[NEohioPAL] Theatre in the Circle at Judson Manor closes

[Bill & Mark Corcoran]

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu . . .


We've had a good, fun, challenging and most of all rewarding run at Theatre in the Circle.  As Artistic Director, Bill Corcoran, likes to say, "Who'd have thunk it?"   Well, he did, as a matter of fact. On our initial tour of Judson Manor back in 2013,  before we became members of this community of extraordinary and accomplished seniors, Bill marveled at the public spaces of the elegant Loegler Lounge and the now spectacular Ballroom and said, "What amazing venues for intimate theater!"

For three years, we Corcorans kicked around the ideas of How, Where, When, If and Why. The Why was a probably the easiest  question to answer. In University Circle, the cultural nexus of the city, there was no  professional theater accessible to this Judson community.  Here we were living with a group of sophisticated, life-long theater goers with no easy access to theater. Soon after we joined Judson, we offered to take two lady friends (both using walkers), to see a matinee at Playhouse Square. Let us tell you, it wasn't easy.  

So in 2016 we created Theatre in the Circle and opened our first show, EDDIE! starring Molly McGinnis, Tom Woodward, David L. Munnell and Don Disantis. Bless their hearts for taking a chance on two old guys with a new idea. The response was overwhelming and enthusiastic. We then opened to the public with Cleveland favorite, Jacques Brel is Alive And Well & Living In Paris to sold-out houses. Very quickly 60% of our audiences were coming from outside the Judson communities. We were off  to the races and were landing grants from Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, Neighborhood Connections, The Cleveland Foundation, Ohio Arts Council and financial gifts from many treasured donors.

We followed with I Do! I Do!, The All Night Strut, The Gift of the Magi, Nunsense A-Men, The Gospel According to Mark (with J.R. Stuart), Pump Boys and Dinettes, The Gift of the Magi (re-cast), Love Letters (with the dream cast of George Roth and the late and much loved Dorothy Silver), Liberace! (starring the incomparable David Maiocco), You're a God Man Charlie Brown ( with an all senior cast), The World Goes 'Round, and It's A Wonderful LIfe.   We were ready to start rehearsals on My Way, A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra, but Covid-19 stopped the show (literally and not in a good way).  Covid-19 was not the reason we closed Theatre in the Circle. In fact, Mark Corcoran, Managing Director,  became a certified Covid Compliance Officer required by Actors’ Equity protocols.

A recent attempt to restart the Sinatra show was cancelled for an entirely different reason. Due to a years-long process go renovating and upgrading apartments here at Judson Manor, we are faced with living somewhere else for at least a year, maybe longer. Why? Our entire 5th floor will have a gut-renovation out-to-the-brick. There is no apartment comparable to our present home available to us for now. We have no idea where we will be, but commuting from somewhere else, be it another part of this city, an entirely different city or even another country, isn't feasible. Talented as we may be, bi-location is not in our skill set.  What added ease and joy to operating Theatre in the Circle was working right here where we lived. We were just an elevator ride away from the work we loved doing.

Keeping Theatre in the Circle alive had become more challenging and ever-changing with Covid protocols, reductions in arts funding, maintaining a safe work space,  and assuring the very necessary mandates for inclusion, equity and diversity.  It's been fun; it's been real. But bottom-line, the party's over. We wouldn't trade the world the opportunities we've had to work with talented artists of all stripes and such enthusiastic and generous audiences.

Thanks you for being part of the little theater that could.

Bill and Mark Corcoran




Bill & Mark Corcoran
theatreinthecircle at gmail.com
1890 East 107th St., Apt. 520
Cleveland, OH 44106
(216) 282-9424



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