Cleveland Play House
The Cleveland Play House is a corporation founded in 1915 prestigious regional theater in the United States in Cleveland ( Ohio ).
history
Up until the beginning of the 20th century, Cleveland only had cheap amusement theater with no artistic aspirations. The second decade of the 20th century, however, was rich in cultural initiatives in the emerging industrial city: at that time, the Cleveland Museum of Art , the Cleveland Orchestra , the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History were founded. A group of eight patrons, among them the entrepreneur and writer Charles Stephen Brooks (1878–1934) and his wife Minerva, wanted to remedy the situation in the theater sector and give serious current plays a chance. Cleveland Play House found its first home in a house donated by industrialist Francis Edson Drury (1850-1932) on the corner of East 85th and Euclid Avenue.
In 1927 a house was built for the Brooks Theater and the Drury Theater, and in 1949 an earlier church was converted into the 77th Street Theater, but closed again in the 1980s. At that time, CPH acquired the Sears Building, a former department store, and had it remodeled by the architect Philip Johnson . In 2009, CPH partnered with Playhouse Square and Cleveland State University to create a new theater association. The Allen Theater, which was reduced from a visitor capacity of 2500 to 500 seats, has been the home of the CPH since 2011.
literature
- John Vacha: Showtime in Cleveland: The Rise of a Regional Theater Center Kent State University Press, 2001