Pictured, Left to Right, Row 1: Lacy Talley, Chris Webb, Raymond Bobgan, Isaiah I. Burns, Emergence; Row 2: Anastasía Urozhaeva, Nadia Tarnawsky, “The Us Frequency, or The Cymatic Community,” Kerstin Vaughn, Substance, Dave Maher; Row 3: Ray Caspio, Caroline Breder-Watts, Brooke Lynlee, “Awash With Guns,” Molly McFadden, Elizabeth Pollert

SoftLaunch is a weekend-long performance festival/conference that seeks nothing less than a complete reinvention of what theatre can be. Installation art, immersive and participatory performances, improvised music composition, and solo shows disguised as multimedia breakdowns and yoga classes—all these types of projects and more have found a home in Soft Launch. The rule is: If your project does not fit the normal theatre mode, it belongs in SoftLaunch.

Audience members get a pass and can wander as they wish to see different performance experiments. This first SoftLaunch is itself a beta test, with work that ranges from workshop to fully produced, and everywhere in between.

Check out the full lineup of SoftLaunch creators and performers below, listed alphabetically by Lead Artist last name:

Lead Artist: Raymond Bobgan
Title: Pieces of a Porcelain Pegasus
Performer: Anastasía Urozhaeva
Description: Pieces of a Porcelain Pegasus explores connectivity within a drive in a moment of receptivity and imagination. Audience members enter a sensory, auditory, and maybe even olfactory world in a one-on-one performance experience where their choices determine trajectory and outcome.
Lead Artist Bio: Raymond Bobgan creates new performances that are bold, multilayered, and highly physical through an ever-evolving ensemble process. Raymond’s work has been seen in Romania, Brazil, Denmark, Serbia, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Canada, and has been featured in American Theatre Magazine, Canadian Theatre Review, Theatre Journal, and Lisa Wolford’s Grotowski’s Objective Drama Research. Raymond’s ongoing periodic work on themes of death and dying includes Blue Sky Transmission: A Tibetan Book of the Dead, which premiered Off-Broadway at La Mama Experimental Theatre Company in partnership with CPT; Red Castle Inquiry, based on Franz Kafka’s novel and created with Karin Randoja; original CPT production Red Ash Mosaic; and Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Future projects include Have You Ever Dreamt of Flight? with Cleveland CORE Ensemble and Daedalus and Dagny with Anastasía Urozhaeva.

Lead Artist: Caroline Breder-Watts
Title: The Birds: An Audio Deconstruction
Performers: TBA
Description: The Birds: An Audio Deconstruction takes a classic script—the Daphne du Maurier short story that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds—and strips it down to the basic elements of audio design and audience immersion. A reexamination of the traditional radio play form.
Lead Artist Bio: Caroline Breder-Watts is the Managing and Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Radio on the Lake Theatre, Northeast Ohio’s only theater company exclusively dedicated to the audio arts. She has enjoyed a diverse career in the arts for the past 30 years, with projects in radio, theater, and film, as well as host, producer, arts reporter and fundraiser roles at public media stations in Miami and Cleveland. She is thrilled to be making her CPT debut with this project.

Lead Artist: Isaiah I. Burns
Title: Dementia’s Web
Performer: Isaiah I. Burns
Description: Dementia’s Web is a theatrical experience, placing the audience in the brain of a person living with dementia. The piece explores the aging process, distorted memories, and processing complex emotions with a humorous but respectful tone.
Lead Artist Bio: Isaiah Burns strives to stimulate imagination and build community through different mediums. His work covers relatable themes such as family dynamics, class, history, and interpersonal human interactions, with a clever and surrealist slant. No matter the platform, Burns’ goal is to spread warmth and representation during times when audience members may not feel it for themselves.

Lead Artist: Ray Caspio
Title: THE BUCKTOOTHED F△GG⊙T (or THE NIJINSKY INCANTATION)
Performers: Ray Caspio (Creator and Performer), Amy Schwabauer (Collaborator)
Description: A transmutation of sexuality. An autobiography in dream. Ray Caspio immerses you in their madness, shapeshifting between themself and character, proving that politics is not separate from our bodies and experiences. Follow your impulse and leave your mark on the space in this living art experience.
Lead Artist Bio: Ray Caspio is a multidisciplinary artist creating intimate performance installations. Their work has been performed at Cleveland Museum of Art, BorderLight, Theater Ninjas, CPT’s Pandemonium & Playhouse Square. Ray is the recipient of a Creative Workforce Fellowship, a SPACES Satellite Fund grant, and a 2024-25 Premiere Fellowship with Cleveland Public Theatre.

Lead Artist: CHIMI
Title: Whence Cometh My Rest
Performer: CHIMI
Description: Whence Cometh My Rest is a profound exploration of the deep exhaustion felt by the artist and countless Black bodies around the world as they await reparations and work toward liberation from systemic oppression and generational trauma. Through spontaneous music and live interaction, this durational piece captures the collective longing for rest and freedom, creating a shared moment of reflection and resistance.

Lead Artist: Emergence
Title: Fractal Images of Us
Performers: Love Freely, Victoria McBride, Colleen McCaughey, Nikki Charise, Katalin La Favre, Molly Andrews-Hinders
Description: Emergence invites audience to join in creating a song unique to the people and energy in the room. Collaborating with classical percussionist Katalin LaFavre and bassist Nikki Charise, we will weave a sonic landscape with some “pre-made ingredients,” accessible points of entry, and open space for play.
Lead Artist Bio: Emergence asks the question, “how do we show up fully (in love, in action) within a dysfunctional and violent society?” Comprised of Victoria McBride, Colleen McCaughey, Love Freely, and Molly Andrews-Hinders, Emergence seeks to bring sustaining life and energy to artists, community tenders, and change makers in Cleveland and beyond. 

Lead Artist: Michael Glavan
Title: The Us Frequency, or The Cymatic Community
Performer: Michael Glavan
Description: Everything in this world has a frequency—including you. Capturing that vibrational frequency into a visual medium is a phenomena called “cymatics,” and together in a small collective, we are going to create our own cymatic picture, like an abstract snapshot of a moment. One part individual reflection, one part connection: each group is destined to compose something unique.
Lead Artist Bio: Michael Glavan is an ensemble member of Seat of the Pants, freelance theatre artist, and teacher. He’s worked in various capacities across Cleveland Play House, Dobama, Rubber City, Porthouse, Blank Canvas, and Players Guild with close to a decade in regional theatre work across the country and in NY as an actor and director.

Lead Artist: Brooke Lynlee
Title: Shards of a Stained Psyche
Performers: Brooke Lynlee, Yuval Tal, Katie Boissoneault, Kynnedy, Jordan Ficyk, Nnamdi Okpala & Eric Wloszek
Description: Glimpse into the psyche of each artist, through the stained-glass lens of unique childhood experiences. Shared fragments of memory come to life in an art exhibit of physical theatre, original text, and an improvised musical underscore.
Lead Artist Bio: Brooke Lynlee is a Cleveland-based actor, director, writer, musician, theatre artist and educator. She respects and values art in all its forms and from all backgrounds. She has a passion for art that allows audiences the opportunity to more clearly understand perspectives that may be unlike their own.

Lead Artist: Dave Maher
Title: Winter Olympics (working title)
Performer: Dave Maher
Description: Winter Olympics is an existential escape room that poses the question, “Which do you prefer, comfort or sustenance?” It’s so nice in here. Why would you ever leave? Recommended if you like: staring into the abyss, (antifascist) black metal, chili.
Lead Artist Bio: Dave Maher is a performance artist and podcaster who comes to Cleveland from Chicago. He acted on The Bear, appeared on This American Life, and performed genre-blending one-man shows at the Neo-Futurist Theater, Steppenwolf, and the Edinburgh Fringe. He interviews artists and activists about deaths on This Is Your Afterlife.

Lead Artist: Fatima Matar
Title: Awash With Guns
Performers: Sarah Kunchik, Keith Kornajcik
Description: Are guns more important than our kids? Knee deep in blood and guns, Awash with Guns is a disturbing experimental performance that demands us to rethink America’s obsession with guns.
Lead Artist Bio: Fatima is an artist, writer, and performance poet. She sought asylum in the United States in 2018. She won The Urgent Art Grant from SPACES, Ohio’s Individual Excellence Award for Writing from Ohio’s Arts Council, and The Premier Fellowship from CPT.

Lead Artist: Molly McFadden
Title: Mild Cognitive Express
Collaborating Artists: Samantha Cocco, Michael Glavan, Jonathon Morgan
Description: Step right up! Step right up—to the Mild Cognitive Express—a thrill and a chill of a ride! Buckle in for the rush of memory recall and unexpected turns! Embrace the “glaze” with our neuro-coaster conductors Dr. Ron Lewy & Dr. Amy Loid! IF things go wrong, you are in good, if absurd, hands.
Lead Artist Bio: Having performed in theater from New York to Cleveland, Molly feels it’s time to launch a new beginning for herself and the audience. Using her writing and collaborating skills, she wants the audience to experience her world of post-it notes and holes. Buckle up for the ride.on.a.roller.coaster. Having mild cognitive impairment herself, she is blazing the trail and encouraging people with this piece to learn about their own brain health. The more you know earlier, the better the odds. Why give in when you can fight back?

Lead Artist: Elizabeth Pollert
Title: Tethers
Performer: Elizabeth Pollert, with the voices of her children and interviews of dancing mothers
Description: Tethers is a multimedia interactive installation that explores our connections to people and memories. The work investigates the acts of making and unmaking as forms of remembrance and choice. Participants will have the opportunity to join in the making and add to the installation.
Lead Artist Bio: Elizabeth Pollert is a Cleveland-based dance artist and has worked in the realm of dance and theatre for over 20 years. She is interested in cross-medium performance in traditional and unusual spaces.

Lead Artist: Substance
Title: Crushin’
Performer: Substance
Description: Everyone has crushes, but we don’t talk about what’s happening internally when a cutie catches our eye. Crushin’ is a multi-medium, hands-on experience intended to give people an opportunity to explore the shadow side of experiencing those butterflies. You’ll learn a little, release a little, and receive a little.
Lead Artist Bio: Abiding by her life’s mantra, “just here to get better,” multidisciplinary creative Substance is dedicated to artistic mastery and self-development. Using her tendency to dabble, she is willing to wear many hats in order to witness an idea come into fruition.

Lead Artist: Lacy Talley
Title: “I AM” Resetting Live
Performer: Lacy Talley
Description: Redefining starts with resetting—letting go of misaligned habits, patterns, and connections. Through reflection, I embraced new perspectives and clarified how I want to be loved, supported, and nurtured. This moment of introspection became my place of transformation. This is my place of resetting.
Lead Artist Bio: Cleveland artist Lacy Talley blends Afro Futurism and Surrealism in crystal-inspired art. Known for collaborations with The National Basketball Association and Maker’s Mark, she uplifts communities through creative workshops and installation art. Her Crystal Gardens Healing Art Exhibition debuts summer 2025, highlighting her passion for growth and practicing self-improvement techniques.

Lead Artist: Nadia Tarnawsky
Title: Укриття/Shelter
Performers: Nadia Tarnawsky, Vira Hanchar, Anna Sitko
Description: Укриття/Shelter is an interactive piece co-created by Nadia Tarnawsky and Vira Hanchar which examines ordinary life interrupted by air raid sirens, time spent in bomb shelters with puppets, and the absurd destruction of war.
Lead Artist Bio: Nadia Tarnawsky spent most of 2017 and 2018 doing research and teaching in Ukraine as a recipient of a Fulbright Award. She has performed at La MaMa ETC (NYC), Annex Theatre (Seattle), Cleveland Public Theatre, and in Fringe Festivals in New York, New Orleans, and Cincinnati.

Lead Artist: Anastasía Urozhaeva
Title: Poets Room. Where Gravity Falls.
Collaborating Artists: Lauren Anderson (aka Observer Studios), Doug Fraley (aka flowers de moon), Leila Khoury
Description: Interactive installation performance artwork about love, loss, and how fate can bring people together and push them apart. In this small room installation, among other elements, the audiences are invited to listen to poetic texts read by various performers. Before leaving, the audiences are offered to leave a response.
Lead Artist Bio: Anastasía was born in Russia, now living in Cleveland, and performing with CPT since 2018. Currently, pursuing ongoing interest/research in exploring new performance models and interactive-installation-art storytelling that evoke experiences that challenge what is possible within performance structures.

Lead Artists: Anastasía Urozhaeva & Raymond Bobgan
Title: The Mermaid Within
Performers: Kalindi Stockton, Arielle El-Amin, Viktoriia Winstone
Description: She is waiting for you. Enter the secret cavern and share an intimate story with her. A performance installation for 1-3 guests. The Mermaid Within is about our struggle to both repress and enjoy our hidden sides, as it flips the theatre convention of audience and actor.
Lead Artist Bio: See bios in Pieces of a Porcelain Pegasus and Poets Room. Where Gravity Falls.

Lead Artist: Kerstin Vaughn
Title: Yoga for Falling Apart
Performers: Kerstin Vaughn, Andi Harvey (Stage Manager)
Description: Yoga for Falling Apart is a play masquerading as a yoga class. Take part in the class as this brand-new instructor chronicles her journey with her body, relationships, and teaching. It’s a lively and heartfelt story about a woman wrestling her way the best she can through her twenties.
Lead Artist Bio: Kerstin Vaughn (she/her) is a theatre artist and educator currently working as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of Wooster. In addition to teaching, she works as a stage director, vocal coach, and intimacy choreographer. She is a founding director of the Feminist Commune Theatre Collective.

Lead Artist: Robin VanLear
Title: TBA
Performer: Robin VanLear
Description: TBA
Lead Artist Bio: Robin VanLear is the founder and director of Parade the Circle, founder of Art Acts, creator of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Department of Community Arts, and a CPT Premiere Fellow. Her work includes sculpture, masks, costumes, puppets, and performance installations that feature hands-on interaction and raise the bar for community-based art.

Lead Artist: Chris Webb
Title: The End of Black Excellence
Performer: Chris Webb
Description: The End of Black Excellence follows a man who just may be the first Black person born without “Black excellence”. In his attempt to prove this theory wrong, he puts on an (ever-failing) solo show to prove his worth, value, and connection with the elusive excellence that he craves.
Lead Artist Bio: Chris Webb is an Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker, spoken-word poet, journalist, and activist. He is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts and has toured internationally with his genre-bending performance work. Chris blends storytelling, film, and installation to create captivating custom performances.

What Was The PILOT Project?

The PILOT Project is a free workshop and learning community that is part of our new play development programs at CPT. A cohort of forward-thinking performance creators gathered in the fall of 2024 to explore different theatre-inspired performance trends with the guidance and facilitation of CPT’s Executive Artistic Director, Raymond Bobgan. Artists brought their hunches, visions to ideate around new forms. PILOT participants were afforded special opportunities to create work for Soft Launch, and many of them have pieces in Soft Launch 2025.