Ensemble Theatre Announces ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE Season

Ensemble Theatre announces its 34th consecutive season. "ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE". This season's selection of plays are all in one way or another, some kind of love story.

Ensemble embarks on its third season in our Coventry home with ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER, by Cleveland's own Rajiv Joseph. When a world-renowned origami artist opens her studio to a teenage prodigy and his school teacher, she discovers that life and love can't be arranged neatly in this drama about finding the perfect fold.- Directed by Ensemble Theatre's Artistic Director Celeste Cosentino,Animals Out of Paper will open Friday, September 27th and run through Sunday, October 20th .

"Mr. Joseph's observant, pitch-perfect script...is really quite ambitious, dealing ruthlessly...with the fragility of happiness, the tragedy of impulsiveness and the tenuousness of hope." (-NY Times).

Stay tuned for events surrounding this production, in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art and other arts organizations as well as the playwright himself! Ensemble has previously produced Rajiv's Huck and Holden and Gruesome Playground Injuries. His film Draft Day is currently filming in Cleveland and stars Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Frank Langella, Dennis Leary, and Sam Elliot among many others!

Following this artful season opener, Ensemble will welcome a new director into the "fold". Martin Friedman, Lakeland Community College theater instructor, who recently directed the critically acclaimed productions ofProof and Next to Normal, will take on Craig Lucas' romantic comedy PRELUDE TO A KISS. At Peter and Rita's wedding, a mysterious old man insists on kissing the bride..... Opening FridayNovember 21st, this production will run through Sunday December 15th.

PRELUDE TO A KISS is Lucas at his lightest and brightest. A rare combination of laughter, romance and throat-tightening substance." (-CurtainUp.)

Ensemble will bring in the new year in the spirit of collaboration and love, with "KNOCK ME A KISS", by Charles Smith. Mr. Smith is the Head of the MFA Playwriting program at Ohio University and his Free Man of Color andThe Gospel According to James have also been produced by Ensemble. Winner of 9 2011 AUDELCO Awards, "Knock Me a Kiss" is a fictional account inspired by the actual events surrounding the 1928 marriage of W.E.B. Du Bois's daughter Yolande to one of Harlem's great poets, Countee Cullen. The marriage marked the height of the Harlem Renaissance and was viewed as the perfect union of Negro talent and beauty. This production will open Friday January 31st and run through SundayFebruary 23rd. Directed by Oberlin Colleges' Caroline Jackson Smith (currently the Acting Chair for the African American Studies Department as well as an Associate Professor of Theater) this production will provide a unique collaboration with artists from Oberlin, Ohio University and Ensemble Theatre.

"In one blistering scene after another, with dialogue that is alternately highly poetic, down-and-dirty, eerily disturbing and fiercely authoritarian, Smith exposes the lies and the blazing truths that animate his characters." (-Chicago Sun Times)

Ensemble will once again close the season with an American Classic. Before "The Great Gatsby" there was Eugene O'Neill's first full length play and 1920 Pulitzer Prize winning BEYOND THE HORIZON. Set in the 1920s, "Beyond the Horizon" explores what happens when two brothers love the same woman and the compromises each will make to have her. Opening Friday April 18th and running through Sunday May 11th, Ensemble Artistic Director Celeste Cosentino, brings a contemporary sensibility to archetypal and universal themes promising a unique and refreshing directorial take on this classic.

"Beyond the Horizon offers us the tragedy of a beautiful soul buffeted by fate, losing everything and still remaining compassionate"(-Back Stage NYC)

All productions perform Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm unless otherwise stated. The Colombi New Plays Festival Plays will include Thursday evening performances at 8pm.