Artistic Statement

CPT is ramping up its investment in new work, adventurous performance and local talent. In the 2012-13 Season we are having our second annual Springboard: A Staged Reading Festival and Leap/Conceive: A Showcase of Works-in-Progress. These series not only support Northeast Ohio artists, but also offer audiences a rare glimpse into the creative process and opportunities to participate in shaping new work. We are also launching a special program to nurture emerging directors. Our new Director's Fellowship supports a gifted individual, Denise Astorino, who will be assisting, learning and creating throughout the season as a CPT resident artist.

By supporting new work we are contributing to the wider theatre community (local and beyond), because without new work the field atrophies and calcifies. Supporting new work strengthens the local talent pool, provides inspiration and enables artists to stretch themselves and explore new territory. Supporting new work contributes to our community pride and affirms our spirit of innovation. But the most important reason we support new work is that we believe it offers the audience a great theatre experience.

Theatre needs to be live, and it needs to be local. You cannot experience it remotely-it must be in front of you. With movies, books and visual arts, when the art-making is completed the audience can continue to enjoy it. In theatre, when the work is finished, no one can ever see it again. You might be able to read a description or a script. You can sometimes see a video. But these things are only artifacts of a moment in time. Theatre can only exist in the here-and-now. If you miss it, there is no going back. Just like life.

While many in the theatre world are pondering how to compete with modern media forms, worrying about instant gratification of online options and freaking out about a generation fully bonded to the computer, we at CPT continue to revel in the power and resilience of theatre. There is no substitute for live performance, and that is what our audiences (young and old) continue to tell us.

Theatre is in the land of awakening-a place for the present moment. It is a site for celebration, a forum for debate, a vessel for exploration. And it is a labyrinth-the deeper we go into the maze, the closer we come to ourselves. And in the theatre we walk the maze together-artists and audiences.

You are a spectator. In the theatre that means you are also an artist. You interpret, you imagine and you synthesize the worlds that we point to. You complete the circle.