Chris Lindstrom is joined by Cam Webb of the Orange Steel Theatre Company to talk about their Pittsburgh Fringe show, "Doohickey". Doohickey! is an immersive makerspace experience, where audience members are invited to join the intergalactic resistance group Caomei in their struggle against shadowy land developers whose greed is inflicting untold damage to the world.

Armed with the support of Caomei, the audience will use recycled materials to craft gadgets that do whatever they can imagine.

Doohickey!

Company: Orange Steel Theatre Company

Date(s): March 20, 2026 - March 28, 2026

Time(s): 8:00 pm

Genre: Theatre

Venue: Assemble

https://pittsburghfringe.org/events/doohickey/

Mentioned in this episode:

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Well, that music means it's time for another episode of Just Can't Not.

I'm your host, Chris Lindstrom, and this is part of our preview for the Pittsburgh Fringe Festival.

I know this is outside of our typical Rochester and surrounding area content, but the Fringe is universal and we're thrilled to partner with the Pittsburgh team for their 13th year running from March 19th through the 28th.

To learn more about all of the shows and get Tickets, go to pittsburghfringe.org Tickets cap out at only 20 bucks and an entire event is 150.

So make sure to go get your tickets today and join the action over on Pen Ave. And I have a guest guest.

Why don't you introduce yourself?

Awesome.

Thank you.

Hi there.

My name is Cam Webb.

I'm one of the artists that's featured in this year's Pittsburgh Fringe Festival.

I'm a director.

So I have a company called Orange Steel Theater Company, and our show is called Doohickey.

Yeah.

And the shows are over at the venue's called Assemble, and that shows on March 20th, the 21st, the 26th, and the 28th, all at 8 o'.

Clock.

Tickets are $12, and if you're a student, it's all the way down to seven.

So no excuse not to go out and check them out.

Tell me about the Orange Steel Theater Company and what.

What are the vibes?

What's the whole idea behind it?

Yeah, absolutely.

So Orange Steel is the.

To give full credit where it's due.

Orange Steel is the brainchild of my creative partner as well as just my partner in life, Sophie McClung.

She's one of the.

She's also one of the coordinators of the Pittsburgh Fringe.

So she's very involved in the Fringe scene, and it was something that she really wanted to do.

She wanted to get into the producing side of things and has always had a.

She's an incredibly talented devised theater artist.

So when the idea came around of doing a devised theater show, it was something that was like, hey, why not?

Why not try it out?

And so far, it's been a great experience.

She's been.

Obviously I'm very biased, but she's been a lovely producer so far.

Well, I gotta say, like, having a talented partner in life, it's amazing because, like, you would support regardless, but it's really nice when it's really easy because they're that talented.

I have the same problem in my.

My life.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's a great problem to have.

Yeah.

So when you say devised theater, explain what you mean by that because, you know, the fringe has so many different angles that you can do on theater.

From improvisational, from, you know, you know, interaction with the audience to, you know, pure performance.

How would you describe that term?

Yeah, absolutely.

So devised is, as with so many theater things, has millions of different definitions.

But part of the way that we define it for us is traditionally when you might think of theater, you might think of, oh, when you go into a rehearsal room, there's a script that's already been written, and we're going to rehearse that script.

For our show, we had some concepts and ideas to play with, but the actual dialogue that the characters are saying, that wasn't written prior to this process.

So all of the dialogue, as well as the characters themselves have all been created by the actors in the show as much as me as the director.

I've offered some ideas.

They are just as much the writers of the piece as they are actors in the piece, which has been really, really cool because all of the characters are so specifically tuned into each actor.

It's one of those things that, like, no one could play each character because it is meant to be kind of a reflection of yourself, sort of a D and D kind of thing.

Well, and it sounds also like kind of halfway, but in between, between, like, improvisation and like what Curb youb Enthusiasm does with really, they set bullet points of this is where it has to go.

And then everybody brings their max selves to that understanding that they were chosen because they are.

They have something to offer that they have that they are chaotic, they are aggressive, they are this, they are that, but they're allowed.

And you have to.

Because there's only bullet points to go where you're going.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Especially our show.

It's a beautiful thing to have, but audiences are so variable, and since our show relies on so much audience participation, in our mind, it didn't really make much sense to script.

You know, we script as much as we could, but it was also like, we don't want to script everything because inevitably there is going to be that.

That random factor with so much audience participation, so very much the.

The curb your enthusiasm thing of.

Here's where we need to get to, how we get there is.

Can change night to night.

Yeah.

Which I think is exciting.

Creates a very dynamic, dynamic show.

Yeah, that's very fringe, too.

Like, you know, you can have all the other things, but that interaction and that, like, you know, that idea of, like, oh, we're doing this because we.

We're gonna enjoy the process.

And it doesn't have to be perfect every time, that it has to be real every time.

Yeah.

Is the thing.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And I think that that's something that our.

Our cast has been phenomenal.

Just to shout them out real quick.

Audrey Klein, CG Squire, Amari Shakir, Emily Loken and Maggie McClelland.

All of them, Everything that they've brought to the table with their characters has been so, so lovely and so.

So wonderfully crafted.

And the discoveries that they have made within those characters have been.

Have been very lovely as well and kind of unexpected.

I was having a conversation with one of our cast members just a few nights ago that she was like, I.

When we started this process, I could have never imagined that it would have gone the route that it did, but it was a fun, fun way that it happened.

Kind of just going with the vibes.

Yeah.

Is this the kind of theater that you like to like when you're thinking about producing?

I don't know if this is your first run doing this or, you know, directing.

Is this the kind of theater you enjoy as a concept?

Do you like another thing?

Like, what's your.

What is your personal angle on all this?

Yeah.

So for me personally, pretty much our entire cast, I think, with the exception of maybe one cast member, we're all products of Point Park University's theater arts program, which is school here in Pittsburgh.

And one of the aspects of that program that's emphasized very heavily is devised theater.

And within that emphasis is this aspect of communal connection.

And that was something, for me, that was very, very important, both in a theater sense and a makerspace.

E sense offering a space where audience members could come together and get that chance to connect.

Because that is what maker spaces really are inherently are communal spaces where people are encouraged to come in, share their knowledge, share their skills, whereas theater is often a space where, hey, here's the audience, here are the actors, and there is a line that divides us.

So the idea of blending that just made a lot of sense of, like, hey, all these concepts from.

Devised into this concept of makerspaces, which is really.

Those are more rooted in, like, the education side of things and more geared towards kids.

I was like, this seems like a really fun marriage, these two things.

Well, and also, like, it's.

I think, you know, theater in its best way is everybody contributes in the way they are contributing, and each part is valuable, from, you know, you know, production to the stage to, you know, making scenes to all that other stuff.

And makerspaces are kind of that thing where you want to create Something.

Whether you're learning something for the first time as a kid, or you need these tools and having that creative space to work around other people who are doing creative things of all different angles, from tech to creating something for the theater.

What does a makerspace mean to you as an adult?

Because there's a lot of places that is their space.

Yeah,

that's a great question.

I think, for me, for some context, part of my makerspace experience, I had the privilege of working at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, which has a massive makerspace in it called the Make Shop.

And it was a really cool chance both to get to make myself and to get to people watch a little bit.

And children are so good at imagination and play.

You don't really need to give them much.

You can just kind of say, you can say, hey, we're pirates.

Now we're ninjas.

Now we're cowboys, and we need to do X, Y, and Z.

And kids can go, okay, cool.

Got it.

Adults, though, it was very interesting to see cases where they saw the recycled materials, they saw the things on the table for what they were.

It was, oh, I have a cup, and there's a ball of tape inside of it, where it was like, I know you can do more.

I know you can play.

And really wanting to investigate, like, where does that come from?

Where is that shame around play?

Where is that reluctancy to do this, especially when it is so easy to do for kids?

And so part of it for me with makerspaces was like, here is a community, an opportunity to come together as a community and really rediscover some play.

As much as I don't think our show is childish by any means, I do think it is a show that a child could enjoy.

As much as we investigate some themes that are a little.

A little heavier, it is really rooted in connecting with your sillier side, connecting with your more creative self and muscles that we might not flex.

Yeah, I think, you know, whimsy, as

often in our adult.

Oh, breaking up a little bit.

But I think you might have just.

Yeah, it's all right.

And I think part of that is, you know, that whimsy, you know, as an adult, you do lose because you're.

There's a lot of groundedness.

And I'll admit, like, as somebody who is fundamentally not that in many ways, you know, it's like, I have a sign in my studio from a local graffiti artist who this is their tag around our city, around Rochester.

It's no fun zone.

And obviously it was more of a.

It was more of a, like, you know, you know, anarchist kind of political statement more than, like, talking to me specifically.

But as somebody who's always identified as, like, I don't like fun.

I'm a deep enjoyer of things.

I like to dive deep and live in the weeds of things.

You know, that separation.

And how do you.

How can you be playful?

How can you do that?

You know, as an adult?

You know, I struggle with that.

Unless I'm around a kid, then I'm happy to jump, you know, jump around and do silly things.

Cause it's all about that moment of connection, interaction.

And I love the idea of you facilitating that and making it in a space that has that as part of its core.

Yeah, absolutely.

One of the things that we've really tried to emphasize as much as possible with the cast, this was a point you made earlier of.

Oh, nice.

I like the sign.

That's really cool.

Yeah.

But a point that we made of, like, people will.

People will be where they're at.

Yeah.

So as much as, you know, obviously, we.

It would be great if people came in and were really willing to give to the imaginative side and really dive into that world and immerse themselves.

Reality is, we might have people that, you know, for whatever reason, work was stressful, they had a bad day.

They are just, like, to your point, they are the kind of person that, like, that is not really their thing.

That.

That's okay, too.

There is no wrong way to enjoy the show.

If you come in and decide, like, hey, this isn't really my vibe, but I'm going to get to work with some tools and hopefully make a cool craft at the end of it.

I see that as a success as well.

Like, it really is.

The communal emphasis is really the big thing.

Yeah.

And it's.

I also kind of like the idea.

And part of.

Part of what I enjoy about doing these, especially the fringe ones, is I have limited time to prep.

And it's really just, how can we have a good conversation at the moment and, you know, learn about somebody else and learn about yourself maybe a little bit while you're doing it?

What I'm kind of intrigued about is when did you find yourself comfortable with not knowing what's going to happen when it comes to performing?

Do you remember a time where that was, like, the first time you felt comfortable with.

With the unknown and not being, like, perfectly prepped for, like, a performance?

With this show specifically, we had a little, like, beta test performance in October, just because it is so Audience heavy that it was before we came to the Fringe.

I wanted to see if it would work at all.

If it was a situation of like, oh, maybe this just works in my head and it'll.

It just does not work in practice.

And I think just before that initial performance, I had some of those like, oh, man, what happens after our initial moment?

Do they all just kind of stare at us and go, so now what?

And I think we had a few moments for sure of a little bit of from that audience thing of like, oh, you're talking to me.

Yeah.

Oh, I need to do something.

Oh, shoot.

Some of that initial hesitation, I think generally they got it.

There was no one that was like, I can't do this.

This is too strange, too weird.

And that was really refreshing that it was like, hey, we're inviting people into a space that they are going to be willing to help us as much as they might be a little apprehensive and a little like, not quite sure what's going on.

No one's going to be angry or upset.

They are going to be willing to entertain us and.

And hopefully give to some of that imaginative, immersive stuff a little bit as well.

I'm kind of intrigued.

So when did theater come into your life?

Like, did you.

Were you doing it as a little kid?

Did you start in, like, middle school?

When did theater come into your life and what was it about it that grabbed you at that time?

Yeah, I, for me personally, I started doing theater.

I'm originally from Southern California and started doing theater out there when I was in kindergarten.

I was in a youth theater program called Riverside Children's Theater and did that from kindergarten through to eighth grade, continued through high school.

I mean, kindergarten's young.

Did you.

Were your parents into that kind of stuff as well and drove you into it, or was it just you were that kid?

I. I kind of.

I call it my.

I can do that story.

A little bit of my.

I have an older sister who was signed up for classes that the theater program.

Just with the way that youth theater works, they said, hey, there's a waiting list, but if you have a younger brother, we can maybe bump you up on that waiting list.

As it turns out, my sister is a very talented technical theater artist.

She doesn't do as much onstage performance, but quite likes the behind the scenes stuff.

And I quite liked the onstage stuff, so it worked out very nicely.

But initially, what really drew me was funny enough kind of that audience connection.

One of the things that RCT did at one of their Shows that was done at like a local high school, middle school, students performing it.

That was the craziest thing I could have ever seen because just that separation of like, well, wait, I'm here in my seat as an audience member and you're right there in your period clothing.

Hold on.

How close are we?

How separate are we?

And that's always stuck with me.

I've always enjoyed theater that, that blurs that line between audience and an actor.

Yeah, it's, it's always interesting to see those like, influences that.

There's always that sometimes that little spark and sometimes it's just, oh, I just changed my path partway through and like, oh, I'm gonna try this and then it just grabs you.

I think that's one of those like when you're really learning about yourself and you're honest about what are you really enjoying about this?

And sometimes you don't know until you, until you try what's the thing that's going to hit you.

You know, I'll say is like somebody who, like I got into food and drink because I was hunting for something to get into and it was this deep, you know, deep well of knowledge that you can have and you can never know enough.

But I started with writing and I hated it.

But then you end up finding like, oh, I can talk about it really well.

And then you do that, but you find your own path.

And as you learn about yourself, you can be a better version of, you know, that thing, that spark, and then you can help others do that too.

Do you find that you're also like bringing other people into this, this side of theater that you like that haven't tried it before?

Yeah, I, yeah, as.

As much as I can.

I think the.

I was very, very fortunate that I had a lot of improv training in, in school.

Just my early years had a teacher that was very big into improv, so really emphasized that and working with the cast this time around on Doohickey, that has been something of.

We have a lot of like very talented stage trained actors.

But improv was something that was a little bit more.

Not quite.

And especially in the way that we're doing it, it was something that's been very fun to kind of like, yeah, come to the dark side a little bit.

Come to the improv side.

The yes and side of the equation as well as on the flip side bringing some folks, chatting with folks who are More in the maker spacey side of things that are like, oh, that's interesting.

I, I like theater, but I've never seen it like combined in that way.

That's cool.

Yeah.

Do you have a.

Do you have an improv inspiration?

Do you have somebody that, you know, well known person who lives in that world that is like, this is kind of my, you know, my, my compass.

Like, if I, if I could do what they.

Not what they do, but if I can like, you know, live in performance like they do.

Is there somebody to you that's like, oh, this is my golden compass Improviser.

That's a good.

I kind of a cop out.

I feel like pretty much anyone from whose line I quite enjoy as well as just recently it was a point that I was talking about with my cast quite a bit.

I'm sure you're familiar with Dropout.

Oh, of course.

And, and all of their content of.

All of their improvisers have.

Obviously, you know, they're.

They're not in costume or anything in most cases.

And it is very quick little scenes, so it's easy to hop in and out.

But they have a style where even if, you know, the end goal of the scene is two characters fight or they kiss or whatever, how they get there, there's.

You can always see those individual flavors of those actors.

And that's something that I think is really lovely about improv, is that even when you take on a character, that character is still you in some way.

Same with acting, but really with improv you have a lot of freedom and a lot of room to really make it, put your stamp on that character.

And yeah, they've been, I think, a really nice example of something to point to and be like, hey, improv, really quick, good improv.

Another guy, not quite improv, but he's a fringe artist just for his, in the moment speed.

Zack Zucker of town, he's a clown act.

But his, his ability with his audience to react incredibly quickly and take what they say and spin it into his act.

It's something that, it takes a lot of skill and a lot of training.

I don't think it's something that people can just do, but it is something of like, man, if you had to build like a perfect improviser, quote unquote, that would definitely be something to do.

There would be just his speed.

Yeah.

And I, I think that's something I've always.

I.

Speed is something I've really, you know, it's one of my things I love to see is that, you know, those quick reactions, you know, when I learned how to learn how to do some of this stuff was by listening to, like, you know, talk radio from back in the day, whereas more comedy focused.

And when you heard those quick jumps in and you knew it was live and it couldn't have been practiced, those were the things that broke me the most.

The absurd, quick moments, you know, watching, you know, dropout and seeing some of those people, there is an honesty to the way they perform too, and they.

You never lose them.

And to me, like, I mean, I could never be that because I'm more of the straight man and what I do and I jab in.

But, like, Jason Mansukas to me is like.

Is my, like, ideal improviser because he is so unbelievably, perfectly chaotic, but never derails, not on purpose.

Like, it's always purposeful to drive something in a direction.

And I. I adore, you know, him.

And then Paul Shears, more of the straight man, which is like, that's how I like to live in the way I can jump in and be a producer and do those things.

And I just love those little picks and grabs, and those are the things that bring me so much joy, is watching people who are amazing at their craft.

How do you.

How do you see yourself now and where do you want to.

Where do you want to end up?

Like, do you see yourself growing into more in this.

Do you see yourself as, you know, being.

Know, being in this local kind of thing?

How do you see yourself as growing into where you want to be in theater and improvising?

Yeah, absolutely.

I specific to Doohickey.

It's something that, you know, in a perfect world where money was no object, it would be awesome if it could go all over the place.

One of the things that we've really tried to emphasize as well is the accessibility of it since it's is so recycled material heavy.

There aren't any crazy set pieces or props or anything barring arts and crafts materials.

You know, you can get crazier if you want.

But for me personally, I think, yeah, for me as a theater artist, I have quite a few interests across the theatrical realm.

So I do some stuff in the musical side of things, some stuff in the directing and writing side of things that I'm going to try to continue to foster as much as possible.

And then with improv, I think, really trying to get.

There's a local company here in Pittsburgh that I've chatted with about getting some sort of, like, improv class started up because I think that that's something that there are some classes in and around the city, but I feel like they, the stage actors and the improv actors have not quite blended together as much.

I know there is some crossover, but I think there would be.

It would be nice to get some more improv incorporated into some more of those traditional acting spaces.

That's awesome.

Can you put your social media plugs out there and then we'll plug the shows?

Yeah, absolutely.

So for me personally, my social media is just Cameron Webb backwards.

BBEW should bring it right up.

That's on all platforms.

Instagram, Facebook.

Those are the only two I use currently.

And then for our show specifically rangesteeltheaterco on Instagram.

The logo is an orange with a blue gear.

You can also follow the Pittsburgh Fringe at PGHFringe on pretty much all of their social media.

Check out their website, www.pittsburghfringe.org.

not only is my show Doohickey running there, but also a ton of other brilliant artists both locally and coming out of town doing all sorts of really, really cool art Doohickey runs at Assemble, which just really quickly shout them out.

If you're local to Pittsburgh, Assemble is an awesome communal maker space.

Even if you're not coming for Doohickey, they are amazing.

Highly recommend checking Assemble out and Our show runs March 20th, 21st, 26th and 28th at Assemble.

All shows are at 8pm Ticket prices are $12 for general admission or if you're a student, it's $7.

That's awesome, Cam.

Thanks so much for joining.

Just can't not and I'll be down in Pittsburgh for the second weekend, hopefully checking out a bunch of shows.

So thanks so much for list.

You want to check out other shows on the Lunchador Podcast network, go to lunchador.org follow us on the socials and we'll be back with more.

Just can't not and we'll see you on the Fringe.

This has been a presentation of the Lunchador Podcast Network.

You're a regular guy.

You can record that podcast.

I like that.

Yeah.