Playhouse Square Foundation and Great Lakes Theater Festival Enter Agreement To Study Hanna Theatre As Future Festival Home

September 14, 2005
The agreement received unanimous support from Playhouse Square Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

Cleveland, OH – Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF) and Playhouse Square Foundation (PSF) have entered into an exclusive agreement to formally study the Hanna Theatre as the future home of Great Lakes Theater Festival. The first resident company of Playhouse Square Center, Great Lakes Theater Festival has called the Ohio Theatre home since 1982. The agreement, the result of a proposal made by the Festival in August, was accepted unanimously in a recent vote by the Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

“We are well aware of the history of Great Lakes Theater Festival and its importance to the development of Playhouse Square Center,” said K.K. Sullivan, chairman of PSF’s Board of Trustees in a recent letter to the Festival. “The Hanna Theatre may be the perfect location for Great Lakes Theater Festival.”

Plans for the study are still in development, but Charles Fee, Great Lakes Theater Festival’s Producing Artistic Director is optimistic. “With the exciting opening of the Idea Center [at Playhouse Square Center], the bar has certainly been raised regarding the creation of unique and exhilarating experiences in the Theater District. We hope to build on the momentum and contribute further to the development of the District as we have done throughout our twenty-three year residence at Playhouse Square Center. We’re grateful to the Foundation (PSF) for their vote of confidence. Our Board of Trustees and staff are absolutely elated by the recent news and can’t wait to begin this exciting process with Art Falco and his outstanding team.”

K.K. Sullivan echoed Fee’s sentiments of optimism in the final lines of Playhouse Square Foundation’s letter to the Festival. “We look forward to working together with all of you to create a space and an environment that will draw greater audiences because your success is very important to the Theater District.”