Abstract
For his book Beyond Broadway: The Quest for Permanent Theatres, Julius Novick traveled around the country, viewing productions at a variety of regional theatres. His 1968 publication offers limited resources for historians in that the bulk of his writing recounts his personal reactions to different plays and presentations rather than utilizing research to make substantial comparisons between repertory companies and the various challenges they faced in the late 1960s. Nevertheless, he visited the Play House on two occasions during which he recorded his responses to Neil Simon’s “quite good” Barefoot in the Park, an “excellent” Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a “vacuous” adaptation of Molières School for Wives titled The Amorous Flea, and an offering of The Tempest presented “without imagination or insight.”1 Despite Novick’s delight in providing pithy insults, he does pause from his reviews of the Play House’s productions to address a concern he has for the theatre’s future:
The Play House is now a somewhat geriatric institution; it is the only resident theatre faced with the problem of a staff that is slowly dying off. Mr. Lowe himself, acting and alert though he is, was born in 1899. The Play House has the advantages that often come with an advanced state of maturity: wealth, experience, a certain kind of solid proficiency, an institutive knowledge of what can safely be done. But it also has the great disability that comes with age: timidity, conservatism, a tendency to continue in the same groove.2
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Notes
Julius Novick, Beyond Broadway: The Quest for Permanent Theatres (New York: Hill and Wang, 1968), 26–7
Chloe Warner Oldenburg, Leaps of Faith: History of the Play House, 1915–1980 (Cleveland, OH: Published by the author, 1985), 104.
“Play House Head Found Dead,” Toledo Blade, March 13, 1970, 17; John Vacha, Showtime in Cleveland (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2001), 185.
Donald Sutherland, “Aristophanes and the Scope of Comedy,” in Classical Comedy—Greek and Roman: Six Plays (New York: Applause Theatre Book Publishers, 1987), 4.
Albert I. Borowitz, “Letter to the Editor—December 9, 1970,” CPH Archives (accessed December 10, 2012).
Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Cleveland Play House—December 14, 1970,” CPH Archives, 4 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Stuart Levin, “Letter to ‘Friends’—January 9, 1971,” CPH Archives (accessed December 10, 2012), 1–3.
Professional Acting Ensemble, “Memo to Officers and Trustees, Advisory Committee and Play House Foundation—January 12, 1971,” CPH Archives, 1–3 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Cleveland Play House—January 17, 1971,” CPH Archives, 1 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Cleveland Play House, “Press Release—January 19, 1971,” CPH Archives (accessed December 10, 2012).
Gerald M. Berkowitz, New Broadways—Theatre across America: Approaching a New Millennium (New York: Applause Theatre Books, 1997), 98.
“Great Lakes Theater Festival,” The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, compiled and edited by David D. Van Tassel and John J. Grabowski (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), 468–9; Holly Rarick Witchey and John Vacha, Fine Arts in Cleveland (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), 154.
Richard Oberlin, “Plans for Renewal of the Play House—April 14, 1971,” CPH Archives (accessed December 10, 2012).
Cleveland Play House, “Application to the Cleveland Foundation—June 1976,” CPH Archives, 1 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Executive Committee, “Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of the Cleveland Play House—November 1, 1976,” CPH Archives, 2 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Executive Committee, “Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of the Cleveland Play House—December 16, 1976,” CPH Archives, 1 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Cleveland Play House—November 10, 1983,” CPH Archives, 2 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Robert M. Beckly and Sherrill M. Myers, Theater Facilities: Guidelines and Strategies (Milwaukee: Center for Architecture and Urban Planning Research, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1981), 43, 45.
Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Cleveland Play House—May 19, 1987,” CPH Archives, 1–2 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Richard H. Hahn, “Change Comes to the Cleveland Play House,” CPH Archives, 2 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Cleveland Play House, “Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Corporation of the Cleveland Play House—July 14, 1987,” CPH Archives, 1 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Cleveland Play House—May 10, 1988,” CPH Archives, 4–6 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Cleveland Play House, “Long Range Goals—March 26, 1990,” CPH Archives, 1 (accessed December 10, 2012);
Board of Trustees, “Excerpts—Artistic Mission of the Cleveland Play House, April 7, 1990,” CPH Archives, 2, 4 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Long Range Planning Committee, “The Cleveland Play House Long-Range Plan, 1990–95,” (Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Play House, September 18, 1990), 3;
Long Range Planning Committee, “The Cleveland Play House Long-Range Plan, 1990–95,” (Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Play House, January 26, 1991), 14.
Board of Trustees, “Minutes of Board of Trustees’ Retreat—February 22, 1992,” 3; Advisory Council, “Responses of the Board of Trustees Survey—November 14, 1989,” CPH Archives (accessed December 10, 2012).
Dean R. Gladden, “Fax Transmission to Leif Soderberg, Bob Newmark, Boake Sells—March 12, 1993,” CPH Archives, 1 (accessed December 10, 2012);
Executive Committee, “Meeting of the Executive Committee—March 26, 1993,” CPH Archives, 4 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Executive Committee, “Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Committee—June 4, 1993,” CPH Archives, 1–5 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Cleveland Play House Board of Trustees Retreat—October 30, 1993,” CPH Archives, 3–4 (accessed December 10, 2012);
Cleveland Play House, “Cleveland Play House Contingency Budget—October 8, 1993,” CPH Archives, 1 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Executive Committee, “Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Committee—October 11, 1993,” CPH Archives, 3 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Dean Gladden, “Memo to Members of the Executive Committee—October 6, 1993,” CPH Archives, 1 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Executive Committee, “Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Committee—January 5, 1994,” CPH Archives, 2–5 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Tazewell Thompson, “Letter to Bob Blattner—February 2, 1994,” CPH Archives, 2 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Edward L. Bettendorf, “Letter to Robert A. Blattner, President—January 25, 1994,” CPH Archives, 2 (accessed December 10, 2012).
Porter Anderson, “Are We Bored with Boards Yet?” Village Voice, vol. 39, no. 5, February 1, 1994, 90.
Herb Gardner, “Text of Telegram to Cleveland Play House Board of Trustees (undated),” CPH Archives, 1 (accessed December 10, 2012).
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© 2014 Jeffrey Ullom
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Ullom, J. (2014). The “Endangered Theatre”. In: America’s First Regional Theatre. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137394354_8
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