Playhouse Square christens new marquees on Thursday evening with a free outdoor party. The Cleveland theater district will be alive with music, capped with a performance by singer Andy Grammer and a demonstration of the technology behind the $10.2 million marquees.
The project began last year, before Playhouse Square CEO Craig Hassall came aboard from London’s Royal Albert Hall. He said the previous marquees didn’t have a uniform look as they were installed at different times and were “all in rather different states of decay.”
“The Connor Palace was quite exposed, was repeatedly bashed by trucks and buses,” he said. “They're all idiosyncratic in their design, in that they reflect the elements of the lobbies or the theaters that they represent.”
Each of the new signs has more than 2,000 settings, which can be themed to holidays, special events or even specific shows. That’s the technology which allows for “Marquee Moments.” That’s Playhouse Square’s terminology for the “rather surreal, esoteric video which will play every night” across all the marquee screens, according to Hassall.
Thursday's free event starts at 5:30 p.m., featuring musical theater performances by students from both Baldwin Wallace University and local high schools. Cleveland-based rock groups LoConti Band and Apostle Jones will be on a second stage. Cleveland’s sports community is also getting into the act, with performances by the Cavs’ 216Stix drum corps and the Guardians’ DJ Kyro.
Under the marquees
There are new tenants at Playhouse Square too. Cleveland State University’s gallery moved out in July. The school will be partnering with the Worthington Yards gallery for its spring shows, while planning for its own space in the future. CSU’s former gallery is now the Corner Gallery and Playhouse Square is programming the space. It’s also being extended into the former Cowell & Hubbard restaurant, creating a U-shaped exhibition space. The first event, “Mummies of the World,” opened this month.
“We really want to use the exhibit space to activate the neighborhood during the day,” he said. “One of my plans is to have more activations and more things happening around Euclid, day and night.”
One thing happening next door to the gallery and before the Idea Center, where Ideastream Public is located, is the City Club of Cleveland, which has moved a few blocks east on Euclid Avenue to Playhouse Square.
“The way they've designed the space is incredibly transparent. You can look, literally, right through the building,” Hassall said. “In the summer, they were having temporary events across the street at U.S. Bank Plaza, which I'm hoping they'll keep going with.”
Hassall is also considering partnering with the City Club for events in Playhouse Square theaters.
“Or perhaps a literary or speakers festival across Playhouse Square, the way the Cleveland International Film Festival would take over and the Tri-C Jazz Festival,” he said. “There are lots of ideas bubbling around.”
Beyond Euclid Avenue
With a busier street, Hassall points out that the new marquees come equipped with security cameras. They’re being unveiled just as the Service Employees International University Local 1 is pushing the theater district’s security guards to unionize. Hassall said his staff has recently been working with contractor PalAmerican Security to review pay and working conditions.
“We made sure that the company was paying properly, had proper conditions and everything else, and they do,” he said. “We’ve just made sure that all of our security guards… wear Playhouse Square blazers, they're properly adorned and looked after and treated with respect.”
As for future plans for the area, Hassall said the rear entrance to the theaters, from the parking garage, will be “smartened up” since about 60% of audiences park there. He’s also got his eye on the Art Deco Greyhound station along Chester Avenue. It was sold by the bus company to a Connecticut firm earlier this year.
“I would love that as another venue,” he said, adding that while Playhouse Square isn’t looking to buy the space, “the design is beautiful” and could be a “supper club or jazz venue or education space.”
"That’s a little way down the path, but you have to have a dream,” he said.
