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.’ ”
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.
Joshua Gunter l The Plain Dealer The restored 1921 Capitol Theatre is a gem of a place to see a movie.
‘Tis the season . . . the movie season, that is. In advance of the Oscar nominations on Jan. 25, movie companies are rolling out their heavy-hitters. A steady stream of award-worthy flicks are opening this month in Cleveland. Which one to see first? And, almost as important, where to see it? Not all movie theaters are created equal, though prices are about the same everywhere. Amenities, location and after-film fun can send a theater to the top of the box office. Read on for Some of the Best Places to See a Movie in Cleveland.
Capitol Theatre, 1390 West 65th St., Cleveland, 440-349-3306: Opened just over a year ago in the busy Gordon Square Arts District, this lovingly restored 1921 theater successfully walks the line between mainstream fare and art-house films previously shown only at the Cedar Lee in Cleveland Heights. The main 420-seat room is 3-D- capable, and all three theaters have digital projection. The theaters are smaller than some, but the seats and cupholders are roomy. Like its East Side sister, the Capitol has an impressive concessions list, with beer, wine and sandwiches in addition to the popcorn and pop. Even better, the theater offers arguably the best nearby post- and pre-show dining and drinking, including hipster hangout Happy Dog, chic Luxe bistro and cozy Stone Mad Irish pub. The Capitol also screens several special late-night and monthly Sunday brunch flicks. Up next is “The Maltese Falcon” at 10 a.m. Jan. 16. Ticketholders also get 20 percent off at brunch partners Latitude 41N, Luxe and Reddstone. And like all theaters in the locally owned Cleveland Cinemas chain, the Capitol offers weekly discounts, including $5 Mondays and free-popcorn Tuesdays.
Cedar Lee Theatre, 2163 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5411: Also part of the Cleveland Cinemas chain, this East Side mainstay has been drawing serious film fans from all parts of the region to its foreign, indie and art-house films for decades. Often home to exclusive openings — like the recent Swedish trilogy of Stieg Larsson “Girl . . ” films or the Brit-hit “Made in Dagenham,” which opens today — the theater also hosts a fantastic late-night series and is local ground zero for “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Saturday’s late-night show is camp hit “The Room” at 10 p.m. See the website for a full schedule.
Regal Crocker Park Stadium 16, 30147 Detroit Road, Westlake, 440-871-7661: No lifestyle center would be complete without a movie theater. Now Crocker Park visitors can shop, eat, see a flick, shop and eat some more. Though it offers 16 screens, this luxurious theater often sells out because of its great location and close post- and pre-show amenities, so arrive early or get your tickets online. Or just do a little more shopping or eating while you wait for the next screening. The diverse lineup, which occasionally brings art films to the mainstream, also deserves a nod.
Cinemark Valley View 24, 6001 Canal Road, Valley View, 216-447-8820: If it’s not showing here, it’s probably not showing in Greater Cleveland. This massive theater complex, located in the valley directly below Interstate 480 and easily accessible from the East and West sides, features 24 theaters, including XD and 3-D theaters. It also has some of the plushest seats and biggest screens in town.
Shaker Square Cinemas, 13116 Shaker Square, Cleveland, 216-921-9342: Yet another knockout Cleveland Cinemas theater. Movie fare at this restored Art Deco gem (formerly the Colony) ranges from arty to mainstream (more of them on the mainstream side, with a total of six screens). Concessions are top-notch — from beer to pop, nuts to popcorn. And top-notch nearby dining options make this a date-night gem, ranging from innovative American cuisine at Fire and Old World comfort food at Balaton to sexy Brazilian small plates and drinks at Sergio’s Sarava.
OVERHEARD
A weekly look at people and places in the national press: This week, we look at a recent Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog post about Cleveland’s own Melt Bar & Grilled. Blogger “beerblotter” ranked it 4 out of 5 on his dining scale and called it a “psychotically creative meal emporium; home of grilled cheese magic.”
“The pierogis, slaw and the buffalo chicken soup (which I got on a follow-up visit the next day) were all amazing. Nothing that I tried failed to meet expectations. Get as much as you can. Remember that you can always take it home. No one at this place will judge you. Take a visit, eat some food, drink some good beer and take a nap.”
The only thing beerblotter doesn’t explain is how he managed to get a table at Melt two days in a row!
OUTSIDE OPINION
Each week, “Outside Opinion” asks a visitor what he or she likes best about Cleveland. This week, we talk to Larry Spisak, 44, of New York.
Spisak, a native of the area, came to town in mid-December to see the Knicks-Cavs game. Lucky for him — and the Cavs — he chose one of the Cavs’ few winning games in recent memory, an overtime scorcher.
“It was my first time at The Q,” says Spisak, who moved to New York after college. “An impressive venue . . . and that night the Cavs were good, too. . . . It really looks like Dan Gilbert puts some money into the team, with the entertainment and concessions better than most [venues]. And it’s certainly cheaper than Madison Square Garden.”
DeMarco is The Plain Dealer’s Friday magazine editor.
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 callplaywright/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. 4-6Everything 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.
The Boston-based quiz show Says You recently came to Cleveland to record a series of programs at the Capitol Theatre in the Gordon Square Arts District. Host Richard Sher and the Says You panel played their game of words and whimsy, bluff and bluster, with the help of two Northeast Ohio panelists, culture critic Charles Michener and writer-director Murray Horwitz. Award-winning local blues man Austin “Walkin’ Cane” Charanghat provided the musical accents for this holiday special Says You, which was recorded in front of a live audience at the Capitol Theatre on December 5th, 2010. It originally aired on 90.3, WCPN, ideastream December 19th , 2010 at 12:00pm.
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.
Jeffrey Moreau had always envisioned opening a sweet shop upon retirement. He just didn’t realize that retirement would come so soon.
The former creative director of a Cleveland ad agency is putting the finishing touches on Sweet Moses, a 1920s-style soda fountain that will open in late January in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood west of downtown. “This will be unique not only for the Gordon Square area, but for all of Cleveland,” he says.
Lamenting the loss of the neighborhood soda fountain, Moreau hopes to revive the tradition in grand style. The 2,500-square-foot space at 6800 Detroit Ave., just down the block from the Cleveland Public and Capitol theaters, will be filled with authentic equipment and furnishings. The focal point of the room is the actual soda fountain, featuring antique mirrors, back-lit stained glass, a restored dipping and soda station, and Tennessee-marble countertops, all rescued from defunct shops.
Moreau describes the feel as less ’50s-style malt shop and more ’20s- and ’30s-era soda fountain.
“I didn’t want this to look like a Disney version of a soda fountain that you’d find in a lifestyle center,” he explains. “I wanted it to look and feel authentic, like it belongs in the neighborhood.”
Moreau will stick to “classic, traditional American favorites,” made with quality ingredients, he says. “It’s amazing the things you can do with just sugar, butter, cream, vanilla, and cocoa.” Ice creams, fudge, chocolates, and caramel popcorn all will be made on-site. Turtles will be made with Belgian chocolate and sundaes topped with homemade caramel, fresh hot fudge, and house-roasted nuts. From the soda fountain will flow root beer floats, chocolate phosphates, and ice cream sodas.
Moreau settled on the name Sweet Moses, he says, because of its Cleveland — as in Moses Cleaveland — connotations. “I wanted a name that is grounded in old Cleveland, one that you wouldn’t find anyplace else.”
Seth Kaspy has taken over as executive chef at Hudson’s North End Market (7542 Darrow Rd., 330-656-1238, northendwinefoodfun.com), replacing outgoing chef Jeff Jarrett. Formerly chef at the Chagrin Valley Hunt Club, Kaspy is busy instituting a menu of his own.
Roger MastroianniPinchas Steinberg conducts a 2005 performance with the Cleveland Orchestra. The maestro returns to Severance Hall this week to lead a program featuring Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto.
A few days ago, Pinchas Steinberg was Turin, Italy, conducting a popular production of Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly.” So successful was the run, in fact, that the presenter, Teatro Regio, added a performance to satisfy demand.
Something similar is about to befall Steinberg this weekend at the Cleveland Orchestra. Concerts haven’t yet sold out, but a special arrangement surrounding his concert Friday already has prompted the rental of an additional bus to transport patrons back and forth between Severance Hall and a West-side establishment known as Happy Dog.
“This is the kind of thing that happens when you get excited about an area,” said Joy Roller, executive director of Cleveland’s Gordon Square Arts District, a partner in the project. “We’re knitting the city together.”
The arrangement centers on the orchestra’s upcoming “Fridays @ 7″ concert, featuring Steinberg conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 — one of the composer’s most readily accessible symphonies — and the overture to Nicolai’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”
That night, there’s also pre-concert music by bansuri bamboo flutist Steve Gorn and tabla player Hom Nath Upadhyaya, and a post-concert show by the New York Gypsy All-Stars, led by clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski.
PREVIEW
Cleveland Orchestra
What: Pinchas Steinberg conducts works by Nicolai, Nielsen, and Mahler
When: 8 p.m. Dec. 2 and Dec. 4, and 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3.
Tickets:: $25-$117. 216-231-1111 or the orchestra’s Web site.
Concerts Thursday and Saturday follow a traditional format, without the post-concert show, and include another clarinet virtuoso, principal clarinetist Franklin Cohen, performing Carl Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto, a work he described in a written program note as“a portrait of a very complete person, someone who’s lived and experienced all that life has to offer.”
Essentially, the Happy Dog arrangement is an audience exchange, through which patrons who buy in (for $25, using promo code 8795) can begin or end their evenings at Happy Dog or Severance Hall. Either way, they’ll be transported back and forth between destinations, and they’ll experience both classical and rock music.
Bus service to Severance leaves Happy Dog (5801 Detroit Ave., Cleveland) at 6 p.m., and after the 7 p.m. orchestra concert, patrons can be shuttled back to Happy Dog to hear the Tadpoles and reclusive singer-songwriter Bill Fox. The last bus back to Severance leaves at midnight.
View full sizeJoshua Gunter, The PDA happy crowd at the Happy Dog, courtesy of musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra. This Friday, listeners are being encouraged to attend concerts at both Severance Hall and Happy Dog in the same evening.
“Bill’s sound is more accessible, but it’s still amazing rock-n-roll, and it’s Cleveland,” said Sean Watterson, co-owner of Happy Dog and author of the exchange, explaining his selection of Fox. “It’s a combination of being accessible and the best of what we’ve got to offer.”
Watterson didn’t come up with the exchange out of nowhere. The arrangement stems from the still-blossoming relationship between the orchestra and Happy Dog through which members of the orchestra have been performing classical music in the laid-back setting of the bar.
The idea also builds on Watterson’s often-expressed desire to link the institutions of University Circle with those of his neighborhood, Gordon Square.
“We just sat at the bar and talked about how we can keep innovating,” he said. “We wanted to keep the momentum going, and this kind of jelled.”
For his part, Steinberg said he’s glad to be back in Northeast Ohio, whatever the circumstances, even after the success in Turin. “Every time I say the same thing,” he said. “Cleveland is my favorite orchestra. And I mean it. They are the Rolls-Royce of orchestras.”
But it’s not just the prospect of driving a powerful musical vehicle that’s got Steinberg excited. A devotee of Mahler, he’s looking forward to re-entering the composer’s fastidiously detailed world and especially to re-exploring Symphony No. 1, a work steeped in vocal and folk music.
As for the occasion of “Fridays @ 7″ and the partnership with Happy Dog, Steinberg said he’s delighted not only to be involved but to have an opportunity to hook new listeners on Mahler.
“You have to get the people close to you, so they open their ears and their hearts,” he said. “The only thing you can do is give such a convincing performance that they cannot not listen to it. You grab them and they say ‘Wow.’ Then I win.”
View full sizeGus Chan/The Plain DealerCars line up to be valet parked at the Capitol Theater for a “Sex and the City” Girls Night Out party and screening in May. The Gordon Square Arts District is being recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National League of Cities.
Gordon Square, the emerging art district in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood on Cleveland’s West Side, has won big time kudos from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National League of Cities.It has also pulled down $2.7 million in recent federal, state and local grants, which will be used to build or renovate community theaters that are central to its vision of using the arts to revive a city neighborhood. “Lots of good stuff is happening,” said Joy Roller, the district’s executive director. “To me, it’s an acknowledgement that what we’re doing is not only successful, but is a novel approach, a unique approach on how to revitalize an urban core.”
The NEA announced earlier this month that Gordon Square is one of 14 case studies in a new publication, “Creative Placemaking.”
Co-authored by arts advocates Ann Markusen and Ann Gadwa, the document is a project of the NEA’s Mayor’s Institute on City Design. The mission of the agency is to educate U.S. mayors to become the “chief urban designers” of their cities.
The case studies are intended to encourage mayors to think creatively about how everything from loft housing to art galleries can build economic value and encourage investment.
The chapter in the case study on Gordon Square praises the project for helping to leverage an estimated $500 million in related investments on the West Side of Cleveland over the past eight years, much of it in housing, even though Gordon Square is only halfway through a $30 million revitalization.
The goal of the district is to renovate two historic theaters — Cleveland Public and the Capitol — and to build a new home for Near West. By using the arts as an anchor for related retail, restaurant and housing development, the district is sparking new life in a 15-block corridor from W. 58th Street to West 73rd St., with Detroit Avenue as the spine.
The Capitol Theatre, located in the historic Gordon Square Arcade at W. 65th Street and Detroit Avenue, reopened in 2009 as a movie theater after a renovation. Work on Cleveland Public Theatre is ongoing. And the arts district has raised roughly half of the $6.5 million it needs to build a new Near West Theater, designed by Cleveland architect Richard Fleischman, Roller said.
“Creative Placemaking” said the district has ” revitalizing the area’s commercial core with arts offerings and new retail businesses while preserving and adding low-income housing units.”
Echoing the praise from the NEA, the National League of Cities has invited Roller to represent Gordon Square as one of 26 programs from the across the country that will be showcased in its upcoming National Congress of Cities in Denver, starting Tuesday.
In addition to the outside attention, Gordon Square announced it has received a $1 million matching grant from the Fowler Family Foundation and a $500,000 matching grant from the Gund Foundation, both for the Near West Theatre project. Roller said her organization has another $3.5 million to raise before it can build the theater.
“With Near West, we are inching closer to realizing our dream of building a new home for that theater,” Roller said.
A separate grant of $1 million in federal stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s State Energy Program will be used immediately to air condition Cleveland Public Theatre for the first time, which means it can be used year round, Roller said.
The State of Ohio has also kicked in $200,000 for asbestos removal at Cleveland Public, which will make the theater safer to use, Roller said.
The national attention focused on Gordon Square shouldn’t create the impression that the project has gone unnoticed locally. In June, the district won a Cleveland Arts Prize.
The national recognition for the district offers more proof that “Cleveland should be very proud of this model we’ve created in the Gordon Square Arts District,” Roller said. “It’s good news for Cleveland.”
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.”
Lynn Ischay, The Plain Dealer
Joshua Gunter l The Plain Dealer The restored 1921 Capitol Theatre is a gem of a place to see a movie.
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.
Roger MastroianniPinchas Steinberg conducts a 2005 performance with the Cleveland Orchestra. The maestro returns to Severance Hall this week to lead a program featuring Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto.
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