and onboarding. 

    I have always been involved in performing arts, either as a musician, vocalist, stage manager or as ticketing and marketing staff. I continue to think of myself as an artist, although at this time, my art is in presenting and producing live music. 

    I use she/her pronouns.

  • A Licensed Clinical Social Worker at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. She has a decade of social work experience addressing drug and alcohol rehabilitation, child welfare, mental health recovery, inpatient medicine, crisis intervention and homelessness. Ombrea currently serves the homeless Veteran population in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas. She conducts clinical assessments, clinical case management, and acts as a liaison for Veterans and local public housing authorities. Ombrea works with local homeless community providers to address the needs for Veterans who face barriers with income, substance abuse, physical health, mental health and vocational deficits.

    Prior to joining the VA, Ombrea was a caseworker for Allegheny County Children, Youth and Family Services from 2014 to 2016. During her undergraduate and graduate studies, she was employed at Sojourner House residential treatment center for women and their children from 2008 to 2014. She also completed a MSW social work internship at UPMC Mercy Hospital Acute Medical Detox that provided complete addiction treatment services to safely guide people through the detox process.

    Ombrea holds a Masters of Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh and a BS in Elementary Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Contact us

Accessibility:
Live art is for everyone. We ask artistic collaborators and patrons with accessibility concerns to contact us and share their access needs so that we can meet them as effectively as possible. Please connect with our Access Liaison, Molly Rice.

Read about INCLUSION, EQUITY, ACCESS AND BELONGING

Email: info@realtimearts.org

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