At this time last year, The Phantom of the Opera was playing in the Allen Theatre. And now, the first Cleveland Play House performance in the newly reconfigured Allen is less than two months away!
Over the past 10 months, the team from Turner Construction has removed all of the seats and the old control booth, dropped a wall from the ceiling to the main floor at the original balcony line of the Allen, built out two new lounge areas, poured concrete for new seating levels, installed new catwalks and acoustic panels, and completed lots of behind-the-scenes electrical, HVAC and plumbing work. Phew!
Up next on the list? Finishes (flooring, etc.), testing to make sure everything works and…seating! That’s how you know we’re really almost done. The seats will arrive on Monday, July 25 and will be installed throughout the week.
That’s just one part of the project, though. In the Middough Building on E. 13th St., crews are busy preparing space for Cleveland Play House offices, costume shop and rehearsal spaces, as well as classroom space and offices for Cleveland State University’s visual and dramatic arts programs. Cleveland Play House will begin moving into the Middough in late September, followed by CSU in January.
If you’ve been to PlayhouseSquare recently and parked in our garage, you’ve seen cranes, concrete trucks and lots of steel beams in the area between the Allen and Ohio Theatres. By January, we’ll have two new theaters in that area: the highly flexible Second Stage Theatre and the 150-seat Lab Theatre. Crews are working on concrete slab pours, masonry, framing and a mechanical rough-in of the electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems for the addition.
Check out these photos of the progress:
For best view, use full screen mode.
Tags: Allen Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Cleveland State University, PlayhouseSquare
