Facility Info

Cleveland Play House has three rehearsal halls located on the fifth floor of the Middough Building. They are just down the hall from the Costume Shop. There is one for the Allen Theatre, one for the Outcalt Theatre and one for the Helen Theatre – all scaled to their respective theatres. All of the rehearsal halls are column free, with a sprung wood floor covered in vinyl tile. There are mirrors and curtains on one wall of each rehearsal hall. All rehearsing, blocking, table reads, singing and choreography are done in these spaces until technical rehearsals begin in the theatre.

There is a shared Stage Management office on the fifth floor of the Middough and a small remote Stage Management office under the Allen Stage next to the Orchestra Pit. Stage Management has access to all the copiers and printers used by CPH staff in the Middough Building.

Each one of the theatres in the Allen Theatre Complex in Playhouse Square has a control booth where the Stage Manager “calls” the show. The Stage Manager has a paging system to the dressing rooms and backstage areas to communicate with the actors and crew and a separate paging system to the audience. There is a headset intercom system for the Stage Manager to communicate with the crew running the show during technical rehearsals and performances. The Stage Manager also has a walkie-talkie to communicate with the Playhouse Square House Manager.

Staff Descriptions

The Stage Manager is responsible for running rehearsals, creating and maintaining daily schedules for actors, crew and designers, cataloguing rehearsal notes to communicate with designers and production staff, creating the prompt book for each show, running technical rehearsals, calling all technical cues and general upkeep of each show.

The Assistant Stage Manager, generates backstage run sheets, choreographs scene changes and manages the backstage run crew for the Allen Theatre.

The Production Assistant in the Outcalt and Helen Theatres has similar responsibilities to the Assistant Stage Manager.

The Stage Management Apprentice is part of the CPH Apprentice Program. This program provides the apprentice the opportunity to work alongside professional Stage Managers every day to observe and to gain practical hands on experience in the art of Stage Managing. The apprentice reports to the Stage Manager and is responsible for completing all assigned tasks and duties.

The Stage Manager and Assistant Stage Manager on all main stage shows at CPH are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the union for professional actors and stage managers. The Stage Managers for the CWRU/CPH MFA shows, the Production Assistants and the Stage Management Apprentice are all non-Equity.