Since its inception in 1915, Cleveland Play House has been focused on nourishing new works of original American theatre. Yet until this season, it was staging the latest contemporary plays in an older, inflexible building that was largely unsuitable for its needs.

Yet thanks to CPH's recent move to the newly rebuilt Allen Theatre complex, the nonprofit finally has a truly inspiring, state-of-the-art home. The complex contains not only the rebuilt, 500-seat Allen Theatre, but also two smaller performing spaces that can be customized to suit CPH's artistic needs.

Now, on top of a hot season that is already drawing big crowds to its impressive, new abode, CPH is debuting the New Ground Theatre Festival. The weeklong celebration of new works, which will take place from May 3-12 and has an even greater emphasis on original theatre, was formerly called FusionFest.

"Our new quarters are fantastic for a festival like this one, so the name just seemed appropriate," says CPH Artistic Director Michael Bloom.

Highlights include a performance of In the Next Room (Or the Vibrator Play); a staging of Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, a Tom Stoppard satire that features a collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra; solo shows by former Daily Show correspondent Lauren Weedman and rapper-evolutionist Baba Brinkman; and a weeklong residency with Quiara Alegria Hudes, a Pulitzer Prize finalist who has also been awarded the 2012 Roe Green Award. The culmination of the New Ground Theatre Festival will feature a public reading of Hudes' new play.

At the center of the entire festival will be CPH's crowd-pleasing, new home, which Bloom says is the perfect place to see new, original theatre. "The fact that these are new spaces demonstrate that we have a strong commitment to new work."

Source: Michael Bloom
Writer: Lee Chilcote