Raymond Bobgan Announces Cleveland Public Theatre’s 2013/2014 Season

Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bobgan is proud to announce Cleveland Public Theatre’s 2013-2014 Season. This season delivers on CPT’s bold mission of raising consciousness and nurturing compassion, while investing in the local theatre scene and making significant impact on our community.

Two signature themes of the season programming are innovation and diversity.

CPT invests in innovation. As the lead producer of new work and local playwrights in our community, over the past seven years CPT has produced more original work than all the professional theatres in the area combined. The 13-14 Season includes six world premiere plays. Included in these new works is the third play in The Elements Cycle, which is an important, nationally recognized series of new plays commissioned by CPT.

Our innovation is also exemplified by our premiere adaptation of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus as a rock musical, presentation of the audience-engaged A Killing Game by Dog and Pony DC, the technologically interactive Doug is a D-Bag, and the second US production of the racially charged This is Not the Play by Chisa Hutchinson. Our fully produced work is complemented by seven weeks of Big Box, with premiere works every weekend; SpringBoard: a staged-reading series; Leap/Conceive; and The Dark Room.

CPT believes in diversity. Not only do we present a rare variety of genres and styles but we champion the ideal of equity onstage. In 2012, CPT was awarded the inaugural ICWP 50/50 Applause Award given to professional theatres in America that demonstrate gender equity in programming. The 13-14 Season can be seen as an affirmation of our ongoing commitment and a celebration of women theatre makers. Of eleven full productions produced on-site, nine are either by women or have a majority of women playwrights.

Two female-devised works bookend the season: the return of Insomnia, which looks at identity and empowerment, and Ancestra, exploring the power of heritage in the struggle for expression and justice. In the heart of our season, the hilarious Loush Sisters remind us not to take ourselves too seriously and that a dash of inappropriateness can help us change perspectives.

CPT’s innovative fellowship programs are once again supporting women of extraordinary potential: Melissa Crum and Caitlin Lewins are the Joan Yellen Horvitz Directing Fellows and Juliette Regnier is the inaugural Nord Playwright Fellow.

Click here to read the Plain Dealer’s announcement and full line-up of our 2013-2014 season.

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