Michael Bloom just can't stop smiling. He's kicking off the fourth edition of his signature FusionFest extravaganza this Wed 4/29 and Bloom says, "This is really the FusionFest I had envisioned. I think it has come of age."

FusionFest is jam-packed: collaborations with with the Cleveland Museum of Art on Basil Twist's Dogugaeshi, Verb Ballets on In The Groove, Karamu House, Jewish Community Center. Plus, One Man Star Wars, an evening of chamber music by The Cleveland Orchestra, and a Thornton Wilder world premiere, and his first comedy, set in the Depression (how timely!), which Bloom calls "the most relevant play I've directed," in his four years in Cleveland.

Bloom also talks about why the Cleveland Play House is planning to move to the Allen Theatre at Playhouse Square ($1.2M annual costs to operate their landmark Philip Johnson facility), and he comments on the 2009/10 economy: "One of the most most difficult years in a couple of generations for the arts." www.ClevelandPlayHouse.org

(:divend:)