History

Overview

Great Lakes Theater, Northeast Ohio's professional classic theater since 1962, is one of the nation's pre-eminent regional theater companies. Great Lakes Theater, which features a resident company of artists, brings the world's greatest plays to life each season from September through May in its revolutionary home at the re-imagined Hanna Theatre, Playhouse Square. The company also presents the region's annual production of A Christmas Carol at Playhouse Square's Mimi Ohio Theatre.

Under the leadership of current Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee, Great Lakes Theater has pioneered a unique and nationally recognized producing partnership with the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival featuring entirely shared seasons with a single resident artistic company. 

In 2008, Great Lakes Theater opened its revolutionary new home at the re-imagined 1921 Hanna Theatre facilitated by a successful $20.2M capital campaign - ensuring the legacy of the classics in Cleveland for generations to come. Great Lakes Theater's efforts infused the historic theater with bold contemporary design sensibilities and state-of-the-art technologies making it one of the most innovative theater spaces in the country.

Great Lakes Theater's impressive, re-imagined home is an ideal metaphor for this great classical theater company a symbol of its commitment to community, to creating world-class theater and to thinking creatively while working collaboratively.

On its main stage and through its extensive educational outreach initiatives, Great Lakes Theater programming reaches over 100,000 adults and students each season. The mission of the Great Lakes Theater is to bring the pleasure, power and relevance of classic theater to the widest possible audience.

Founded in 1962, Great Lakes Theater has a rich history full of incredible productions, extraordinary talent and world-class theater. Get the full view here.

Complete History  Past Productions