Cleveland Public Theatre is about to expand, thanks to the largest bequest it has ever received.
The $6 million gift will go toward a directing fellowship and the refurbishment of a major piece of the theater's Gordon Square campus. The funds come from the estate of Joan Yellen Horvitz, a Cleveland-based set and costume designer whose work is in the permanent collections of the Western Reserve Historical Society and Kent State University Museum.
"I went out and met with her, and we just hit it off right from the start," said Raymond Bobgan, CPT's executive artistic director. "This was someone who definitely had not had the exposure to the kind of theater that CPT did. But she was this curious and intellectual powerhouse."
The director fellowship, reestablishes and expands a program for emerging female directors that tapered off a decade ago. Now it will be open to all emerging directors as well as devising directors - those that create their own work.
“One of the exciting things about the cohort is that this will be a diverse group, with people who are early career, mid-career, even late career,” he said. “In the world of theater, you're always learning. You're always growing.”
CPT will release program details in the next several weeks, with the first cohort announced by the summer. Details will also soon emerge about refurbishing the former St. Mary’s Orthodox Church on Detroit Avenue. The theater purchased the early 20th-century structure almost 20 years ago. It sits adjacent to CPT’s parking lot and currently has no working restrooms or wheelchair accessibility. Bobgan said $2 million from the trust will go toward renovating the brick building into the Joan Yellen Horvitz Performance Gallery.
“This is a landmark building, and we want to be cooperative with the city on this, but this is really going to open up a whole new rehearsal space and a space that performances will also happen,” he said. “When you're creating original work, the need for space is so much greater.”
Yellen Horvitz died in 2021 after spending decades working on CPT productions, including "Fefu and her Friends," Bobgan's first directing job after taking the helm at CPT in 2006. It was a financially difficult time for the theater, and he found himself struggling with how to mount an ambitious, complex production.
“I was just feeling very discouraged, and I said, ‘Maybe I'm just trying to do too much,’” he said. “And she said, ‘Oh, no, Raymond, we're doing this play.’”
In 2023, her trust also made a major gift to the Cleveland Institute of Music.
“I can't think of any example of this anywhere, especially at a theater that has the orientation that Cleveland Public Theatre has,” he said. “We are one of those theaters that kind of lives … because of the desire of the community. This is extraordinary, if not unique and transformative.”
CPT's annual operating budget is $2.5 million, supporting 22 full-time and 12 part-time employees along with artists creating performances and educational programming.
