I'm honored to be directing the premieres of several plays commissioned by Cleveland Play House from its Playwrights Unit and other affiliated writers. They are: Two Joans by George Brant (Grounded, Marie & Rosetta), CPH RAW by Eric Coble (The Velocity of Autumn), and Faye Sholiton, Artistic Director of InterPlay Jewish Theatre, and Dramatist Guild Regional Representative . A total of ten playwrights' work makes up The CPH Centennial Plays, a collection of short plays exploring the Play House's first 100 years to be performed as part of the Centennial Celebration Weekend.
Two Joans is inspired by the true story of two young actresses, one Swedish and one British, who survived torpedo attacks on their ships as they traveled to Cleveland to study and perform Shaw's Saint Joan at CPH during WW II. CPH RAW is a hilarious and highly physical satire which imagines the ups and downs of CPH's last twenty-five years as a WWE-style smackdown--with a happy ending for all. Faye Sholiton has written ten 60-second transition scenes which seamlessly connect the individual plays, using moments of CPH history--real and imagined--ranging from the impact of childrens' theatre programs on one family during the depression, to a seven-year-old Joel Grey's (nee Joel Katz) audition for his first acting job CPH, to what the company's founders might think of its current status as community touchstone and Tony Award recipient.
For information on FREE performance times for The CPH Centennial Plays check out THIS article about the CPH Centennial Open House (which I'm also producing...!).