Copyright 2000 Susanne M. Alexander
Crain's Cleveland Business

THEATER ON THE GROW IN CLEVELAND
By Susanne M. Alexander

The lights dimmed. The actors in dark clothing stood at black music stands on a black floor in front of a black curtain. The scripts were in front of them. At times, the drama was so intense, the audience forgot there was no scenery, no music, no costumes. Only the words of "Germany Surrenders," dramatized for the first time for Michelle Lowe, the playwright, to hear, along with a sold-out audience.

"The Cleveland Play House for me is the most exciting place to be with a new play," said Ms. Lowe, an expressive New York City native, who acknowledged the actors for their uncomplaining participation in days of rehearsals and re-writes. "It's the support you get, from the audience, the administration, the actors who fly in from all over the country and the great talent here in Cleveland. It's an honor to be brought here. I watch the play, and I watch the audience and I learn equally from both-it's the first time I've seen it-and it was eye-opening. I've re-written 25 percent of the play this week."

Developing new plays from the early drafts to full stage production is a long and often expensive process. Peer feedback workshops are one way to both nurture and ensure the quality of a play and maximize its chance of success. A staged dramatic reading can be the next step. For the last four years, the Cleveland Play House has held its Next Stage Festival of New Plays, where professional actors dramatize a selection of plays for the playwrights in front of a live audience. At least one of those read at their 100-seat Studio One Theatre is then selected for full production the following year. Ms. Lowe's play is a possibility. *** Guarantee, usual practice, etc.*** We guarantee that at least one will be given. Committed to producing one on main stage. Micheele's is one of three to be considered for next year.

The Cleveland Play House also has a Playwrights Unit with ten selected local playwrights, who use the resources of the theater in support of their play writing. This can include photocopying, mailing, actors to read their plays, feedback in the development process from resident director and literary manager, Scott Kanoff, contacts for marketing to other theaters and help with contracts. Being able to write a play does not make an artist theater-smart, and this support assists them. Often Next Stage gives some Unit members the opportunity to see their work read, but the 2000 event only featured three plays, none from Unit members.

"Next Stage is the research and development part of our theater," said Peter Hackett, artistic director since 1994. "It's how we plan for the future. It's what keeps everything here alive, fresh and very contemporary. I can't imagine a theater without living playwrights in it. Plays are the primary art form and everybody else--the directors, designers and actors--are interpretive artists."

Many theaters in Cleveland receive money from the Ohio Arts Council and organizations such as The Cleveland and Gund foundations. The Cleveland Foundation has made a five-year stabilizing and growth commitment to many arts organizations in the area. Cleveland Play House, a non-profit organization, has the added gift of a $750,000 endowment earmarked for new play development. This helps support the $50-60,000 annual cost of the Next Stage Festival. Dean Gladden, managing director of Cleveland Play House, said subsidization allows them to take artistic risks that a commercial presenting theater would never take.

"For the readings, we do a relatively simple two-page contract with the playwright," said Mr. Gladden, managing director of the theater. "That contract gives us the option for a specific period of time to decide to produce the play. When we choose the play we want to produce, then we do a substantial twenty-page contract that gives us the rights to produce the play in Cleveland and future rights to produce it anywhere in the United States or Great Britain."

Crossroads Dancing, a first play by native-Clevelander Margaret Lynch, one of the members of the Playwrights Unit, was part of the Next Stage Festival in 1998. She benefited this year from an artistic arrangement struck between Cleveland Play House and Dobama Theatre. Dobama is a 200-seat underground theater located in the Coventry section of Cleveland Heights and in their 40th year of operation. The play had developed from its beginnings in 1992, through its first dramatic reading in 1997, and was finally ready for a small stage production.

Dobama chose Ms. Lynch as part of their Owen Kelly Adopt-a-Playwright annual program, and committed to developing her play as their annual world premiere. She worked with seasoned director, Caroline Jackson Smith, and Joyce Casey, managing and artistic director, on re-writes, staged readings and production. Many things were difficult to totally visualize during the writing of the play, which incorporated a slide show, live Irish musicians, singing and dancing. All this was ambitious for a first play, and provided technical challenges for the small theater and battery of volunteers. The cost of production, not including operating costs, was $19,792, which was covered by ticket and subscription sales, a $2000 grant (*** from the Kulas Foundation; photos?) and $1600 in donations.

Ms. Lynch attended a number of the performances, which ran from January 7 to 29, so she could continue the process of evaluating and revising the play. She also participated with the director and actors in a "talkback" session with the audience after one performance. "I wanted to see it with a number of different audiences and different conditions so I have more data to use to judge whether or not I need to make further changes," she said.

Facilitated audience feedback is a feature that draws full-house audiences at both Dobama and the Cleveland Play House. They are excited at participating in the play-development process and at seeing world premieres of plays with contemporary, hold-a-mirror-to-the-world themes. "It wasn't clear.I was moved by.It didn't make sense.I felt.It was a brilliant moment." Audience members share their feelings, confusion points, what worked for them, what didn't work well, how they were moved, what stimulated their imagination, and so on. The director, playwright and actors share their views and the emotional impact of the play on them. This dialogue is critical for the playwright, and also useful for the director and actors.

The actors play a key role in bringing the play to life and assisting the playwright in working out details. Dorothy Silver, a long-time much respected Cleveland actor, participated in "Germany Surrenders." She also starred in Crossroads Dancing, where Ms. Casey described her as the "critical, emotional core" of the play and Ms. Lynch called her "special, and the heart and soul of it all."

"Every art form needs and usually has a venue for allowing new work to appear, particularly in the theater, which is such a difficult and collaborative art," said Ms. Silver. "If you are a painter and you're evolving a new style, and you're painting in your attic, you don't need a whole support system. In the theater you need somebody who says, 'Great, I'd love to invest time in having a reading of the play and discussion and help you develop it further.' In the process of the four days of rehearsal for Michelle Lowe's play, she wrote and rewrote and gave us new scenes based on what she was seeing. She could not have done that without having the opportunity to witness the work grow in front of her in the mouths of actors. It's an art form that at its best has to culminate in production, otherwise it's lying in your closet."

Production is obviously the ultimate goal for a playwright, but the opportunities are limited. The Eugene S. & Blanche R. Halle Theatre, in Cleveland Heights, offers the annual Dorothy Silver Playwrighting Competition to solicit new plays from local and international playwrights on Jewish themes. Ms. Silver was the former director of cultural arts of the Jewish Community Center, which includes the theater. The Cleveland Public Theatre has run a New Plays Festival since 1984, and they received over 400 scripts last year from all over the country. Artistic Director, James Levin, said they suspended the program this year while they look for a new director for it and evaluate their options for producing more, less-expensive original plays. Karamu House Theatre hosts the annual R. Joyce Whitley Festival of new Plays, but Executive Director Gerry McClamy said they have been frustrated with working out ways to support the development process, effectively reviewing the 50 national submissions they receive, and providing enough opportunities for production.

James and Bronwyn Jameson start by sending their co-written plays to national competitions, and when they start to receive positive feedback on them, choose the very difficult self-production route. In 1999 they rented Kennedy's, a 100-seat cabaret-style venue that is part of Playhouse Square, and produced a play called Rat Trap. Rental was $300 per day for one on-site rehearsal and eight performances. Ticket prices were set at $18 to cover 8 percent city entertainment taxes, $1/ticket to Playhouse Square Foundation, fees to Advantix, print costs, and credit card charge fees. In February 2000, they staged 11 performances of "The Comfort of Someplace Warm" at Cabaret Dada, located in Cleveland's warehouse district.

The Jameson's make it work with long hours in the evenings and weekends, volunteers, and filling many of the acting, directing, stage managing and marketing functions themselves, but they appreciate the rewards. "The fire is to get it out and seen," said Ms. Jameson. "There are a lot of opportunities for space here, and this is a theater-savvy town, with a lot of talented, hard-working and creative actors. Cleveland offers so much professional theater, that people know about theater in this town, they know what plays are, they know what they're like."

"We can say these are non-profit enterprises," said Ms. Lynch about the play-producing organizations in greater Cleveland, "but if they don't work economically at all, then they can't exist. It's a very tenuous sort of existence. It's a good thing to think about the support that's necessary and how these things operate and happen. Theater can be a magical kind of experience, but it doesn't happen by magic, it happens by so much hard work of so many different people. All of that is either time or money. It's very daunting to do it and yet maintain that illusion of magic for the audience."