VINCENT SACCO This scene makes it look as though it might be called “Tony n’ Tina’s Shotgun Wedding,” but it’s actually “Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant.” And even though it will be performed with a five-course meal next season at Cleveland Public Theatre, Miss Conni Convergence and the Avantgardists dare you to call it dinner theater.
Raymond Bobgan is cool. And five years into his executive artistic directorship of Cleveland Public Theatre, he just keeps getting cooler, mixing sound business decisions with risky artistry at the city’s leading dispenser of cool theater. After finishing the 2009-10 season with the strongest one-two programming punch of the year in Cleveland (“Open Mind Firmament” and “Wanderlust”), Bobgan has just announced the city’s most promising-sounding 2010-11 season. Dig all this:
• Four world premieres, including “Don’t Call Me Fat” by Turkish playwright Ozen Yula and “My Dog Barking” by Cleveland Heights scribe Eric Coble.
• Four Midwest premieres: The second production anywhere (after New York’s Public Theatre) of Pulitzer Prize-winning Suzan-Lori Parks’ latest; an avant-garde dinner-theater (!) offering; and a play co-authored by a creator of the upcoming Broadway musical “Spider-Man.”
• And a beefed-up new works development program to join CPT’s already strong Big Box and Little Box series, including a remount of Chris Seibert and Bobgan’s critically acclaimed one-woman tour de force,“Cut to Pieces,” which will then tour.
Bottom line: While most other theaters in the area are sticking to the reduced schedules and calculatedly mainstream productions instituted to cope with the recession, Bobgan and CPT are out at high noon on Detroit Avenue at West 65th Street with avant-garde guns blazing.
Meanwhile, in his spare time, Bobgan is also overseeing CPT’s partnership in developing the Gordon Square Arts District, including the ongoing renovation of CPT’s expansive campus.
So, take a breath and get a gander at what’s up next season at 6415 Detroit. If you want more information, go to cptonline.org or call 216-631-2727. Or you can catch Bobgan re-caffeinating himself several times a day next door to the theater at Gypsy Beans & Baking Co.
Shows open on a Thursday and close on a Saturday unless otherwise noted.
Saturday, Sept. 11:Pandemonium 10: The West Wild Side. CPT’s annual wacky arts, food and beverage fundraiser comes of age.
Sept. 30-Oct. 16: “The Book of Grace.” CPT regular Sheffia Randall Dooley directs Parks’ multilayered confrontation between Buddy, a veteran of the Iraq war, and his estranged father, a Desert Storm vet who now works as a border guard.
Oct. 7-30: “Don’t Call Me Fat.” Yula, who’s at CPT and Cleveland State University on a grant from the Cleveland Foundation, directs his satire about an obese man’s journey from sickbed to talk-show fame.
Oct. 14-30: “Kill Will.” Playing off the title of a Quentin Tarantino movie, husband-and-wife writers Josh Brown and Kelly Elliott edit the Shakespeare canon down to one evening of the Bard’s best fights and murders. Veteran CPT hand Alison Garrigan directs the world premiere.
Friday, Oct. 22 and Sunday, Oct. 24: “Il Tabarro.” CPT collaborates with Opera Per Tutti, a Northeast Ohio company whose name is Italian for “opera for all,” on Puccini’s tale of love, desperation and violent jealousy. Scott Skiba directs.
Nov. 5-7: Y-Haven Project. CPT stages the 11th annual collaboration with residents of an inner-city Cleveland center for homeless men in treatment for drug addiction.
Nov. 11-Sunday, Nov. 21: Little Box series. Staged readings of new plays by local playwrights are followed by audience discussions.
Wednesday, Dec. 1-18: “Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant.” CPT presents an audience-participation dinner-theater show (a la “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding,” but way weirder) served up by Miss Conni Convergence and the Avantgardists.
Friday, Jan. 14-Sunday, March 6: Big Box series. Eight weekends of new works as CPT opens its doors to area artists.
March 3-19: “Darwinii.” Glen Berger, now at work with “The Lion King’s” Julie Taymor and U2′s Bono on “Spider-Man,” collaborates with CPT regular Brett Keyser on a play about a thief who’s convinced he’s the great-great-great-bastard-grandson of Charles Darwin.
Friday, March 11-Sunday, March 27: NEOMFA Playwrights Festival. Three new works by students in the Northeast Ohio MFA Creative Writing Program, a collaboration of four area schools.
Thursday, March 24: Women’s Voices. The 12th annual female version of the Y-Haven Project, a collaboration with the Elyria YWCA’s Women’s Campus Project.
April 7-23: “Fever/Dream.” CPT staffer Beth Wood directs the Midwest premiere of Sheila Callaghan’s update of 17th-century Spanish playwright Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s “Life Is a Dream.”
April 7-23: “I Hate This” and “And Then You Die.” Local playwright, actor and director David Hansen presents his two previously produced one-man shows (one about personal loss and the other about personal victory) in repertory. Directed by Garrigan.
April 21-May 7: “Insomnia.” Holly Holsinger (Bobgan’s wife) collaborates with Karin Randoja and Seibert on a new play, starring Holsinger and Seibert and directed by Randoja, about a woman on the brink of something like death, mental collapse or self-discovery.
May 5-Sunday June 5: DanceWorks. Five companies perform world premieres in CPT’s 11th annual dance showcase.
May 12-28: “My Dog Barking.” Jeremy Paul, on loan from TheaterNinjas, directs the latest from Coble, about two lonely people’s lives taking a bizarre turn when a starving coyote appears at their doors.
May 26-June 4: “Cut to Pieces.” Bobgan and Seibert restage their shattering 2009 multimedia adaptation of the Persephone myth to lay bare Seibert’s soul.
Dates to be announced: Developing works. They include “My Hemisphere and Your Hemisphere Live Across the Street,” “People4Change” and Bobgan’s own “Rusted Heart Broadcast,” which he described as “a radical new play with an ensemble cast [that] re-examines religion, art and community in the heart of America.”
And, “I think it takes place in a tent and travels like a revival.”
WKYC Article: Cleveland: Governor praises Gordon Square Arts District economic investment
Kim WendelUpdated: 5/22/2010 7:51:02 AM Posted: 5/21/2010 3:23:46 PM
CLEVELAND — Governor Ted Strickland touted the Gordon Square Arts District when he addressed about 200 business and civic leaders gathered for a leadership breakfast Friday morning at the recently renovated Capitol Theatre.
Strickland said the District is a great example of how to create jobs and investment in a city neighborhood.
“You are creating long-term economic growth, and new jobs,” said Strickland. “In the short term, you are creating construction jobs. In fact, dollar for dollar, an investment in a building rehabilitation project creates more jobs than an investment even in a highway construction project.”
Team NEO, an economic clearinghouse for the 16 counties in Ohio’s northeast corner, has tracked the economic impact of the arts district as a dramatic $317 million in Cleveland alone through 2013.
In comparison, the five major projects of the arts district — three theatres, a stylish streetscape and added parking — represent a total investment of just $30 million.
The state of Ohio has invested $1.9 million in capital funds and provided leveraging for $4.4 million in federal tax credits.
Other funds have come from a variety of sources, including the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, foundations and private contributions.
“Our urban agenda in Ohio is clear,” said Strickland. “We must build upon the great resources already existing within our cities, we must revitalize forgotten treasures and we must celebrate the cultural and economic vitality that pulses through our cities.”
“The Gordon Square Arts District serves as an example for cities across the nation of how to uncover a neighborhood’s assets, invest in them and watch it take off and deliver more than a tenfold return,” said Christopher M. Connor, chairman and CEO of Sherwin-Williams.
“The non-profits and civic leadership behind its revival have cleverly leveraged the arts into a newly revived, productive community.”
Connor is also chair of Team NEO.
The Gordon Square Arts District, a collaborative work of three nonprofits — the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, Cleveland Public Theatre and the Near West Theatre — is seen as a national model of how the arts can stimulate economic development.
The Team NEO study did not measure additional real estate and development activity, which is estimated by the Gordon Square Arts District and Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization at an additional $400 million or more.
Most of the restaurants, shops, galleries and other businesses are flourishing, with 33 new ones opening since 2006.
Housing ranging from live-work spaces for artists to spacious condominiums for successful entrepreneurs is in demand.
Additional components include streetscape improvements on Detroit Avenue between West 58th and West 73rd streets and new parking to accommodate residents and visitors.
The theatres provide unique entertainment to attract audiences from throughout the region.
For more information about Gordon Square, please contact 216-961-4242 or visit online www.gordonsquare.org
Project will add jobs and millions of dollars to the economy.
Friday, May 21, 2010
(Cleveland) – Local leaders met at the renovated Capital Theatre at West 65th and Detroit to talk about the success of the Gordon Square Arts District.
The $30 million revitalization program is expected to pump $317 million into the economy of the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood by 2017. Backers say the Gordon Square project has created 950 permanent jobs, plus 310 construction jobs.
Gordon Square Co-Chairman Dick Pogue says fundraising continues. Governor Strickland says the project is an amazing success. Chris Conner of Sherwin-Williams and team NEO agrees.
Plans are now underway to link Gordon Square to Lake Erie allowing residents to walk from the arts district to the shoreline.
Gordon Square Arts District. The Gordon Square Arts District is fast becoming Cleveland’s trendiest neighborhood. It’s on the city’s west side along Detroit Road (from about West 58th to West 73rd). The growing area has already attracted more than 30 new businesses! (2:33) » Read the rest of this entry «
Theaters, Galleries Spark Real Estate Activity and a Retail Revival
CLEVELAND, OH–(Marketwire – April 8, 2010) – The Gordon Square Arts District in Cleveland’s Detroit Shoreway neighborhood is rewriting the way the arts can rapidly shape neighborhood redevelopment. It’s a unique economic dynamo, created by a team of innovative nonprofit organizations for this aging, historic working-class enclave on the bluff of Lake Erie.
Theaters and galleries help anchor the neighborhood, along with waves of new shops, restaurants and housing. Ultimately, $30 million in seminal projects is predicted to cash in at more than $400 million in commercial and residential real estate development, plus hundreds of permanent jobs and a projected $317 million of economic output in Cleveland by 2013. Here is how this came about:
The executive directors and boards of three participating non-profits — Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, Cleveland Public Theatre and Near West Theatre — displayed courage and vision to break the mold and create the Gordon Square Arts District. In doing so, they agreed to limit independent fund raising and make fund raising for the arts district a priority, delegate considerable governance to a board with a majority of independent directors and promote the betterment of the whole through other collaborations.
Other cities have employed the arts as a tool for development. But the Gordon Square Arts District is believed to be the first instance where existing nonprofits, already owners of established theaters and programming, have coalesced to do planning, fund raising, renovation, new construction and infrastructure improvements. Nearly sixty percent of the $30 million goal has already been raised from public and private donors.
The three participating nonprofits also have a common mission of social justice and working with underserved populations — demonstrated in part by a $1 million neighborhood responsibility fund. It will be used to give current residents and businesses advantages such as low- or no-interest loans, abated increases in property tax or business improvement district assessments, transportation and human services like day care and job placement.
Only three years old, the Gordon Square Arts District has attracted 33 new shops, restaurants, artists’ studios and other new businesses, resulting in a commercial vacancy rate of just 3 to 4 percent. A $3 million streetscape redesign dresses up 15 blocks of the main thoroughfare, Detroit Avenue, with new sidewalks, lighting and buried utility wires. The central eight blocks also have public art, benches, trees, pavers and wider sidewalks to encourage pedestrian traffic and outdoor dining.
The Capitol Theatre, a one-time vaudeville and silent film theater at W. 65th and Detroit Avenue, has undergone a $7 million renovation. It opened last fall as an independent and specialty film house, also showing quality Hollywood features.
Plans are already being finalized for a new $5 million performance center for Near West Theatre, a community theater with an emphasis on youth, and the $9.4 million renovation of Cleveland Public Theatre, the oldest standing theater in Cleveland and one of the nation’s leading experimental & political performance venues, has begun. The sites of the Capitol, Near West and Cleveland Public theaters are within a two-minute walk of one another.
An analysis by Team NEO, an economic development clearinghouse for 16 Northeast Ohio counties, shows Gordon Square Arts District’s dramatic economic impact. It is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars in goods and services, personal income and tax revenues into Cleveland, across Northeast Ohio and even the rest of the state, while creating almost 800 jobs in Cleveland alone. The district will have created $317 million of economic output in Cleveland by 2013, when construction on its five major projects is to be completed. When the direct and supply-chain effects across Ohio are factored in, the impact rises to $436 million. » Read the rest of this entry «
Lisa DeJong/The Plain DealerGordon Square Arts District is pumping millions of dollars and new jobs into the regional economy by attracting patrons to its restaurants, galleries and theaters, according to a report by Team NEO. The ripple effects of Ingenuityfest and the Gordon Square Arts District pour millions of dollars into the region’s economy, according to two new Team NEO studies.
Team NEO, a nonprofit organization that works to attract business to the region, looked at visitors from outside the area, job growth, construction and other factors, said Team NEO vice president for research Jim Robey.
The arts district will have generated $317 million in sales and transactions in Cleveland, and $436 million in Ohio, by 2013, the research shows.
Gordon Square aims to be a destination neighborhood on Cleveland’s West Side. It offers shopping, dining and live theater. It’s the home of art galleries, Cleveland Public Theatre and the Capitol Theatre — a renovated movie theater that reopened in 2009 after 24 years.
Two of Gordon Square’s five Phase One capital projects — the theater renovation and streetscape improvements along Detroit Avenue — were finished in 2009. Still to come are the renovation of Cleveland Public Theatre, construction of a new home for the Near West Theatre and creation of additional parking.
Team NEO’s look at Gordon Square forecasts into 2013, when the arts district’s Phase One construction projects are scheduled for completion.
According to projections, in 2013, Gordon Square will have created nearly 800 jobs in Cleveland, and nearly 200 jobs in Ohio, and provided $2.3 million in combined city, county and state tax revenues for that year.
“We have always said this is a project of regional importance,” said Joy Roller, the district’s executive director. “We are creating the kind of place that attracts and retains Clevelanders.”
VINCENT SACCO This scene makes it look as though it might be called “Tony n’ Tina’s Shotgun Wedding,” but it’s actually “Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant.” And even though it will be performed with a five-course meal next season at Cleveland Public Theatre, Miss Conni Convergence and the Avantgardists dare you to call it dinner theater.
Lisa DeJong/The Plain DealerGordon Square Arts District is pumping millions of dollars and new jobs into the regional economy by attracting patrons to its restaurants, galleries and theaters, according to a report by Team NEO. The ripple effects of 
