“What ‘cha got?”

That’s the first question Raymond Bobgan, artistic director of Cleveland Public Theatre, asks the playwrights and directors he works with when he’s assembling a new season.

Instead of scanning lists of published scripts and hoping he can claim a show before another local theater, Bobgan and his staff often go directly to their sources in seeking out new, unseen material.

The result is a 2011-12 season in which CPT is mounting seven full productions of world premieres (out of a total of 11 shows). This is remarkable because, for most theaters in this region and around the nation, one or two premieres per season would be considered ambitious.

“We prefer to select directors and playwrights, instead of picking shows,” says Bobgan. “Then, they tell us what they’re working on that really excites them. That’s the stuff we’re interested in presenting at CPT.”

There’s also a payoff for Cleveland audiences.

As Bobgan explains, “Our new plays receive a great response here for one important reason: Invention and manufacturing are part of the Cleveland mythos, part of the city’s collective unconscious. So our audiences have an eager, natural curiosity. And that’s a perfect match for these shows.”

The string of CPT premieres, which features many local creators, began with the just-closed “Monster Play.” Like many of the premieres, it was a devised production (one that is not pre-scripted but put together by the director and his cast).

Next up in the premiere procession is “Ya Mama!,” a solo work created and performed by Cleveland actor Nina Domingue, which opens a two-week run Friday.

“This play deals with my changing perceptions of motherhood,” says Domingue, “about how I decided to be present for my children.” Her play was first staged in January in CPT’s Big Box workshop series.

Big Box is just one part of the multilayered development structure that CPT offers to playwrights, directors and performers. The latest edition of this series, Big Box ’12, opens Thursday, Jan. 5, and is a multiweek showing of 11 works-in-progress.

Other CPT steppingstones include Springboard, staged readings of plays in their infancy (which just concluded), and Leap/Conceive (Thursday through Saturday), a series that helps creators polish work at a midpoint in their process.

Another premiere production that is going through CPT development is “13 Most American Dreams,” which will open in May. It is conceived and directed by local theatrical innovator Pandora Robertson.

As she describes it, “My show looks at the Internet as a worldwide dream catcher, so we want to incorporate social media. We’ll probably invite the audience to keep their mobile phones on during the show as we develop interactive portraits of people and our culture.”

Three other locals — Jill, Frank and Meredith Levin — will launch the premiere of “Not The Flying Stupendas” in April. This show is for families (something of a rarity at CPT) and involves a circus where the headlining acrobats are out of commission. So staff members are forced to perform in the acrobats’ place, as clown acts and songs mesh with various personal dramas.

Director Matthew Earnest, whose “Wanderlust: A History of Walking” ignited the CPT stage last season, is returning in March with his new “Lulu Project.” It is based on two plays by Frank Wedekind, who wrote the controversial “Spring Awakening.” That 1892 play was recently turned into an award-winning Broadway musical.

As Earnest says, “This show will include graphic sexuality, as we follow a young woman making her way in a violent and debauched world.”

Thinking about that subject matter, Earnest, who is based in West Virginia, adds, “I consider myself very lucky to make some of my work here in Cleveland, where audiences embrace edgy and challenging material.”

CPT kicks off the new calendar year in January with “At-TEN-tion Span,” which offers a collection of fully produced, 10-minute devised plays by local artists.

And CPT’s season of firsts ends in May-June with “Akarui” by Iowan Jen Silverman. It’s a fantastical journey involving a transgender boy, a rave cave and forces that can transform dead bodies.

While new shows are not always great shows, innovation is critical to assuring theater remains viable by attracting young, adventurous and diverse audiences. In that effort, the energetic and daring Cleveland Public Theatre is an acknowledged leader — here and around the country.

– Christine Howey

Freelance critic Howey’s blog is raveandpan.blogspot.com.

[Original Cleveland.com Article] [PDF]

Published: Saturday, October 08, 2011, 6:30 AM     Updated: Saturday, October 08, 2011, 5:05 PM

By Joanna Connors, The Plain Dealer 

Lynn Ischay, The Plain DealerRaymond Bobgan, artistic director of Cleveland Public Theatre, on collaboration with Oberlin College: “This partnership benefits everyone. For students, there’s a real difference between working with other students in a university environment and working in a professional setting. It’s invaluable.”

CLEVELAND, Ohio — When college students study abroad, the journey takes them across foreign borders and always requires a passport.

Passports won’t be necessary for a group of Oberlin College students who will spend the winter term of 2013 working at Cleveland Public Theatre and, if all goes as planned, living in the Gordon Square neighborhood. But borders of a different kind will be crossed in the monthlong artistic residency, which CPT artistic director Raymond Bobgan is calling “study abroad in Cleveland.”

The pilot program will begin in the fall semester of 2012, when the group of about 20 students will stay in Oberlin to study with Oberlin faculty and CPT artists, Bobgan said. Then, in January 2013, they will move to the Gordon Square area and spend the month working on a CPT production.

The program is part of a newly formed arts-education collaboration of Oberlin and the Gordon Square Arts District’s three founding partners — CPT, Near West Theatre and the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization. It will kick off on Saturday, Oct.15, with a benefit for the arts district’s $30 million capital campaign.

The benefit begins at 6 p.m. in a pop-up art gallery in the Near West Lofts, 6710 Detroit Ave., with an exhibit by Oberlin art students. Their work will be for sale that night and for 10 days following. Works by Oberlin faculty will be auctioned during the benefit, which is followed by a gala at CPT’s Gordon Square Theatre, 6415 Detroit Ave. Tickets for the art-show portion are $100; for the gala, $50. Go to gordonsquare.org/oct15 or call 216-961-4242, Ext. 222.

Beyond the benefit, the collaborative plans at this point all involve Cleveland Public Theatre. In April 2012, Oberlin students and faculty will be part of a CPT production of “Iphigenia 2.0″ by Charles Mee. Matthew Wright, associate professor of theater at Oberlin, will direct a cast made up of Oberlin students and CPT professionals.

“This partnership benefits everyone,” Bobgan said. “For students, there’s a real difference between working with other students in a university environment and working in a professional setting. It’s invaluable.

“For us, it gives us a connection to the incredibly talented students at Oberlin. We want them to stay here, not go off to New York and other places. We want them to realize, ‘Wow, I can stay in Cleveland and work on my art and have a home.’ ”

[Original Cleveland.com Article]

Published: Saturday, July 23, 2011, 11:08 AM     Updated: Saturday, July 23, 2011, 9:52 PM

By Grant Segall

Lynn Ischay, The Plain Dealer

Raymond Bobgan has helped to revive a traditional neighborhood with very untraditional plays.

The award-winning Bobgan, 44, leads Cleveland Public Theatre. He shared last year’s Cleveland Arts Prize not just for directing admired shows but restoring landmark buildings and helping to turn around Detroit-Shoreway.

He also helps urban youths and homeless people turn around their lives.

Tell us about your background.

I’m from Santa Barbara. My dad’s Armenian. My mom’s Swedish. She directed plays in our church. I created my first play in sixth grade.

How’d you end up in Cleveland?

Came to Akron in 1991 to do what I thought was a one- or two-year director’s apprenticeship. I drove by the beautiful Carnegie library on Fulton. I went to Pilgrim Church in Tremont and saw “Marat/Sade.” I couldn’t believe someone was doing “Marat/Sade” in Cleveland.

So have you learned to cope with Cleveland weather?

I love the snow. When I grew up, I’d see snow in picture books. To me, it’s magical.

You miss anything about California?

I miss the ocean, and I miss the mountains. But I feel so much more at home in Cleveland. Cleveland’s an awesome community.

Californians have a vibe of falseness. There’s such an emphasis on material and physical things. Not a real sense of community.

In Cleveland, people’s cousins live in town. I like being in a community where people have to be accountable because somebody knows somebody who knows their brother.

How else is the North Coast different from the West Coast?

Cleveland’s a great place for traveling to other cities. It’s central. You can get to New York in a seven-, eight-hour drive, depending how fast. You can get to Chicago or Toronto.

Low cost of living, too. We could afford a house. We were able to bring artists here, and they could live with us. We moved again, right by Don’s on Lake.

It’s incredible to have a kid in Cleveland. We’re members of the Natural History Museum, the Science Center and the Zoo. Edgewater’s across the street. I can go on a bike ride there with my son, Raziel, who’s 10.

I went to the downtown library a lot with my son in the winter. I’m very fond of the sculpture garden there, with the little guys.

I also love the guy I call the basketball player on Mall A.

You mean the war memorial?

Is that a war memorial? I think he looks like a basketball player going for the rebound.

So what brought your wife, Holly Holsinger, to town?

We were just friends at UC Irvine. Then she came here and played romantic leads with me at CPT.

Favorite local band?

I’m a big fan of Lost State of Franklin, which is this hybrid country rock band.

Local heroes?

Matt Zone, my councilman, is going to kill me, but Joe Cimperman is one of my heroes. He’s done so much for the arts. He’s one of those pols who does it for the right reason. For the partner registry, he had to go to bat time and time again and find a way to reach. Rather than create divisions, he furthered discussions.

Is Cleveland’s theater cooler than California’s?

The theater in Santa Barbara was incredibly conservative. The CPT style of theater is really wide. Most of the work I do personally, it’s devised theater. That’s like being in a band that doesn’t do covers. We collaborate. We’re working it out together.

Do Clevelanders go for it?

I love Cleveland audiences. The broader culture has no idea what’s going on at CPT and no idea of our national reputation. But audiences who come here get it.

Artists from other communities are blown away by the support here. I had two friends come from New York and Philadelphia. As usual, they were going on and on about why I should be making art in those cities. I asked, “In either of those cities, is there a county fund that gives artists $20,000 fellowships?”

Do people expect cutting-edge work on the supposedly humdrum West Side?

I continue not to understand the East Side-West Side thing. It’s one city.

Tell us about your programs with homeless people and urban youths.

Theater gives them a space. They can be themselves and feel safe here and have their stories championed.

Tell us a success story.

Years ago, a 16-, 17-year-old disappeared and showed up halfway through the third or fourth day. He looks horrible. Police had arrested him on a warrant for his dad, an addict, who had the same name. The next day, they realize the mistake. He goes home. His wallet and clothes are all gone. He’d been robbed by his own father.

I got an email from him the other day. “I’m 32 years old, I’m married and have a job and I’m doing good, all because of CPT.”

Tell us about CPT’s digs.

The Gordon Square Theater’s 100 years old. We also own the old West Side Irish American Club building and the 1907 home of the first Romanian orthodox church in the U.S.

Where do you go for food?

I never have to leave my neighborhood. I’ve got XYZ now and Latitude. I like the pizza at Luxe. They have a European-style pizza, with less sauce.

I get the falafel sandwich at Nate’s and the jambalaya at The Souper Market on West 25th. At the Liquid Planet on Clifton: a blues factor smoothie.

One of my favorite restaurants is Jaipur Junction out in North Royalton. It’s the best Indian food in Cleveland.

Where do you shop?

There’s amazing antique stores on the West Side: Sweet Lorain and the others. Flower Child is a cool antique store on Clifton.

Tell us more about Gordon Square’s boom.

Forty-seven new businesses in the district since 2006. The data proves again and again: The arts make a huge difference to the economy. Young, creative professionals are buying homes in Battery Park and other parts of the neighborhood because they want to be connected to the arts.

[Original Article on Cleveland.com] [PDF]

Published: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 11:25 AM     Updated: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 11:26 AM

By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer

View full sizeGus Chan l The Plain DealerRobert “J.R.” Easterly says a state-supported program at Cleveland Public Theatre has played a big role in helping him give up a life of drugs and crime.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The street was his home. Crack cocaine made do for an occupation. Six prison stretches and a dishonorable discharge from the Army defined his career.

That was all before Robert “J.R.” Easterly got involved in 2006 in the Y-Haven Project, an annual program at Cleveland Public Theatre.

Now Easterly, 53, has a home and works as a theater technician. He’s got his sobriety and a measure of dignity, too.

But the future of the Y-Haven Project — which in the 12 years of its existence has helped more than 200 men in similar straits — is uncertain in the wake of Gov. John Kasich’s proposed 19.5 percent cut in the budget of the Ohio Arts Council.

Kasich’s proposal could create a “perfect storm” for Ohio cultural organizations that depend on both state and federal funding. The latest proposed OAC cuts were announced Tuesday as some in Congress want to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts.

View full sizePDCleveland Public Theatre.

In the case of the Y-Haven Project, the state arts council contributed $9,100 to the inner-city program’s $54,000 budget for the 2010 fiscal year, and the NEA another $10,000. Together, state and federal money comprised more than 35 percent of the project’s budget last year.

Kasich’s proposed OAC reduction comes as the beleaguered state agency is still reeling from a 47 percent decrease in fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

Under Kasich’s proposal, the OAC budget would fall to $10.6 million for fiscal years 2012 and 2013, down from a high of more than $32 million in the 2000-01 biennium.

Ohio Arts Council grants to cultural organizations in Cuyahoga County dropped from $3.8 million in 2000 to $1.3 million in the current fiscal year. The governor’s proposed cuts could reduce state arts funding in the county in fiscal 2012 to the $1 million mark.

The OAC has been a staunch supporter of the Y-Haven Project, a partnership between Cleveland Public Theatre and a program run by the YMCA of Greater Cleveland that houses up to 133 homeless men recovering from substance abuse.

In August, CPT selected 20 of the men at Y-Haven to work with nine theater professionals for three months in developing a play about themselves.

Last year’s “Taking Care of Business” told the story of Eddie, who surrenders to police in a fencing operation investigation, an act symbolizing the men’s willingness to admit failure in order to get help.

The show played for one weekend at CPT and toured area universities, a juvenile-detention center and a treatment facility.

“It’s an amazing project for the men, and it’s just an amazing piece of theater,” CPT executive artistic director Raymond Bobgan said. “The Ohio Arts Council money is important in itself, and it is a seal of approval that helps us raise other money.”

As for Easterly, the Y-Haven Project awakened an inner thespian.

After appearing in the show twice and stage-managing another two years, Easterly became a backstage regular at CPT, worked with Boston-based lighting designer Trad A Burns on an installation at Cedar Point, and can be found behind the scenes at Cleveland’s annual Ingenuityfest.

“I’ve been acting all my life, doing things I shouldn’t have been doing,” Easterly said this week at CPT. “Now I can get paid to do it, and I can pay something back to this theater that took a big chance on me.”

To reach Tony Brown: tbrown@plaind.com, 216-999-4181

[Original Cleveland.com Article] [PDF]

Published: Thursday, January 06, 2011, 11:15 PM     Updated: Thursday, January 06, 2011, 11:20 PM

By Michael Norman, The Plain Dealer

Cleveland Public TheatreDancer and cChoreographer Kenya Woods performs her “Through Her Eyes,” which will be presented Feb. 11-13, as part of Cleveland Public Theatre’s eight-week Big Box festival.

Time once again for Cleveland’s premiere festival of brand-new works: never before tested, gutty and brainy.

It is called Cleveland Public Theatre’s Big Box series, and it begins Friday, Jan. 14.

CPT executive artistic director Raymond Bobgan hands over the keys to 6415 Detroit Ave. to a group of artists who have the run of the place for a week, culminating in a weekend of three performances. The series runs through Sunday, March 6.

This year, the most ambitious yet, will see shows by Cleveland State University students and recent graduates, as well as out-of-town artists drawn by CPT’s reputation as an avant-garde theater that welcomes risk taking.

Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $15. Go to cptonline.org or call 216-631-2727.

Week 1: Jan. 14-16 “Ya Mama!” Written and performed by Nina Domingue and directed by Cathy Hartenstein, this one-woman show explores the life of an artist, wife, mother, Christian and black woman.

“She Cried at the Circus.” Jeff Glover writes a story about a woman who discovers at a young age that she has power beyond dreams, wealth beyond imagination and presence that inspires fear.

Week 2: Jan. 21-23 “Soliciting for Change.” Bitch, terrorist, dreamer. Those are some of the names people call playwright/performer Molly Andrews-Hinders as she goes after corrupt corporations and advocates for working-class families. Directed by James Langa and Erin McCardle.

“Seppuku.” Written and performed by Melissa Crum and BC Miles, this piece weighs the differences between suicide and ritual suicide. Directed by James Kosmatka.

Week 3: Jan. 28-30 “Mother/Tongue.” A family’s dysfunction surfaces as a workaholic mom obsessively makes Julia Child’s beef tongue, disappears for hours and speaks French. Written by Claire Robinson May and directed by Danielle Hisey.

Week 4: Feb. 4-6 Everything Is Everything Project. Two plays, “A Sleep” and “A Wake,” written and performed by Val Kozlenko and Eric Perusek, explore what it is to be truly awake or to sleepwalk through life. A third play, “30 Awkward Minutes With Pat and Glenn,” written and performed by Renee Schilling and Lew Wallace, imagines two people trapped in the void of unreality.

“Sick F- – -.”John Robert Armstrong (of Indiana) will be directed by Noe Montez (who recently moved to Cleveland from Indiana) in a play by Paul Shoulberg (of Kansas) about a terminal cancer patient dealing with resentment, regret and heartache.

Week 5: Feb. 11-13 “Through Her Eyes.” Choreographed and performed by Kenya Woods, this dance piece is about three women finding grace through being broken by fears and frustrations, crisis and the job of motherhood.

“Fast Forward-Rewind-Stop.” The Marquez Dance Project does a piece choreographed by Jennifer Sandoval about the pursuit of gender equilibrium.

Week 6: Feb. 18-20 “Sonic Cinema.” FiveOne Music performs a fusion of local films and new music composed by Michael Bratt and Jeremy Allen. Week 7: Feb. 25-27 “Cowboy Poet.” A country musical by Deborah Magid, directed by Douglas Farren, looks at a cowboy poet, a WASP socialite and an ex-con who throw a benefit gala for adult literacy in New Mexico.

Week 8: March 4-6 “Voice Over.” Conceived and directed by Pandora Robertson, this piece asks, “Who am I?,” “Do other people know who I really am?” and “Will I ever be the same person again?”

“Side Effects May Include.” Former “Seinfeld” writer Marc Jaffe and Cleveland Heights playwright Eric Coble write about a man with a lovely wife, a lovely kid and a lovely life, until Parkinson’s disease and the side effects of the medicines that treat it invade his home. Eric Schmeidl directs Nick Koesters.

[Original Article on Cleveland.com] [PDF]

Published: Saturday, December 18, 2010, 5:10 AM

By Amanda Garrett, The Plain Dealer

View full sizeGus Chan / The Plain DealerThe Cleveland Foundation is awarding a $250,000 grant to the Gordon Square Arts District to begin the second phase of renovations to Cleveland Public Theatre.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Foundation on Friday awarded $12.9 million in grants to nonprofit groups, including $150,000 to support the transition of Cuyahoga County’s government.

The year-end awards show the foundation’s annual giving — about $80 million in 2010 — is back in line with what it was before the economic downturn, said Robert Eckardt, the foundation’s senior vice president for programs and evaluation.

Last year, as the foundation’s holdings dipped, it provided about $2 million less in grants than it had the year before.

At their peak, the Cleveland Foundation’s assets totaled about $2 billion. That fell to about $1.6 billion at the depth of the recent financial crisis, Eckardt said, but had rebounded to about $1.7 billion by Sept. 30.

The Cleveland Foundation, like many college endowments and other substantial grant-making organizations, considers its finances over several years rather than snapshots in time. That prevents sudden drop-offs and sudden rises in grant making, Eckardt said.

Much of the grant money awarded Friday funds economic transformation, public-education reform and neighborhood redevelopment.

Yet $150,000 was set aside as a special grant to help the county.

“The change to a new form of county government is dramatic,” Eckardt said in a prepared statement. “We believe that getting the right people into the right positions is critical for the success of this structure.”

Matt Carroll, who is directing the transition, said the grant was awarded to the Economic Growth Foundation — part of the Greater Cleveland Partnership — and will be spent in three ways:

• About $110,000 will pay for a national search to fill three jobs — fiscal officer, chief information officer and director of development.

• About $20,000 will pay for the ongoing integrity audit that incoming County Executive Ed FitzGerald launched shortly after his election. FitzGerald hired a former FBI agent who is also a certified public accountant for the job. He will submit his report examining possible misconduct and waste by year’s end.

• About $20,000 will pay transition staffing costs.

Carroll said he has had informal talks with other grant-making bodies about funding that would pay for headhunters to help fill other key positions in the new government.

“We are wide open for the best possible people to come in,” Carroll said, adding that interim staff members will fill key positions until permanent workers are hired.

Some of the other grants awarded by the Cleveland Foundation included:

• Three grants worth $970,000 to the lead partners of MyCom, a countywide youth development program. More than half the money — $550,000 — will be spent on activities for children when school is not in session.

• A $400,000 grant to Shorebank Enterprise Group to support Green City Growers, a sprawling greenhouse at East 55th Street and Kinsman Road that will grow lettuce and herbs without using soil. The greens will be sold to local hospitals and food distributors.

• A $250,000 grant to the Gordon Square Arts District to begin the second phase of renovations to Cleveland Public Theatre.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: agarrett@plaind.com, 216-999-4814

[Original Cleveland.com Article] [PDF]

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YOU’RE CORDIALLY INVITED
to an evening at XYZ & CPT to benefit GSAD
in the heart of the Gordon Square Arts District

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010

The evening kicks off at the District’s newest establishment:

• 5:30 p.m. XYZ Tavern

6421 Detroit Avenue (next to CPT)

Cocktails & hors’ d’oeuvres
and continues to Cleveland Public Theatre

• 6:30 p.m. More cocktails and seating at CPT

• 7:00 p.m. “Connie’s Avant Garde Restaurant”

for a five-course dinner and theatre

This uproarious musical performance is a unique theatrical-culinary event mixing the ingredients of fine food, wine and ensemble theatre together in a hilarious parody of avant garde grandiosity. Comedy, death, violence and a five-course meal!

Individual tickets: $75

Reservations: Call Maria Asher @ 216.961.4242 x222 or masher@gordonsquare.org
RSVP: by Friday, December 3, 2010

Five-Course Menu

• (With local produce subject to availability)
• Roasted chestnuts and mushroom tartine
• Curried butternut squash soup
• Herbed apple and fennel salad
• Maple-glazed ham with cranberry compote
• Brown-buttered radishes
• Sage-roasted sweet potatoes
• Drunken chocolate Bundt cake

Dietary restrictions: Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant is able to accommodate food allergies and vegetarian needs. Please contact the box office to communicate dietary restrictions in your party. (216) 631-2727 or rcole@cptonline.org.

Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer

Photos by Peggy Turbett, The Plain Dealer

Most people try to look thinner.

Actor Kevin Charnas, who has a runner’s build (photo at left), wants to look like a man so obese he can’t get out of bed. Which means:

Fat suit!

For the world premiere of Turkish playwright Ozen Yula’s “Don’t Call Me Fat,” which opened Saturday night and runs through Saturday, Oct. 30, Cleveland Public Theatre called Alison Garrigan, one of Cleveland’s busiest and best resident costumers.

Charnas spends the 75-minute first act in the suit, lying in bed in a hospital gown (after he spends 15 minutes in the thing before the curtain goes up).

Then, in Act 2, he is slimmed down to his normal size.

That means the part couldn’t be played by a large actor with a little padding here and there, a la Harvey Fierstein as Edna Turnblad in “Hairspray.”

The length of time in the suit means it had to be as light (about 20 pounds) and comfy as possible. And his hands and face, his only acting tools besides his voice, had to be free.

Garrigan, a costume designer for 30 years and an actor-director, had to bring all of her skills to the project. Here is a look.

View full size

Garrigan looked at photographs of morbidly obese people and did sketches before rehearsals started in mid-August.

After consulting with Yula, who is directing, and taking Charnas’ measurements, she made the suit out of high-density upholstery foam (for shape), toy-animal fiberfill (lighter than foam) and lentil beans (for sag).

She covered it in breathable “peach-skin” fabric, used for dancers and figure skaters whose costumes need a “nude” look.

Once the suit was built, Garrigan worked with Charnas (seen in photo at right last week during technical rehearsals) to fine-tune the fit.

Garrigan carved out spaces where frozen cold packs could be inserted on the actor’s tummy and under his armpits to help him keep cool.

View full size

The last piece of the suit scheduled to go on every night will be the jowls (in photo at left).

Garrigan will apply pale makeup to Charnas’ face and dark circles around his eyes after he is in the suit. “He has to look really unhealthy.”

The actor’s supine position and the elevation of the stage meant that Garrigan had to use what artists call “forced perspective,” deliberately accentuating some body parts to make up for the audience’s viewing angle.

View full size

The finished product is never, it seems, really finished.

In the technical-rehearsal photo at right, Charnas wears a bathrobe. But the next night, Yula decided to go with the hospital gown, which meant more adjustments.

Which is OK with Garrigan. “It’s been really interesting to take that kind of athletic body and turn it into the absolute opposite. And the hands-on work was not unpleasant at all, if you know what I mean.”

[Original Cleveland.com Article] [PDF]

Published Oct. 3rd. [Cleveland.com Article]
By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer

Brutal and beautiful might appear to be strange bedfellows, but they are apt descriptors for Suzan-Lori Parks‘ engrossing play “The Book of Grace” and the stunning production of it that opened over the weekend at Cleveland Public Theatre.

Parks, who won a 2002 Pulitzer Prize for “Top Dog/Underdog,” has a gift for capturing humanity, in our brutality and beauty, with her glancing dialogue, people talking to each other by talking past each other.

Less cryptic and more narrative than “Top Dog,” “The Book of Grace” turns on the dynamics of a family so dysfunctional and estranged it’s barely a family.

Vet, a veteran of the first war against Iraq and now a U.S. Border Patrol guard, is a brute who says he’s “on the good foot” with his second wife, Grace, but he’s dug a grave in the back yard as a reminder who’s in charge.

Grace is by all appearances his doormat, but she slowly reveals herself to be person of desires and of substance, longing for a red dress in a department store window, and having a voracious sexual appetite and a secret volume of rebelliously poetic observations under the floorboards.

Into this little world enters Buddy, who unlike Grace and Vet, is black. He returns after 15 years, and after serving in Persian Gulf II, with vengeance in mind and a grenade in pocket, to a set right some ancient wrong — but whether real or perceived is never made clear.

Although a kitchen sink is involved, this is no throw-back to 1950s-era domestic plays.

These characters are meant to be real people, but they are also symbols for America and its boundaries. Vet sees borders everywhere, on his TV, in the creases he irons in his uniform trousers, and even in that hole.

The CPT production, the first since the play premiered in New York earlier this year, is directed with a haunting touch, but with both feet planted firmly in reality, by Sheffia Randall Dooley.

She gets assists from set and lighting designer Trad A Burns, who encloses everything in fencing and provides a functional utlities, and from a cast that performs as if intent on outdoing each other and eliciting from each other their best work.

Rod Lawrence quivers with pent-up rage as the literally ready-to-explode Buddy. He gets his chance to shine when he faces his own camcorder to document, mass murderer style, what he believes to be his final words before setting off to claim fame and infamy and revenge.

As Vet, veteran Cleveland area actor Chuck Kartali — in a role at polar opposites with the dad in the Cleveland Play House’s long-running “A Christmas Story” — expresses his own rage with simple acts. Kartali tells us more with the spray button on an electric iron and few clipped words than many another actor could with wild gestures and paragraphs of prose.

As fine as those two performances are, Sally Groth’s Grace mesmerizing presence here. Seductive, poetic, trembling to make her escape, she is both spell-binding and liberating, completely lost in the moment and yet able to transport us miles from this world to the great beyond of human experience. This is wow time.

The play occasionally makes its argument too neatly (and life is never neat). And the ending, both in the writing and staging, verges toward the mawkish.

But “The Book of Grace” is one of those rare theatrical experiences — a rare experiences of any kind — that leave one forever changed for having had it.

[Cleveland.com Article] [PDF]