FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION:
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isit www.greatlakestheater.org/hanna/
Great Lakes Theater Festival’s
Hanna
Theatre
Project
Delivers Significant Benefits to
Northeast Ohio Residents
Cleveland-based collaboration positively
impacts the redevelopment of downtown Cleveland,
the
region’s economy and the cultural legacy of Northeast
Ohio.
CLEVELAND, OHIO –
January 18, 2008 – Great Lakes Theater Festival’s Re-Imagine a Classic
campaign to transform the
historic Hanna Theatre at Playhouse Square into a new permanent new
theater home for the classics in Cleveland will deliver significant benefits to
Northeast Ohio and its residents.
The recently announced $19.2M campaign is the fruit of a visionary partnership between Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF) and
Playhouse Square. The first
resident company of Playhouse
Square, Great Lakes Theater Festival has called the
Theater District home since 1982.
Great Lakes Theater Festival plans to complete the project in time for
the opening of its 47th season in September 2008.
“The Hanna
Theatre project is exciting for Great Lakes Theater Festival, for the Theater
District in downtown Cleveland and
for our region because it benefits all of us,” said Charles Fee, Great Lakes Theater Festival Producing Artistic
Director. “We [GLTF] embarked
on an amazing journey when we moved from our home at Lakewood High
School to Playhouse
Square in downtown Cleveland. Two and a half decades later, we remain
more committed than ever to the city of Cleveland and its residents. Our selection of downtown’s Hanna Theatre as a future home for the classics
is proof of that dedication.
For us, this project is more than creating an innovative theater
space. It is an affirmation of our
belief in the power of partnership, our determination to make this community a
better place to live for current and future generations and our commitment to
ensuring the legacy of the classics in Cleveland.”
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.”
Community and
corporate support for the project has been robust. “This project is an important piece of
the fabric of downtown,” lauded David
Goldberg, Chairman of the Downtown Cleveland
Alliance.
“The Hanna renovation is a critical asset to make downtown a
terrific place to work and live.”
Timothy K. Pistell, Executive
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Parker Hannifin Corporation and
chair of Great Lakes Theater Festival’s Re-imagine a Classic campaign, echoed
Goldberg’s sentiments. “We at
Parker Hannifin believe the Festival’s endeavor will be an important contributor
to the redevelopment and vitality of downtown Cleveland and our region as a
whole.”
The project is
good for Cleveland and Northeast Ohio’s residents, students and economy.
A Re-Imagined
Hanna
Theatre will:
-
Provide $88 million dollars worth
of positive economic impact to the city of Cleveland over the next ten years, ensuring
one of the highest rates of return on investment possible for the citizens of
Northeast Ohio.
-
Contribute to the growing momentum
of recent redevelopment initiatives, such as the Euclid Corridor
Project and the Idea Center, which continue to drive downtown Cleveland’s
renaissance.
-
Infuse the south side of
Euclid
Avenue with greatly increased economic and
pedestrian activity to stimulate retail and
restaurant development in downtown Cleveland.
-
Transform the way that Cleveland
area students experience the arts in a unique new space that
encourages community, removes barriers and inspires creativity, planting the
seeds for intellectually curious and culturally aware citizens that
participate as adults in the cultural wealth of our community.
-
Provide a dynamic attraction and
amenity for downtown Cleveland’s burgeoning residential
population which
has doubled over the past 5 years.
-
Attract more visitors to
Cleveland’s Theater District, which currently attracts over 1
million guests and generates $43 million dollars
annually.
The project is
good for Playhouse
Square and the cultural legacy of our
community.
A Re-Imagined
Hanna
Theatre
will:
·
Enhance the Theater District
with a
state-of-the-art thrust theater space and advance Playhouse Square’s legacy as a visionary
leader in historic theater restoration and community development. By introducing pioneering theater
technologies into the Hanna Theatre such as the “Parker Hannifin Stage,” a
fully-flexible, multi-use, hydraulic thrust stage, and a revolutionary,
mechanized, independent fly loft system, an engineering “first” designed by
architecture firm Westlake Reed Leskosky, the Hanna Theatre promises to be one
of the most innovative theater renovations in the country.
·
Offer regional performing arts
groups and Playhouse
Square a flexible space that is the appropriate size and
design for more intimate productions.
·
Enable Playhouse Square to satisfy
intense programming demands on the Ohio Theatre and, as a result, offer a wider
range of performance events to the citizens of Northeast Ohio – events that
historically haven’t visited Cleveland due to the Ohio Theatre’s calendar
limitations. Gina Vernaci,
Playhouse Square Vice President of Theatricals, stated “The Ohio Theatre will continue to support
our significant educational programs, smaller concert events
and address the needs of our other resident companies.”
·
Afford Playhouse Square the
opportunity to improve outmoded systems within the Hanna Theatre - addressing safety and efficiency
concerns, while simultaneously incorporating green, or “environmentally
sensible,” design elements into the building.
The project is good for Great Lakes
Theater Festival.
The project will enable Great Lakes
Theater Festival to:
-
Present classic theater
productions in an ideal setting of 550 seats with improved sightlines and a
flexible thrust stage specifically designed for the intimacy and electricity
of live theater.
-
Create a recognizable identity
that will help develop new audiences by branding the experience to
reinforce GLTF as a hometown company and gain lobby and street presence with
permanent signage and a marquee.
-
Control the theater calendar and
select an optimal performance schedule allowing ultimate flexibility and
opportunities to extend the runs of popular shows.
-
Expand its renowned education
program. Longer
production runs of popular shows and expanded performance calendars afford the
region's teachers and students additional scheduling and field trip
opportunities. The expansion of GLTF's performance calendar will enable it to
better serve its current school-based audiences while cultivating
relationships with new ones.
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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