Cain Park Announces MEMPHIS as 2018 Production

The City of Cleveland Heights announces MEMPHIS will be produced in the Alma Theater June 14-July 1 as part of Cain Park?s 80th Anniversary season; preview is June 14 with opening night on June 15. Cain Park Theater Artistic Director Joanna May Hunkins directs MEMPHIS with musical direction by Jordan Cooper.

From the underground dance clubs of 1950's Memphis, Tennessee, comes the Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical that bursts off the stage with explosive dancing, irresistible songs and a thrilling tale of fame and forbidden love. Inspired by actual events, MEMPHIS is about a white radio DJ who wants to change the world and a black club singer who is ready for her big break. Audiences will be taken on an incredible journey to the ends of the airwaves - filled with laughter, soaring emotion, and roof-raising rock 'n roll. Winner of four 2010 Tony Awards including Best Musical and two 2015 Olivier Awards, Memphis features a Tony-winning book by Joe DiPietro and a Tony-winning original score with music by Bon Jovi founding member David Bryan.

The original Broadway production ran for 1,195 performances, closing on August 5, 2012. Since debuting on Broadway in 2009, MEMPHIS went on a two-year national tour, productions across the USA and a stint on London's West End.

Equity and Non-Equity Auditions will take place February 23-24 (Friday 6-11pm, Saturday 10am-6pm) in the Cleveland Heights Community Center with details to follow in a separate release.

Joanna May Hunkins has worked at Cain Park in various capacities over the past 20 years, most recently co-directing the critically acclaimed production of Godspell and directing last year's Rock of Ages. She is also the associate director of The Musical Theater Project. As a freelance director/performer throughout northeast Ohio, Joanna has worked with Great Lakes Theater, The Cleveland Play House, Mercury Theatre Company, Ensemble Theatre, and Beck Center among others. Joanna graduated from Baldwin-Wallace University with a B.A. in Theatre and completed the graduate studies program in Arts Management at The University of Akron. She also attended The National Cabaret Conference at Yale University where she worked with multiple Broadway legends and Tony award nominees.

Jordan Cooper was the artistic director for Shining Star CLE 2017 and has worked at Dobama Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Playhouse Square, Lakeland Civic Theatre, Cain Park, The Florida Repertory Theatre Company, Near West Theatre and the Cassidy Theatre. His favorite Cleveland theater credits include: Next To Normal, The Light In the Piazza, Violet, Into the Woods (Lakeland); Rock of Ages, The Toxic Avenger, Godspell, The Frogs (Cain Park); The Little Foxes (Cleveland Play House); A Civil War Christmas, Peter & The Starcatcher (Dobama).

Cain Park, a municipally owned and operated summer performing arts park and one of the nation's oldest landmark outdoors entering its 80th season in 2018, is produced by the City of Cleveland Heights and is located on Superior Road between Lee and South Taylor roads.

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