[NEohioPAL] Cleveland Play House (history)

[Ansley Valentine]

In fairness, nearly every LORT theatre that had one dismantled their
resident companies between 1985-90. There are a few exceptions like
Milwaukee Rep, or companies that have somewhat limited seasons or
perform in rep like the Guthrie. There was an economic incentive (didn't
need to keep those actors on salary all season), and an artistic or
philosophical shift that seemed to favor "New York actors" over "local
actors." 

I have never really understood that. Certainly, one can make a big PR
splash for a star coming to town (under Josie Abady, she trouped in lots
of TV and film folks with recognizable names). But for my money, I am
just as happy to see a local actor who is good. Good acting is good
acting, no matter where you have your mail forwarded from. The current
economic turmoil may have a definite benefit for local artists. It is a
helluva lot cheaper to cast a local person than to bring in someone from
New York. And I would venture to say that audiences won't care as long
as the production is good.

We can be thankful that the Cleveland Play House is working to stay
alive. Some many places have just closed up. My last LORT job was with
Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, NY. They shuttered at the start of the
economic downturn. Audience members and artists never realize the strain
that real estate can place on a theatre operation. Every young theatre
company dreams of having their own "space." But once the funds come, and
they buy/build/receive said place, the focus completely changes. Then,
programming must become more mainstream, or other income avenues must be
developed to "feed the beast" i.e. keep the lights on, pay the heat, and
so on. Suddenly, those needs are driving the artistic mission, not the
innovative or creative work that helped the theatre grow to prominence
in the first place. To give the Play House credit, they have managed to
keep new plays and new play development as a major part of the
programming each year. Hopefully the move downtown will let that program
grow even more.


These are interesting times to live in.

Ansley Valentine
Associate Professor
Co-Vice Chair, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Region
III
College of Wooster Film Studies Program Chair

The College of Wooster
Department of Theatre & Dance
1189 Beall Avenue
Wooster, OH 44691
330-263-2028 Office
330-347-1519 Cell Phone
330-263-2690 Fax
>>> Christopher Fortunato <learnedhand at live.com> 04/14/09 11:26 AM >>>

I saw John Buck in Richard III back in 1975 or so.  I think the late
Marj Dodrill was in that cast as well. When I was in junior and senior
high school they only had the Drury and the Brooks for performances.  We
saw all our plays in the Drury and I loved it.  

 

Wayne Turney did one hell of a turn as Harry Truman in "Give em Hell
Harry" a few seasons back at Actors Summit before he left Cleveland.
 

I can imagine Phillip Johnson pulling something like that.  He was a
fussy old man who was probably not really cared for by our conservative
establishment notwithstanding his sister, Jeannette Dempsey (I believe)
was a grand dame of the community having married a high placed corporate
lawyer.  


Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:20:31 -0700
From: kulturekids at yahoo.com
To: neohiopal at listserve.com
Subject: [NEohioPAL] Cleveland Play House (history)





I donT know how interested you are in any of this (perhaps not at all),
but given the attention given to the sale of the Cleveland Play House in
the last week or so, I thought I would share.
    I was an apprentice at the Play House during the 1985-86 season. 
Basically, I was a slave, appearing in three productions (On The Razzle,
A Christmas Carol, and A Streetcar Named Desire) and working on ALL of
the productions in one capacity or another.  I was there 50 hours a
week, sometimes more.
    The joke at that time (among everyone who worked there) was that the
Philip Johnson building (only two years old at that time) was Johnson's
"revenge on Cleveland".  Horrible design, terrible    There was large concensus on this subject.  From almost everyone.
    Also, the Play House company was in its last throes.  Actors such as
Wayne Turney, Richard Halverson, Sharon Bicknell, John Buck, Jr., James
Richards, and others were slowly realizing that their regular work was
about to end...no more resident company was fast approaching on the
horizon.  And it did, indeed, come to pass (under Josie Abady).
   Will Rhys was the acting artistic director at the time (his toddler
son, Evan, had just died due to a horrible plunge through a stairwell
right in the Cleveland Play House building), and he told me "this
theater will be gone in 30 years or less....it will probably move
downtown.  The Board won't make this work."
    He was right.


Tom Kerr


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