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.”
Midnight Syndicate FilmsZombies and vampires, oh my! “The Dead Matter” is one of seven films in the marathon.
PREVIEW Horror Movie Marathon What: Melt Bar & Grilled Late Shift presents “12 Hours of Terror,” a seven-movie marathon. Where: Capitol Theatre, 1390 West 65th St., Cleveland. When: 10 p.m. Saturday through 10 a.m. Sunday. Restrictions: No one under 18 admitted. Tickets: $25 in advance; $30 on Saturday. Available at any Cleveland Cinemas theater.
We’re talented sitters. We sit through those dopey ads and endless trailers at movie theaters. All summer, we sit at Progressive Field and watch the Indians lose. In the fall, we sit on our couches to watch the Browns lose.
But here’s the Halloween-season question: Can you sit still and be scared for 12 hours straight? It will be fun to see how many survive Saturday night. Cleveland Cinemas is hosting “12 Hours of Terror,” a horror movie marathon that kicks off at 10 p.m. Saturday at the Capitol Theatre and runs through 10 a.m. Sunday. It’s seven movies for $30 ($25 if you buy your ticket today).
“If it goes well, hopefully this will be the first annual of many,” said David Huffman, Cleveland Cinemas’ director of marketing. “Or maybe we’ll try for 16 hours next year.”
Huffman cooked up the idea after attending a Bad Movie festival in Chicago last winter. “I was so underwhelmed,” he said. “There was bad projection, cacophonous noise, people talking the whole time. I just thought, ‘Oh, we could do this so much better.’ ”
He wants the audience to have fun, but constant chatter will be discouraged. “This isn’t ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000,’ ” he said.
The Capitol’s main theater holds 422. There will be a 10-minute break between films. RJ the Movie Critic, from WKNR AM/850′s “Really Big Show,” will be hosting and awarding door prizes including haunted house passes and movie tickets. Much to the delight of the surrounding Gordon Square Arts District neighborhood, there will also be a “Loudest Scream Contest.”
If the blood and gore proves too much for some folks, one of the Capitol’s upstairs theaters will serve as a “Coward’s Corner,” showing cartoons and goofy TV shows. Before the last film screens, they’ll serve a free continental breakfast. The one restriction is that you must be 18 or older to attend.
Here’s the fright festival lineup (times approximate):
• 10 p.m. : “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” Wes Craven’s 1984 original introduced the world to Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), the slash-meister who gets you in your dreams.
• 11:40: “The Dead Matter.” Shot in Ohio in 2008 by director Edward Douglas, who decided to balance his blood-sucking vampires with a bunch of zombies.
• 1:20 a.m.: Mystery Movie. No one will know which scary film it is until the opening sequence flashes by. The horror!
• 3:00: “Night of the Creeps.”At this point in the evening (morning?) you’ll appreciate Fred Dekker’s sense of humor with his 1986 flick that includes alien creepy crawlers, frat boys, sorority girls, and, of course, zombies.
• 4:40: “The Devil’s Rejects.” Speaking of zombies, Rob Zombie wrote and directed this hard-core 2005 sequel to his “House of 1000 Corpses,” so we could learn about the unique crime-fighting methods of Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe).
• 6:00: “Splinter.”One of the better porcupine-zombie-torn-flesh movies, from director Toby Wilkins in 2008. Two couples get trapped in a gas-station quickie mart with spiky things. Note the superb dialogue: “I’m nothing like your white-trash, drugged-out girlfriend!” and “It’s OK, we’ll cut off your arm!” Followed by the breakfast break.
• 8:00: “Child’s Play.”Before Jon Gruden, before “Bride of Chucky,” there was Tom Holland’s decidedly non-children’s movie, from 1988, about a doll with crazed eyes and a menacing mind of his own. And sharp objects.
To get you in proper Halloween-scream mode, here are five favorites for your renting and viewing pleasure. Don’t watch them alone!
• “Night of the Living Dead”(1968). George A. Romero’s wonder of independent filmmaking was a cult classic that became a much-imitated standard-bearer of scares. Not just zombies, but flesh-eating zombies. A new twist at the time.
• “Psycho” (1960). Alfred Hitchcock brilliantly broke his own rules of suspense, inserting totally random violence into a motel bathroom. “Mother” Bates still creeps me out.
• “Halloween” (1978).John Carpenter made life hell for baby-sitters, especially ones who think they’ve already killed the bad guy. You’d think Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) sticking a bent clothes hanger into Michael Myers’ eye would surely do the trick. Think again.
• “The Exorcist”(1973). Twelve-year-old girls can act rather devilish, but Linda Blair takes the concept to new lows in William’ Friedkin’s nightmare-provoking shocker. To paraphrase Roy Scheider in “Jaws,” “Father, you’re gonna need a bigger cross.”
• “The Shining”(1980). What’s creepier, the hatcheted twins or the old lady in the bathtub? Stanley Kubrick’s take on Stephen King not only features rivers of blood and an ax-wielding Jack Nicholson, it’s an elaborate psychological study of what it means to lose one’s mind.
“The marathon sounds extremely cool,” said “Dead Matter” director Douglas.
“It will appeal to people who like the old style of horror movies, the newer style, and we even have ours in there, which is an independent film. I just haven’t seen a lot of these kinds of things. I love the concept.”
Douglas is also one half (with Gavin Goszka) of the Chardon-based band Midnight Syndicate. The band is famous for Halloween instrumentals such as “Haunted Nursery” and “Grisly Reminder.”
The three-disc deluxe edition of “The Dead Matter” ($19.99), released earlier this year, includes making-of extras, music videos, the original motion picture soundtrack, and a Midnight Syndicate greatest hits collection, “Halloween Music.”
The mass appeal of the genre, said Douglas, comes down to escapism, “and for some of the horror films, maybe it’s a little therapeutic, to see those fears that you have up on the screen. But it’s not you, so it’s something you can walk away from.”
Douglas said he really wanted to be at the Capitol to introduce his film, but was already booked this weekend in Morgantown, W.Va.
CPT” Kill Will,” at Cleveland Public Theatre Oct. 14-30, tells the story: All of the good murders and fight scenes from all of Shakespeare’s plays, presented in one bloody evening.
As the timid cut back on programming, Cleveland Public Theatre executive artistic director Raymond Bobgan goes forward with his biggest and most ambitious season at the city’s leading alternative theater. It includes four world premieres and four Midwest premieres, everything from opera for the people to dinner theater for the avant-garde.
Cramming this bounty into a single season at a facility with three venues under one roof, at 6415 Detroit Ave., was no easy task for Bobgan and associate artistic director Beth Wood. Part of the solution was in staggering the evening curtains; some shows start at 7 and others at 7:30. Unless otherwise noted, shows preview on the first Thursday and Friday, open the first Saturday, and close on the final Saturday, with most performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings throughout the run. The curtain rises at 3 p.m. on the second Sunday of each run, and there is an evening performance on the second Monday, unless otherwise noted.
Flex passes good for six tickets are $120. Single tickets are $10-$25, except as indicated. For more information, go to cptonline.org or call 216-631-2727.
Starting at 7Thursday,Sept. 30-Saturday, Oct. 16, Levin Theatre: “The Book of Grace.” CPT regular Sheffia Randall Dooley directs Suzan-Lori Parks’ passionate confrontation between Buddy, a veteran of the Iraq war, and his estranged father, a Desert Storm veteran and border guard.
Thursday, Oct. 14-Saturday, Oct. 30, Storefront Studio: “Kill Will.” Playing off the Quentin Tarantino title, 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. Alison Garrigan directs.
Friday, Oct. 22, and Sunday, Oct. 24, Levin: “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 violence. Scott Skiba directs. No previews. $25.
Thursday, Dec. 2-Sunday, Dec. 19, Gordon Square: “Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant.” CPT presents an audience-participation, five-course dinner-theater show (a la “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding,” but way weirder) served up by Miss Conni Convergence and the Avantgardists. Performances at 7 p.m. every Sunday. No matinee. No Monday curtain. $50.
Thursday, March 3-Saturday, March 19, Storefront: “Darwinii.” Glen Berger, now at work with the “The Lion King’s” Julie Taymor and U2′s Bono on the “Spider-Man” musical, collaborates with Brett Keyseron a play about a thief who thinks he’s the great-great-great-bastard-grandson of Charles Darwin.
Thursday, April 7-Saturday, April 23, Gordon Square Theatre: “Fever/Dream.” Wood directs Sheila Callaghan’s update of 17th-century Spanish playwright Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s “Life Is a Dream.”
Thursday, April 7-Saturday, April 23, Storefront: “I Hate This” and “And Then You Die.” Local playwright, actor and director David Hansen presents his two one-man shows (one about personal loss and the other about personal victory) in repertory. Directed by Garrigan.
Thursday, April 21-Saturday, May 7, Levin:“Insomnia.” Holly Holsinger (Bobgan’s wife) collaborates with Karin Randoja and Chris Seibert on a new play about a woman on the precipice of seismic change. But is it death, mental collapse or self-discovery? Thursday, May 12-Saturday, May 28, Storefront: “My Barking Dog.” Jeremy Paul, on loan from Theater Ninjas, directs the latest from Cleveland Heights playwright Eric Coble, about two lonely people’s lives taking a bizarre turn when a starving coyote appears at their doors.
Thursday, May 26-Saturday, June 4, Levin: “Cut to Pieces.” Bobgan and Seibert restage their shattering 2009 adaptation of the Persephone myth to lay bare Seibert’s soul. This production might tour, Bobgan said. Matinee on the first Sunday. Evening curtain on the first Monday.
Starting at 7:30Thursday,Oct. 7-Saturday, Oct. 30, Gordon Square: “Don’t Call Me Fat.” Turkish playwright Ozen Yula, in residence at CPT and Cleveland State University, directs his satire about an obese man’s journey from sickbed to talk-show fame.
Thursday, Nov. 4-Sunday, Nov. 7, Gordon Square: Y-Haven Project. The 11th annual collaboration with residents of aCleveland center for homeless men in treatment for drug addiction. No previews. Matinee on Sunday. Free on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Saturday night will be a benefit performance for Y-Haven. Ticket prices will be announced. Go to yhaven.org or call 216-431-2018.
Thursday, Nov. 11-Sunday, Nov. 21, Storefront: Little Box series. Staged readings of new works by local artists. No previews. Matinee every Sunday. No Monday curtain. $8-$10.
Friday, Jan. 14-Sunday, March 6, Levin: Big Box series. Eight weekends of new works. No previews. No Thursday night shows. Matinees every Sunday. No Monday curtain. $13-$15.
Friday, March 11-Sunday, March 27, Levin: NEOMFA Playwrights Festival. Three new works by students in the Northeast Ohio MFA Creative Writing Program. No Thursday performances. Matinee every Sunday. No Monday curtain. $13-$15.
Wednesday, March 23, Gordon Square: Women’s Voices. The 12th annual female version of the Y-Haven Project, a collaboration with the Elyria YWCA’s Women’s Campus Project. Free.
Thursday, May 5-Sunday, June 5, Gordon Square: DanceWorks. Five companies perform world premieres in the 11th annual dance showcase. No previews. Matinee every Sunday. No Monday curtain.
This chair and ottoman are available at Wine & Design. SoBe, a dog owned by store owner Greg Morris, is the store’s mascot.
By Kim Crow
For us Average Joes and Josephines, the thought of hiring a decorator can be a little intimidating.
Evidence of the importance of interior design is all around us — entire TV networks have sprung up to support the idea in the past decade, for goodness’sake — but wanting an attractive, cozy home does not always translate into knowing how to achieve it.
“I can pick out my clothes perfectly well, but when it comes to picking out a chair or a couch, I just freeze up, ” admits Kristen Powell, 33, an insurance adjuster who lives in Cleveland’s Larchmere neighborhood. “It’s just such a big expenditure — and it’s not as easy to hide an ottoman in the back of the closet.”
But Powell says she’s never considered hiring an interior designer.
“It just seems sort of outside my budget, you know? That’s something that people with giant houses who can afford $1,000 curtains do, not me,” she says with a smile.
It’s exactly that kind of perception that a new breed of interior designers are hoping to combat. A handful of new home furnishing stores in the city of Cleveland have popped up that offer interior design services along with the usual scented candles and picture frames. Like-minded shops can be found across the region, but newer stores such as Wine & Design in Tremont and Duo Home in Gordon Square have joined longtime downtown stalwart Surroundings Home Decor in the Warehouse District in capturing the urban-chic market.
These glass designs reflect even more light when placed on a mirrored table. They can be found at DuoHome in the Gordon Square Arts District.
“Our goal has been to go against the stereotype of what people think an interior designer is,” says Tim Kempf, co-owner of DuoHome in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood. “The stereotype is that it is this fussy, expensive dictator rushing around, pushing you to spend thousands on custom upholstery. We’re happy to work with big budgets, of course. Who wouldn’t love that? But we’re all about good design at good prices.”
It was that same mind-set that Greg Morris embraced when he opened Wine & Design in Tremont in November 2009 in the first floor of a building he and his partner, Dan Rensel, spent months renovating into the ideal live/work property.
“We’re really trying to remove the intimidation factor of interior design,” says Morris. “It doesn’t have to cost a lot to have a professional guiding your choices. We can work with any budget. ”
As Powell, the insurance adjuster, puts it, “I really just want someone to tell me what to do, if this polka-dot chair I think is so fun now will look silly in 10 years. I don’t need a showplace, just a cool-looking apartment. Oh, and I need to know if painting a wall black is areally bad idea, too.”
Wine & Design Powell is exactly the kind of client Morris had in mind when he began dreaming of a retail space. The longtime interior designer wanted a showroom of sorts in which everything was affordable and available and exemplified his ideals of accessible design.
“We’re kind of a one-stop shop,” he says of his store, which packs high style into a compact space. “You can dash in and ask our opinion on anything from paint colors to throw pillows, look through our design books, or just buy a gift or a bottle of wine.”
Oh yes, the “wine” in the title of the shop is something theownerstake quite seriously. The well-traveled Morris and Rensel are ardent wine lovers, and knew that vino would have to play a part in whatever retail venture they came up with.
“We’ve just learned a lot about wine over the years, and we wanted to share that. Wine is another area that has this perception of being snobby and intimidating, but for us, it’s a way of life,completely intertwined with the way we live,” says Morris.
Along with a nicely edited selection of reds, whites, roses and sparkling wines, Wine & Design offers a terrific assortment of related home furnishings. From unusual cheeseboards to corkscrews to cool wine glasses with chalkboard bases (perfect for tastings or to just label which drink is yours), any hostess gift requirements are easily filled here.
“Wine brings people together,” says Morris simply.
To that end, Wine & Design hosts monthly wine tastings that include accompanying appetizers for only $10 per person. Sipping and shopping is encouraged here, among items such as Archipelago Botanicals candles and body-care items, Cucina home supplies and a selection of sustainable gift items from areaartists.
“We meet with our interior design clients here, to get a sense of what they respond to, then we go into their homes to really get to know them,” says Morris. “The whole process is designed to put people at ease. We’re bringing hard-to-find, unique furnishings to Cleveland in a way that won’t break the bank.”
Lisa DeJong, The PD
Unique chandeliers found at DuoHome are typical of items that can be worked into a decor by trained designers.
Duo Home DuoHome opened in November 2007, but Kempf and co-owner Scott Suskowicz nearly doubled the store’sfootprint by taking over a neighboring storefront earlier this summer. The expansion allows them to better display their sleek furniture selection and better share their design sensibilities with their clients in the chic 1,600-square-foot space.
“When we were crammed into a smaller space, the furniture seemed more like props than something you could actually buy,” explains Suskowicz. “It seemed more like our emphasis was home furnishings when, in reality, we offer complete design services. That’s the engine that drives us.”
And what a ride it is. DuoHome’s offerings may have always been available for order, but the drama of seeing a dozen striking Nuevo pendant lights and the sleek silhouettes from Younger Furniture is much more inclined to inspire the casual browser.
Contemporary stylings sit next to rustic pieces by Freddy Hill, a Cleveland-based artist who creates them from reclaimed wood from specific places in the city. Gift items are still plentiful, from cute cards to vases to glass platters, all “priced to impress, not depress,” chuckles Kempf.
“We offer boutique shopping without the boutique attitude,” he says. “Come in, have a drink, look through our design library and let’s start talking about your space.”
Restaurateur Marlin Kaplan insisted that his latest restaurant would open in July. Apparently, skepticism crept into my voice when I pressed the point — remodeling and openings are capricious undertakings — because Kaplan was all “No, no, watch me.” You win, Marlin. His Roseangel — the down-priced reinvention of partner Rosita Kutkut’s former La Boca, not only opened close to target, it pretty much hits the bull’s-eye. It’s at 5800 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, on the edge of Cleveland’s Gordon Square area, across from Happy Dog, if you need a cool landmark.
Tacos, salsas and a modest selection of sides are the big deals here. Order one of each and it’ll set you back under $11 (though you’ll probably want seconds, and maybe a beer; brews range from $2 to $5.50). Tacos, built on hand-shaped and griddled tortillas, are heaped with tasty fillings, including a hauntingly delicious seared tuna with artichoke hearts and a just-fiery-enough grilled hanger steak version topped with crisp onions and a smoky chipotle mayo — to name just two of the 17 varieties. They are small but hefty hand-to-mouth fare, $4.25 each, but bring along friends and order a platter of eight for $30. There are good chips and really good salsas (one evening a cunning cantaloupe-and-cucumber combo) plus fine guacamole (at $7, a splurge). Oh, and very seductive Sauza and triple sec margaritas.
The rooms are equally seductive, from the sexy bar to the center room tarted up in magenta croc-print wallpaper, and the expanded patio. Tacos, grandparents to today’s “wraps,” are eminently tactile, and Kaplan wanted to carry that sensuous style into the environment.
“I feel there should be a seamlessness between where you eat and what you eat,” he says. “And I was going for a way different feeling here. I wasn’t really building a restaurant, per se. This is a hybrid, a lot like Happy Dog isn’t your usual neighborhood bar.”
True on both counts. Here’s to fitting neighbors. Coolness now reigns at West 58th Street and Detroit Avenue. 216-961-5800.
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.”
Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer “Sex and the City 2″ Girls Night Out party at the Capitol Theatre– a one-time silent-film theater that was renovated and reopened in 2009 — is an example of the vitality of the Gordon Square neighborhood. The Gordon Square Arts District capital campaign is the recipient of a 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize.
It took a small village to raise the Gordon Square Arts District capital campaign from toddler to noisy, energetic adolescent. It’s appropriate that the village will be among those honored Saturday as winners of the 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize.
It’s the first time in recent memory that a Cleveland Arts Prize has been awarded not to a person or an organization but to a neighborhood.
“No one person could have done what Gordon Square Arts District is doing,” said the district’s executive director, Joy Roller. “To give it to one person would be totally unfair. I congratulate the Arts Prize for getting it.”
The Cleveland Arts Prizes — given to creative artists whose work enriches Northeast Ohio and whose accomplishments set a standard of excellence — were announced in May. Artists will be honored at the annual awards event Saturday at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Gordon Square was awarded a Martha Joseph Prize for Distinguished Service to the Arts, given to an individual or organization whose vision or philanthropy has made a significant contribution to the arts in Northeast Ohio.
While only Cleveland City Councilman Matt Zone will go onstage to accept the prize on behalf of Gordon Square, nearly a dozen other civic leaders will receive an Arts Prize medal. They include Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization executive director Jeff Ramsey, Gordon Square Arts District executive director Joy Roller and Cleveland Public Theatre executive artistic director Raymond Bobgan.
The district is a collaboration among Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, Cleveland Public Theatre and the Near West Theatre.
Its capital campaign has set a goal of raising $30 million for five projects in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, involving the area’s theaters, streetscaping and parking, Roller said.
Gordon Square claims it has generated more than $500 million in economic development in the surrounding community near West 65th Street and Detroit Avenue.
“It’s using the arts for a catalyst for economic development,” Roller said. “The Gordon Square Arts District story is many layers deep.”
A ribbon-cutting for the first phase of Cleveland Public Theatre’s capital campaign was part of Gordon Square Arts District Day on June 12. The neighborhood celebrated with walking tours, music and classic cartoons at the Capitol Theatre.
Among the other prizes to be bestowed are the Robert P. Bergman Prize for leaders who are dedicated to a democratic vision of the arts as well as awards for emerging and midcareer artists, and lifetime achievement.
The Cleveland Arts Prize board of directors solicits nominations, and a jury chooses the winners, said executive director Marcie Bergman.
In Gordon Square’s case, the jury originally received a nomination for just two of the movers and shakers, but the jury felt more of the people involved also deserved recognition, Bergman said.
John Zayac, president of the Project Group, a Cleveland-based firm that manages capital projects, originally nominated Zone and Ramsey for their work with Gordon Square.
Zayac, who lives in Detroit-Shoreway, knew about the neighborhood’s transformation. The Project Group was project manager for the Capitol Theatre and Cleveland Public Theatre capitalprojects. The Project Group also served as fiscal agent for the district.
While serving as an arts-prize juror in 2009, Zayac noticed the nomination list was heavy with artists living or affiliated with organizations on the East Side. Determined to correct that, the following year he nominated Zone and Ramsey, and resigned as a juror to avoid conflict of interest.
As deliberations were under way, Zayac got a call from a jury chairman asking if Zayac would mind if the jury chose to honor Gordon Square instead of two individuals.
“It’s great the entire district is getting the award,” Zayac said. “Jeff and Matt are first among equals.”
CLEVELAND, Ohio — One cultural event is a cherished civic tradition. The other is trying to become one. Both had successful Saturdays. Partly because it never rained.
Though ominous clouds hung low in the Cleveland sky throughout the morning and early afternoon, both Parade the Circle on the East Side and the Gordon Square Arts District Day on the West Side were spared thunderstorms that had been promised by the National Weather Service the day before.
At 11:00 a.m. with the temperature at a muggy 85 degrees, cars were already parked halfway through Martin Luther King Blvd. A license plate read KRE8IVE, and you had to be creative just to find a place to park. Folks wearing T-shirts, tank tops and short shorts — some pushing baby strollers — made their way to Wade Oval for the 21st annual Parade the Circle celebration.
“We had 70,000 people last year, and this looks about the same,” said parade director Robin VanLear from atop her six-foot-high stilts as she directed costumed marchers. “We seem to have reached a critical mass with the parade, and it’s a good number without being too crowded.”
Though the humidity was oppressive, it didn’t dampen the crowd’s spirit as more than 50 parade entrants danced around the circle. Among them was a group called Books Open Doors to New Worlds featuring Amy Frank and Sean Hensley, who were married at 9 a.m. that morning at Holden Arboretum. The wedding party of 50 bused over to Cleveland to take part in the parade.
“This is our honeymoon,” said Hensley. “Next year we’re going to do something simple like go to Japan.”
Another entry in the parade was The Phoenix, a 10-foot-tall bird on wheels made entirely of the clear plastic packaging from medical supplies. The bird’s creator, is Sawson Alhaddad, an anesthesiologist from the Cleveland Clinic.
“It took a year to save all of these pieces of discarded plastic,” she said. “I work in a suite that has seven operating rooms, so everybody helped me collect them”.
Across town in Gordon Square, at West 65th Street and Detroit Avenue, Ryann Anderson squeezed out some acoustic folk jazz on a makeshift stage for a dozen onlookers. Gordon Square executive director Joy Roller said she expected the crowd to pick up at the first-time event as the East Side event wound down. A free shuttle took people back and forth.
“We had to add another vehicle because the one we had was packed,” Roller said. “We just want people from the East Side to find out that we’re here and that we have art and culture and theater music and great food. We want everyone to discover us.”
The hub of activity in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood was a temporary store called Made In 216. The double storefront space offered clothing, jewelry, hats and furniture — all made in the Cleveland. The place was cooled with an industrial-sized fan, had a D. J. playing tunes and ice-cold beer on tap. Danielle Deboe organizes the bazaar twice a year to promote small Cleveland retail manufacturers.
“I live in the neighborhood and have another store across the street called Room Service,” said Deboe. “It’s an art-centric lifestyle boutique. We were packed in here last night. You couldn’t move. As soon as the parade is over, we expect everyone to come over to Gordon Square and party late into the night.”
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.
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.
Midnight Syndicate FilmsZombies and vampires, oh my! “The Dead Matter” is one of seven films in the marathon.
CPT” Kill Will,” at Cleveland Public Theatre Oct. 14-30, tells the story: All of the good murders and fight scenes from all of Shakespeare’s plays, presented in one bloody evening.
These glass designs reflect even more light when placed on a mirrored table. They can be found at DuoHome in the Gordon Square Arts District. 
Lisa DeJong, The PD
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.
Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer “Sex and the City 2″ Girls Night Out party at the Capitol Theatre– a one-time silent-film theater that was renovated and reopened in 2009 — is an example of the vitality of the Gordon Square neighborhood. The Gordon Square Arts District capital campaign is the recipient of a 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize.
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