Escaping No-Man’s-Land

Abstract

The city of Cleveland’s history is filled with infamies that have tarnished the city’s reputation on a national scale, from unimaginable accidents like the burning of the Cuyahoga River in 1969 to the horrific explosion of the East Ohio Gas Company in 1944 that left over 130 people dead. One moment that captured the national spotlight occurred in such close proximity to the Play House that Superintendent Elijah Ford was forced to defend the theatre by standing with his shotgun alongside the National Guard on the rooftops of the theatre, protecting the building from “the pimps, the prostitutes, and the thieves.”¹ The Hough Riots, documented in newspapers around the country as an event marked by burning houses and violent clashes between police and residents of the neighborhood, resulted from a culmination of political and social decisions that widened the disconnect between the urban ghetto and the other residents of Cleveland now situated in the suburbs. While the Play House was in no way directly involved with the Hough Riots or could ever be blamed for the outbreak of violence that erupted, it continued to reflect its community not only through artistic endeavors, but also by mirroring the attitudes and actions of the city with its attempts to follow trends occurring in the regional theatre movement. For example, the theatre ignored a portion of the Cleveland community as part of a financial strategy utilized by theatres around the country; similarly, the city’s efforts to improve itself at the expense of the urban population, however, provoked the shameful violence and inexcusable deaths. An exploration of the administrative and economic decisions of the Play House in the 1960s compared with the policies and actions of city leaders and government officials reveals both a theatre and a city struggling mightily to redefine themselves while hoping to remain relevant on a national level.