Fellowships

Because of our commitment to cultivating new voices, local creators, and both experienced and emerging artists, CPT has initiated a series of special programs that focus on the individual artist.

THE NORD FAMILY FOUNDATION PLAYWRIGHT FELLOWSHIP/CATAPULT

The Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellowship is a 12-18 month program for playwrights and creators from Northeast Ohio that offers opportunities to develop work through readings, staged readings, and workshop productions. Now in its seventh year, the Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellows program is funded by a multi-year grant from the Nord Family Foundation. This fellowship is awarded to playwrights and creators alongside participation in Catapulta CPT New Play Development programand is about striving to advance a project up to the point of being production-ready. Catapult is intended to engage with projects that are at different stages of creationfrom early concept to completed script. The 2021/2022 Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellows are Siaara Freeman & Jeanne Madison.

PAST NORD PLAYWRIGHTING FELLOWS:

Juliette Regnier – 2013/2014 season – S Plays
Andrew Kramer – 2014/2015 season – Cut it Out
Arwen Mitchell – 2014/2015 season – (Style Is) The Answer to Everything—A (Subversive) Women’s Programme (Across the Century)
Gail Nyoka – 2015/2016 season – The Waters
Stuart Hoffman – 2015/2016 season – Canon Fodder
Greg Vovos – 2015/2016 season – Well Beings
Eric Coble – 2016/2017 season – The Family Claxon
Melissa Crum – 2016/2017 season – Everything is okay (and other helpful lies)
Caitlin Lewins – 2016/2017 season – Everything is okay (and other helpful lies)
Cassandra West – 2016/2017 season – Mira La Mer
Lisa Langford – 2018/2019 season – How Blood Go
Nina Domingue – 2019/2020 season – The Absolutely Amazing and True Adventures of Ms. Joan Southgate
Jaiie Dayo Aliya – 2020/2021 season – Our Lady of Common Sorrows
Siaara Freeman - 2021/2022 season- Don’t Start no Séance, Won’t be no Séance
Jeanne Madison - 2021/2022 season- Black Bougie

The Nord Family FoundationThe Nord Family Foundation, a private family foundation located in Amherst, Ohio, endeavors to build community through support of projects that bring opportunity to the disadvantaged, strengthen the bond of families, and improve the quality of people’s lives.

PAST KULAS THEATRE COMPOSER FELLOWS:

Sam Fisher – 2013/2014 season
Patrick Stoops – 2013/2014 season
Sean Hussey – 2013/2014 season
Sam Fisher – 2014/2015 season
Daniel McNamara – 2015/2016 season
Matthew Ryals – 2015/2016 season
Eric M. C. Gonzalez – 2016/2017 season
Matthew Ryals – 2016/2017 season
Buck McDaniel – 2018/2019 season
Obediya Jones-Darrell – 2019/2020 season

KULAS THEATRE COMPOSER FELLOW: Ryan Charles Ramer

Ryan was selected for his keen musical talent in classical compositions. The central focus of this fellowship is composing original music for the National Premiere of Requiem by Hanoch Levin directed by Raymond Bobgan. Ryan is also working on scoring music from ensemble generated music in Candlelight Hypothesis and as part of the fellowship participates in a variety of other CPT activities.  

“Ryan’s sense of how music can amplify impact of performance in both conventional and unconventional is profound.” ― Raymond Bobgan, CPT executive artistic director 

Ryan is a composer who has lived in Cleveland for over 20 years. He began writing classical music in 5th grade, and by 9th grade was studying under the associate dean of music at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music.   

He has been an active member of the Cleveland Composers Guild since 2012 and was the composer for the Gordon Square Classical Concert series for five years. He has been an active contributor to Cleveland Public Theatre’s The Dark Room for over a decade and has had plays performed for CPT’s Catapult series and Test Flight.   

His work has been produced by Oddyfest Theatre Labs, Cleveland Opera Theatre, Greater Cleveland Flute Society, Cleveland Classical Guitar Society, and several times for Ingenuity Festival.  His work can be heard regularly on the radio for WVIZ Ideastream as well as YouTube and Spotify.   

His output includes opera, chamber, choral, orchestral, and keyboard music. 

The last Kulas Foundation grantee was Obediya Jones-Darrell who has gone on to do music for a number of CPT projects as well as projects in Cleveland and his native Canada.  

The Kulas Foundation was established in 1937 with the primary purpose of supporting the musical arts in the Greater Cleveland area. Today, the Foundation continues to focus on music and also makes grants in the areas of arts and culture, community, education, and music therapy research.