CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE REVEALS GUEST ARTISTS PERFORMING AT NEW GROUND THEATRE FESTIVAL
Posted May 14, 2025 in Press Releases
(Cleveland, OH) Cleveland Play House presents the annual New Ground Theatre Festival May 15 – 17 in the Outcalt Theatre, made possible by Honorary Producer Roe Green. Each year, Cleveland Play House celebrates the art of playwriting by inviting actors, directors, and dramaturgs to workshop new plays, offer insights to the visiting playwrights, and inspire the next phase of the scripts’ development. Audiences are invited to the intimate and robust Outcalt Theatre to experience the readings for the first time, and sit in on conversations about the play’s development following the reading.
Cleveland Play House is excited to announce that stage and screen actress Laila Robins will be performing in the final play reading of the festival, Murder Play (or, The Aristocrats!) by award-winning playwright Kate Hamill. Laila’s credits include Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), An Innocent Man (1989), True Crime (1999), She's Lost Control (2014), and more, and her television credits include regular roles on Gabriel's Fire, Homeland, and Murder in the First. In 2022, she portrays Pamela Milton in the final season of The Walking Dead.
Cleveland Play House Artistic Director Michael Barakiva on the New Ground Theatre Festival in an interview with The News-Herald reporter John Benson, “These are all plays that nobody else has ever seen and heard in the country. The performances will all be the inaugural readings of plays inspired by, set in or about Cleveland. So we’ll be featuring three of those plays in the festival this year.”
Barakiva continues, “In addition, I’ve invited one of the most-produced playwrights in this country, Kate Hamill, whose adaptation of Pride and Prejudice we did this year, to do the first reading of her new murder play.”
The playwrights featured in the 2025 New Ground Theatre Festival include May Treuhaft-Ali (writer of The 49th Annual Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio), Eric Coble (writer of World Class Care), Majkin Holmquist (writer of Jane Scott), and Kate Hamill (writer of Murder Play (or, the Aristocrats!)).
In addition to the play readings, the New Ground Theatre Festival offers a reception on Saturday, May 17 at 5:00 p.m. between the afternoon and evening readings catered by Normandy Catering. Festival attendees can select and add-on a ticket to the reception upon purchasing tickets to the festival, and have an opportunity to meet and mingle with performing artists, creative team members, and CPH staff.
Tickets for the New Ground Theatre Festival can be purchased at clevelandplayhouse.com. Ticket packages include a 3-Day-Pass for the full festival ($60), a Saturday-Day-Pass for the Saturday performances ($35), or single tickets for $20. An add-on ticket for the reception is $40.
The New Ground Theatre Festival is made possible through Honorary Producer, Roe Green.
KeyBank is the 2024-25 Season Sponsor for Cleveland Play House.
Cleveland Play House thanks Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and the Ohio Arts Council for their continued support.
ABOUT THE PLAYS
Thursday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m.
The 49th Annual Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio
written by May Treuhaft-Ali
directed by Estefanía Fadul
Outcalt Theatre
Twins in Twinsburg! In May Treuhaft-Ali's moving new play, twins from all over the world meet annually in the town of Twinsburg, Ohio, for the largest gathering of twins and multiples in the world. The story follows three sets of twins through the Double-Take Parade, Twins Talent Show, and the Twins Royal Court as they navigate making their way through a world with someone who looks the same.
The cast features Catherine Albers (Joan), Ursula Cataan (Lilly), Ari Derambakhsh (Zara), Nikki Massoud (Zohra), Genevieve Simon (Tilly), Owen Connor Stout (Emcee), Doug Sutherland (Mitchell), and Matthew Wright (Gary).
Friday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m.
World Class Care
written by Eric Coble
directed by Eric Schmiedl
Outcalt Theatre
Set in the not-so-distant future, two major hospital groups in Cleveland, Ohio, have gobbled up every piece of real estate except for one solitary house! Outrageous shenanigans ensue as the hospital groups perform ridiculously unbelievable acts to seize the much-coveted property. Don’t miss this hilarious brand-new, old-fashioned, futuristic farce by Cleveland’s Eric Coble.
The cast features Terence Cranendonk (Garrett Nichols, Rupert Norris), Warren Egypt Franklin (Kyle Carlyle), Heidi Harris (Chelsea Pickering), Jailyn Sherell Harris (Yolanda Grigsby), Lisa Louise Langford (Mildred Grigsby), and Chris Richards (Victor Wade, Greg Salvatino, Jonathan Schmidt).
Saturday, May 17 at 3:00 p.m.
Jane Scott
written by Majkin Holmquist
directed by Bobbin Ramsey
Outcalt Theatre
Majkin Holmquist’s new play hurls you into Cleveland’s iconic early ‘80s rock scene in this play based on the real Jane Scott, who served as the beloved and influential rock critic for The Plain Dealer for over five decades! Jane Scott riffs on that special place in our soul that can only be filled by the music we love and how it transforms us all... critics and fans alike.
The cast features Danny Ray Caraballo (Ellis, Carl, David), Jessie Cope Miller (Geena, Debbie, Johnny), Matt Gittins (Jimmy), Gregory James (Greg), Adam Ortega (Grass Guy, Steven, Dave), and Ellen Parker (Jane Scott).
Saturday, May 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Murder Play (or, The Aristocrats!)
written by Kate Hamill
directed by Michael Barakiva
Outcalt Theatre
Hit Off-Broadway ensemble The Aristocrats has gathered in the Catskills to workshop a new adaptation of Uncle Vanya (yes, another new adaptation of Uncle Vanya), directed by their charismatic and toxic artistic director, Don Templeton. But just after the troupe is snowed in, a sudden death occurs… and old (and new) grudges are revealed. Now, the ensemble must figure out which of them is a killer before they strike again. From Kate Hamill, comes a farcical new murder mystery and dark comedy that is a celebration and exploration of what’s best (and worst) in both contemporary theatre culture and human nature.
The cast features Madalyn Baker (Haleigh), Christopher M. Bohan (Jack), Kimberley Chatterjee (Darcy), Mark Deklin (Donald Templeton), Jodi Dominick (Maggie), Jason Eno (Will), Colleen Longshaw Jackson (Cheerie), Geoff Knox (Johnny), Laila Robins (Polly), and Rohn Thomas (Stan).
For more information, please visitwww.clevelandplayhouse.com.
ABOUT THE HONORARY PRODUCER ROE GREEN
Roe Green is an arts patron, community activist, and chief executive officer of the Roe Green Foundation. With a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Communications from University of Colorado, and both a master’s degree in Theatre and an honorary Doctorate degree from Kent State University, her experience in stage and business management includes Cain Park, Cleveland Opera, and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Today she is president emeritus of CAVORT, Inc., the Conference About Volunteers of Regional Theatres; serves on the Kent State University School of Theatre and Dance advisory board; is an emeritus member of the foundation board of Kent State University; sits on the Foundation Board of the University of Colorado; serves on the advisory board of Porthouse Theatre; is on the board of Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Jupiter, Florida; and also is on the board of Cleveland Play House. She is responsible for the Roe Green Visiting Director Series for the School of Theatre and Dance at Kent State and the University of Colorado. Ms. Green has received numerous awards for her support of the arts and new play development including the 2009 State of Ohio Governor’s Award for Arts Patrons; the Dramatist Guild’s Patron of the Arts Award (2013); the Muse Award (2014) from the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County; and the Theatre Forward Chairman’s Award (2019). In 2013, she received the CPH Centennial Star Award that recognizes select individuals who have made special and important contributions to CPH’s rich legacy of artistic and educational programming. She recently was named the recipient of the 2025 President’s Award for Visionary Achievement from Case Western Reserve University, which was created to recognize individuals who have distinguished themselves through exceptional philanthropic service.
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
MICHAEL BARAKIVA (Artistic Director) is an Armenian-Israeli American director and writer who proudly serves as the 11th Artistic Director of CPH. His work has been seen at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Primary Stages, Syracuse Stage, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and the Hangar Theatre, where he served as Artistic Director. He founded The Upstart Creatures, a theatre company that creates community through performance and food, as well as the Leadership Initiative Project, which equips historically excluded artists with the tools to succeed in leadership positions. Barakiva has received three Drama League directing fellowships, the Phil Killian Directing Fellowship (OSF), the David Merrick Prize in Drama, and was a Granada Artist-in-Residence at UC Davis. He led workshops on musical theatre at the International Puppet Theater in Sofia, Bulgaria, and was a presenter at the International University Theatre Festival at UNAM in Mexico City. He served as producer of Summer Camp 6 (Soho Rep) and as the Readings and Workshops Coordinator at New York Stage and Film, as well as a Primary Coach on Season 2 of MTV’s Made. As a writer, Michael is the recipient of a Red Bull Commission for his adaptation of John Milton's Paradise Lost, an EST/Sloan Project Commission, and a co-author of String Theory (Connotation Press). His YA novels (One Many Guy, Hold My Hand, Keepers of the Stones and Stars, all published by Macmillan) novels have been named to the Rainbow List, Equality Family Council Reading List, The Barnes and Noble’s Perfect Valentine’s Day YA Novels list, spending over a year as Goodreads #1 LGBTQ YA Novel. Education: Vassar College, The Juilliard School. www.michaelbarakiva.com.
RACHEL L. FINK (Managing Director) is thrilled to return home to Northeast Ohio. Her childhood was filled with rich and foundational Cleveland arts experiences, and it was at Heights High that Rachel’s passion for transformative theatre-making, social justice, and inclusive arts participation was ignited. A graduate of Case Western Reserve University, Rachel was introduced to the field of arts administration by a professor who changed the course of her career. That introduction led to an internship at Cleveland Play House and ultimately to an MFA in Theater Management from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Following graduate school, Rachel embarked on a 16-year chapter at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where she founded the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, building it into a nationally recognized center for arts learning and engagement. She later served as Managing Director of Theatre Bay Area, supporting over 300 theatres and 2,000 artists, and most recently as Executive Director of the Tony Award-winning Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago. Producing highlights include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Steadfast Tin Soldier, Her Honor Jane Byrne (locally broadcast on Chicago NPR affiliate WBEZ), and Lookingglass Alice, which aired nationally on PBS in 2023. Rachel has been recognized through fellowships with the Aspen Institute, artEquity, the British Council’s Cultural Leadership International Programme, and the University of Chicago’s Civic Leadership Academy. Having previously served as co-chair of the Professional Association of Chicago Theatres and on the boards of the League of Chicago Theatres and Theatre Bay Area, she currently serves on the boards of the League of Resident Theatres and CreativeOhio, and remains deeply committed to advancing the role of theatre in building more connected, equitable, and human-centered communities.
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. To learn more, visit:www.clevelandplayhouse.com.
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