[NEohioPAL]Great Lakes Theater Festival Announces 2005 Season

[Todd Krispinsky]

For Immediate Release
January 4, 2005

Great Lakes Theater Festival
Announces 2005 Season

Classic Theater's 44th Season Features
a Summer Repertory, a Fall Repertory, a Holiday Classic and
a Two For One Subscription Offer


CLEVELAND, OH - Charles Fee, Producing Artistic Director of Great Lakes
Theater Festival (GLTF), recently announced plans for the theater's 2005
season at a Members' Open House in the lobby of the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse
Square Center. "Great Lakes Theater Festival has really come into its own
over the past several seasons and the summer of 2005 will set the course for
the future of this company," said Fee to an audience of over one hundred
members and friends of the Festival.  "We've built an extraordinary resident
acting company, begun to define our approach to the classics - a wild,
accessible, full-blooded approach - and reached out to our community and
audience in consistent and meaningful ways.   If you've been wondering what
all the noise is about at Playhouse Square, this is the season to come
downtown and check us out."
Great Lakes Theater Festival's 2005 season will run from July through
December and will feature a Summer Repertory, a Fall Repertory and the
Festival's annual holiday classic.  In the summer (July 29-September 3,
2005), GLTF will present William Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of
Windsor, directed by Sari Ketter, in rotating repertory with Moss Hart and
George S. Kaufman's American classic, You Can't Take It With You, directed
by Victoria Bussert.  The Festival's Fall Repertory (September 16-October
22, 2005) will pair Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, directed by Gordon Reinhart,
with William Shakespeare's As You Like It, directed by Risa Brainin.  GLTF
will conclude the 2005 season with its annual production of Charles Dickens'
holiday classic, A Christmas Carol (November 25-December 23, 2005), adapted
and directed by Gerald Freedman and staged by GLTF Associate Artistic
Director, Andrew May.  All productions will be presented in the Ohio Theatre
at Playhouse Square Center.  Each repertory will run for six weeks, while
the Festival's production of A Christmas Carol will run for four weeks.
(Click here to consult the 2005 season performance calendars for complete
details:  http://www.greatlakestheater.org/calendar/ )
"We were thrilled by the response of our audience and our critics to last
season's Summer and Fall Repertories," said Charles Fee.  "The opportunity
to see a single resident company of actors perform two plays on the same
stage alternating shows every few nights makes the Great Lakes Theater
Festival experience a unique one in Northern Ohio. It is a great challenge
for artists and great fun for audiences."
A special feature of the Festival's 2005 season is a NEW Two For One
subscription offer.  The Two For One offer is designed to make subscribing
to the Festival easier and more affordable.  As part of the offer, the
Festival will match every NEW subscription package purchased with one FREE
subscription package of equal value.  "Everybody knows that subscriptions
are down across the board in the arts and in sports," said GLTF Producing
Artistic Director, Charles Fee, regarding the reasons for the new offer.
"But it is critical to all of our companies that audiences buy into the idea
of a body of work, a series of plays …and the Two For One subscription offer
that we are making this season is a direct appeal to audiences that love our
work but have been hesitant to commit!  What have you got to lose?"  GLTF's
Two For One subscription offer is valid on all NEW Classic, Best Value and
Family and Senior Matinee subscription package purchases only.  The offer is
not valid on Youth or Fest Pass subscription package purchases.
Fee also confirmed the Festival's continued commitment to making classic
theater accessible to student audiences in 2005.  "We've opened the doors
wide to the student audience of Cleveland - an audience that really doesn't
have the money to attend most performing arts events.  The response has been
outrageous - with nearly a third of our evening audience buying student
tickets.  It's all about Shakespeare and the classics!  Despite popular
opinion, that's what the young audience today wants to experience -
spectacle, actors who can tear it up, and the strange alchemy that
transforms us in the theater."  The Festival's subscription and single
ticket campaigns echo Fee's statements.  Young adult subscriptions (age 25
and under) begin at $30.  Educator/Student/Youth tickets for any seat in the
Ohio Theatre are available for $12.50 ($17.50 for A Christmas Carol).
Educator/Student/Youth tickets and are available for all performances
(Additional handling fees may apply and may vary depending on point of
purchase).
"2005 is an exciting time for Great Lakes Theater Festival." said Charles
Fee of Cleveland's classic theater.  "Of all the changes that we have made
over the past several seasons, what is most exciting to me is to have been
able to renew our commitment as an organization to the idea of company.  On
an artistic level, on an administrative level and in our work throughout
this vibrant community, the idea of company has and will continue to yield
great results for the Festival.  I look forward to the opportunity to
produce another amazing season of great, classic theater in collaboration
with this talented ensemble."
Fee confirmed that Opening Night performances of The Merry Wives of Windsor,
You Can't Take It With You, Amadeus and As You Like It have been scheduled
for Saturday evenings while A Christmas Carol's opening night is slated for
a Friday night.  Curtain times for all evening performances will remain at
7:30 p.m., with a 1:30 p.m. curtain time for Saturday matinees and a 3:00
p.m. curtain time for Sunday matinees.  All five productions in GLTF's 2005
season will continue to offer sign interpreted and audio described
performances as well as the popular Director's Night and Playnotes pre-show
discussion series.  (Click here to consult the 2005 season performance
calendars for complete details:
 http://www.greatlakestheater.org/calendar/ )
An adult subscription to Great Lakes Theater Festival starts as low as $72.
Single tickets range in price from $21.50-$55.00 (Additional handling fees
may apply and may vary depending on point of purchase).  Subscriptions are
available now by calling (216) 664-6064  (Click here for complete
subscription information:
http://www.greatlakestheater.org/tickets/subscriptions.shtm). Single tickets
go on sale June 6, 2005, and will be available by calling (216) 241-6000, by
ordering online at www.greatlakestheater.org and by visiting the Playhouse
Square Center Box office or any Tickets.com outlet located within all Tops
Friendly Markets. Groups of ten or more receive discounts as do educators
and students.  (Consult the enclosed information sheet for complete
ticketing and contact details.)
Since 1962, Great Lakes Theater Festival has brought the pleasure, power and
relevance of classic theater to the widest possible audience in Northern
Ohio.

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For More Information
Todd Krispinsky
Marketing and Public Relations Manager
Great Lakes Theater Festival
1501 Euclid Avenue, Suite 300
Cleveland, Ohio  44115
(216) 241-5490 x317
(216) 241-6315 Fax
www.greatlakestheater.org

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