Performed entirely by students
Book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson
Musical arrangements Steve Skinner
Original concept/additional lyrics Billy Aronson
Music supervision and additional arrangements Tim Weil
Dramaturg Lynn Thomson
RENT was originally produced in New York by New York Theatre Workshop and on Broadway by Jeffrey Seller, Kevin McCollum, Allan S. Gordon and New York Theatre Workshop
July 23 – August 8, 2010
“There’s only us, there’s only this.
Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.
No other road, no other way. No day, but today.” – Mimi
Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway musical based loosely on Puccini’s opera La Bohème. In its examination of the lifestyles of the young men and women who inhabit the slums of the Village, the play becomes a celebration of life and the heroic struggle to survive.
The day Jonathan Larson (creator of Rent) died….
“The audience was reaching out to the cast. They were crying and cheering. By the second act, it was no longer contained. It was the full show run full-out. If emotion could have become a physical force, the roof would have blown off, the weather would have changed. The second act ended. There was a huge ovation, the cast slowly left the stage, and the audience stayed in the theater. No one was sure what to do. The cast returned and sat down in the front row. Finally, a single voice called from the audience, ‘Thank you, Jonathan Larson,’ which brought the evening’s loudest, final burst of applause.”
Dale Omori, Plain Dealer file photographDancers rehearse at the Gordon Square Theatre in 2005. The Ohio Department of Development today said it was providing $200,000 for removal of asbestos from the theater's ceiling.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Federal stimulus money will help with the continued renovation of the Cleveland Public Theatre, in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.
The Ohio Department of Development said today that $200,000 from a new fund to clean up and revitalize historic sites is headed to the theater, for asbestos removal.
The theater is part of the historic Gordon Square Arts District, which has seen a multimillion-dollar redevelopment in recent years.
The new money should pay for asbestos removal in the ceiling of Gordon Square Theatre, one of three performance venues that constitute Cleveland Public Theatre, said general manager Denis Griesmer.
The work is scheduled from January to March, when the Gordon Square Theatre is typically closed, Griesmer said.
The project will not only make the building safer, but will also help in the job-generating restoration of the neighborhood, state development Director Lisa Patt-McDaniel said in a news release.
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.
View full sizeSteve WagnerScholar Barton Friedman (John Stuehr, left) writes about Irish hero Cuchulain (Ray McNiece) and poet W.B. Yeats (Brett Keyser) in “Open Mind Firmament.”REVIEW Open Mind Firmament What: Cleveland Public Theatre presents a play based on the works of W.B. Yeats and Barton Friedman, adapted and directed by Raymond Bobgan.When: Through Saturday, June 5. Performances at 7 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. Matinee at 3 p.m. Sunday; 7 p.m. performance Monday.Where: Cleveland Public Theatre’s Gordon Square Theatre, 6415 Detroit Ave.Tickets: $10-$21. Go to cptonline.org or call 216-631-2727, ext. 501. “I want to create for myself an unpopular theater.”
So said William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet, playwright, politician and playboy (1865-1939).
Cleveland Public Theatre’s “Open Mind Firmament” is nothing of the sort, yet is also true to Yeats’ vision of “a mysterious theater” that is more “a memory and a prophecy” than realistic.
Bobgan specializes in this sort of thing, having producedoriginal adaptations of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, “Summer and Smoke” and plays by Gao Xingjian.
As brilliant as those were, it is tempting now to say that “Open Mind Firmament” surpasses them all. But let’s just say it is everything theater ought to be but so rarely is: revelatory.
Yeats, determined to write plays about Ireland’s heroic age to compensate for what he saw as the portrayal of his countrymen as buffoons by other Irish playwrights, produced a six-play “Ulster Cycle,” five about legendary Celtic hero Cuchulain.
None of these plays is staged today because their pure poetry makes them all but unplayable.
Bobgan and company mix excerpts of the plays and Yeats’ muscular poetry, the subtle gestures of the Japanese Noh theater that fascinated Yeats, and the lectures and written works of Friedman (1935-2009).
The resulting swirl of words and actions — moistened by water, heightened by ladders, shrouded in sheer scarves, and lighted in stark lights and darks by designer Trad A Burns – is a dreamlike melange of playfully sensuous allures.
The story arc, if there is one, emerges from several directions and eventually builds itself into a meditation on the nature of the writer as hero of his own work, author of his own life and anticipator of his own death. Yeats is Cuchulain — and so is Friedman.
The ensemble functions as an organic, protoplasmic whole that ebbs and flows and oozes on the Gordon Square arena stage. But it has four ringleaders.
Brett Keyser‘s Yeats has both dignity and mischief in his eye. Chris Seibert casts spells as Cathbad (the chief druid of Irish mythology) and as a blind seer. Raymond McNiece embodies Cuchulain’s physical and poetic prowess. And John Stuehr haunts the sidelines as Friedman.
If you know little or nothing about Yeats and his work, just let the production pour over your senses, and afterward pick up one of the informative limited-edition programs ($5) in the lobby, take it home and pore over it. Then go to the library and get some actual Yeats (the cast whispers some recommendations to the audience at the end of the show).
Yeats finished his wish for an “unpopular theater” by saying he also wanted “an audience like a secret society, where admission is by favor.”
Do yourself a favor, experience “Open Mind Firmament” and become a member of Yeats’ secret society.
We get our share of big, big shows in Northeast Ohio, especially since PlayhouseSquare is the country’s second-largest performing-arts complex. But sometimes the action shifts to a slightly smaller scale. Take “Wanderlust: A History of Walking” at Cleveland Public Theatre, right. New York-based director Matthew Earnest has crafted a world-premiere show from a nonfiction book by Rebecca Solnit that is in fact a history of walking. But the play is much more than that, theater critic Tony Brown insists — “a nonstop, highly choreographed dance-theater piece” realized by an “indefatigable” ensemble of seven. Through Saturday, May 29, at CPT’s Gordon Square Theatre, 6415 Detroit Ave. Tickets are $10-$21. Go to cptonline.org or call 216-231-2727.
Dobama Theatre, a small but feisty off-Euclid company, is wowing ‘em with “Humble Boy,” which critic Brown calls a “thoughtful production of a brilliant play that buzzes with intelligence and packs a sordid sting.” Full of family dysfunction and black humor, Charlotte Jones’ play concerns a group of five characters in the backyard of a dead British beekeeper stung to death by his own hive. There’s a big pot of gazpacho, too. Through Sunday, May 30, at Dobama, 2340 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights. Tickets are $10-$22. Go to dobama.org or call 216-932-3396.
Viktor Schreckengost was Cleveland’s quintessential Renaissance man, an “artist, teacher and industrial designer who transformed America through his own work and that of the generations of students he taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art,” as art critic Steven Litt wrote in 2008, when Schreckengost died at 101. Now the region’s first posthumous exhibit devoted entirely to his work is here, called “From Jazz to Design: The Art of Viktor Schreckengost” in the modest confines of Bonfoey Gallery. On view is a sampling of the master’s work in a wide range of media: industrial designs, sculpture, pastels and watercolors. Through Saturday, June 5, at 1710 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Go to bonfoey.com or call 216-621-0178. Free.
Steve WagnerJonathan Ramos, left, Kevin Charnas, Adam Thatcher and Trae Hicks take a stroll through “Wanderlust: A History of Walking” at Cleveland Public Theatre.
REVIEW
Wanderlust: A History of WalkingWhat: Cleveland Public Theatre presents the world premiere of a play, adapted and directed by Matthew Earnest.
When: Through Saturday, May 29. Performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. Special performances: 3 p.m. this Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Monday.
Where: CPT’s Gordon Square Theatre, 6415 Detroit Ave.
Tickets: $10-$21. Go to cptonline.org or call 216-631-2727.
The mind of Homo sapiens sapiens evolved, over most of the 200,000 years since the emergence of the subspecies we call human, to collect and process data at about 3 mph.
That’s the speed of walking — you know, where you use your legs, feet and a little arm pumping to navigate from place to place.
Inancient times, some of our forebears began to be pulled in chariots by horses andothers began riding the beasts, which today can gallop at up to 30 mph.
But it has been only in the past couple of centuries — with the advent of the practical steam locomotive, the automobile and the airplane — that we’ve demanded our brains catch up in a hurry to exponentially faster processing speeds as we go faster through the world.
This fascinating observation is but one of a multitude made in “Wanderlust: A History of Walking,” which opened last weekend in Cleveland Public Theatre’s Levin Theatre.
It’s a work adapted by New York-based director Matthew Earnest, who’s getting to be a regular around Cleveland. He’s worked at Porthouse Theatre, the Beck Center for the Arts (where he will work again next season) and now Cleveland PublicTheatre, where his visual, physical style is most at home.
In an unusual wrinkle, Earnest worked from a nonfiction book, Rebecca Solnit’s fascinating history of walking. Although the book is a delightful read, putting such a scholarly tome on the stage runs the obvious risk of didacticism.
But in these inventive hands, it’s a nonstop, highly choreographed dance-theater piece in which an indefatigable ensemble of seven walks this way, talks this way on a set (by Earnest and Curtis Young) consisting of a stage of dirt and a wall-size chalkboard on which history is writ.
From the bones of “Lucy” (a hominid who lived more than 3 million years ago and whose pelvis indicates she was bipedal) through Aristotle’s Greece and the Middle Ages to modern-day Las Vegas, Earnest and crew set a perpetual human machine in motion for 100 minutes.
It’s an impressive and extraordinarily entertaining education with every member of the cast pitching in: Kevin Charnas, Alexis Generette Floyd, Trae Hicks, Nicole Perrone, Jonathan Ramos, Pandora Robertson and Adam Thatcher.
Embrace the Rebirth of Spring with Near West Theatre There’s something so tempting about secrets. In their upcoming production of The Secret Garden, a Broadway musical based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s children’s novel, Near West Theatre gives each audience member a chance to feel the breathless anticipation that comes with learning a secret. They have converted their theatre in St. Patrick’s Club building into the most enchanting of gardens, with the audience surrounding the performance, being immersed in the garden. The lights, interactive video and extremely talented local actors make this production a must-see.
CoolCleveland correspondent Julie Cajigas had a chance to speak with director Robert Navis Jr., and actor Kevin Joseph Kelly on the set of The Secret Garden. And, when you watch the video, you’ll have a chance to see young actors Sydney Fieseler and Patrick Kennedy steal the stage and veteran Cleveland actors Kevin Joseph Kelly and Patrick Ciamacco make theatre magic with a short preview of the show.
Interested in seeing the show? Get your tickets for The Secret Garden today. The production continues Thurs-Sun, 5/13 – 5/16 and Fri.- Sun. 5/21-5/23 at St. Patrick’s Club building, located at W 38th and Bridge Ave. in Ohio City. Show times are 7:30PM, Thurs.-Sat. and 3PM on Sun. Tickets are available by calling (216) 961-6391, or at http://www.nearwesttheatre.org.
Julie Cajigas is a Cleveland girl who grew up on the East & West Side and now lives near Akron – she’s got the whole town covered! Cajigas holds degrees in Communication & Music from Cleveland State University and is currently pursuing her Masters in Communication at CSU.
Steve WagnerJonathan Ramos, left, Kevin Charnas, Adam Thatcher and Trae Hicks take a stroll through “Wanderlust: A History of Walking” at Cleveland Public Theatre.
Julie Cajigas is a Cleveland girl who grew up on the East & West Side and now lives near Akron – she’s got the whole town covered! Cajigas holds degrees in Communication & Music from Cleveland State University and is currently pursuing her Masters in Communication at CSU.
