FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION:
visit www.greatlakestheater.org/hanna/
Great
Lakes Theater Festival Unveils
Visionary Design For New Home At
Hanna Theatre
The
design features an innovative ?Great Room? design concept,
fully flexible thrust stage and pioneering
advances in theatrical technology.
CLEVELAND, OHIO ?
January 18, 2008 - Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF), Cleveland?s classic
theater company, unveiled a visionary new design for the Hanna Theatre at
Playhouse Square, the Festival?s future permanent home, at a special
kick-off event. Created by a team
of architects from Cleveland-based architectural firm Westlake Reed Leskosky (WRL) in
collaboration with GLTF resident artists, the new Hanna Theatre design infuses
the historic 1920?s theater with a bold contemporary sensibility and innovative
new theater concepts while retaining the space?s classic architectural
elements. Great Lakes Theater
Festival plans to complete the project in time for the opening of its
47th season in September 2008.
?This is a truly
remarkable design,? said Charles Fee,
GLTF Producing Artistic Director.
?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 are thrilled to be able to bring this
same commitment and creative spirit to bear on the design of Cleveland?s future home
for the classics. We can?t wait to
share this new experience with our audience.?
Timothy K.
Pistell, Chair of GLTF?s Re-Imagine a
Classic campaign and Executive
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Cleveland-based Parker Hannifin
Corporation, emphasized the project?s positive impact on the region. ?It is clear that the Theater District
is an important economic driver for downtown Cleveland, making this region an extraordinary
place to live and do business. An
investment in revitalizing one of our historic theaters is good for the future
of Cleveland and
for the future of Great Lakes Theater Festival.?
The new
Hanna
Theatre design was
developed as part of the Festival?s recently announced Re-Imagine a Classic campaign. The total campaign need is $19.2M. GLTF has currently secured over 75% of
the project?s funding. When
complete, GLTF?s Re-Imagine a Classic
campaign will 1) transform the Theater District?s historic Hanna Theatre into an
innovative new theater experience featuring a thrust stage and flexible 550-seat
house that will become the permanent
home for GLTF ($14.7M) and 2) establish an endowment and programmatic
support for the Festival to ensure that the classics continue to thrive in
Cleveland for
future generations ($4.5M).
?The response to
the campaign from across our region has been overwhelmingly positive,? said GLTF Executive Director, Bob
Taylor. ?We?re so pleased with
the community?s confidence in us and we look forward to sharing more good news
very soon. We have a lot of
exciting work ahead of us.? Natalie Epstein, Co-Chair of GLTF's Board
of Trustees, added, "We are grateful to all of our early supporters and
especially proud of the dedication, unanimous endorsement and 100%
participation in the campaign from our Board of Trustees." The Re-Imagine a Classic campaign, a
culmination of Great Lakes Theater Festival?s 25-year commitment to downtown
Cleveland and
Playhouse
Square, is the first capital campaign in GLTF?s
46-year history.
Paul
Westlake, FAIA, principal
in charge and principal designer of Westlake Reed Leskosky, described the
project as a ?re-imagination? as opposed to a ?renovation.? ?While our office has worked on many
theater facilities, this is the first
project that employs a design strategy that integrates the artist and audience
experience into one realm and dissolves the formal separation between the
social experience of the lobby and the artistic experience of the stage. The design is very contemporary in its attitude. Throughout the design process, we have
been inspired by the insight and creativity of Great Lakes Theater Festival?s
resident artistic company. We
believe that, together, we have captured the essence of this vision in our
re-imagination of a great classic theater space.?
The Great Room -
A Dynamic New
Experience: The new
Hanna
Theatre experience finds
its inspiration in the idea of classic home design?s ?Great Room.? In the re-imagined Hanna, all of the evening?s activity will occur in
a single unified space. This
single environment will offer a variety of seating options and social
interaction opportunities that encourage audience engagement with one another
and with the art form, while simultaneously enabling each visitor to self-define
their experience at the theater.
The new Hanna Theatre design is:
-
Engaging
& Inviting: The re-imagined Hanna Theatre?s new thrust theater orientation, one in
which the audience is seated on three
sides of the actors? playing area, will create a unique experience for our
region where audiences are effectively seated in the same room as the
performers.
-
Intimate
& Customizable: The new Hanna Theatre?s 550-seat thrust configuration will
afford its audiences an exciting and uniquely intimate theater
experience. The furthest seat from the stage is
eleven rows. Patrons will choose from a variety of seating opportunities
ranging from traditional theater seats
and club chairs to banquettes and private box seating. Guests will self-define their
encounter with the event in order to maximize their evening?s enjoyment
whether spending time with friends, colleagues or family.
-
Interactive: The design of the space will encourage social and cultural
interaction from the street to the stage, from pre-show cocktails to
post-show conversation ? in a single
unified environment.
Interactive video screens will connect the patron to the performance
even when away from their seat, support the Festival?s informational lobby
display programs and infuse the new theater space with energy and vitality.
-
Comfortable: The new theater will feature the
finest in audience amenities including seat and leg room dimensions modeled
after the finest loges in Playhouse Square, accessible concessions
areas and a handsome and sleekly functional bar.
State-of-the-ART
- Innovation Meets
Creation: At
the heart of the Hanna Theatre?s Great Room design beats an innovative series of state-of-the-art
technologies conceived to maximize
the space?s flexibility, heighten
the audience?s experience and enhance the artist?s creative
process. The Hanna?s new
signature attributes: 1) the ?Parker Hannifin Stage? - a fully-flexible,
hydraulic, thrust stage in three sections and 2) an automatic structurally
independent fly system, an engineering
?first? designed by architecture firm Westlake Reed Leskosky promise to position
the Re-Imagined Hanna Theatre as one of
the most innovative theater renovations in the country. The new Hanna Theatre will feature:
-
The ?Parker
Hannifin Stage?: A fully-flexible, hydraulic, thrust stage
in three sections ? underwritten by Parker Hannifin Corporation, the
world?s leader in motion technology ? will allow ultimate flexibility and
maximum audience impact. The theater will function in two radically
different configurations ? a one room thrust and a two room proscenium
theater ? supporting many genres of presentation from Shakespeare to the
American musical comedy and from theater to other art forms such as music,
opera and dance. With a push of a button, the Parker
Hannifin Stage can descend
to floor level to restore
the theater to a proscenium, or picture frame, orientation and descend below the house floor to create a
fully equipped orchestra pit capable of housing a complete ensemble. The hydraulic stage can even raise and lower
sets and actors during performances.
-
Visionary
Theatrical Engineering:
An automatic, structurally independent fly
system - an engineering
first pioneered
by the project?s architecture firm Westlake Reed Leskosky - will equip the new
Hanna
Theatre stage house with 48 fully automated, motor-driven
line-sets enabling a dynamic range of set change, scenic design and
storage possibilities. It is the first theater in the region to
employ such technologies.
This engineering feat will infuse the Hanna Theatre with state-of-the-art theatrical
technologies and simultaneously allow the project?s designers to preserve the Hanna Theatre?s historic
stage-house.
-
Green Design: GLTF?s Hanna Theatre project is currently registered with the
United States Green Building Council and its Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. The project is pursuing a silver rating. LEED encourages and
accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development
practices by certifying projects that incorporate design and
construction practices that significantly reduce the negative impact of
buildings on their environment.
By equipping the Hanna with new, state-of-the-art
theatrical systems, updating the theater?s indoor environmental systems,
employing
enviro-friendly construction materials, recycling construction waste and
improving safety and efficiency standards with an emphasis on green design,
the new Hanna Theatre is environmentally
sensible.
Housed within the Hanna
Building designed by architect Charles
A. Platt, the Hanna Theatre has played an important role in Cleveland and American
Theatre history. According to
author John Vacha?s recent book From
Broadway to Cleveland: A History of the Hanna Theatre, the Hanna has
a rich theatrical heritage. ?Built
by Daniel R. Hanna as a tribute to his theatre-loving father, Marcus Hanna, the
Hanna
Theatre opened its doors on
March 28, 1921, with an adaptation of Mark Twain?s The Prince and the Pauper. Billed as a
?Broadway-Style Theater,? the Hanna was located not on Euclid Avenue but
around corner on the side street of East 14th. Its interior décor was opulent,
finished in what was described as a combination of Italian Renaissance and
Pompeian style, and the stage was described as ?large enough? to present the
best plays offered; but intimate enough to present the quietest comedy or drama
to the best advantage.? During its first two decades, the Hanna hosted such
touring Broadway shows as The Student
Prince and the Marx Brothers in Animal Crackers. There were also
significant world premieres, including Noel Coward?s Design for Living, starring Alfred Lunt
and Lynn Fontanne and Coward himself, and Maxwell Anderson?s High Tor, with Burgess Meredith. The
postwar era brought the golden age of the American musical theater to the Hanna,
from Oklahoma! to Hair. The mirrors in its star dressing
room have reflected the images of Ethel and John Barrymore, Helen Hayes,
Katharine Cornell, and Henry Fonda.?
The Re-Imagine a Classic
campaign is the fruit of a visionary
partnership between Playhouse
Square
and Great Lakes Theater
Festival. The first resident
company of Playhouse
Square, Great Lakes Theater Festival has called the
Theater District home since 1982.
As part of the partnership, Great Lakes Theater Festival and Playhouse
Square have ratified an agreement that will afford the Festival greater control over
its performance calendar and enable GLTF to create a recognizable brand identity
for the classic theater company on the interior and exterior of its new space
through a distinctive lobby design and permanent signage including an East
14th Street marquee denoting the Hanna Theatre as the home of Great
Lakes Theater Festival. The name of the Hanna Theatre will remain unchanged, as will
the theater?s historic vertical blade sign above the marquee. Playhouse Square will continue to own,
manage and maintain the Hanna Theatre.
Art Falco, President and
Chief Executive Officer of Playhouse Square, lauded Great Lakes Theater
Festival?s efforts. ?Twenty-five
years ago, Great Lakes Theater Festival came aboard as the first resident
partner of Playhouse
Square.
Today, the Festival is leading the effort as a genuine partner to
transform the Hanna into a truly unique and innovative performance space that
will set a new national standard for audience experience, engagement and
comfort. The new Hanna Theatre will enhance the vitality of the
Theater District.?
It has long been a dream of
the Festival to have a distinctively designed, permanent home that is
right-sized for its audience, uniquely appropriate for classic theater
productions and branded with a strong GLTF identity. The Re-Imagine a Classic campaign will make
that dream a reality. ?Forty-six
seasons ago this company was founded by a group of parents, civic leaders and
educators in the hope of providing a lasting and meaningful cultural resource
for their children and their grandchildren,? said William W. Jacobs, GLTF?s Board
President. ?The Board and I are
proud to play a role in continuing their legacy with this important project ?
creating a revolutionary new theater experience for the next generation of
theater-goers and realizing the Festival?s long-time goal of providing a
permanent home for the classics in Northeast Ohio.?
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Great Lakes Theater
Festival
The
mission of Great Lakes Theater Festival is to bring the pleasure, power and
relevance of classic theater to the widest possible audience in northern
Ohio.
Since the company?s inception in
1962, programming has been rooted in Shakespeare, but the Festival?s commitment
to great plays spans the breadth of all cultures, forms of theater and time
periods including the 20th century, and provides for the occasional mounting of
new works that compliment the classical repertoire.
Classic theater holds the capacity
to illuminate truth and enduring values, celebrate and challenge human nature
and actions, revel in eloquent language, preserve the traditions of diverse
cultures and generate communal spirit. On its mainstage and through its
education program, the Festival seeks to create visceral, immediate experiences
for participants, asserting theater?s historic role as a vehicle for advancing
the common good, and helping people make the most joyful and meaningful
connections between classic plays and their own lives. This Cleveland theater company
wishes to share such vibrant experiences with people across all age groups,
creeds, racial and ethnic groups and socioeconomic backgrounds.
The Festival is dedicated to the
highest standards in all areas of its operation, including theater production,
education and outreach, management and governance, and to creative problem
solving and innovation.
Playhouse
Square
Playhouse Square is a not-for-profit
performing arts center whose mission is presenting and producing a wide variety
of quality performing arts, advancing arts education and creating a theater
district that is a superior location for entertainment, business and housing,
thereby strengthening the economic vitality of the region.
Westlake Reed
Leskosky
Westlake Reed Leskosky (WRL)
provides comprehensive fully integrated design and management services including
architecture, engineering, interior architecture and design, lighting and
theatre technology, sustainable design utilizing the LEED building rating
system, master planning and programming. The firm specializes in innovative
designs for Workplace Environments, Healthcare, Performing Arts, Museums,
Interpretive
Centers and other cultural
venues, as well as Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse.
Westlake Reed Leskosky
has offices in Phoenix, Cleveland, Washington
DC, and Los Angeles. A limited liability company with
four members: Paul
E. Westlake, Jr., Ronald A. Reed,
Vince
Leskosky
and
Philip
LiBassi. In
continuous practice since 1905, the firm has been recognized for design with
more than 100 significant awards and publications. Each year, WRL?s 120
professional, technical and support staff implement approximately $500,000,000
in construction value and design. The firm?s integrated
design process is supported
with specialized services such as engineering,
environmental
design,
historic
tax credits, theatre and lighting
design, audio
visual,
acoustics, and
interior design.
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Media Contact
Todd S. Krispinsky
Marketing and Public Relations Director
Great Lakes Theater
Festival
1501 Euclid Avenue, Suite
300
(216) 241-5490 x317
(216) 241-6315 Fax