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align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia>Cleveland Play House leads with its
left with expressionistic, heavyweight drama ‘The Royale’</FONT></SPAN></B></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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align=center><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
face=Georgia>Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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face=Georgia>Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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face=Georgia>Member, American Theatre Critics Association</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia>Howard Sackler's Tony Award-
and Pulitzer Prize-winning play “The Great White Hope” offered a dramatization
of the real life struggles – the demonization, the racism, the ridicule – of
boxer Jack Johnson after becoming the first African American heavyweight
champion of the world at the start of the 20<SUP>th</SUP>
century.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; mso-outline-level: 2"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial'>Originally
staged in 1967, the drama was a gargantuan production that featured 63 actors
playing 247 roles in 20 scenes that jump counties and countries over the course
of three and a half hours. The show boldly and uncompromisingly took to the
stage at a time </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">when the civil
rights movement took to the streets.</SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ">Marco Ramirez's “The Royale” – p</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT color=#141412>remiering in 2013 and
</FONT></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ">currently being staged by the
Cleveland Play House as the main event of this year’s New Ground Theatre
Festival – explores the personal demons Johnson encountered on his way to that
championship fight.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ">The storytelling is comparatively sparse and
intimate, stripped down to one act, five actors and a boxing ring.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And it is given an expressionistic
theatricality that doesn’t so much serve to display the state of racism in this
country as subtly </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">remind us just how
deeply ingrained it is in the American psyche.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "> </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face=Georgia><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'>For
more of this article, go to </SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0563c1>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>