Cleveland Play House
Encyclopedia
The Cleveland Play House is a professional regional theater company located in Cleveland, OH. As of 2005, the artistic director is Michael Bloom, the eighth artistic director since its inception. In 2011 they moved operations to the Allen Theatre in Playhouse Square Center
.
Founded in 1915, Cleveland Play House is America’s first permanently established professional theatre company. It was founded midway through a decade of cultural renaissance in Cleveland. Through a partnership of idealistic vision and philanthropic largess, many of Cleveland’s major cultural organizations were formed between 1910 and 1920—Cleveland Music School Settlement, Karamu House , the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Museum of Natural History.
Joel Grey, Margaret Hamilton, Paul Newman and Jack Weston are among the many actors whose careers began at the Play House, which also operates the nation’s oldest community-based-theatre-education programs.
In the early 1900’s Cleveland theatre featured mostly vaudeville, melodrama, burlesque and light entertainment. But a select group of eight Clevelanders, among them Charles and Minerva Brooks, sought plays of substance on timely topics. Together, they formed Cleveland Play House. They found a home in a farmhouse donated by Cleveland’s industrialist Francis Drury located at East 85th and Euclid Avenue which ultimately became the site of a long-lasting home of CPH.
This Cleveland Play House facility, built in 1927, housed the Brooks Theatre and the Drury Theatre. To accommodate its growth, CPH in 1949 opened the 77th Street Theatre in a converted church, which featured America’s first open stage – the forerunner of the thrust stage that was popularized in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In the 1980’s, the 77th Street Theatre was closed, Cleveland Play House purchased the Sears building and the world-renown architect Philip Johnson designed significant additions for the complex, including the Bolton Theatre. With the 1927 buildings, the Sears building and the Johnson buildings taken together, the complex for CPH became the largest regional theatre complex in the country.
In 2009, through a collaboration called “The Power of Three,” CPH partnered with PlayhouseSquare and Cleveland State University to create the new Allen Theatre Complex in downtown Cleveland. In July of 2009, CPH sold its building on 85th Street to Cleveland Clinic. In September of 2011, CPH kicked off its the 96th consecutive season in a reinvented Allen Theatre at PlayhouseSquare. Two new venues adjacent to the Allen Theatre will be on board in January of 2012. A new production center is now located along the lakeshore in Cleveland, and adminstrative offices and education center are on East 13th Street.
Cleveland Play House has had eight Artistic Directors since 1915: Raymond O’Neil (1915-21); Frederic McConnell (1921-58); K. Elmo Lowe (1959-70); William Green (1970-71); Richard Oberlin (1971-85); Josephine Abady (1988-93); Peter Hackett (1994-2004) and Michael Bloom (2004-present).
In November 1933, CPH launched the nation’s first theatre education programs. Education remains a high priority. Each year, more than 30,000 students from 350 different schools attend CPH productions, as well as drama and playwrighting classes offered by the Education Department. CPH and Case Western Reserve University offer a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting, and the three-year program is in residence CPH. CPH also has educational partnerships with Cleveland State University and the Cleveland School of the Arts.
Throughout its rich history, Cleveland Play House has remained an artist-inspired theater that serves its community by bringing to life stories that are entertaining, relevant and thought provoking. It has produced more than 100 World and/or American Premieres, and over the 95 years more that 12 million people have attended CPH’s 1,300+ productions.
The Cleveland Play House is organized like most American theater companies, with a board of directors and a number of administrators. The board of directors is chaired by Peter A. Kuhn. The Artistic Director is Michael Bloom, Managing Director is Kevin Moore, and the Associate Artistic Director is Laura Kepley. The theater's national directors are Alan Alda
, Austin Pendleton
, and Joel Grey
.
The list of plays and playwrights that have had premiers at the Cleveland Play House is impressive, the most notable being Tennessee Williams
’ You Touched Me, and Bertolt Brecht
’s Mother Courage. Other notable premiers include The Pleasure of Honesty by Luigi Pirandello
, Simone by Ben Hecht
, Translations by Brian Friel
, A Decent Birth by William Saroyan
, Command by William Wister Haines
, Ten Times Table by Alan Ayckbourn
, The March on Russia by David Storey
, The Archbishop’s Ceiling by Arthur Miller
, The First Monday in October by Jerome Lawrence
and Robert E. Lee
, Lillian by William Luce, The Cemetery Club by Ivan Menchell, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel
, Jerusalem by Seth Greenland
, The Smell of the Kill by Michele Lowe, and Bright Ideas by Eric Coble
. The Play House continues to have a strong commitment to new works, especially those written by Ohio playwrights. The current policy for submission of new plays only permits unsolicited works to be submitted by playwrights who currently reside in the state of Ohio.
At least one mainstage production in each season is a new play.
The MFA program at the Cleveland Play House is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University
and has a growing national reputation. The program was started in 1996 and has produced many successful graduates. The master's degree program is three years long with a new class beginning study every two years. Tuition is waived, and an annual living stipend awarded to each student automatically. The most notable graduate to date is Rich Sommer
, who is featured on the AMC (TV channel) series Mad Men
, as well as a recurring role on NBC
’s The Office. Graduates of the program perform in an agent showcase in New York at the end of their third year, and can choose upon graduation to automatically join Actors' Equity. Students in this program are cast in both main stage performances and smaller venues. Each year of study focuses on a different area and period of theatre, as well as a cumulative study of voice, movement, and technique.
Playhouse Square Center
The Playhouse Square Center, in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, is the second-largest theater complex in the United States . Constructed in a span of nineteen months in the early 1920s, the theaters were subsequently closed down, but were revived through a grass-roots effort...
.
Founded in 1915, Cleveland Play House is America’s first permanently established professional theatre company. It was founded midway through a decade of cultural renaissance in Cleveland. Through a partnership of idealistic vision and philanthropic largess, many of Cleveland’s major cultural organizations were formed between 1910 and 1920—Cleveland Music School Settlement, Karamu House , the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Museum of Natural History.
Joel Grey, Margaret Hamilton, Paul Newman and Jack Weston are among the many actors whose careers began at the Play House, which also operates the nation’s oldest community-based-theatre-education programs.
In the early 1900’s Cleveland theatre featured mostly vaudeville, melodrama, burlesque and light entertainment. But a select group of eight Clevelanders, among them Charles and Minerva Brooks, sought plays of substance on timely topics. Together, they formed Cleveland Play House. They found a home in a farmhouse donated by Cleveland’s industrialist Francis Drury located at East 85th and Euclid Avenue which ultimately became the site of a long-lasting home of CPH.
This Cleveland Play House facility, built in 1927, housed the Brooks Theatre and the Drury Theatre. To accommodate its growth, CPH in 1949 opened the 77th Street Theatre in a converted church, which featured America’s first open stage – the forerunner of the thrust stage that was popularized in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In the 1980’s, the 77th Street Theatre was closed, Cleveland Play House purchased the Sears building and the world-renown architect Philip Johnson designed significant additions for the complex, including the Bolton Theatre. With the 1927 buildings, the Sears building and the Johnson buildings taken together, the complex for CPH became the largest regional theatre complex in the country.
In 2009, through a collaboration called “The Power of Three,” CPH partnered with PlayhouseSquare and Cleveland State University to create the new Allen Theatre Complex in downtown Cleveland. In July of 2009, CPH sold its building on 85th Street to Cleveland Clinic. In September of 2011, CPH kicked off its the 96th consecutive season in a reinvented Allen Theatre at PlayhouseSquare. Two new venues adjacent to the Allen Theatre will be on board in January of 2012. A new production center is now located along the lakeshore in Cleveland, and adminstrative offices and education center are on East 13th Street.
Cleveland Play House has had eight Artistic Directors since 1915: Raymond O’Neil (1915-21); Frederic McConnell (1921-58); K. Elmo Lowe (1959-70); William Green (1970-71); Richard Oberlin (1971-85); Josephine Abady (1988-93); Peter Hackett (1994-2004) and Michael Bloom (2004-present).
In November 1933, CPH launched the nation’s first theatre education programs. Education remains a high priority. Each year, more than 30,000 students from 350 different schools attend CPH productions, as well as drama and playwrighting classes offered by the Education Department. CPH and Case Western Reserve University offer a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting, and the three-year program is in residence CPH. CPH also has educational partnerships with Cleveland State University and the Cleveland School of the Arts.
Throughout its rich history, Cleveland Play House has remained an artist-inspired theater that serves its community by bringing to life stories that are entertaining, relevant and thought provoking. It has produced more than 100 World and/or American Premieres, and over the 95 years more that 12 million people have attended CPH’s 1,300+ productions.
The Cleveland Play House is organized like most American theater companies, with a board of directors and a number of administrators. The board of directors is chaired by Peter A. Kuhn. The Artistic Director is Michael Bloom, Managing Director is Kevin Moore, and the Associate Artistic Director is Laura Kepley. The theater's national directors are Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
, Austin Pendleton
Austin Pendleton
Austin Pendleton is an American film, television, and stage actor, a playwright, and a theatre director and instructor.-Life and career:...
, and Joel Grey
Joel Grey
Joel Grey is an American stage and screen actor, singer, and dancer, best known for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film adaptation of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award and Golden Globe Award...
.
The list of plays and playwrights that have had premiers at the Cleveland Play House is impressive, the most notable being Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
’ You Touched Me, and Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
’s Mother Courage. Other notable premiers include The Pleasure of Honesty by Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
, Simone by Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
, Translations by Brian Friel
Brian Friel
Brian Friel is an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field Day Theatre Company. He is considered to be the greatest living English-language dramatist, hailed by the English-speaking world as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of Ireland"...
, A Decent Birth by William Saroyan
William Saroyan
William Saroyan was an Armenian American dramatist and author. The setting of many of his stories and plays is the center of Armenian-American life in California in his native Fresno.-Early years:...
, Command by William Wister Haines
William Wister Haines
William Wister Haines was an American author, screenwriter, and playwright. His most notable work, Command Decision, was published as a novel, play, and screenplay following World War II.-Personal history:...
, Ten Times Table by Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...
, The March on Russia by David Storey
David Storey
David Rhames Storey is an English playwright, screenwriter, award-winning novelist and a former professional rugby league player....
, The Archbishop’s Ceiling by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
, The First Monday in October by Jerome Lawrence
Jerome Lawrence
Jerome Lawrence was an American playwright and author.-Life and career:Lawrence was born Jerome Lawrence Schwartz in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Sarah , a poet, and Samuel Schwartz, a printer. He worked for several small newspapers as a reporter/editor before moving into radio as a writer for CBS....
and Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
, Lillian by William Luce, The Cemetery Club by Ivan Menchell, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel
Paul Zindel
Paul Zindel Jr. was an American playwright, author, and educator.-Early years:Zindel was born in Tottenville, Staten Island, New York to Paul Zindel,Sr., a policeman, and Beatrice Frank, a nurse; his sister, Betty Hagen, was a year and a half older than he. Paul Zindel, Sr...
, Jerusalem by Seth Greenland
Seth Greenland
Seth Greenland is an American novelist, screenwriter and playwright. He has two published novels, Shining City and The Bones as well as four plays. He is set to release a third novel, The Angry Buddhist, in late 2011...
, The Smell of the Kill by Michele Lowe, and Bright Ideas by Eric Coble
Eric Coble
Eric Coble is a playwright and screenwriter. He is a member of the Playwrights' Unit of the Cleveland Play House.Eric Coble was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and raised on the Navajo and Ute reservations in New Mexico and Colorado...
. The Play House continues to have a strong commitment to new works, especially those written by Ohio playwrights. The current policy for submission of new plays only permits unsolicited works to be submitted by playwrights who currently reside in the state of Ohio.
At least one mainstage production in each season is a new play.
The MFA program at the Cleveland Play House is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
and has a growing national reputation. The program was started in 1996 and has produced many successful graduates. The master's degree program is three years long with a new class beginning study every two years. Tuition is waived, and an annual living stipend awarded to each student automatically. The most notable graduate to date is Rich Sommer
Rich Sommer
Richard Olen Sommer II is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Harry Crane on the AMC series Mad Men.-Career:...
, who is featured on the AMC (TV channel) series Mad Men
Mad Men
Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...
, as well as a recurring role on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
’s The Office. Graduates of the program perform in an agent showcase in New York at the end of their third year, and can choose upon graduation to automatically join Actors' Equity. Students in this program are cast in both main stage performances and smaller venues. Each year of study focuses on a different area and period of theatre, as well as a cumulative study of voice, movement, and technique.