About
History of Cleveland Public Theatre
Cleveland Public Theatre was founded in 1981 by James Levin. Levin had spent the previous three years as an actor and director at LaMaMa, the internationally renowned experimental theatre in New York City. Inspired by this experience, Levin modeled CPT on LaMama. His original goal of producing innovative original work dealing with provocative political and social issues featuring culturally and ethnically diverse artists was realized and continues to drive programming at CPT.
Since its founding, CPT has become Cleveland's leading stage for experimental theater, achieving national stature in the process. From 1983-1987, CPT produced free “Shakespeare at the Zoo” at the Clevland Metroparks Zoo. Following five summers of performance, CPT acquired a permanent home in 1984. Currently known as The James Levin Theatre, the theatre at Detroit Avenue and West 65th Street was once a popular dance hall. It was rebuilt as a theatre by a local motorcycle gang, who offered their labor in exchange for legal representation by Levin. In 1987 CPT began to focus on original work by innovative contemporary artists, including emerging playwrights and performing artists from the San Francisco Mime Company, Annie Sprinkle, and the Imani African American Dance Company. It originated the Cleveland International Performance Art Festival in 1988, which eventually became an independent operation, ultimately ceasing operations in 1999.
Since 1984, CPT has supported innumerable emerging artists, arts organizations, and itinerant theatres. Companies launched or nurtured by CPT include Wishhounds (Theatre Labyrinth), New World Performance Laboratory, Ground Zero, The Repertory Project (now Verb Ballets), and SAFMOD. CPT helped develop regionally and internationally recognized projects such as the Performance Art Festival (1987), Festival of Alternative Theatre (1988), Sonic Disturbance Sound Festival (1990), American Indian Festival (1992) and Women's Voices, Women Dancing (1993).
Furthering its commitment to local artists and new work, CPT launched Big [BOX] in the 2002-2003 season. Big [BOX] is an award-winning residency program that focuses on the independent creative artist and the exciting things that can happen when one is given the space and time to create. Over the course of several weeks, artists are given the keys to the theatre for one week and left alone to create, culminating in a weekend of performance for the public. Big [BOX] features new work in theatre, dance, poetry and performance art.
CPT's commitment to the community is evident in the ongoing work with inner city youth and adult men and women in recovery. Classes initially offered in schools and neighborhood centers eventually developed into a comprehensive outreach and education program. Continually evolving, the program includes Brick City, a partnership with Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority that provides theatre arts education on site to children who live in public housing, and Student Theatre Enrichment Program (STEP), job training and employment for Cleveland teens, most of whom are from low income families. CPT education programs now serve several hundreds of students through ongoing, free classes in the inner cities of Cleveland and Lorain.
Since 1999, CPT and Y-Haven, YMCA's transitional home and treatment center for homeless men in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, have collaborated to create an original performance. CPT Artists work with the men of Y-Haven to create an original play performed by the residents and based on their personal experiences. In 2001, CPT created a partnership with the Elyria YWCA and the Women’s Voices Project was born. The Women’s Voices Project partners formerly homeless women and local artists in order to facilitate the creation of original writing and performance. Every week, artists from Cleveland Public Theatre go to Elyria to teach, share, and collaborate with formerly homeless women, culminating in an original performance.
In 1994 CPT conducted a successful capital campaign, purchasing their original facility and transforming it into a Black Box theatre, scene shop, and administrative offices. The adjacent building, Gordon Square Theatre (GST), was acquired the following year. GST is the oldest remaining theatre in Cleveland; it was built in 1912 as a vaudeville theater. When renovated, GST will serve as a first class theatre, and a flexible performance space suitable for a broad range of events. In 2007, CPT added the former 84 Charing Cross Bookstore space to its facilities. The CPT Bookstore is utilized for rehearsals, events and small scale performance.
Since its inception, CPT has grown from a volunteer artist-driven organization with an annual budget of $5,000, to a vital member of the national arts community with a budget of almost one million dollars per year, a staff of dedicated professionals, and multiple performance facilities. CPT has anchored area redevelopment and stimulated a cultural renaissance in the once-blighted Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.
In partnership with the Detroit-Shoreway Community Development Corporation, Cleveland Public Theatre has paved the way for creation of the Gordon Square Arts District, the next phase of an area renaissance that has already begun. The arts district will include the renovated CPT theatres, a new auditorium for Near West Theatre, and the renovation of the Capitol Theatre. CPT has been called a “keystone for revitalization” in the area, and renovation of the once-condemned Gordon Square Theatre is a key strategy in this effort, highlighting the neighborhood as a place of exciting activity.
History of the Gordon Square Theatre
The Gordon Square Theatre is Cleveland’s oldest standing theatre. Built in 1911-12 for S. M. Hexter at an estimated $30,000, Gordon Square Theatre was billed as “Cleveland’s handsomest playhouse, perfectly ventilated, absolutely fireproof.” By the time CPT became the owner in 1995, it had become a neglected, musty firetrap and had not been used as a theatre in 55 years.
The Gordon Square Theatre has an illustrious past. When it first opened in 1912, it presented the highest quality Vaudeville—a form of entertainment different from Burlesque—geared toward the whole family. A dedicated railroad spur delivered performers and sets to its stage door. It incorporated “silent drama” into the Vaudeville, and eventually devoted itself to silent pictures to the extent that a 2-manual, 17-rank pipe organ was installed, and a small resident orchestra played with each showing. Its Vitaphone sound system and carbon-arc projection equipment was as good as any in Cleveland. The Gordon Square presented the first movie musical, in color: “Broadway Melody” in 1928.
By late 1928, The Roberson-Smith Organization, with Blanche Wilcox, was presenting “popular plays at popular prices.” For nearly two years, successful Broadway comedies and dramas were staged every few weeks. Eventually the players severed ties with the national stock company and formed The Gordon Square Players. As the aftershocks of the stock market crash were making an impact, live theater gave way to sound pictures.
After an attempt in the early 30’s at competing with the newly opened Capitol Theatre across the street on W. 65th, it was acquired and closed by the owners of the Capitol. Prior to its final closing as a theater in the late 30’s, it operated briefly as “The Austrian Playhouse,” showing German language films.
Over the years, before a condemnation order issued in 1994, the place had been a cold (and wet) storage warehouse, a scene shop, an auto-repair shop (otherwise referred to as a “chop-shop”) and a grocery. In 1958, during a particularly dark period of Cleveland history, the seats were removed and a flat concrete floor was installed over the sloped auditorium floor and orchestra pit. Tenants had come and gone (but mostly gone) from its storefronts and second floor offices—notably an early AA meeting and the all-time longest tenant, Jewel Dutcher’s Restaurant—popular from 1943 to 1971 with the after-bar crowd, with hot dogs, a juke box, and dancing all night long.
Since its return to live theater, The Gordon Square has been the venue of opera; original drama; musical comedy and political satire; American theater classics like The Skin of Our Teeth and Uncle Tom’s Cabin; performances of The Tibetan Buddhist Nuns of Kathmandu; The San Francisco Mime Troupe; and many contemporary dance companies, among others. It has also been the setting for various parties, benefits, weddings, and receptions.
The Gordon Square Theatre renovation project is just one example of CPT’s commitment to the community. Partly as a result of this commitment, the immediate neighborhood has recently been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. An area once virtually abandoned for the suburbs and a theater nearly abandoned to the wrecking ball are entering the future with a lot of hope and promise.
