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