Great Lakes Theater Festival Announces 2005 Season

January 4, 2005
Classic Theater’s 44th Season Features a Summer Repertory, a Fall Repertory, a Holiday Classic and a Two For One Subscription Offer.

CLEVELAND, OH – Charles Fee, Producing Artistic Director of Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF), recently announced plans for the theater’s 2005 season at a Members’ Open House in the lobby of the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square Center. “Great Lakes Theater Festival has really come into its own over the past several seasons and the summer of 2005 will set the course for the future of this company,” said Fee to an audience of over one hundred members and friends of the Festival. “We’ve built an extraordinary resident acting company, begun to define our approach to the classics – a wild, accessible, full-blooded approach – and reached out to our community and audience in consistent and meaningful ways. If you’ve been wondering what all the noise is about at Playhouse Square, this is the season to come downtown and check us out.”

Great Lakes Theater Festival’s 2005 season will run from July through December and will feature a Summer Repertory, a Fall Repertory and the Festival’s annual holiday classic. In the summer (July 29-September 3, 2005), GLTF will present William Shakespeare’s comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Sari Ketter, in rotating repertory with Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s American classic, You Can’t Take It With You, directed by Victoria Bussert. The Festival’s Fall Repertory(September 16-October 22, 2005) will pair Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, directed by Gordon Reinhart, with William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Risa Brainin. GLTF will conclude the 2005 season with its annual production of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic, A Christmas Carol (November 25-December 23, 2005), adapted and directed by Gerald Freedman and staged by GLTF Associate Artistic Director, Andrew May. All productions will be presented in the Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square Center. Each repertory will run for six weeks, while the Festival’s production of A Christmas Carol will run for four weeks. (Consult the enclosed season performance calendars for complete details.)

“We were thrilled by the response of our audience and our critics to last season’s Summer and Fall Repertories,” said Charles Fee. “The opportunity to see a single resident company of actors perform two plays on the same stage alternating shows every few nights makes the Great Lakes Theater Festival experience a unique one in Northern Ohio. It is a great challenge for artists and great fun for audiences.”

A special feature of the Festival’s 2005 season is a NEW Two For One subscription offer. The Two For One offer is designed to make subscribing to the Festival easier and more affordable.As part of the offer, the Festival will match every NEW subscription package purchased with one FREE subscription package of equal value. “ Everybody knows that subscriptions are down across the board in the arts and in sports,” said GLTF Producing Artistic Director, Charles Fee, regarding the reasons for the new offer. “But it is critical to all of our companies that audiences buy into the idea of a body of work, a series of plays …and the Two For One subscription offer that we are making this season is a direct appeal to audiences that love our work but have been hesitant to commit! What have you got to lose?” GLTF’s Two For One subscription offer is valid on all NEW Classic, Best Value and Family and Senior Matinee subscription package purchases only. The offer is not valid on Youth or Fest Pass subscription package purchases.

Fee also confirmed the Festival’s continued commitment to making classic theater accessible to student audiences in 2005. “ We’ve opened the doors wide to the student audience of Cleveland – an audience that really doesn’t have the money to attend most performing arts events. The response has been outrageous - with nearly a third of our evening audience buying student tickets. It’s all about Shakespeare and the classics! Despite popular opinion, that’s what the young audience today wants to experience – spectacle, actors who can tear it up, and the strange alchemy that transforms us in the theater.” The Festival’s subscription and single ticket campaigns echo Fee’s statements. Young adult subscriptions (age 25 and under) begin at $30. Educator/Student/Youth tickets for any seat in the Ohio Theatre are available for $12.50 ($17.50 for A Christmas Carol). Educator/Student/Youth tickets and are available for all performances (Additional handling fees may apply and may vary depending on point of purchase).

“2005 is an exciting time for Great Lakes Theater Festival.” said Charles Fee of Cleveland’s classic theater. “Of all the changes that we have made over the past several seasons, what is most exciting to me is to have been able to renew our commitment as an organization to the idea of company. On an artistic level, on an administrative level and in our work throughout this vibrant community, the idea of company has and will continue to yield great results for the Festival. I look forward to the opportunity to produce another amazing season of great, classic theater in collaboration with this talented ensemble.”

Fee confirmed that Opening Night performances of The Merry Wives of Windsor, You Can’t Take It With You, Amadeus and As You Like It have been scheduled for Saturday evenings while A Christmas Carol’s opening night is slated for a Friday night. Curtain times for all evening performances will remain at 7:30 p.m., with a 1:30 p.m. curtain time for Saturday matinees and a 3:00 p.m. curtain time for Sunday matinees. All five productions in GLTF’s 2005 season will continue to offer sign interpreted and audio described performances as well as the popular Director’s Night and Playnotes pre-show discussion series. (Consult the enclosed season performance calendars for complete details.)

An adult subscription to Great Lakes Theater Festival starts as low as $72. Single tickets range in price from $21.50-$55.00 (Additional handling fees may apply and may vary depending on point of purchase) . Subscriptions are available now by calling (216) 664-6064. Single tickets go on sale June 6, 2005, and will be available by calling (216) 241-6000, by ordering online and by visiting the Playhouse Square Center Box office or any Tickets.com outlet located within all Tops Friendly Markets. Groups of ten or more receive discounts as do educators and students. (Consult the enclosed information sheet for complete ticketing and contact details.)

Since 1962, Great Lakes Theater Festival has brought the pleasure, power and relevance of classic theater to the widest possible audience in Northern Ohio.