The Encore Players is Pittsburgh's performing arts home for adults 55 and older, founded on the belief that creativity, expression, and the joy of performance belong to every stage of life.
There is a moment in every Encore Players performance that is impossible to prepare for.
It is not the opening number, though that is thrilling. It is not the standing ovation, though that is moving beyond words. It is the moment just before the curtain rises — when you look out at the wings and see our performers standing there, some of them nervous, some of them grinning, some of them quietly astonished that they are actually about to do this. And you understand, completely and without question, why The Encore Players exists.
These are people who spent a lifetime loving the performing arts. Who cheered from the audience, who hummed the tunes on the way home, who always - somewhere in the back of their minds - wondered what it might feel like to be the one up there. And now, finally, they are.
The Encore Players was founded to make that moment possible. For every older adult in Pittsburgh who has ever wondered. For every senior who was told - by circumstance, by age, by the simple absence of opportunity - that the stage was not for them. We are here to say otherwise. Clearly, warmly, and without reservation.
The stage is for you. It always has been.
Our Mission
The Encore Players exists to enrich the lives of adults 55 and older through the transformative power of the performing arts, providing professional-quality theater education, performance opportunities, and creative community in Pittsburgh and beyond.
We believe that older adults are not the audience for someone else's story. They are the storytellers. And we are here to give them the stage, the support, and the spotlight they deserve.
Our Story
The Encore Players began with a conversation between three people who have spent their careers in Pittsburgh's performing arts and business communities - and who kept arriving at the same question.
Where is the theater company for older adults?
Not the theater company that occasionally casts older adults. Not the community theater that welcomes seniors alongside everyone else. But a company built specifically, intentionally, and exclusively for the men and women who have lived enough life to have something genuinely powerful to say on a stage, and who have never been given the chance to say it.
The answer, they discovered, was that it did not exist. Not in Pittsburgh. Not anywhere in a form that matched the vision they had for what it could be.
So they built it.
Co-founders Rich Cefalo, Dick Roberts and Dr. Ken Gargaro launched The Encore Players in 2026 with a clear and ambitious mission: to create Pittsburgh's first professional-quality performing arts organization dedicated exclusively to adults 55 and older.
The name says everything. An encore is not an ending. It is the moment the audience asks for more - and the performers, filled with joy and gratitude, return to give it. That is exactly what The Encore Players is about. More creativity. More community. More life. More joy. One more performance. And then one more after that.
Pittsburgh is where we begin. The stage is where we belong.
Why This Matters
Senior citizens are the most underserved population in the performing arts. While youth theater programs flourish in schools and community centers across the country, structured, professional-quality performing arts programming designed specifically for older adults is nearly nonexistent. The men and women who spent decades sustaining Pittsburgh's cultural institutions as audience members, donors, and volunteers have had virtually no meaningful pathway to participate as performers and creators themselves.
That gap is not just a cultural oversight. It is a public health concern.
A growing body of research connects active arts participation among older adults to measurable and significant benefits: reduced social isolation, improved cognitive function, increased sense of purpose, stronger community bonds, and better overall physical and emotional wellbeing. Social isolation among seniors is now recognized as one of the most serious health challenges facing our aging population. The performing arts — with their demands on memory, collaboration, physical expression, and creative risk-taking — are among the most powerful and joyful tools available to address it.
The Encore Players is not just a theater company. We are a community health partner, a creative aging pioneer, and a force for joy in the lives of Pittsburgh's older adults. Every rehearsal, every performance, every class, and every chorus concert is an act of belief — in the talent, the vitality, and the enduring creative power of the people on our stage.
Meet our founders
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Rich Cefalo - Managing Director
Rich Cefalo has served in the banking, real estate, and finance industry in Western Pennsylvania for over 40 years. He has extensive experience analyzing and financing businesses, real estate projects, and local non-profits. Rich currently leads the business banking department at Clearview Federal Credit Union.
A lifelong interest in theater has led Rich to serving many years on the boards of Pittsburgh Musical Theater (10 years) and Pendemer Productions (4 years). Rich is a proud graduate of Central Catholic High School and Robert Morris University Graduate School of Business. He lives in McCandless Township with his wife Michelle. Their son Michael is an actor in New York City.
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Dick Roberts - Producing Director
Dick Roberts is a career advertising and public relations professional. On the belief that a company's most important asset is its reputation, Roberts became a trusted client communications advisor for the New York-based J. Walter Thompson Company and later his namesake firm, Roberts Communications USA.
Over the years, Roberts has contributed as a board member to numerous theatre and arts organizations in the Pittsburgh region, helping strengthen ties between artists, audiences, the media, and local communities. With a lifelong passion for the performing arts and extensive experience in arts administration and marketing, Roberts will help guide The Encore Players mission of "celebrating life through story & song”
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Dr. Ken Gargaro – Artistic Director
Dr. Ken Gargaro’s career in the performing arts in Pittsburgh spans over fifty years. His dedication to the arts, education, and entrepreneurship has transformed the training of performing artists, employment of these artists, and access for all to professional musical theatre in the Pittsburgh area. The outcome of his artistic vision can be seen across the nation in the Broadway, touring, TV, film, publishing, and entrepreneurial work of those whose education and performing careers intersected with Dr. Gargaro's career as a producer, director, and educator.
In the past few years, his experience as an entrepreneur and educator has led to strategic planning consultancies with Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center, PA Cyber, the Community College of Beaver County, and the PA Coalition of Public Charter Schools. He is the founder of Pittsburgh Musical Theater and has professor emeritus status at Robert Morris University.
Our Home
The Encore Players is proud to call the Vincentian Theater our founding home: a beautiful, fully equipped, and welcoming 400-seat performance and rehearsal venue that reflects everything we believe about what a performing arts home should feel like.
The Vincentian Theater provides our performers and students with a professional stage, excellent facilities, and an atmosphere of genuine warmth and community. It is a space where older adults feel welcomed, respected, and completely at ease which is exactly the environment every Encore Players program is designed to create.
Our Values
Everything The Encore Players does is guided by a set of core values that shape our programs, our culture, and our community.
Inclusion
The Encore Players is for every older adult regardless of experience, background, ability, or economic circumstance. We are committed to ensuring that cost is never a barrier to participation and that every program we offer is genuinely accessible to the full breadth of Pittsburgh's senior community.
Excellence
We hold ourselves to the highest standards of artistic and educational quality — not because perfection is the goal, but because our participants deserve the best. Every production, every class, and every rehearsal reflects our belief that older adults are serious artists who merit serious artistic investment.
Joy
Theater is supposed to be fun. Community is supposed to feel good. And the performing arts - at their best - are one of the most joyful human experiences available to us. We never lose sight of that. Joy is not a byproduct of what we do. It is the point.
Community
The Encore Players is more than a set of programs. It is a community, a gathering place for older adults who share a love of the performing arts and a desire to connect, create, and celebrate together. We build that community intentionally, carefully, and with deep respect for every person who walks through our doors.
Dignity
Older adults deserve to be treated as the accomplished, complex, creative, and fully alive human beings they are. Everything about The Encore Players - from our programming to our facilities to the way our staff and faculty engage with participants - reflects that commitment to dignity and genuine respect.
Join Our Community
Whether you want to perform, study, sing, volunteer, donate, or simply come and cheer for the remarkable older adults on our stage, there is a place for you in The Encore Players community. We are just getting started, and we could not be more excited about what lies ahead.
Contact us
We’d love to hear from you! Whether you’re interested in joining a production, learning more about our senior programs, supporting our mission, or just saying hello, The Encore Players welcome your message.
Please fill out the form below and a member of our team will be in touch soon. Together, let’s celebrate that creativity knows no age.