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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><b><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></strong></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><b><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Karamu House
Inc.</span></font></b></strong><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'><br>
<st1:address w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on"><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>2355 East 89th Street</span></font></b></strong></st1:Street></st1:address><br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><strong><b><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial'>Cleveland</span></font></b></strong></st1:City><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>, <st1:State w:st="on">OH</st1:State>
<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">44106</st1:PostalCode></span></font></b></strong></st1:place></st1:address></span></font></b><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>216-795-7070<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>Contact: Vivian C. Wilson<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'> 216.795.7070 x 215<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'> </span></font></b><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>KARAMU HOUSE TO INDUCT BENNO D. FRANK AND <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>HELMUTH WOLFES INTO HALL OF FAME ON JUNE 28<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span class=style6><b><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;
font-weight:bold'>CLEVELAND – June 2, 2008 –</span></font></b></span><span
class=style6><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;font-family:Arial'> Karamu House will posthumously induct internationally
renown director Benno D. Frank and musical director Helmuth Wolfes into its
Hall of Fame on June 28 at 20/20 in the Flats. <o:p></o:p></span></font></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>The
collaborations of Frank and Wolfes were widely reported during their tenure at
Karamu. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>In
its winter 1958 edition, “</span></font><cite><i><font size=2 face=Arial><span
lang=EN style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;font-style:
normal'>Shakespeare Quarterly</span></font></i></cite><font size=2 face=Arial><span
lang=EN style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>” highlighted
the directors’ involvement in the production of “MacBeth.”
The acknowledgement read: “</span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>Opened March 19 (four-week run). Karamu Theatre, <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Cleveland</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Ohio</st1:State></st1:place>.
Director, Benno D. Frank. Musical direction, Helmuth Wolfes. Set design by
Leonard Dryansky. Choreography by Christine Buster. Premiere of lyric drama by
Ernest Bloch and Edmond Fleg based on the Shakespeare play.”</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:
Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>A newsletter
by the Metropolitan Opera National Council of New York in 1963 noted the two
men would direct two American premieres at Karamu – Julius Bittner's
“The Devil’s Gold” and Joseph Hadyn’s “Foolish
and Fickle,” which had been discovered three years earlier in the
Hungarian State Library in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Budapest</st1:place></st1:City>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>Frank
was born in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Mannheim</st1:City>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region></st1:place>. His father was a Polish
consular official. When Hitler came to power in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region>,
Frank fled to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>
and became general manager and director of the Palestine Opera Company and head
of drama and opera at the Palestine Conservatory. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>In
1938, Frank came to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">United
States</st1:country-region></st1:place> and became stage director of the
American League for Opera, head of the opera department of New York College of
Music and play director at the World’s Fair. He was stage director at the
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Academy</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Vocal
Arts</st1:PlaceName> in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Philadelphia</st1:City></st1:place>.</span></font>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>From
1948 to 1967, Frank was a director of musicals and operas at Karamu. He also
directed musicals at the Play House and <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Cain</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Park</st1:PlaceType>, led the opera department of the
Cleveland Music School Settlement and directed plays off-Broadway and in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:City></st1:place>. He died in
1980 in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>“I
benefited from the stage directions of Benno Frank,” penned Karamu alumni
Robert Guillaume in “Guillaume,” his 2002 autobiography. “An
Israeli in his 60s, Benno was old school. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> (Benno)
had worked at the Habiba, the national theater of Israel, and had no interest
in psychological subtleties or fashionable notions of Method acting … Instead,
his direction was absolutely utilitarian. Forty years later, they are
directions I still employ,” wrote Guillaume, a 2006 Karamu Hall of Fame inductee.
</span></font><font size=2 face=Courier><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:Courier'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>Early
in Wolfes’ career, he was the music director of the Monte Carlo Opera
and conductor of the Berlin State Opera. In 1938, he left <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region> to come to <st1:country-region w:st="on">United
States</st1:country-region> as assistant conductor of the City Center Opera in
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">New York</st1:State></st1:place>. He
conducted on several USO tours and was the chorus director of the New
Orleans Opera House. After 1953, Wolfes worked as a music director
of Karamu. He died in 1971.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><span
class=style6><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;font-family:Arial'> “If These Walls Could Talk” is the theme
of this year’s Hall of Fame event. The ceremony will also pay tribute to actors
Al Fann, Jean E. Hawkins and R. Joyce Whitley, playwright Langston Hughes, benefactor
and Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones and former executive director Ken
Snipes. Actor Katrice Monee Headd will receive the “On the Rise”
award, an honor reserved for the next generation of Karamu stars.<o:p></o:p></span></font></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%;text-autospace:
none'><span class=style6><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>James Pickens of television’s
“Grey’s Anatomy” and entertainer Kym Whitley will co-host the
induction ceremony at 20/20 in the Flats. Pickens and Whitley also hail from <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Cleveland</st1:City></st1:place> and are Karamu
alums.<o:p></o:p></span></font></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><span
class=style6><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;font-family:Arial'>Prior to the ceremony, Fann, Hawkins, Headd, Pickens
and Kym Whitley will field audience questions during “Inside the
Performer’s Dressing Room.” NewsNet 5 anchor Danita Harris Pratt
will moderate the free event at Karamu. A dinner and the inductions will follow
at 6 p.m.<o:p></o:p></span></font></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><span
class=style6><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;font-family:Arial'>Tickets are available by calling Vivian C. Wilson at 216.795.7070,
ext. 215, or by visiting Karamu’s Web site at <a
href="http://www.karamu.com">www.karamu.com</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>Karamu
holds the honor as the country’s oldest multicultural theater and can
trace its humble origins to 1915. The name Karamu is Swahili for “a place
of joyful gathering.” Nestled in an urban community, the center offers
additional services, including an early childhood development center,
after-school programs, cultural and arts education outreach and senior citizen
activities.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:.5in;
line-height:150%'><span class=style6><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>---</span></font></span><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:
Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><span
class=style6><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;font-family:Arial'>Karamu House has been an important part of the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Cleveland</st1:City></st1:place> community for
nearly a century. From a unique vantage-point within the African-American
community, Karamu has fostered true interracial understanding and cooperation,
an awareness of cultural diversity and an appreciation for the rich
African-American cultural heritage.</span></font></span><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
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