The Dark Room, Thu 3/10 @ Old Parish Hall, 6203 Detroit Ave. at 8PM

I can’t pretend to be objective about new plays. As both writer and producer, I've spent some 22 years trying to get new work – my own and others' – onto area stages. It has never been easy, but lately it seems even more like pushing rocks uphill. Which is why I'm excited that a group of writers and performers are banding together to try, yet again, to make something happen here.

"A theatrical community that doesn't develop new works cannot grow," says Cabaret Dada veteran Mike Martone. "And right now, Cleveland is a cover band."

Martone is one of the founding members of The Dark Room – tagline: "where new works develop". It first opens its doors on Thursday, March 10, at the Old Parish Hall next to Cleveland Public Theater. Part cabaret, part vaudeville, part Our Gang clubhouse and networking event, it’s intended to bring together folks from different disciplines to get new works on their feet, and mix it up in front of an audience. Inspired in part by the University of Iowa’s and L.A.’s "No Shame Theater," it’s an open mike format: Sign up at 7PM, perform at 8PM. Poets, songwriters, playwrights, solo performers, actors – all are welcome. The basic rules are simple: keep each piece under 10 minutes, and the work has to be original, with the writer in the room.

The monthly gathering is being launched under the auspices of the Cleveland Theater Collective, which began bringing area writers and performers together back in December to talk about how to put more new work into the local ecosystem. We're not naive newcomers: Margaret Lynch, Mike Sepesy, and I are in the Cleveland Play House Playwrights’ Unit, and have had work on local and national stages. Playwright/journalist Chris Johnston has launched work at CPT and Dobama. There are folks coming out of improv (Martone & Kiff VandenHeuvel), the poetry community (Chris Bunsey & Elise Geither), actors-turned-writers (Kevin Cronin & Wild Plum artistic director Denise Astorino), musical theater creators (me, Martone, & Mike Mazur), as well as emerging performers like Daniel Ray. What we have in common is the desire to get the work out there and help make Cleveland a place where new work can thrive.

Poet/monologist Elise Geither is a veteran poetry slammer who has been looking for new performance opportunities ever since the Beachland Poetry Slams went dark earlier this year. "There are many Cleveland poets out there who have ventured or are moving toward playwriting," she says. "This will give them a place not only to hear what they have down but also to meet playwrights who may help them in the journey from poet to playwright. I've often been told my poems are "too" narrative and my plays "too" poetic. What better place than this new event to have the two meet!"

Director/songwriter Mike Mazur, a graduate of NYU’s Musical Theater Program, teaches at John Carroll, and has long wanted a place to showcase his musicals. "When I lived in New York, I was a member of several developmental groups," says Mazur. "Those opportunities haven’t existed here, and it’s time they do."

The Dark Room will run the 2nd Thursday of every month -- more often if demand heats up. It’s a work-in-progress – as is the performance space, the basement of the Old Parish Hall with its funky/retro bar and newly painted black floor.

"More people live in Greater Cleveland than in Manhattan and the Bronx combined,” says Martone, wielding a paint roller. "The people who can turn this city around are already here; they just don’t know how to find each other. We want to change that."

For details: http://www.clevelandtheater.com/upcoming_events.asp
from Cool Cleveland contributor Linda Eisenstein Linda@coolcleveland.com

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