Playhouse Square

The ensemble Playhouse Square in Cleveland (Ohio ) is a complex of theaters from the 1920erJahren, who was threatened with immediate shelters, rescued in the 1970s by citizens' initiative. Today it is as presented by the Foundation, which acts as a carrier company as the world's biggest project of the theater restoration and is named after the Lincoln Center in New York, the second-largest cultural center of the U.S., which is dedicated to the performing arts. It currently includes eight venues, including five large theaters and is visited annually by more than a million people.

History

The five theaters (Ohio, Palace, State, Allen and Hanna ) were built almost simultaneously at the beginning of the period of prosperity in the 1920s.

On 5 February 1921, the State Theatre opened as a movie and vaudeville stage ( it was closed on February 2, 1969, on June 9, opened in 1984 again). Remarkably it is mainly the four large wall painting by James Daugherty ( 1890-1974 ).

The Ohio Theatre was opened on 14 February 1921, has been closed on the same day as the State Theatre and reopened on July 9, 1982. Much of its original features were lost in a fire in 1964. The Ohio speech was devoted to the theater. Both the State as the Ohio Theatre were designed by the specialized theater and cinema architect Thomas W. Lamb

The Hanna Theatre was opened on 28 March 1921 as a spoken theater, closed in 1988 aand re-opened in September 1997. Noteworthy here is the coffered ceiling.

The Allen Theatre opened on 1 April 1921 as a movie palace its doors. His side boxes are purely decorative nature. Closed, it was on May 7, 1968 re-opened after a series of renovations in 1984, 1988 and most recently on 16 September 2011. Today it is the home of the Cleveland Playhouse.

The Palace Theatre was dedicated to the Vaudeville, from 1926 the film. It was opened on November 6, 1922 closed on July 20, 20, 1969., It could be re- opened on April 30, 1988

The elaborate design of these theaters in the style of different variants of neoclassicism involved the use of Carrara marble, precious woods, wall paintings, stucco and gilding. The rotunda of the Allen Theatre was, for example, Raphael's Villa Madama modeled in Rome, the Palace had a large blue Sevres vase to offer and the Grand Lobby of the Ohio with its Corinthian columns was modeled after the Palace of Fontainebleau.

Negative for this theater center on the western Euclid Avenue factors were especially suburbanization and deindustrialization after 1945 and the rise of television. The steel city of Cleveland also shrank between 1920 800.000 inhabitants in 1980 to 573,000. After 1970, most of these theaters were threatened after years of Leerstehung directly from demolition. Vandalism and structural neglect seemed to lead to ultimate destruction.

Under the leadership of teacher Ray Shepardson, however, a group of volunteers who wanted to accept this decline not stand. < Formed ibid., p.7) The grouping " Playhouse Square Association " appeared as the lobby and in 1970 recognized as a charitable organization. The imminent demolition of two theaters (Allen and State) in 1972 mobilized a broad citizens' movement: A Auführungsserie of " Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" proved to 1973-75 at the State Theatre as a sensational success

The activists of the monument protection managed to raise $ 40 million in public- private partnership. So finally succeeded to rescue all five theaters, including the Allen, which was endangered until 1993.

The successful revitalization of the theater district is regarded as "one of the top 10 Successes in Cleveland history."

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