[NEohioPAL] GLTF Unveils New Hanna Theatre Design

[Todd Krispinsky]

 FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION:

 visit <http://www.greatlakestheater.org/hanna> www.greatlakestheater.org/hanna <http://www.greatlakestheater.org/hanna/> /


Great Lakes Theater Festival Unveils 

Visionary Design For New Home At Hanna Theatre
The design features an innovative "Great Room" design concept, 

fully flexible thrust stage and pioneering advances in theatrical technology.

 

CLEVELAND, OHIO - January 18, 2008 - Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF), Cleveland's classic theater company, unveiled a visionary new design for the Hanna Theatre at Playhouse Square, the Festival's future permanent home, at a special kick-off event.  Created by a team of architects from Cleveland-based architectural firm Westlake Reed Leskosky (WRL) in collaboration with GLTF resident artists, the new Hanna Theatre design infuses the historic 1920's theater with a bold contemporary sensibility and innovative new theater concepts while retaining the space's classic architectural elements.  Great Lakes Theater Festival plans to complete the project in time for the opening of its 47th season in September 2008.

 

"This is a truly remarkable design," said Charles Fee, GLTF Producing Artistic Director.  "The creative opportunities that the 're-imagined' Hanna Theatre will afford our artists, our audiences and our community are absolutely extraordinary.  What is particularly exciting for us as a company is that the design of our new home is really a metaphor for the kind of work that we do on stage each season...re-imagining classics.  We are thrilled to be able to bring this same commitment and creative spirit to bear on the design of Cleveland's future home for the classics.  We can't wait to share this new experience with our audience."

 

Timothy K. Pistell, Chair of GLTF's Re-Imagine a Classic campaign and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Cleveland-based Parker Hannifin Corporation, emphasized the project's positive impact on the region.  "It is clear that the Theater District is an important economic driver for downtown Cleveland, making this region an extraordinary place to live and do business.  An investment in revitalizing one of our historic theaters is good for the future of Cleveland and for the future of Great Lakes Theater Festival."

 

The new Hanna Theatre design was developed as part of the Festival's recently announced Re-Imagine a Classic campaign.  The total campaign need is $19.2M.  GLTF has currently secured over 75% of the project's funding.  When complete, GLTF's Re-Imagine a Classic campaign will 1) transform the Theater District's historic Hanna Theatre into an innovative new theater experience featuring a thrust stage and flexible 550-seat house that will become the permanent home for GLTF ($14.7M) and 2) establish an endowment and programmatic support for the Festival to ensure that the classics continue to thrive in Cleveland for future generations ($4.5M).

 

"The response to the campaign from across our region has been overwhelmingly positive," said GLTF Executive Director, Bob Taylor.  "We're so pleased with the community's confidence in us and we look forward to sharing more good news very soon.  We have a lot of exciting work ahead of us."  Natalie Epstein, Co-Chair of GLTF's Board of Trustees, added, "We are grateful to all of our early supporters and especially proud of the dedication, unanimous endorsement and 100% participation in the campaign from our Board of Trustees."  The Re-Imagine a Classic campaign, a culmination of Great Lakes Theater Festival's 25-year commitment to downtown Cleveland and Playhouse Square, is the first capital campaign in GLTF's 46-year history. 

 

Paul Westlake, FAIA, principal in charge and principal designer of Westlake Reed Leskosky, described the project as a "re-imagination" as opposed to a "renovation."  "While our office has worked on many theater facilities, this is the first project that employs a design strategy that integrates the artist and audience experience into one realm and dissolves the formal separation between the social experience of the lobby and the artistic experience of the stage.  The design is very contemporary in its attitude.  Throughout the design process, we have been inspired by the insight and creativity of Great Lakes Theater Festival's resident artistic company.  We believe that, together, we have captured the essence of this vision in our re-imagination of a great classic theater space."

 

The Great Room - A Dynamic New Experience:  The new Hanna Theatre experience finds its inspiration in the idea of classic home design's "Great Room."  In the re-imagined Hanna, all of the evening's activity will occur in a single unified space.  This single environment will offer a variety of seating options and social interaction opportunities that encourage audience engagement with one another and with the art form, while simultaneously enabling each visitor to self-define their experience at the theater.  The new Hanna Theatre design is: 

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	Engaging & Inviting:  The re-imagined Hanna Theatre's new thrust theater orientation, one in which the audience is seated on three sides of the actors' playing area, will create a unique experience for our region where audiences are effectively seated in the same room as the performers. 
	
	
	
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	Intimate & Customizable:  The new Hanna Theatre's 550-seat thrust configuration will afford its audiences an exciting and uniquely intimate theater experience.  The furthest seat from the stage is eleven rows. Patrons will choose from a variety of seating opportunities ranging from traditional theater seats and club chairs to banquettes and private box seating.  Guests will self-define their encounter with the event in order to maximize their evening's enjoyment whether spending time with friends, colleagues or family.
	
	
	
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	Interactive:  The design of the space will encourage social and cultural interaction from the street to the stage, from pre-show cocktails to post-show conversation - in a single unified environment.  Interactive video screens will connect the patron to the performance even when away from their seat, support the Festival's informational lobby display programs and infuse the new theater space with energy and vitality.
	
	
	
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	Comfortable:  The new theater will feature the finest in audience amenities including seat and leg room dimensions modeled after the finest loges in Playhouse Square, accessible concessions areas and a handsome and sleekly functional bar.  


            State-of-the-ART - Innovation Meets Creation:   At the heart of the Hanna Theatre's Great Room design beats an innovative series of state-of-the-art technologies conceived to maximize the space's flexibility, heighten the audience's experience and enhance the artist's creative process.  The Hanna's new signature attributes: 1) the "Parker Hannifin Stage" - a fully-flexible, hydraulic, thrust stage in three sections and 2) an automatic structurally independent fly system, an engineering "first" designed by architecture firm Westlake Reed Leskosky promise to position the Re-Imagined Hanna Theatre as one of the most innovative theater renovations in the country.  The new Hanna Theatre will feature:

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	The "Parker Hannifin Stage":  A fully-flexible, hydraulic, thrust stage in three sections - underwritten by Parker Hannifin Corporation, the world's leader in motion technology - will allow ultimate flexibility and maximum audience impact.  The theater will function in two radically different configurations - a one room thrust and a two room proscenium theater - supporting many genres of presentation from Shakespeare to the American musical comedy and from theater to other art forms such as music, opera and dance.  With a push of a button, the Parker Hannifin Stage can descend to floor level to restore the theater to a proscenium, or picture frame, orientation and descend below the house floor to create a fully equipped orchestra pit capable of housing a complete ensemble.  The hydraulic stage can even raise and lower sets and actors during performances.
	
	
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	Visionary Theatrical Engineering:  An automatic, structurally independent fly system - an engineering first pioneered by the project's architecture firm Westlake Reed Leskosky - will equip the new Hanna Theatre stage house with 48 fully automated, motor-driven line-sets enabling a dynamic range of set change, scenic design and storage possibilities.  It is the first theater in the region to employ such technologies.  This engineering feat will infuse the Hanna Theatre with state-of-the-art theatrical technologies and simultaneously allow the project's designers to preserve the Hanna Theatre's historic stage-house.
	
	
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	Green Design:  GLTF's Hanna Theatre project is currently registered with the United States Green Building Council and its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.  The project is pursuing a silver rating.  LEED encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices by certifying projects that incorporate design and construction practices that significantly reduce the negative impact of buildings on their environment.  By equipping the Hanna with new, state-of-the-art theatrical systems, updating the theater's indoor environmental systems, employing enviro-friendly construction materials, recycling construction waste and improving safety and efficiency standards with an emphasis on green design, the new Hanna Theatre is environmentally sensible.

            Housed within the Hanna Building designed by architect Charles A. Platt, the Hanna Theatre has played an important role in Cleveland and American Theatre history.  According to author John Vacha's recent book From Broadway to Cleveland: A History of the Hanna Theatre, the Hanna has a rich theatrical heritage.  "Built by Daniel R. Hanna as a tribute to his theatre-loving father, Marcus Hanna, the Hanna Theatre opened its doors on March 28, 1921, with an adaptation of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper. Billed as a 'Broadway-Style Theater,' the Hanna was located not on Euclid Avenue but around corner on the side street of East 14th. Its interior décor was opulent, finished in what was described as a combination of Italian Renaissance and Pompeian style, and the stage was described as 'large enough... to present the best plays offered; but intimate enough to present the quietest comedy or drama to the best advantage.' During its first two decades, the Hanna hosted such touring Broadway shows as The Student Prince and the Marx Brothers in Animal Crackers. There were also significant world premieres, including Noel Coward's Design for Living, starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and Coward himself, and Maxwell Anderson's High Tor, with Burgess Meredith. The postwar era brought the golden age of the American musical theater to the Hanna, from Oklahoma! to Hair. The mirrors in its star dressing room have reflected the images of Ethel and John Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Katharine Cornell, and Henry Fonda."

            The Re-Imagine a Classic campaign is the fruit of a visionary partnership between Playhouse Square and Great Lakes Theater Festival.  The first resident company of Playhouse Square, Great Lakes Theater Festival has called the Theater District home since 1982.  As part of the partnership, Great Lakes Theater Festival and Playhouse Square have ratified an agreement that will afford the Festival greater control over its performance calendar and enable GLTF to create a recognizable brand identity for the classic theater company on the interior and exterior of its new space through a distinctive lobby design and permanent signage including an East 14th Street marquee denoting the Hanna Theatre as the home of Great Lakes Theater Festival.  The name of the Hanna Theatre will remain unchanged, as will the theater's historic vertical blade sign above the marquee.  Playhouse Square will continue to own, manage and maintain the Hanna Theatre.

            Art Falco, President and Chief Executive Officer of Playhouse Square, lauded Great Lakes Theater Festival's efforts.  "Twenty-five years ago, Great Lakes Theater Festival came aboard as the first resident partner of Playhouse Square.  Today, the Festival is leading the effort as a genuine partner to transform the Hanna into a truly unique and innovative performance space that will set a new national standard for audience experience, engagement and comfort.  The new Hanna Theatre will enhance the vitality of the Theater District."

             It has long been a dream of the Festival to have a distinctively designed, permanent home that is right-sized for its audience, uniquely appropriate for classic theater productions and branded with a strong GLTF identity. The Re-Imagine a Classic campaign will make that dream a reality.  "Forty-six seasons ago this company was founded by a group of parents, civic leaders and educators in the hope of providing a lasting and meaningful cultural resource for their children and their grandchildren," said William W. Jacobs, GLTF's Board President.  "The Board and I are proud to play a role in continuing their legacy with this important project - creating a revolutionary new theater experience for the next generation of theater-goers and realizing the Festival's long-time goal of providing a permanent home for the classics in Northeast Ohio."

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Great Lakes Theater Festival
The mission of Great Lakes Theater Festival is to bring the pleasure, power and relevance of classic theater to the widest possible audience in northern Ohio. 

Since the company's inception in 1962, programming has been rooted in Shakespeare, but the Festival's commitment to great plays spans the breadth of all cultures, forms of theater and time periods including the 20th century, and provides for the occasional mounting of new works that compliment the classical repertoire. 

Classic theater holds the capacity to illuminate truth and enduring values, celebrate and challenge human nature and actions, revel in eloquent language, preserve the traditions of diverse cultures and generate communal spirit. On its mainstage and through its education program, the Festival seeks to create visceral, immediate experiences for participants, asserting theater's historic role as a vehicle for advancing the common good, and helping people make the most joyful and meaningful connections between classic plays and their own lives. This Cleveland theater company wishes to share such vibrant experiences with people across all age groups, creeds, racial and ethnic groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. 

The Festival is dedicated to the highest standards in all areas of its operation, including theater production, education and outreach, management and governance, and to creative problem solving and innovation.





Playhouse Square
Playhouse Square is a not-for-profit performing arts center whose mission is presenting and producing a wide variety of quality performing arts, advancing arts education and creating a theater district that is a superior location for entertainment, business and housing, thereby strengthening the economic vitality of the region.





Westlake Reed Leskosky 
Westlake Reed Leskosky (WRL) provides comprehensive fully integrated design and management services including architecture, engineering, interior architecture and design, lighting and theatre technology, sustainable design utilizing the LEED building rating system, master planning and programming. The firm specializes in innovative designs for Workplace Environments, Healthcare, Performing Arts, Museums, Interpretive Centers and other cultural venues, as well as Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse. 

Westlake Reed Leskosky has offices in Phoenix, Cleveland, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. A limited liability company with four members: Paul E. Westlake, Jr., Ronald A. Reed, Vince Leskosky and Philip LiBassi. In continuous practice since 1905, the firm has been recognized for design with more than 100 significant awards and publications. Each year, WRL's 120 professional, technical and support staff implement approximately $500,000,000 in construction value and design. The firm's integrated design process is supported with specialized services such as engineering, environmental design, historic tax credits, theatre and lighting design, audio visual, acoustics, and interior design.

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Media Contact
Todd S. Krispinsky

Marketing and Public Relations Director 

Great Lakes Theater Festival
1501 Euclid Avenue, Suite 300
(216) 241-5490 x317
(216) 241-6315 Fax
www.greatlakestheater.org <http://www.greatlakestheater.org/> 
 
Todd Krispinsky
Marketing and Public Relations Director
Great Lakes Theater Festival
1501 Euclid Avenue, Suite 300
(216) 241-5490 x317
(216) 241-6315 Fax
www.greatlakestheater.org <http://www.greatlakestheater.org/> 
 
Todd Krispinsky
Marketing and Public Relations Director
Great Lakes Theater Festival
1501 Euclid Avenue, Suite 300
(216) 241-5490 x317
(216) 241-6315 Fax
www.greatlakestheater.org <http://www.greatlakestheater.org/> 
 
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