VOICES Premieres At PlayhouseSquare’s Hanna Theatre 9/8-11

"VOICES" is an original drama, written and directed by Cleveland restaurateur David Lombardy (founder of Dave's Cosmic Subs). The play makes its world premiere at PlayhouseSquare's Hanna Theatre, Sept. 8 - 11 at 8 pm nightly and stars seven young Greater Clevelanders. This premiere coincides with September 10th's Worldwide Suicide Prevention Day.

After slashing his wrists, a young man begins to hear "voices"-fragments of his past which drove him to attempt to take his own life. Based on a true story, "VOICES'" main character, Jim, is a young man in search of himself...one who has lived with manic depression and beaten the odds. "I finally faced the mirror and had come to understand the meaning of ‘to thine ownself be true'," he says.

("VOICES" tickets are $50, on sale at playhousesquare.org, 216-241-6000 or the PlayhouseSquare Ticket Office. A portion of the proceeds will benefit The Foundation for Advancement of Brain and Emotion Research (FABER), a project of Dr. Herbert Meltzer, former Professor of Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and currently Bixler Professor of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville.)

Lombardy, 59, of Moreland Hills, OH, penned the play 18 years ago, writing it in just 30 days. He held two readings at the Cleveland Play House in the late ‘90s, where one audience member told him it was "the best piece of work I've seen in 25 years."

Lombardy then worked with the former Ensemble Theater in Cleveland Heights, where the late Lucia Columbi planned to direct the work with Cleveland Play House actors, but the production was never mounted. Earlier this year, Lombardy dusted off his "VOICES" script, determined to finally bring it to the stage, obtaining sponsors, hiring actors and creating sets for its September Hanna Theatre debut.

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