Christmas In Downtown Cleveland

This is the second year that the Cleveland Christmas Tree has been located in Playhouse Square. Here’s a photo of the tree. Enjoy the holiday!

Photo copyright by/courtesy of chriszimmer.blogspot.com

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All Things Cleveland Ohio.

Playhouse Square – Cleveland’s Theatre District

The Palace Theatre Lobby

Clevelanders – along with most other people in the country – may not be aware that Cleveland’s Playhouse Square is the second largest theatre complex in the United States (only New York City’s Lincoln Center is larger in size) and it is second largest in the country in the number of productions (only Broadway in New York City has more).

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History gives some information about the beginnings of Playhouse Square:

Playhouse Square is a district at Euclid Avenue and East 14th Street comprising five theaters as well as office buildings, stores, and restaurants. The possibility of making the portion of Euclid east to 17th Street into a stretch of fine shops and vaudeville, movie, and legitimate theaters was envisioned by Joseph Laronge after World War I. Together with Marcus Loew of the New York theater syndicate, Laronge and others formed Loew's Ohio Theatres, and as the concept developed, the planned entertainment district took shape between 1920 and 1922. The first two theaters to open were the State Theatre and Ohio Theatre theaters, both in February 1921. The Allen theatre opened two months later in the Bulkley Building next door. The 8-story commercial and office building contained an innovative enclosed parking garage behind the theater. Compared to other exotic movie palaces of the 1920s, the relatively early Playhouse Square theaters were in a restrained classical style, with lavish use of marble, expensive woods, murals, tapestries, and gilded plaster relief. The Palace Theatre, built to house the performances of the Keith vaudeville circuit, opened in November 1922 in front of Loew's State on East 17th Street. Above the lobby and foyer rose the 21-story B. F. Keith Building. Connections between the four theaters made it possible to go from the Palace stage into Loew's State, from there into the Ohio, and finally into the Bulkley Building and the Allen Theater. In March 1921 the Hanna Theatre opened in the annex of the Hanna Building across Euclid Avenue. Although the legitimate theater actually fronted on East 14th Street, it was regarded as part of the Playhouse Square district.

Sadly, these theatres fell into decay in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and after a fire in one theatre and vandalism in the others, they were almost left for dead. But, in the 1970s, some visionaries had some ideas for the rebirth of the area. The Playhouse Square Association, a nonprofit organization, led by Raymond K. Shepardson, worked to help the rebirth happen and the theatres were saved. The resurgence of the area was helped by the musical review titled “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” which was supposed to only have a short few week’s run at the State Theatre. It was highly successful and remained there and captivated audiences for two years. The Playhouse Square Group was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Hanna Theatre Interior
Over the years, as more of the theatres have been restored and more and varied performances and artists were scheduled, the area is again vibrant. There are several hotels and restaurants in the immediate vicinity, making it very easy for visitors (and locals too) to have a real "dinner and a theatre" experience while they are staying in town.

Most recently, the Hanna Theatre was re-imagined and renovated, creating a state of the art theatre experience. The Hanna reopened in September of 2008, and is the jewel in the crown of Playhouse Square. The Hanna is also the new home of the Great Lakes Theatre Festival.

WKYC Channel 3 did a nice news feature on the revitalization of Playhouse Square, which you can view here:





References and further reading:

Playhouse Square web site

Wikipedia - Playhouse Square

Encyclopedia of Cleveland History – Playhouse Square

The Examiner - Playhouse Square: a second run for first-run movie palaces




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Cleveland’s Hanna Theatre Re-Opens

Images from GLTF

Back in January, I wrote about the history and renovation of the Hanna Theatre in Playhouse Square (“Imagine a Re-Imagined Hanna Theatre”).

The Hanna renovation is now complete, and The Great Lakes Theatre Festival will be calling the Hanna their new home. The theater will have a grand re-opening with the GLTF annual benefit this Saturday, September 20.

Here are the details from The Great Lakes Theatre Festival on their new home and on their new season:

Great Lakes Theater Festival Announces Ambitious 2008-09 Season in New Home at the Hanna Theatre

The Festival’s 47th season features a dynamic line-up of theater offerings, an expanded performance calendar and A Christmas Carol’s twentieth anniversary.

CLEVELAND, OH – Charles Fee, Producing Artistic Director of Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF), announced plans for the classic theater company's forty-seventh season today. The Festival's four regular season offerings in 2008-09 will take place in GLTF's new home at Playhouse Square 's Hanna Theatre while A Christmas Carol will remain in its traditional Ohio Theatre setting .

“The design of our new home is truly remarkable,” said Fee. “The creative opportunities that the ‘re-imagined' Hanna Theatre will afford our artists, our audiences and our community are absolutely extraordinary. What is particularly exciting for us as a company is that the design of our new home is really a metaphor for the kind of work that we do on stage each season… re-imagining classics. We can't wait to share this new experience with our audience. Working together with our amazing resident company of artists, our loyal and adventurous audience, our region's educators and students and with our great community partners like Playhouse Square, we look forward with optimism to the future. And this bright future begins today with the announcement of our forty-seventh season of classic theater - one that exemplifies the bold, ambitious artistic vision and dynamic, entrepreneurial spirit that has made this company great.”

Great Lakes Theater Festival's new 550-seat home at the Hanna Theatre will feature a flexible thrust stage and afford its audiences an exciting and uniquely intimate theater experience. The Hanna's new “Great Room” inspired design concept will create a single unified environment that integrates the artist and audience experience into one realm and dissolve the formal separation between the social experience of the lobby and the artistic experience of the stage. The new Hanna will offer patrons a variety of seating options including traditional theater seats , club chairs , banquettes , private boxes and lounge / bar seating . This variety of options will enable each visitor to self-define their experience at the theater.

Great Lakes Theater Festival's 2008-09 season will run from September through May and will feature a Fall Repertory, the Festival's annual holiday classic A Christmas Carol and a Spring Repertory. In the fall (September 24-November 8, 2008) , GLTF will present William Shakespeare's towering tragedy Macbeth , directed by GLTF Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee , in rotating repertory with Stephen Sondheim's enchanting musical, Into the Woods , directed by Victoria Bussert . GLTF's annual production of Charles Dickens' holiday classic, A Christmas Carol (November 28-December 23, 2008) , adapted and directed by Gerald Freedman, will mark the midpoint of the Festival's forty-seventh year. GLTF will continue its 2008-09 season with a Spring Repertory (March 25-May 3, 2009) pairing William Shakespeare's fantastic farce The Comedy of Errors with Anton Chekhov's soaring classic, The Seagull. The directors of The Comedy of Errors, The Seagull and A Christmas Carol will be announced at a later date.

The season sponsor of Great Lakes Theater Festival's inaugural year at the Hanna Theatre is National City . The season will be presented with additional generous support from The Cleveland Foundation, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, the Ohio Arts Council and SCK Design.

The Festival will expand its Fall and Spring Repertory performance calendars in 2008-09 to satisfy increased audience demand for public performances and to accommodate GLTF's significant student matinee audience. The company's Fall Repertory will expand its run from five weeks in 2007 to seven weeks in 2008. Similarly, the Festival's Spring Repertory run will expand from five weeks in 2008 to six weeks in 2009. The performance calendar for A Christmas Carol will remain consistent with past seasons.

Great Lakes Theater Festival's unique rotating repertory format has played a key role in the theater company's success with audiences over the past several seasons. The Festival returned to a rotating repertory format in 2003 with alternating productions of Hamlet and Tartuffe.

“Presenting a pair of classic plays in rotating repertory is a great challenge for artists and great fun for audiences,” said Charles Fee. "The opportunity to see a single resident company of actors perform two plays on the same stage, alternating shows every few nights, makes the Great Lakes Theater Festival experience unique in northern Ohio . Producing plays in repertory enables audience members to ‘get to know' the actors in our company on a much deeper level while simultaneously allowing us the opportunity to showcase the company members' considerable talents. It is amazing to witness the actors' transformation each night as they take the stage.”

Great Lakes Theater Festival's annual production of A Christmas Carol will celebrate its twentieth anniversary in 2008. Originally adapted and directed by former GLTF Artistic Director Gerald Freedman in 1989, A Christmas Carol has entertained over 450,000 adults and students over the course of its history. The production will remain in its traditional home at the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square.

Great Lakes Theater Festival's expanded 2008-09 performance calendar includes two new features: 1) a pair of additional Preview performances and 2) a new Friday evening Press/Media Opening performance for each of the company's regular season offerings. The remainder of the 2008-09 season schedule remains consistent with historic Festival offerings. Opening Night performances of Macbeth, Into the Woods, The Comedy of Errors and The Seagull have been scheduled for Saturday evenings, while A Christmas Carol 's Opening Night is slated for a Friday night. Curtain times for all evening performances will remain at 7:30 p.m., with a 1:30 p.m. curtain time for Saturday matinees and a 3:00 p.m. curtain time for Sunday matinees. All five productions in the Festival's forty-seventh season will continue to offer sign interpreted and audio described performances as well as the popular Director's Night and Playnotes pre-show discussion series.

Subscriptions to Great Lakes Theater Festival's 2008-09 season will go on sale to the general public beginning April 1, 2008 and subscription renewals for 2007-08 season subscribers will begin on February 11, 2008. An adult subscription to Great Lakes Theater Festival starts as low as $93. Student subscriptions begin at $36. For more information about becoming a Festival subscriber, patrons should contact the Great Lakes Theater Festival subscription office at (216) 664-6064 or online.

Single tickets will be available beginning in July. Regular priced adult single tickets will range from $15 - $69. Regular priced student/youth tickets for the Hanna Theatre are $13 ($28 for A Christmas Carol in the Ohio Theatre) and will be available for all performances. Additional handling fees may apply and may vary depending on point of purchase. Further details and pricing specifics will be announced in July. Single tickets will be available by calling (216) 241-6000, by ordering online and by visiting the Playhouse Square Ticket office. Groups of ten or more receive discounts as do educators.

The first resident company of Playhouse Square , Great Lakes Theater Festival will celebrate twenty-five years in the Theatre District this season. Since 1962, the Festival has brought the pleasure, power and relevance of classic theater to the widest possible audience in northern Ohio.


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Imagine a Re-Imagined Hanna Theatre

The Hanna in the 1940s

The Hanna Theatre is undergoing an extensive renovation, or “re-imagining," to create a new theatre experience in Cleveland, and is being touted as a theatre unlike any other in the country.

Some background on the theatre:

It was designed by Charles Platt, built by John Gill & Sons, and decorated by Faustino Sampietro.

It first opened on March 29, 1921, and was dedicated it to the memory of Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna, who was also the former owner of the Euclid Avenue Opera House.

According to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History:

“The first production at the 1,535-seat Hanna Theater was a presentation of The Prince and the Pauper. In ensuing years, it hosted a number of major touring Broadway shows and an occasional pre-Broadway tryout, notably the world premiere of Maxwell Anderson's High Tor on 30 Dec. 1936. Weathering the Depression, it became the only "road theater" in the country that had been in operation for 50 or more consecutive years. Milton Krantz became general manager of the Hanna in 1941, known as "Mr. First-Nighter" for his tradition of walking up the aisles and shaking hands with people he knew. After 42 years and 1,000 first nights, Krantz retired in 1983. Owned by the T. W. Grogan Co. since 1958, the Hanna was eclipsed in the 1980s by the revitalization of PLAYHOUSE SQUARE. It went dark in 1989. A renovation effort spearheaded by T. W. Grogan Co. and Majestic Urban Revivals, Inc., was initiated in late 1993. Led by Ray K. Shepardson, a founder and former executive director of the Playhouse Square Assn., a $2 million restoration of the facility converted the theater into a multi-tiered, cabaret-style showplace. The reopening of the Hanna was planned for March 1996, the theater's 75th anniversary."

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that this latest renovation may cost around $20 million and could be completed as early as this fall.

The Plain Dealer also reports:

“The Hanna will keep its distinctive limestone facade on East 14th Street, around the corner from Playhouse Square's other historic venues on Euclid Avenue, and its neoclassical auditorium.

But within those walls, the Cleveland architectural firm of Westlake Reed Leskosky will create an "extraordinary" venue, architect Paul Westlake said.

The current plans would integrate the lobby, the bar and the performance space into one.

The architects are "breaking down the boundaries . . . between the stage, the audience and the social experience of the lobby," said Westlake. "It's a continuum. It's all one zone."

His firm's work on four other theaters in Playhouse Square helped make it one of the leading theater-architecture firms in the country.

"But we've never done anything like this," said Westlake, who called the project "an architectural experiment, but also a social experiment" that could make the Hanna unique among American theaters.

The new Hanna will have around 500 seats (down from the original 1,400) on steep inclines arranged on three sides of a "thrust" stage, with no seat farther than 11 rows from the actors.

The theater also could operate as a "traditional" proscenium theater, Fee said -- and, depending on how much money Great Lakes and Playhouse Square can raise, it could be outfitted with technological advances far beyond anything else in the region. "

It sounds like the Hanna renovation will be bringing an exciting theatre experience to Cleveland. It's great to see this landmark restored and improved to keep the theatre alive - and relevant - in Cleveland for many years to come.

If you’d like to see additional information, a link to WKYC’s website, which has current pictures of the project, plus a video of a news story on the subject can be found here.


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HERE!