Great Lakes Theater Festival Presents World-Premiere of Seven Ages

March 30, 2005
FREE TOURING PRODUCTION features SEVEN NEW PLAYS from SEVEN CLEVELAND-BASED PLAYWRIGHTS and travels to TWENTY NEIGHBORHOODS across Northern Ohio.

CLEVELAND, OH – Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF) will launch the world premiere of Seven Ages, a free outreach touring production scheduled to visit twenty neighborhood venues throughout Northern Ohio, to kick off the company’s 2005 Surround programming. The production features seven new plays written by a team of seven Cleveland-based playwrights that includes Eric Coble, Linda Eisenstein, Daniel Hahn, Margaret Lynch, Sarah Morton, Eric Schmiedl and Terrence Spivey. Each play within Seven Ages is inspired by one of the “seven ages of man” from the “All the World’s a Stage” speech in William Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Sonya Robbins directs the production. Seven Ages begins April 24 and runs through May 13, 2005. All performances of the production are free and open to the public. (Schedule follows.)

“A program like the outreach touring production affords communities the unique opportunity to experience art where they live…right in their backyards…in their neighborhoods,” remarked Daniel Hahn, Great Lakes Theater Festival’s Director of Education, when asked about the Festival’s annual tour. “There are a lot of people that don’t go or are unable to go downtown for a variety of reasons…preventing them from experiencing the plays we produce on our mainstage. The outreach tour offers us [GLTF] a unique opportunity to connect with these people and their own communities.”

“Collaborating with seven extraordinary Cleveland playwrights on this project has been a wonderful and rewarding experience,” continued Hahn, highlighting the unique nature of this season’s touring production. “How often in Cleveland do we have the opportunity to have one new play by a Cleveland playwright produced, let alone seven? One of the wonderful ironies about the tour is that Great Lakes Theater Festival is known for being Cleveland’s classic theater company not necessarily for producing new work. With Seven Ages, we have really been able to spread our wings…to explore new territory…and give seven writers a platform to develop plays. It really is exciting.”

The process of creating Seven Ages was a unique experience according to Sonya Robbins, the director of the touring production. “It was a collaboration in the truest sense of the word. The playwrights have been unbelievable,” said Robbins of her fellow artists. “As a director, when you’re working on a new play, you’re usually working with one playwright. The process is a very private one between the writer and the director until you begin readings or rehearsals. Working with seven writers on Seven Ages meant that the playwrights had to share with one another from the very beginning. It was great. They were talking amongst themselves, not only about their own work, but about how their individual plays fit into the larger context of what would become Seven Ages. That kind of connection and communication is pretty exceptional. It’s been a privilege to help shape this piece and to experience the rich diversity of these seven writers’ voices along the way.”

“I love the idea of a lifetime viewed from seven distinct Cleveland perspectives,” said Eric Coble, one of the seven playwrights involved in the production, regarding the concept for the Seven Ages project. “As playwrights we're so often responsible for everything that is said on the stage, with only ourselves to generate ideas. But, what has made this so great, is knowing that I'm just one piece of a bigger event. My work has to compliment and coordinate with everyone else's, and still be a complete story in and of itself…I love that challenge.”

The four-actor touring ensemble features Reagan Kendrick, Anne McEvoy, Michael Regnier and Corene Woodford. “Casting Seven Ages was exciting because we didn’t start with any plays,” said director Robbins of the production process. “We decided that we would cast the production first so the playwrights knew what types of actors they had to work with before they began writing. We were really lucky to find four immensely talented actors that are both deeply committed to this community and able to bring a uniquely dynamic voice to the process.”

The play’s production team consists of Joseph R. Lenkey (scenic design), Naima Hadden (costume design) and Richard Ingraham (sound design). “From the beginning, the production team was energized by the challenge of creating a world that transformed every ten minutes,” reflected Robbins about her collaborators. “In Seven Ages, as an artistic team, we were essentially dealing with seven different plays. I couldn’t be more thrilled with their work. With creativity, ingenuity and determination, the designers have created something truly beautiful.”

Seven Ages is a ninety-minute program that includes an introduction and post-performance discussion. Times and dates are subject to change. Call individual venues for more information about the performances.

Seven Ages is part of All The World’s A Stage, a series of community programs surrounding Great Lakes Theater Festival’s production of As You Like It, by William Shakespeare (September 30 – October 22, 2005 at the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square Center). Held throughout Northern Ohio from March through October, Surround programming is designed for audiences of all backgrounds and ages. All Surround events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Great Lakes Theater Festival website or call the Festival’s education department at (216) 241-5490 x307.

Seven Ages
is presented through the generous support of:

All the World’s A Stage
is a community collaboration between Great Lakes Theater Festival and: