New Ground Theatre Festival

Roe Green, Honorary Producer bio

WHAT IS NEW GROUND?

The Cleveland Play House Literary Department each year receives hundreds of new play submissions of extraordinary merit, and more than we’ll ever be able to produce. We have the exciting opportunity to share these riches with the Cleveland theatre community by connecting good plays and talented playwrights with fellow theatre companies who might provide a home for them.

This year, we’ve invited local companies to present a play reading during New Ground on one night of the festival. The hope is that the reading will serve as a “test run” to see how actors and audiences respond to the play, perhaps prompting the company to give the play a full production in a subsequent season. We hope you’ll join us as we make new connections, present new voices, and enjoy some new plays!

Roe Green is the Honorary Producer of New Ground Theatre Festival.

Past Shows

Comedy, Errors, Vanity, and Stupidity

May 9, 2023

A hilarious sequel to William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors (but you don’t have to know that play to appreciate this one!) One year after the events of that play, Egeon’s secret that the Antipholus and Dromio twins are actually triplets comes to light, setting off a chain of chaotic events featuring disguises, mistaken identities, love triangles, and a couple of new sisters thrown into the mix! A delightful romp in both verse and prose. Click here to learn more about the CWRU/CPH MFA Acting Program.

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Fade

May 10, 2023

When Lucia, a Mexican-born novelist, gets her first TV writing job, she feels a bit out of place on the white male-dominated set. Lucia quickly becomes friends with the only other Latino around, a janitor named Abel. As Abel shares his stories with Lucia, similar plots begin to find their way into the TV scripts that Lucia writes. Fade is a play about class and race, and how status does not change who you are at your core. Click here to learn more about LatinUs Theater Company.

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Louder

May 11, 2023

It’s the fall of 1999 — the eve of Y2K — and the start of another school year at Ursuline Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school in Cleveland, Ohio. In the convent near campus, the sisters await the return of their students. But as fissures in the student body and faculty begin to appear — and the 2000th year since Christ’s birth approaches — five nuns find their ordinary lives suddenly enveloped by a strange uncertainty. For those with eyes open, signs and portents are everywhere, but what they are remains a mystery.

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The First Snow of Summer

May 16, 2023

In the face of oncoming disaster, a family gathers in the mountains of Colorado. As the clock ticks, old wounds open and new opportunities arise, even as mysterious omens encroach from the surrounding woods. This new play by local award-winning playwright Eric Coble asks who and what is worth saving when the end draws near. Click here to learn more about Seat of the Pants.

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Escapegoat

May 17, 2023

Humans brought the goats to the Galápagos. The goats ate everything in sight. The islands dried up and the tortoises died out. In order to save the last living tortoise, the humans must exterminate the goats before it is too late. Escapegoat is an eco-parable about the species whose fates are inextricable from our own. Click here to learn more about Blank Canvas Theater.

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One-Shot

May 18, 2023

It’s 1999. Ellen has already come out on her TV show. Jack’s about to do the same on Dawson’s Creek. And David and Martín — two young video store employees, film buffs and best friends — are waiting to hear about a film scholarship to NYU that could change the trajectory of their lives. An exploration of privilege, identity and the ever-present celluloid closet, One-Shot examines who gets the space to tell what stories.

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