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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>I have been very interested in the
responses to the proposed relocation of The Cleveland Playhouse to
PlayhouseSquare and I would like to contribute a thought or two.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>I knew many of the rep players already
mentioned in some earlier NEOHIOPAL emails, and there is no doubt that the reparatory
nature of the company exemplified by the likes of Patterson, Halverson,
Oberlin, Joseph, and others were abandoned by later directors and boards.<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>Though there is still a company at The
Cleveland Playhouse, it is not an identifiable ensemble of actors that has
interacted in production after production, season after season, year after
year.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>What did remain, however, was The
Cleveland Playhouse’s physicality. <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>I have many positive memories associated The
Cleveland Playhouse as a complex and a series of stages.<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>As first a Curtain Puller and then an
Apprentice, I relished the freedom I had going backstage and onstage; exploring
the 86<sup>th</sup> Street rehearsal rooms, passages and design spaces; I
appreciated that Joel Grey, Ray Walston and Margaret Hamilton performed on these
very stages.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>When (or if) The Cleveland Playhouse company
moves to PlayhouseSquare, The Cleveland Playhouse will cease to exist as a
unique performing arts organization with its own distinct physical,
architectural presence. <span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>It will become
“The Cleveland Playhouse at PlayhouseSquare” and a tenant in a complex
not its own, as wonderful as that complex undoubtedly is. <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>As such, The Cleveland Playhouse at
PlayhouseSquare will not be master of its own historic performing arts space (such
as is still the case at Karamu), but be subject to the dictates of a lease
agreement.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>This will restrict the company’s
access to its physical plant, if only as a matter of logistics, competing use
and overall security.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>So, though this move may be necessary to try
to save a local performing arts organization with a storied past, this is an
historically significant architectural loss for Cleveland as well as a personal
loss to the many thousands who thought of The Cleveland Playhouse as a distinct,
standalone physical entity (Cleveland’s Globe, as it were) and as one of the
country’s oldest continuous regional theater complex, if not the oldest. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Alas, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Cleveland</st1:place></st1:City>’s House of Plays will be no
more.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>James
Harris</span></font></st1:PersonName><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>H/L Communications<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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