Cleveland Play House 2024-25 Season Features Works By Acclaimed Contemporary Playwrights
Posted April 1, 2024 in Press Releases
CPH’s 109th theatre season brings back Cleveland’s favorite holiday tradition, A Christmas Story, and will feature regional premieres from award-winning American playwrights including Kate Hamill, James Ijames, Rajiv Joseph, and Heidi Schreck.
(Cleveland, OH) Cleveland Play House (CPH) is proud to announce its 2024-2025 theatrical season of plays – works that will bring a dynamic and diverse array of bold new stories and reimaged classics to the Allen and Outcalt stages at Playhouse Square. The exhilarating plays selected speak to the renaissance happening at professional theatres across the country as well as at CPH, now entering its 109th season of producing captivating works for Northeast Ohio audiences.
CPH’s newly appointed Artistic Director Michael Barakiva says, “I am thrilled to announce our 109th season and my first season, which truly features something for everyone – and comedy aplenty.” Barakiva joined Cleveland Play House as the 12th artistic director in December 2023 and began working on the producing theatre’s season lineup immediately. Barakiva says, “We feel a renaissance is occurring at Cleveland Play House. Every corner of our institution is experiencing it: from our offices, our rehearsal rooms, our theatres, and all of our community engagement events.”
Cleveland Play House will kick off the season in September with a reimagined classic, Pride and Prejudice by Kate Hamill. In October, the Outcalt stage will host Heidi Schreck’s celebrated Obie Award-winning play, What the Constitution Means to Me. In February, the Allen Theatre will erupt with laughter with the 2022 Pulitzer Prize Award winning play, Fat Ham, by James Ijames based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In March, the Outcalt Theatre will become home to the regional premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s acclaimed new play set here in Cleveland, King James. Closing the season in Spring 2025 is the classic musical, Fiddler on the Roof, brought to life in the Allen Theatre.
Additionally, CPH will reboot Cleveland’s favorite holiday play, A Christmas Story, in December 2024 in the Allen Theatre.
CPH Board Chair, Michael Meehan says, “We are extremely excited to unveil this dynamic new season to the Northeast Ohio community. The future is bright at CPH!”
The 109th season was developed in consultation with CPH’s newly formed Season Advisory Committee, which includes Artistic Director Michael Barakiva and Managing Director Rachel L. Fink, as well as CPH staff members: Kate Beckley, Esma Eddeb, Michael Glavan, Derek Green, Craig Joseph, Nathan Lilly, Joseph Martin, and Erin Ocampo.
KeyBank is the official sponsor of the Cleveland Play House 2024-2025 season.
To learn more about Cleveland Play House’s captivating season of plays, please visit clevelandplayhouse.com.
TICKETING & PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Performances for Cleveland Play House’s 2024-2025 theatrical season run Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 pm, and Tuesdays at 7:00 pm. (Titles, dates, and times are subject to change.) Accessibility programing will include ASL-interpreted performances, open captioned performances, audio described performances, and more.
To guarantee seats for all productions, audiences are encouraged to join CPH’s Membership Program and become a season ticket holder. Members save up to 30% off individual ticket prices and receive benefits, discounts, incentives, and perks throughout the season. Membership packages will go on sale in June. Current season ticket holders to Cleveland Play House performances will be able to renew their memberships in May. Tickets to select performances will go on sale to the general public in July.
A Christmas Story is a special add-on production for CPH’s 2023-24 season. Current and new season ticket holders will have the first opportunity to purchase tickets with their membership package.
For more information about CPH’s membership plan or to receive more information about CPH’s accessibility programming, please visit clevelandplayhouse.com.
CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE
2024-2025 MAINSTAGE SEASON
Pride and Prejudice
Written by Kate Hamill
Adapted from the novel by Jane Austen
Directed by Michael Barakiva
September 7 – 29, 2024
Allen Theatre
Jane Austen’s most beloved work brought to life! The outspoken and fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennet is determined to remain single, despite mounting pressure from her hovering and meddlesome mother. How will she be able to resist love in Regency-era society, even from the amusing, handsome, and somewhat aggravating Mr. Darcy? This classic English love story is a surprisingly hilarious, refreshingly modern romcom that celebrates the thrills of finding your perfectly imperfect match.
“…the stuff hits are made of... the ever-ingenious Ms. Hamill has given us something completely and delightfully different, a smallish-cast period-dress Pride and Prejudice that she’s done over in the revved-up manner of a Hollywood screwball comedy.” – The Wall Street Journal
“Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice has fun and charm to spare… [it] is full of high spirits and genuine mirth.” – New York Magazine
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What the Constitution Means to Me
Written by Heidi Schreck
October 12 – November 3, 2024
Outcalt Theatre
Playwright Heidi Schreck’s boundary-breaking, Obie Award-winning play breathes new life into the United States Constitution and imagines how it can shape the next generation of Americans. Fifteen-year-old Heidi competed for college scholarships by participating in Constitutional debate competitions across the country. In this hilarious, hopeful, and achingly human new play, Heidi recalls the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives. A 2019 Tony Award nominee and 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
“In divided times, the Colorado debut of Pulitzer finalist “What the Constitution Means to Me” is wise and funny. The play’s feminist take on the vision, blind spots, and vulnerabilities of the U.S. Constitution gained urgency when Donald Trump took office.” – The Denver Post
“The timing could not be better for Heidi Schreck’s affecting play about the Constitution’s impact on our daily lives… a highly personal take, not a historical or legal lecture. Yet Schreck succeeds in widening her autobiographical play into a paean for basic fairness: The American Constitution, admired as it is, fails to protect all of us from violence and discrimination.” – The New York Times
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A Christmas Story
Written by Philip Grecian
Based on the motion picture written by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown & Bob Clark
November 30 – December 22, 2024
Allen Theatre
Cleveland’s favorite holiday tradition is back by popular demand! One boy. One holiday wish. And a world conspiring to make sure it doesn’t come true. The record-breaking show returns to the Allen Theatre in all its pink-bunny-suit, glowing-leg-lamp, triple-dog-daring glory. The perfect holiday treat for the entire family!
“…much-loved and enjoyably nostalgic stage production…” – The News Herald
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Fat Ham
Written by James Ijames
February 1 – 23, 2025
Allen Theatre
Shakespeare’s Hamlet has been invited to the backyard barbeque! Get your plate ready for a slab of smokin’ hot revenge, served with a hefty scoop of vengeance, and a side of karaoke. Without spilling too much of the sweet tea, a visit from beyond the grave reveals family secrets and scandalous generational trauma. How will “Juicy,” a queer Southern Black mama’s boy, reconcile the truth in service of his own liberation? This Pulitzer Prize-winning play is a delicious, outrageously, heaping hot mess of hilarity!
“…hilarious yet profound… refuses the tropes of Black suffering even as it engages the seriousness of the Shakespeare.” – The New York Times
“…a total gas — the funniest and most invigorating new show on Broadway. The playwright’s own prose is lean and precise, with a vibrance of rhythm and association that hardly needs any supplementing. You could pull up to this barbeque with no prior knowledge of the Bard and be very well satisfied.” – Variety
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King James
Written by Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Monteze Freeland
March 1 – 23, 2025
Outcalt Theatre
Produced in partnership with City Theatre Company
In the world of basketball, LeBron James is the king. But to die-hard Clevelanders like Shawn and Matt, “King James” is a god, and their fandom forges their unlikely bond. Set in a bar in Cleveland Heights and spanning LeBron’s rookie season to the 2016 NBA Championship, the men navigate their turbulent friendship through their shared love of the game. From the first quarter to the final jump shot, King James comes in clutch as a riveting love letter to our beloved home, “Believeland.” Filled with humor, jabs steps, offensive fouls, and great poignancy, this energetic new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph is an intimate exploration of the place that sports occupy in our lives and in our relationships with others.
“It takes a while to figure out if Rajiv Joseph’s latest play, “King James” — centered on two fans of the N.B.A. legend LeBron James — is actually about basketball. Joseph’s latest [is] a touching examination of male friendship and the powerful social currents beneath it.” — The New York Times.
“…a funny and moving two-hander… you don’t have to be a basketball fan, or even know the difference between a slam dunk and a brick, to enjoy the new play by Rajiv Joseph.” – New York Stage Review
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Fiddler On The Roof
Book by Jerry Bock, music by Sheldon Harnick, and lyrics by Joseph Stein
Directed by Michael Barakiva
May 3 – June 1, 2025
Allen Theatre
“Tradition!” The word immediately invokes the venerated pillars of faith, family, and friendship. But in the Russian shtetl of Anatevka, Tevye the milkman and his wife, Golde, must walk the fine line of balancing tradition with turn-of-the-century progressiveness. A deeply moving tale about community and generational values, Fiddler on the Roof is a heartwarming story of fathers and daughters, husbands and wives, and love and laughter. “L'Chaim!”
“…strikes a deep emotional chord….” – The New York Times
ABOUT CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE
CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE, founded in 1915 and recipient of the 2015 Regional Theatre Tony Award, is America's first professional regional theatre. Throughout its rich history, CPH has remained dedicated to its mission to inspire, stimulate, and entertain diverse audiences across Northeast Ohio by producing plays and theatre education programs of the highest professional standards. CPH has produced more than 100 world and/or American premieres, and over its long history more than 12 million people have attended over 1,600 productions. Today, Cleveland Play House celebrates the beginning of its second century of service while performing in three state-of-the art venues at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland. Cleveland Play House is made possible in part by state tax dollars allocated by the Ohio Legislature to the Ohio Arts Council (OAC). The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically. Cleveland Play House is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. clevelandplayhouse.com
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