World Premiere Production of Tiny Houses to Complete CPH 2018 2019 Season
Posted April 6, 2018 in Press Releases
CLEVELAND, OH (April 6, 2018) Cleveland Play House (CPH), in a Co-Production with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, announces the addition of the World Premiere comedy Tiny Houses to its lineup for the 2018-2019 Season. Written by emerging playwright Chelsea Marcantel, Tiny Houses will first be featured as a CPH 2018 Roe Green Award winner at the New Ground Theatre Festival, with a reading on Saturday, May 19. CPH Artistic Director, Laura Kepley, will direct both presentations of the play.
Tiny homes are all the rage! Bohdi is a hypnotherapist. Jevne is a YouTube artist. Ollie sells haunted dolls online. Cath just left her job to move to Oregon with her new boyfriend. And they are all building a tiny house together in the back yard. As the dwelling comes together onstage, tensions swell, discoveries are made, and long-buried feelings rise to the surface. In a world where bigger is always better, can tiny really equal happy? Or is this a recipe for disaster? A comedy about what happens when the world shrinks.
Tiny Houses received its first public reading at the Chautauqua Theatre Company’s New Play Workshop, July 14-16, 2016. Marcantel is receiving the 2018 Roe Green Award in recognition of her outstanding achievement in playwriting. Her growing repertoire, including Everything is Wonderful, Airness, Ladyish, and Devour has been produced around the United States and Canada. In addition to writing, Chelsea is an avid self-producer, a member of The Writers Guild of America and The Dramatists Guild, a recipient of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Fellowship at The Juilliard School, and teaches at Virginia Intermont College, Emory University and Henry College.
CPH Artistic Director, Laura Kepley stated, "Tiny Houses is a delightful new play that comically captures the universal longing for home and family. Playwright Chelsea Marcantel explores the Tiny House movement- homes that are 200 square feet or smaller!- and fills her story with idiosyncratic, lovable characters struggling to determine what they really need versus what the world tells them to want. Turns out that choosing a simpler life can get very complicated, which makes for a surprising, charming and very entertaining night of theatre."
Kepley continued, "The first thing that grabbed me about Chelsea's extraordinary script was the daring dramatic proposal that a tiny house gets constructed over the course of the play. What a thrilling invitation to the design team, the director and the actors! The play is literally a labor of love and we can't wait to begin construction!"
The CPH 2018-2019 Season Subscriber Series begins in September with the launch of the U.S. National Tour of London’s long-running hit The Woman in Black, a mystery thriller based on the novel by Susan Hill. The 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Sweat will then heat up the Outcalt Theatre with a story of the working class struggling to make ends meet in the Rust Belt. An Iliad hits the stage in January, featuring two women in a modern, visceral telling of the ancient Greek story of war and vengeance. Next up is the return of CPH favorite Ken Ludwig and his rollicking new comedy, Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood. Next on the list is Tiny Houses, from 2018 Roe Green award winner Chelsea Marcantel. The Subscriber Season comes to a hilarious and poignant conclusion with a look over the fence -- the neighbor’s fence -- in Native Gardens. From Cleveland favorites to new voices, every show features strong, determined characters staring down the obstacles for the greater good.
In addition to the six-play Subscriber Series, CPH is proud to announce two special attractions: the family holiday favorite A Christmas Story in November and December, 2018, and The Wolves, a full immersion into the world of teenage girls, which will be featured in the 2019 New Ground Theatre Festival.
Subscriptions to the 2018-19 Season at Cleveland Play House are on sale now. Subscribers save up to 25% off individual ticket prices and receive many great benefits throughout the season. Full and flexible season packages begin at just $262. To purchase subscriptions or to receive more information, call 216-400-7096 or visit clevelandplayhouse.com.
2018-2019 Subscription Season
SUSAN HILL’S THE WOMAN IN BLACK
September 15 – October 7
Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt
Directed by Robin Herford
Allen Theatre
Halloween comes early this year with a bone-chilling ghost story that will shake you to your core. Arthur Kipps never believed in the supernatural until he came face to face with evil. Tonight—desperate to exorcise his demons—he will tell his haunting tale…no matter the consequences. For over 28 years, The Woman in Black has thrilled audiences on London’s West End. Now, CPH launches the North American tour of this spine-tingling production.
SWEAT
October 13 – November 4
By Lynn Nottage
Directed by Laura Kepley
Outcalt Theatre
The American Dream has its back up against the wall in this Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. In Reading, PA, there’s talk of union lock-outs, massive lay-offs, and jobs going overseas. As rumors quickly become reality, a group of life-long friends gather at their local bar to joke and blow off steam while struggling to stand together as everything else falls apart. Inspired by true stories, Sweat is a compelling portrait of pride and survival in the Rust Belt.
AN ILIAD
January 12 – February 10
By Lisa Peterson & Denis O’Hare
Based on Homer’s The Iliad, translated by Robert Fagles
Directed by Tarah Flanagan and Andrew Carlson
Outcalt Theatre
One actor. One musician. The Trojan War. With vivid storytelling and live cello, two women transform a bare stage into a raging battlefield where gods, heroes, and empires clash in a quest for vengeance and glory. This searing adaptation of Homer’s timeless epic catapults an ancient tale of fate and fury into the present day.
KEN LUDWIG’S SHERWOOD: THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD
February 2 – February 24
By Ken Ludwig
Directed by TBD
Allen Theatre
Cleveland favorite Ken Ludwig (Baskerville, A Comedy of Tenors) is back with a rollicking new take on a beloved legend. A greedy prince has taken control of England, and it is up to dashing outlaw Robin Hood to save the day. Join up and take aim with Robin and his band of Merry Men—and women!— as they champion the underdog and fight for justice. Laughs, romance, and plenty of arrows fly in this all-out comic adventure.
TINY HOUSES
March 23 – April 14
Directed by Laura Kepley
Outcalt Theatre
Tiny homes are all the rage! Bohdi is a hypnotherapist. Jevne is a YouTube artist. Ollie sells haunted dolls online. Cath just left her job to move to Oregon with her new boyfriend. And they are all building a tiny house together in the back yard. As the dwelling comes together onstage, tensions swell, discoveries are made, and long-buried feelings rise to the surface. In a world where bigger is always better, can tiny really equal happy? Or is this a recipe for disaster? A comedy about what happens when the world shrinks.
NATIVE GARDENS
April 27 – May 19
By Karen Zacarías
Directed by Robert Barry Fleming
Allen Theatre
They say good fences make good neighbors, but that’s the not the case with the Del Valles and the Butleys. What starts out as a squabble over a backyard property line hilariously erupts into a full-blown border dispute. Native Gardens comically unearths deeply-rooted assumptions, plants the seeds for understanding, and blossoms into colorful, thought-provoking entertainment.
A CHRISTMAS STORY
November 23 - December 23
By Philip Grecian.
Directed by TBD
Based on the motion picture written by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown and Bob Clark
Allen Theatre
He’s back! One boy. One holiday wish. And a world that seems to be conspiring to make certain it doesn’t come true. The record-breaking show returns to the CPH stage in all its pink-bunny-suit, glowing-leg-lamp, triple-dog-daring glory. The perfect holiday treat for the entire family.
THE WOLVES
May 2019
By Sarah DeLappe
Directed by TBD
Presented as part of the 2019 New Ground Theatre Festival
Helen Theatre
Game on! The Wolves are undefeated, and they plan to stay that way. Fiercely competitive and enormously talented, these nine high schoolers gather each Saturday to battle it out at their indoor soccer league and leave it all—body and soul—on the field. But, when the world outside the game starts to creep onto their turf, will the pack be able to stick together? A ferociously funny and achingly honest portrait of the warriors that are teenage girls.
Ticket Information
All CPH performances are in the Allen or Outcalt Theatres at Playhouse Square, Cleveland. Shows preview at 7:30 p.m. the first Saturday, 6:30 p.m. the first Sunday, 7 p.m. the first Tuesday and 7:30 p.m. the first Wednesday and Thursday, with 2:30 p.m. matinees most Saturdays and Sundays. They open at 7:30 p.m. the first Friday and close on a Sunday. There is one Thursday matinee performance at 1:30 p.m. for each production.
Subscriptions are on sale now. Subscribers save up to 25% off individual ticket prices and receive many great benefits throughout the season. Full and flexible season packages begin at just $262. To purchase subscriptions or to receive more information, call 216-400-7096 or visit clevelandplayhouse.com
Single show tickets: On sale this summer
Prices for single tickets begin at $25 with special discounts available:
$15 rush tickets for currently enrolled students under age 25 with valid student ID, and Young Professional discounts available with YP-CPH Membership. Groups of 10+ save up to 50% off single ticket prices; call 216-400-7027.
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. clevelandplayhouse.com
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.
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