Eric Coble: prolific playwright

Spotlight on Eric Coble, Cleveland’s prolific playwright!

He’s been called “A Playwright to Watch.” His writing has been praised as, “astute portraits [that] hit home with rib-tickling acuity.” His work has been termed, “a tour-de-force.” He’s been summarized as “the most astonishingly accurate—eye and ear on society and its foibles--of any current writer.” Who is this? Eric Coble, the present day Cleveland area’s most prolific stage writer. And, according to Coble, he owes it all to his children!

Coble, who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, raised on the Navajo and Ute reservations in New Mexico and Colorado, and has an MFA in Acting from Ohio University, had his sights set on performing on stage. But, when he became a stay-at-home dad, he figured the casting agents weren’t going to let him tryout in his living room, and he couldn’t ask the audiences to join him in his kitchen for a family dinner, so he went down a different path.

Coble decided that he could use his undergraduate degree in English, the imagination that allowed him to be a cartoonist, and his curiosity in the logical and illogical view of current events, to spin tales for stage, radio and books. He set up a schedule around his kids…”they go off to school, I go to my work of writing, they come home, I take off my professional hat and put on my dad hat.” The results have been astonishing. From 1994 until today, there are over 100 works that have been produced.

In the next two months, several plays will be transformed from page to stage in the local area. A GIRL’S GUIDE TO COFFEE, which features a barista whose creations elevate the humble bean to unknown heights, will be produced at Actor’s Summit in Akron. It’s part of his “The Alexandra Plays,” a trilogy concerning commitment, freedom, and how a person identifies him/herself. Another of the series, VELOCITY OF AUTUMN, will be performed at Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood. It will star Dorothy Silver, the grand dame of Cleveland theatre, as an elderly woman with a wicked sense of humor, who finds herself in physical decline.

Where do the ideas come from? Coble admits he is addicted to the media and when he reads on-line and watches TV, he starts asking who and how would someone be affected by those instances. “An idea just gestates. Sometimes it takes five to six years. I just let it sit. Come back to it.” “You can’t force a good play and when it’s time to be, it will be.” He indicates that he doesn’t have any half finished plays stuffed in a drawer. Once he starts, he finishes. Fortunately, Coble states, “I don’t get writer’s block.”

Surprisingly in this electronic age, Coble hand writes his creations. The scripts are transferred to computer, but the #2 pencil, is his tool of choice.

He pays attention to the readings and early productions of a show and makes adjustments after the production. “You see something before an audience that you don’t see until the words take life.”

An Emmy nominee, the recipient of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education Distinguished Play Award for Best Adaptation, the winner of the AT&T Onstage Award, and the Cleveland Arts Prize, Coble is a member of the Cleveland Play House Playwright’s Unit. The purpose of the group is to critique each other’s work in order to aid members to produce a better product. He depends on these writers and a select group of others to give him criticism that helps develop the final product.

Coble is a full-time playwright, stay-at-home dad, a member of the Cleveland-University Heights Board of Education, and obviously a talented writer of plays, media scripts and books.

His play BRIGHT IDEAS, which premiered at the Cleveland Play House and went on to much off-Broadway praise, may well be a way of describing Coble. He’s full of bright ideas, that seem to give birth to bright audience-pleasing works.

Baldwin Wallace College/A source for Broadway Talent

Cleveland’s Baldwin Wallace Musical College a source for Broadway Talent

There are many music theatre programs in the country. One of the repudiated “top five” is tucked away in tiny Berea, Ohio, a southwest suburb of Cleveland.

Yes, Baldwin Wallace College is exploding with talent that it unleashes upon the professional theatre world. There are a double digit of BW grads performing in, or getting ready to open in Broadway shows. Numerous others are running theatre companies, appearing in various professional theatre productions around the country, appearing on London's West End, and are trodding the boards on cruise ships and theme parks.

It’s the goal of the BW Music Theatre program to prepare students to compete successfully, and to sustain careers, as performers on national and international stages. The program offers an Intensive Conservatory-style training in Music (theory, solo & ensemble voice, and instrumental performance), In addition, Acting (for the stage and on-camera), and Dance (ballet, jazz and tap) help comprise the core performance instruction. The program has a very competitive entrance procedure, a limited enrollment, and strong academic rigor. Besides the Music Theatre major there are dance and Arts Management tracks.

The BW program has partnered with Cleveland’s PlayhouseSquare in both performance and arts management, as well as with the Beck Center for the Arts in suburban Lakewood.

The 2011-12 theatre season has seen or will see these BW grads on stage: Steel Burkhardt - HAIR (starred last summer on Broadway and is currently the lead in the National Tour); Kyle Post – SPIDERMAN; Hillary Elk – MEMPHIS; Cassie Okenka -- BONNIE AND CLYDE; Corey Mach – GODSPELL; Libby Servais - WICKED and LYSISTRATA JONES; Kevin David Thomas --REBECCA (opening in February); David Cameron Anderson – REBECCA; Trista Moldovan - PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (took over as the primary Christine on Broadway, December 9, 2011); Jen Noble -- GHOST, JR Bruno--national tour of THE BOOK OF MORMON; and Jill Paice--DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY.

Victoria Bussert serves as the Director of the Music Theatre program. She is also a Resident Director at Great Lakes Theatre, while Scott Plate is the Department Chair.

Winter Theatre Offerings--2012

Cleveland, Ohio theatre--a list of early winter theatre offerings--2112

It’s Cleveland, it’s going to be cold and snowy in the coming months. It’s a perfect time to go to live theatre and escape from all the stress. Here’s a partial list of what’s on the boards:

CLEVELAND PLAYHOUSE
216-795-7000 or go to www.clevelandplayhouse.com.

January 13-February 5
Presented in CPH’s new Second Stage Theatre, Allen Theatre complex
TEN CHIMNEYS, a heart-warming backstage comedy

February 10-March 4, Allen Theatre
RADIO GOLF, the final chapter in August Wilson’s 10-play cycle chronicling African-American life in the 20th century

DOBAMA
216-932-3396 or dobama.org

February 24-March 18
MIDDLETOWN, Will Eno’s new comedy exploring the universe of a small American town

PLAYHOUSESQUARE
216-241-6000 or go to www.playhousesquare.org.

January 6, 7, 27, 28
14th Street Theatre
JOSHUA SETH’S BEYOND BELIEF: AN INTIMATE EVENING OF PSYCHOLOIGCAL ILLUSION, mindreading, magic and hypnosis.

January 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 27, 28
Kennedy’s down under
FLANAGAN’S WAKE, an interactive Irish wake which takes the audience to Ireland for an evening of tales, singings and mourning.

January 17-29
Palace Theatre
HAIR, revival of the peace and love era musical, featuring Aquarius, Starshine, nudity and adult subject matter.

January 28-29
INBAL PINTO & AVSHALOM POLLAK DANCE COMPANY, conceived by Israeli choreographer Inbal Pinto, includes circus-world wandering street acrobats and oddly beautiful creatures.

Beck Center
216-521-2540

February 3-March 4
SPRING AWAKENING, winner of 8 Tony Awards, is a rock musical adaptation of the controversial 19th century German play that explores with poignancy and passion the turbulent journey from adolescence to adulthood. (Produced in cooperation with BW College’s Music Theatre Program.

Actor’s Summit
330-374-7568 or go to www.actorssummit.org.

January 19-February 5
BULLY, one actor portrays the life of Teddy Roosevelt!

CLEVELAND PUBLIC THEATRE
216-631-2727 or go on line to www.cptonline.org

January 5 - February 18
Big Box '12, provides local artists with the opportunity to create and produce new work. includes eleven world premiere workshop showings of theatre, dance, music and genre-defying performances.

January 19 - February 4
At-TEN-tion Span, the 10-minute play series returns, exploring different themes of politics, love and personal struggle in innovative ways.

February 23-March 10
ANTEBELLUM, a provocative play that resonates with the entwining realities of Nazi cruelty and Hollywood dreams.

KARAMU THEATRE
216-795-7070

February 3-26
The Bluest Eye, Nobel Prize-Winning Toni Morrison’s story about the tragic life of a young black girl in 1940’s Ohio. (This production contains adult language and themes.)

LAKELAND THEATRE
Lakeland Community College
440-525-7526

ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, a Steven Sondheim musical about a fight to save a fictional bankrupt town.

ENSEMBLE THEATRE
216-321-2930

January 12-29
SONG FOR CORETTA, examines five fictional African American women who find laughter and hope while waiting in the rain to pay tribute to the recently deceased Coretta King.

February 2-9
LOWER NINTH, a play of exploration of faith, survival and mutual redemption which finds two men and a corpse stranded on a roof after Katrina.

Playwriting in Cleveland

Original Plays Have a Home in Cleveland

Theatres in the Cleveland area are producing local, regional and national premieres. Included are the recent productions of Ken Ludwig’s THE GAME’S AFOOT at Cleveland Playhouse (world premiere), Conor McPherson’s THE SEAFARER at Dobama Theatre(regional premiere), and Joanna McClelland Glass’s TRYING at Caeser’s Forum(local premiere).

An additional trend is presenting works in development such as Randy Blair, Timothy Michael Drucker and Matthew roi Berger’s FAT CAMP at Playhouse Square and newly minted plays like Jeremy Paul’s MONSTER PLAY at Cleveland Public Theatre.

The two most prominent of the local writing groups are the Cleveland Play House Playwright’s Unit and Ensemble Theatre’s Stagewrights. In addition Cleveland Public Theatre creates new and original works in a less organized manner.

A look at one of these units showcases the new development and play process.

The Playwrights’ Unit is a group of experienced, accomplished playwrights from the Cleveland area who receive creative and administrative support from Cleveland Play House. The Unit meets regularly with Associate Artistic Director Laura Kepley to read their works-in-progress and provide each other feedback.

As early as 1918 local writers developed works for and within CPH. Starting in 1927, the theatre started to feature readings from what became known as the Playwrights’ Workshop.

In 1988 a Lab Company was developed to expand the number of plays created. In 1990-91 a collaboration with Ohio University MFA acting students added to the literary department. Plays were produced under the title: CPH NEXT STAGE NEW PLAY FESTIVAL.

By 1966 the membership in the group altered with new members added. Again in 2008 new members replaced some of the retiring writers.

Numerous writers from the group have had their works staged locally and by regional, national and international amateur theatres. The success of the venture can be illustrated by examining long time member Eric Coble’s success. His BRIGHT IDEAS received a CPH main stage production, was moved to off-Broadway, and won the AT&T Onstage Award. In 2010-2011 Coble saw over 60 shows receive national and international productions. Several of his new works will be staged by area theatres during the upcoming year. He has been commissioned to write a new main stage holiday show for CPH for next year’s season.

In addition, Eric Schmiedl’s FRANKENSTEIN has been commissioned for adaptation by the Denver Center Theatre. His MY HEMISPHERE AND YOUR HEMISPHERE LIVE ACROSS THE STREET was developed with an Aurand Harris Fellowship from the Children's Theatre Foundation of America 2010. Schmiedl has been commissioned by CPH to create a new show.

Deborah Magid’s THE WEDDING NIGHT was announced as the winner of the 6 Women Playwriting Festival in 2009, produced by Louisa Performing Arts Center, in Colorado Springs, and staged by the Santa Fe Playhouse Benchwarmers.

The excitement of local writers emerging to have their works presented on area, national and international stages continues. It’s just another aspect of what makes the Cleveland area a hub for the creative arts.

Cleveland's Groundworks and Inlet Dance

Cleveland’s GROUNDWORKS and INLET DANCE

When, eleven years ago, Cleveland San Jose Ballet, due to poor artistic and financial management, snuck out of town to become the San Jose Ballet, the doomsayers predicted that that was the end of dance as a Cleveland area art form. Nothing was further from the truth.

No, the area has no large ballet company, but that void was replaced by some small, vibrant modern and contemporary dance groups. Included in the list are Verb Ballets, Dancing Wheels, GroundWorks Dance Theater, Ohio Dance Theatre, Greene + Medcalf Movement Project, and Inlet Dance. The latter two just had very different, but outstanding programs, so, not to slight any of the others who will get future coverage, here is a quick view of Groundworks and Inlet.

GROUNDWORKS DANCETHEATER

Founded in 1998, GROUNDWORKS DANCETHEATER is the creative child of David Shimotakahara, who serves as the company’s Artistic Director. The excellent five person company (Felise Bagley Damien Highfield, Gary Lenington, Sarah Perrett and Kathryn Taylor), along with Artistic Associate Amy Miller and Music Director Gustavo Aguilar, have made it their goal to not only create creative and proficient programs, but make the entire Northeastern Ohio area their home.

GROUNDWORKS has no home of its own, but performs in various venues, going to the people, rather than having the people, per se, come to them. Performances have been held at Trinity Cathedral, dancing on a stage erected between the gothic spires, The Akron Ice House, performing in the vast vertical space that once served as an ice block and storage site, Cleveland Public Theatre, in a black box space, and the Cleveland Botanical Gardens.

Under the banner, Imagination you can see, the company enters its second decade, having been called “one of Cleveland’s cultural gems,” “one of the country’s leading contemporary dance companies,” “one of the year’s 25 to watch in the dance world,” and, “a company that is setting the standard for small dance ensembles in Northeastern Ohio.”

Beyond performances, the company does education outreach to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, connecting to over 1000 students each year. Outreach and Educational Coordinator Mark Otloski was recognized with the Yaneo 2010 Sunshine Award in recognition of his commitment to arts education in the community.

The company’s next public presentation will be Groundworks at Breen Center on February 3 and 4. The program will include the world premiere of a commissioned work by Ronen Koresh, and Hindsight, Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s homage to Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders. Breen Center is located at 208 West 30th Street in Cleveland.

INLET DANCE THEATRE

Founded in 2001, Bill Wade’s INLET DANCE THEATRE, operates under the goal of “creating life affirming new work, often pulling our topic based choreography from the communities we serve.” They are also a company without a permanent home, reaching out to the community by performing in schools, parks and dance festivals.

The company works with such community organizations as The Nehemiah Mission, which, based on the biblical Nehemiah who rebuilt Jerusalem, has the purpose of rebuilding the lives and homes of the physically and fiscally challenged of Cleveland by bringing in over 1000 volunteers per year to complete around 100 projects in private homes and churches.

Wade’s company, which has two of the area’s best male dancers (Joshua Brown and Justin Steintz) has fine female company members, Makenzie Clevenger and Elizabeth Pollert, an apprentice, Dominic Moore-Dunson, and six trainees.

Several years ago the company did a dance exchange with the residents of Easter Island (a commonwealth of Chile), one of the most remote islands of the world. The Inlet company traveled to Chile to learn dances and customs of the Rap Anui people and several members of that culture travelled to Cleveland. The local company created a series of dances, which were performed to authentic music and costumes designed to imitate the cultural pattern of the island residents.

Wade’s philosophy embodies a longstanding belief that “dance viewing, training and performing experiences serve as tools to bring about personal growth and development.”

Inlet’s education programming includes teaching dance at The Music Settlement, an annual Summer Dance Intensive, which attracts students from as far away as Central America, and residencies throughout Ohio as part of the Ohio Arts Council’s Artist in Residence Program.

Inlet’s next performance will be at 7 pm on Friday, February 24. Entitled An Intimate Evening with Inlet Dance Theatre, it is a fundraiser to be performed in the third floor ballroom of a South Park Boulevard landmark home. Attendance is limited to 40. For information go to info@shakerartscouncil.org

Yes, dance is alive and well in the Cleveland area.

Cleveland’s Ensemble Theatre, prediction of demise, premature!

When both Lucia Colombi-Cosentino and her twin-sister Licia Colombi, the founders of Cleveland’s Ensemble Theatre died, the prediction was for the demise of the theatre as well. Well, the pall bearers were wrong. Instead of fading away, Ensemble is back, and not only stronger than ever, but looking for a larger part in the area’s theatre firmament.

The theatre’s new Artistic Director, Celeste Cosentino, is the daughter of Lucia. As she puts it, “Ensemble was my incubator.” She was often brought to the theatre, which was then located in the Civic in Cleveland Heights. Her babysitters were the theatre’s actors and technicians. She intends to keep her heritage not only alive, but thriving.

After 18 years at the Civic in Cleveland Heights, the rental cost was raised beyond what the theatre could afford. The troupe became a tenant of the Cleveland Play House. This year, with CPH moving into their new home at the Allen Theatre in downtown Cleveland, the old facility was closed, and Ensemble was homeless.

Recently, Ensemble made an arrangement with the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education to rent space in the closed Coventry Elementary School. They retrofit a thrust theatre into the former gymnasium space. The present lease goes until the end of December and plans are to sign another 2-year agreement. According to Cosentino, if a long term arrangement can be worked out, the theatre plans to go on a capital fund raising project to further develop the facilities and expand their programming.

Ensemble has a history of proving that the arts are an essential and meaningful part of life; therefore, the theatre offers an important forum for stimulating and provoking thought about the issues of contemporary life, and it is a place for communal experience. It is under that umbrella that Cosentino, and her newly constituted board, are looking forward to continuing to produce vital and important theatrical works.

Their recent production of Clifford Odets’s 1930 labor play, WAITING FOR LEFTY, is a script that is as relevant today as it was back then in light of the attacks on labor unions by some state governments and governors. As part of their WAITING FOR LEFTY production, talk back discussions were held to discuss Ohio issue 2, which proposed to eliminate the anti-union bill voted in by the state legislature. The attendance was excellent and the play received positive reviews.

What’s in the future? Cosentino hopes that Ensemble will continue their present programs, such as Stagewrights, a group of writers and interested people who meet on Wednesdays of each week to create and develop new works. In addition, there are plans to continue their children and youth workshops. There will be a New Plays Festival (the scripts will be those developed by the Stagewrights) and talks are underway to develop interactive relationships with other theatre companies. There is a desire to develop Ensemble into an all-inclusive arts facility, much like Beck Center and Lakeland Center for the Arts to not only do theatrics, but also reach out to the other arts.

The 2011-2112 productions will include: ST. NICHOLAS (Conor McPherson); A SONG FOR CORETTA (Pearl Cleage), lower ninth (Beau Willimon), THE COLOMBI NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL (DANCING WITH N.E.D. by Tyler Whidden, DESTROYING THE LIGHT by Sasha Thackaberry, GROUNDS FOR DISMISSAL by Cindy Dettelbach); and GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES (Rajiv Joseph). Joseph is the author of Ensemble’s highly praised spring production, HUCK AND HOLDEN.

Cosentino believes that theatre has, through words, the power to make change. She intends to guide Ensemble to be a vehicle to help make that change.

For information about Ensemble Theatre go to: www.ensemble-theatre.com

Theatre in Cleveland, feature story

CLEVELAND, THE SURPRISING HOME OF LOTS OF THEATRE

Feature story to: Arts America

The woman on the deck of the cruise ship looked at me and asked, “What do you do?” I responded “I’m a theatre and dance reviewer in Cleveland, Ohio.” “Oh,” she responded, “you must not have a lot of work to do.” When I told her I cover an average 3 or 4 productions a week, and that’s only the professional theatres and dance companies, and don’t get to the twenty or so community theatres and college productions in the area, she looked at me in shocked surprise.

Yes, as is the case with many other things, the Cleveland’s arts scene, is under appreciated, but booming. Yes, booming, even in these times of recession. For example, five theatres and a dance company have moved into new venues in the past several years.

Cleveland is the home of the second largest arts complex in the country. Only New York’s Lincoln Center is larger than PlayhouseSquare, with its assemblage of the Palace, Ohio, State, Allen, Hanna, 14th Street, and Kennedy’s Down Under theatres. This complex plays home to the Broadway touring series, Page to Stage (a program in which theatre writers and producers are invited to develop Broadway-aimed productions), a joint effort between Baldwin Wallace’s nationally recognized musical theatre program and PlayhouseSquare, as well as the Cleveland Play House, Cleveland State University’s drama program, and Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House MFA in Acting program.

Professional theatres include CLEVELAND PUBLIC THEATRE, located in the transforming Detroit-Shoreway area, which not only stages traditional performances, but does many new and experimental works. It is the home of Springboard, a
 staged reading program of new scripts by local writers.

CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE, which was founded in 1915, CPH, is America’s oldest regional theater in America. It produces new and classic works in its newly refurbished home in the Allen Theatre in Playhouse Square. It’s new play development program has produced numerous well-known playwrights. The MFA program, which is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University has a growing national reputation.

DOBAMA THEATRE, in the Lee Road area of Cleveland Heights, is dedicated to the production of new and recent plays. The theatre recently celebrated its 50th anniversary by moving into a new facility. It is the home of the Marilyn Bianchi Kid’s Playwriting Festival.

BECK CENTER produces a combination of traditional musicals and cutting edge plays, as well as children’s productions. It is housed in the inner rim community of Lakewood. It recently refurbished its Studio Theatre.

ENSEMBLE THEATRE believes that the arts are an essential and meaningful part of life; therefore, the theatre offers an important forum for stimulating and provoking thought about the issues of contemporary life, and it is a place for communal experience. This fall it found a home by retro-fitting the gym of a former elementary school in the Coventry area of Cleveland Heights.

GREAT LAKES THEATER was founded by Arthur Lithgow (father of John Lithgow) in 1950. Formerly known as the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, it has remolded its it programming to fit into its brand new space in the Hanna Theatre in PlayhouseSquare. Operating on a $3.7 million dollar-a-year budget, it produces it produces Shakespeare, the classics and modern day musicals. GLT
shares a resident company with the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. On its main stage, GLTF connects approximately 85,000 adults and students to the classics each season. The theatre’s lobby bar is named for Tom Hanks who started his acting career here.

ACTORS’ SUMMIT, located in Akron, is home to a dynamic mom and pop theatre family, whose purpose is to present professional theater created by Ohio artists for the entertainment and enrichment of its diverse community.

MERCURY SUMMER THEATRE, recently relocated to the campus of Notre Dame College, was founded by graduates of the Baldwin Wallace College’s musical theatre program. It stages summer theatrical productions.

KARAMU opened in 1915 and is the country’s oldest African American theatre. Housed in the inner city, the mission of Karamu House is to provide a joyful place of gathering where all people can learn about and experience multicultural arts, foster an awareness of cultural diversity, and inspire an appreciation for the richness of African American cultural heritage. It gave the first voice to Clevelander Langston Hughes.

CONVERGENCE CONTINUUM, a quirky theatre, with a resident company, stages non-traditional productions in the Liminus, a former car repair garage turned theatre in the Tremont area of Cleveland. As the artistic director states, “What if, instead of going to the theatre to watch a play, you crossed the threshold into the world of the play to experience it? Theatre that expands the imagination and extends the conventional boundaries of language, structure, space, and performance that challenges the conventional notions of what theatre is?” That is convergence-continuum.

PORTHOUSE Theatre, located on the grounds of Blossom Center, the summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra, is the warm weather residence of Kent State University’s theatre program. It produces three summer offerings each year with student and local professional actors.

LAKELAND Civic Theatre is housed on the campus of Lakeland Community College, in Kirtland. Its goal is to provide a learning environment that fosters aesthetic literacy and expressive capability through the cultivation of artistic techniques and skills and the exploration of creative traditions and possibilities . Sondheim shows often grace the theatre’s stage.

THEATRE NINJAS, the brainchild of artistic director Jeremy Paul, was founded to create accessible and entertaining live performance while attracting new and young audiences to the theater. Ninjas performs original works and interpretations that draw on elements of film, dance, improvisation, physical theater, graphic novels and music. They are a vagabond troupe who appear in various venues, from art galleries to actual theatres, according to the physical needs of a production.

FAIRMOUNT PERFORMING ARTS CONSERVATORY, located in Mayfield Village, is the professional wing of a thriving student theatre training school. The adult productions center on musicals and traditional comedies and dramas.

Yes, to the surprise of many, theatre is alive, well and thriving in Cleveland!