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WHY I LOVE… Pittsburgh ACTRESS GILLIAN JACOBS SAYS HER HOMETOWN IS MORE ARTISTIC AND VIBRANT THAN OUTSIDERS MIGHT THINK

illian Jacobs has encoun- Every Friday, Jacobs and her mother tered more than one looked for audition notices. She did it all: snobby comment when musicals, dinner theater, classics, modern she tells people she’s from plays. She remembers the moment she fell Pittsburgh. “They’ll say, in love with acting; she was 12, and had a G‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ and that just makes you tiny part—as a boy—in a Pittsburgh Public instantly livid,” says Jacobs, who now lives Theater production of Shakespeare’s As You in Los Angeles. Like It. She was in awe of her adult co-stars, Pittsburgh suff ers from an outdated repu- actors from New York and Boston, and of tation, she says. It’s “come a long way from being a part of their world. people’s perceptions of it as a really polluted, “I thought the set was really cool, and smoky city at the height of the steel industry I thought my costume was really cool, and to actually a very clean city now,” she says. the actors would play poker backstage “It’s got a lot going on in the tech industry and I would watch them … it just felt really, and a lot going on in the arts scene.” really cool,” she says. Jacobs is best known for playing Britta It’s not just actors who fi nd opportu- Perry on cult favorite Community, canceled nity here, Jacobs says. The city is home to a this year by NBC but revived by Yahoo for vibrant visual arts scene, thanks to strong a sixth season to air online. She also stars local university programs and the city’s in Hot Tub Time Machine 2, out Christmas many museums. Also, artists can aff ord to Day, and Judd Apatow’s forthcoming Netfl ix live in Pittsburgh, which can be a problem series, premiering in 2016. in larger cities. Art “doesn’t feel so unat- She grew up in the Pittsburgh suburb tainable growing up in Pittsburgh,” she of Mt. Lebanon, where she lived until she says. “It feels like a part of the life of the city.” moved to New York at 17 to attend the Juil- Hollywood has taken notice; Pittsburgh liard School. Her childhood acting experi- has recently hosted fi lming for movies ence in Pittsburgh was good preparation including The Fault in Our Stars and The Dark for the prestigious arts school. Knight Rises. And Jacobs has noticed that she “I was really lucky because there was hears fewer rude comments and more praise. a lot to do as a kid in the theater in Pitts- “More and more I meet people in L.A. burgh,” she says. “I was pretty much always who have spent time there and love it,” she in a play, from third grade until I graduated says. “I think it really surprises people.” high school.” —Meredith Heagney

THE BEST PLACES TO …

Shop Sit and read See live theater Appreciate art EONS FASHION ANTIQUE CARNEGIE LIBRARY OF PITTSBURGH PUBLIC THE MATTRESS FACTORY “A (vintage) place that I loved in PITTSBURGH THEATER ART MUSEUM high school, and I still go back “I have such fond memories of “I acted there a lot as a kid. It’s “all contemporary and installa- to every time I’m home. … I got going to the main Carnegie Library They do a really great mixture tion art pieces, and they actually all my dresses for high school in (the neighborhood of) Oakland of new plays and also classical have residences for artists who dances there.” as a kid and sitting in the window- plays and musical theater.” live and make work there. I think   Ellsworth Ave. sill there and reading books.”  Penn Ave. that’s some of the most exciting --  Forbes Ave. ppt.org; -- art in Pittsburgh.” carnegielibrary.org;  Sampsonia Way -- mattress.org; --

136 rrıve • November/December 2014 •   . MICHAEL MULLER/CPI SYNDICATION

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