SoftLaunch 2026
January 15, 2026 - January 17, 2026
Performances: 7:00-10:30pm, Thu/Fri/Sat, Jan 15–17, Various locations around the CPT campus.
Thursday: $20
Friday and Saturday: $30 (General Admission), $20 (Students/Seniors)
Choose-What-You-Pay General Admission (Limited): Rush, day-of tickets available in person only at the door on a first-come, first-served basis, starting at 6pm each night. Total of 20 $1 & $10 tickets available per performance.
To cut down on high no-show rates, in the event of a sold-out performance, tickets sold at $1 and $10 that are not scanned at least 20 minutes prior to the scheduled performance time will be released for resale. All other tickets are subject to resale if not picked up by showtime. Purchase tickets at cptonline.org or 216.631.2727 ext. 501.
All ticket exchanges are made at CPT's discretion and are not guaranteed. Exchange requests must be made at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled performance time by calling or emailing the box office. Exceptions to this rule may be made at CPT's discretion for valid circumstances.
Join us for this groundbreaking festival that seeks to reinvent what theatre and art can be. Patrons get to be part of the art as they immerse themselves in installations and intimate performances. These works burst beyond CPT's theatres into lobbies, hallways, and all corners of the building. Pieces exist in various stages of development, giving the audience a crucial role in the creative process.
The Gordon Square Theatre and the James Levin Theatre are ADA-compliant. The former features a ramped entrance, and the latter features a patron elevator. Both have an all-gender, wheelchair-accessible restroom. Soft Launch performances will take place in both of these theatres as well as rooms, lobbies, hallways, nooks, and landings around CPT's main building. These non-traditional performance spaces vary in their accessibility.
Last Year’s SoftLaunch
Softlaunch in the Media
The Land: 
Ideastream Public Media: https://www.ideastream.org/arts-culture/2025-01-22/cleveland-public-theatre-and-theatre-166-go-outside-the-black-box
SoftLaunch is a weekend-long performance festival/conference that seeks nothing less than a complete reinvention of what theatre can be. Installation art, immersive and participatory performances, improvised music composition, and solo shows disguised as multimedia breakdowns and yoga classes—all these types of projects and more have found a home in SoftLaunch. The rule is: If your project does not fit the normal theatre mode, it belongs in SoftLaunch.
Audience members can wander as they wish to see different performance experiments that range from workshop to fully produced, and everywhere in between.
Check out the full lineup of SoftLaunch creators and performers, listed alphabetically by Lead Artist last name: