Cleveland Play House Announces 2011-12 Season

Calling it the most exciting lineup he's programmed, Artistic Director Michael Bloom announces the lineup for the 96th consecutive season of Cleveland Play House, which will inaugurate the Allen Theatre Complex at PlayhouseSquare. A classic opener and a broad range of new work contribute to the variety of entertainment Bloom has designed for the 2011-12 Season.

"'A new age is dawning and it's great to be alive' is a line from Galileo, the play kicking off our 2011-12 Season," reflects Bloom. "It is a fitting sentiment for the rebirth of Cleveland Play House." Bloom is referring to the relocation of Cleveland Play House into a reconfigured Allen Theater Complex at PlayhouseSquare in downtown Cleveland which will house three new, intimate theaters. Bloom continues, "This first season at PlayhouseSquare is designed to establish our unique artistic identity downtown and offer great theatre for the widest possible audience."

Making its world premiere is the newest play by Ken Ludwig (Lend Me A Tenor), The Games Afoot or Holmes for the Holidays, a murder mystery comedy that Bloom describes as "Agatha Christie meets Noises Off." A new comedy about the Lunts and their friends, Ten Chimneys by Jeffrey Hatcher, will christen the brand new Second Stage, Cleveland's only truly flexible theatre. "The Second Stage can be configured in any way we can imagine, and the audience's experience will benefit from its extraordinary intimacy," says Bloom. Daddy Long Legs, a new romantic musical from the Tony and Olivier Award-Winning director of Les Miserables and the creators of Jane Eyre, "offers a unique chamber musical and a way of showing off the intimacy of the new Allen Theatre mainstage," declares Bloom. Red, the 2010 Tony Award-winner for Best Play by John Logan, will be directed by Anders Cato, who returns to CPH following two masterful shows (I Am My Own Wife, Crime & Punishment). Another director returning to Cleveland Play House is Lou Bellamy (A Raisin in the Sun), who will helm Radio Golf, the final and most contemporary play in August Wilson's unprecedented 10-play cycle about African-American life. Ending the season on the Second Stage, In the Next Room or the vibrator play is one of the most acclaimed recent comedies by Sarah Ruhl (Clean House) and the anchor for FusionFest 2012, the 7th consecutive annual festival of new works in music, dance and theatre.

SUBSCRIPTION AND TICKET INFORMATION

Subscription packages for all seven (7) plays range from $262 to $367 (a 25% discount off single ticket prices) and include free parking all season. Extra discounts are available for students, educators, clergy and groups. Partial season packages will be available in May. To purchase subscriptions or receive more information, call 216-795-7000 ext. 4 or go to www.clevelandplayhouse.com.

Tickets for individual performances will range from $10 (for students) to $69 and will go on sale August 14, 2011. Group tickets (10+) are available now at savings up to 50%; interested parties should call CoSandra Wheeler, Group Sales Manager at (216) 795-7000 x180.

Founded in 1915, Cleveland Play House is America's first professional regional theatre. More than 12 million people have attended over 1,300 productions at Cleveland Play House - including more than 130 American and/or World Premieres. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Bloom and Managing Director Kevin Moore, Cleveland Play House is an artist-driven theatre that serves the community by holding true to its mission: To inspire, stimulate and entertain diverse audiences in Northeast Ohio by producing plays and theatre education programs of the highest professional standards.

Cleveland Play House receives public support with local tax dollars from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, to preserve and enrich our region's artistic and cultural heritage; and from The Ohio Arts Council, helping to fund Cleveland Play House with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.

2011-12 Mainstage Season

Galileo
Written by Bertolt Brecht, translation by David Edgar

Directed by Michael Donald Edwards

Allen Theatre ~ September 16 - October 9, 2011

It's a new age! The telescope, astronomy, and the dawn of science. The great inventor of it all is one courageous man, Galileo Galilei. Filled with an exciting blend of drama and biting humor, this powerful biography presents the startlingly relevant tale of history's most famous conflict between reason and faith.

Daddy Long Legs

From the Tony and Olivier Award-Winning Director of Les Miserables and the creators of Jane Eyre
Music and lyrics by Paul Gordon
Book by John Caird, adapted from the novel by Jean Webster
Directed by John Caird
Allen Theatre ~ October 21 - November 13, 2011

When an anonymous patron agrees to pay an orphan's tuition, her young life changes overnight. All that the benefactor- nicknamed Daddy Long Legs- requests in return is a monthly letter. From one of the Tony Award-winning directors of Les Miserables comes a charming love story that combines enthralling music, witty dialogue, and a wonderfully intimate and compelling relationship.

The Games Afoot; or Holmes for the Holidays

Written by Ken Ludwig
Directed by Aaron Posner
Allen Theatre ~ November 25 - December 18, 2011
A world premiere

Acclaimed actor of the 1930s, William Gillette, invites his Sherlock Holmes co-stars to his eccentric Connecticut mansion for a Christmas Eve celebration. When one of the guests is murdered, Gillette employs the persona of the master detective he's made famous on the stage.

Ten Chimneys

Written by Jeffrey Hatcher
Michael Bloom
Second Stage ~ January 13 - February 5, 2012

Sex, summer and scandal take center stage as real-life theatrical legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and friends Sydney Greenstreet and Uta Hagen rehearse Chekhov's masterpiece The Seagull at their idyllic Wisconsin retreat, Ten Chimneys. This hilarious and heart-warming backstage comedy about love and life in the theatre will have you laughing with tears.

Radio Golf

Written By August Wilson
Directed by Lou Bellamy
Co-produced with Indiana Repertory Theatre
Allen Theatre ~ February 10 - March 4, 2012

Pittsburgh. The late 1990s. A successful and idealistic entrepreneur aspires to become the city's first black mayor. But while looking ahead to his and the city's future, he is forced to revisit the past and explore "the price of progress." The most contemporary of all of August Wilson's work, and the final chapter in his unprecedented 10-play cycle chronicling African-American life in the 20th century.

Red

Tony Award-winning best play of 2010
Written By John Logan
Directed by Anders Cato
Co-produced with George Street Playhouse
Allen Theatre ~ March 16 - April 8, 2012

Master American abstract expressionist Mark Rothko has just landed the biggest commission in the history of modern art, a series of murals for New York's famed Four Seasons Restaurant (designed by Cleveland-native Philip Johnson). In the two fascinating years that follow, Rothko works feverishly with a young assistant in his studio on the Bowery. But when the shy but determined young man gains the confidence to challenge him, Rothko faces the agonizing possibility that his crowning achievement could also become his undoing.

In the Next Room or the vibrator play

Written by Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Laura Kepley
Second Stage ~ April 13 - May 6, 2012

At the dawn of electricity, a remarkable treatment for "hysterical" men and women is taking place in the office of an inventive physician. Patients arrive troubled and depart delighted with the help of the doctor's "little helper." Hailed as "one of the most gifted and adventurous American Playwrights" by The New York Times, Sarah Ruhl offers an inspired new comedy about the mysteries of our inner lives. For Mature Audiences.

 

Need more Cleveland Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...