With our partners, Cleveland Play House and Cleveland State University, PlayhouseSquare has re-opened the transformed Allen Theatre just 13 months after closing it for the reconfiguration. Audiences already have begun to enjoy performances in the intimate and modern space which has been tucked into the historic Allen Theatre.
More importantly, the opening is a sign to the community that innovative partnerships can and do produce results. PlayhouseSquare first demonstrated this by partnering with WVIZ/PBS ideastream and 90.3 WCPN to create the Idea Center® at PlayhouseSquare, which has become so much more than a building. It is now a hive of activity, collaboration and education.
In the same way, our partnership with CPH and CSU is not about simply transforming the Allen Theatre. It is about re-imagining CSU’s undergraduate theater program, enabling CPH to produce a broader range of work and adding a new dimension to the PlayhouseSquare neighborhood.
Both of these projects (the Allen and the Idea Center) were funded by joint capital campaigns – highly unusual in the not-for-profit industry. In addition, both projects saved resources. Instead of each organization building its own new space, existing spaces were re-purposed for collaborative use.
Read The Plain Dealer special section on the renaissance of the Allen Theatre here.
What a perfect time, then, for a visit from National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman, who toured PlayhouseSquare on Tuesday. To say that he was impressed with our accomplishments, and those of the entire arts community in Cleveland, would be an understatement.
Read The Plain Dealer article about Landesman’s visit here.
Over the next few months, we will open the two new theaters that complete the Allen Theatre Complex and even more excitement is planned for the future.
To learn more about the Allen Theatre Project, please visit playhousesquare.org/allennews.
See more pictures of the Allen Theatre transformation here.
Tags: Allen Theatre, PlayhouseSquare
