PHOTO BY DAVID BACHMAN

In the five years since Bryan Wright and Yuko Eguchi Wright had their daughter, date nights have been few and far between.

Prior to becoming parents however, they enjoyed going to the opera together. They were finally able to see a performance during a Sunday matinee of “Tosca” in October, when Pittsburgh Opera provided free on-site child care, a service more local cultural institutions are offering.

“We do not have any family in the area, so we don’t really have any personal friends or family that we can leave her with for an event like that,” Bryan says. “And the cost of hiring babysitters for an evening at this point, that would add an extra 100 bucks to the evening, and that makes it a little bit more difficult to justify.

“We were thrilled to see that this was being offered.”

PHOTO BY DAVID BACHMAN

Pittsburgh Opera started the program in March through funding from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and partners with Priya Amin, who previously founded on-site child care provider Flexable. Children ages 2-12 are eligible, and pre-registration is required.

“For families with young children, finding and paying for a reliable babysitter can be a real barrier to attending arts and entertainment events,” Chris Cox, Pittsburgh Opera’s director of Marketing & Communications, said in a press release. “This new program allows parents to enjoy the performance with peace of mind knowing that their young kids are being cared for right down the hall by trained, certified professionals.”

Pittsburgh CLO offered a free child care service on-site for the 2024 Summer Series at the Benedum Center. Children ages 3 to 12 were welcome at select matinees, and caregivers from the PCLO’s Academy of Musical Theater engaged them with activities themed around the show their adults attended. Plans for the 2025 Summer Season are underway; continuing this program and/or adding others are being considered.

Pittsburgh Public Theater has begun offering “Sitter Sundays” — child care for all ages during one Sunday matinee performance per show. The theater partners with Jovie of Pittsburgh child care providers, and the service is funded by the McKinney Charitable Foundation.

“We wanted to open up opportunities for families to come to the theater and not have to worry about child care,” Dominique Briggs, PPT’s senior manager of Public Works and Partnerships, told City Paper.

Bryan Wright says his daughter had a great time with a myriad of activities while he and his wife were seeing “Tosca,” adding the staff was friendly and the sign-in and sign-out process was easy.

“In the future, I think we would definitely, definitely do it again, really as often as they would offer it,” he says. “This provides an opportunity for us to do something together, which we seem to have so little time for these days.”