Meet Dr. Michael L. Mauldin, Artistic Director of CSU Summer Stages

Changes are afoot at the CSU Factory Theatre.  What was once the Dramatic Arts Program will, as of tomorrow, be the Cleveland State University Department of Theatre and Dance. Dr. Michael Mauldin will no longer by the Program Director, but the Interim Chairman of the Department. The Factory Theatre is likely not long for this world, being replaced by the North Campus Neighborhood, with the Department being relocated to the Allen Theatre, along with the Cleveland Play House.

But Michael Mauldin remains unperturbed by all of this activity. His focus right now is singular: mounting three shows at the Factory Theatre in rotating repertory, all set to open next week. He will be directing the third show to open, Curtains, a breezy musical by Kander and Ebb.

“Curtains was created by artists who were active in forming what’s known as the Golden Age of the American Musical, both in content and form,” says Mauldin, referring to music-and-words team Kander  and Ebb, the team responsible for shows like Cabaret, Chicago, and Kiss of the Spider Woman. “It lovingly references several clichés of American musical theatre form, the ‘star is born’ story, and backstage murder mysteries.”

The show takes place during the first Boston preview of a terrible new musical, Robbin’ Hood of the Old West, which the producer hopes to take to Broadway. But when the awful leading lady is killed onstage during the curtain call and several more company members are murdered, homicide detective and musical theatre aficionado Cioffi is brought in to pop the perp.

Mauldin entered this production imagining it to be a tongue and cheek spoof of the theatre, another in what is now an annual tradition of dedicating one Summer Stages show every season to theatre about theatre (following Booth, about the famous acting family, Tom Stoppard’s farce Rough Crossing, and last year’s award winning Chekhov in Yalta). But, “this show does not have a cynical bone in its body. They love the people of the theatre.” Of Lieutenant Cioffi, the homicide investigator who moonlights as a stage performer, “He is the true meaning of ‘amateur’”, which comes from the French, “to love”. “He is very good at his job, but leads a mundane life and loves community theatre. He exists to walk the boards on the weekends, and when he has a chance to be among the people he adores, he can remind them of why they do what they do.”

The show has not been without its challenges, however. Mauldin affirms that this show has been the most difficult musical Summer Stages has undertaken, both in terms of music and choreography. The cast, in an unusual move, spent most of the first few weeks in vocal and dance rehearsals, not moving onto staging until a few weeks in. The real challenge for Mauldin has been simply arranging large number of people on stage; “It’s all huge crowd scenes!” The actors face their own challenges as well. “I’m amazed at the process of how contemporary actors can truthfully and honestly play intentional clichés without sounding cynical.”  They have, Mauldin says, by not being cynical about these characters, by embracing a real innocence.

Curtains opens 10 July 2010 at 8pm followed by a champagne reception.

The show then runs:

July 11 (2pm), 15, 23, 31, August 1 (2pm), 7 and 8(2pm)

Tickets are $10-15 and can be purchased online at http://csu.ticketleap.com or by phone at 216.687.2109

Curtains is appropriate for most audiences. There is mild language, and numerous non-explicit deaths.

CSU and the Allen Theatre in the Plain Dealer

Kudos to Plain Dealer Theatre Critic Tony Brown for his trio of articles this weekend on the present, past and future of the Allen Theatre  and Cleveland State University's Dramatic Arts Program.

Cleveland will lose its third-largest theater -- PlayhouseSquare's 2,500-seat Allen -- in September.

The promised payoff, a year later: A three-venue, 1,000-seat complex for the flagship Cleveland Play House, which sold its outmoded facility, and forCleveland State University's undergraduate drama program.

All for a relative bargain -- under $30 million -- and preserving the 1921 Allen's architecture.

... 

CSU's theater program, which has grown from seven majors in 2003 to 70 today under the leadership of Michael Mauldin, would become one of the few undergraduate programs in the country affiliated with a professional theater and could have a shot at national prominence.

... 

Next door to the 81,500-square-foot Allen, in what is now a parking lot, Westlake has designed a 44,000-square-foot addition that would house two state-of-the-art theaters the likes of which Cleveland has never before seen.

The northernmost venue, called the "second stage" in the drawings, could be configured in just about any way a director wanted, up to 350 seats. It was inspired by Bloom's visit to the New Theatre, erected at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2002.

...

The southern end of the Allen addition would be a similarly flexible but smaller 150-seat laboratory theater, which Bloom called "the workhorse of the complex," for student projects, children's theater, readings and events in the Play House's annual FusionFest.

The firm retained for the transformation, Westlake Reed Leskosky, is the team behind the original renovation of Playhouse Square Center. If you think CSU Summer Stages was amazing in the Factory Theatre, just wait until we move into a beautifully renovated, state-of-the-art downtown performance space.

A Day in the Life...

CSU Summer Stages 2010 season officially began rehearsals on Tuesday. Our student Apprentice Company begins every day with vigorous warmups, including yoga with company member Geoff Knox and intense cardio. As I write this, director Scott Spence is in the rehearsal studio with apprentice Eric Perusek (Jonathan) and Everett Quinton (Jonathan's mother, Madame Rosepettle) working on Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad.  Later this afternoon, Eric will be rehearsing The Elephant Man with Everett before he goes off to the gym to continue preparing himself for the physically demanding role of the grotesquely misshapen John Merrick. At that time (and until long after I've gone home), Dr. Michael Mauldin, the producer of CSU Summer Stages and director of Curtains, steps in with music director John Kroll to continue music rehearsals with the cast.  In the meantime, shop supervisor Aaron Benson works with his team of carpenters and electricians to build new CSU faculty member Russ Borski's elaborate set and lighting design, while costume shop supervisor Terry Pieritz and costume designer Ali Garrigan continue sewing, ordering, measuring and altering.

In the coming weeks, you'll get to meet the cast, directors, designers and crew and see three amazing shows come together for a truly spectacular summer of theatre.  Until next time...

SCENE Magazine can't get enough of CHEKHOV

When a review starts off like this:

When a theater critic encounters unexpected radiance on stage — as in CSU's production of Chekhov in Yalta — he has to struggle to prevent himself from becoming a cliché-spouting sycophant.

you know you're in for a good time.

Read the rest of Christie Howey's review of Chekhov in Yalta in Scene Magazine, then come see it for yourself.

Okay, I can't stop myself, here's another quote:

The production itself was like watching alchemy happen. To start at the top, we pay tribute to the director Cathy Hartenstein. Rarely has the magic hand of a skilled director been so evident. She brings effective casting, an understanding of the historical character's nuance, style and period, and created incredible visuals with blocking and pacing.

WCPN's Around Noon with Dee Perry

Dr. Mauldin and Greg Violand discuss CSU Summer Stages with Dee Perry on WCPN's Around Noon, along with John Paul, Lew and Melissa singing songs from Return to the Forbidden Planet and Amy and Doug perform a scene from Chekhov in Yalta.

This week's performances:
Thursday, July 16th: Return to the Forbidden Planet
Friday, July 17th: The Shadow Box (Benefit performance for The Hospice of the Cleveland Clinic)
Saturday and Sunday*, July 18th and 19th: Chekhov in Yalta

All shows are at 8pm except *at 2pm.

Summer Stages Opens TONITE!

We open tonite! Don't forget, there are free champagne receptions after each evening show this weekend:
Tonite: The Shadow Box
Tomorrow: Chekhov in Yalta
Saturday: Return to the Forbidden Planet

A special thanks to Crain's Cleveland Business for the mention!

Plain Dealer's Tony Brown Sits Down with The Shadow Box

The Plain Dealer's Tony Brown joins us in rehearsal for The Shadow Box:

[Everett Quinton:] "Here's what is great. You found the secret of acting. You looked at your Dad, and you saw. You saw. You remember seeing it? Yeah? That's what acting is. Seeing. And remembering.

Don't forget, all three shows open this weekend! And here's a list of our benefit performances of The Shadow Box, in which each organization gets 1/2 of the box office take for the night:
Friday, July 17, 8 PM, Hospice of the Cleveland Clinic
Saturday, July 25, 8 PM, Hospice of the Visiting Nurses Association
Sunday, July 26, 2 PM, Hospice of the Cleveland Clinic
Thursday, July 30, 8 PM, Hospice of the Western Reserve
Friday, August 7, 8 PM, Malachi House

Announcing Our First Charitable Partnership

CSU Summer Stages is proud to announce our first charitable partnership: on Friday, August 7th, one half of all of our proceeds for The Shadow Box will go to Malachi House.

Created out of a Christian sense of ministry, Malachi House is a non-profit organization that serves terminally ill persons, without cost or regard to gender, race, religion or national origin. We help restore dignity to less fortunate individuals by providing them with a safe, comfortable place to spend the final stages of life, which otherwise might be spent alone and abandoned, under bridges, in cars, deserted buildings and other unsuitable places within the city. Malachi House is funded solely by private donations and receives no government support. Malachi House presently has capacity for 15 residents and has served more than 1,300 individuals since its founding in 1988.

How can you help? Call 216.687.2109 right now to purchase tickets for the Malachi House benefit night. Or, click the links below to help CSU Summer Stages and Malachi House continue their important work.

Plain Dealer: Better Late Then Never

Thanks, Tony. We still love you.

CSU SummerStages Are GO!

Cleveland State University Summer Stages, downtown Cleveland's only professional summer theatre company, is proud to announce its third season, returning with another three shows this summer, operating in rotating repertory with a five week run.

Our flagship musical is Return to the Forbidden Planet, written by Bob Carlton, directed by Program Chair Dr. Michael L. Mauldin, a 50’s/60’s jukebox musical which combines the science fiction movie Forbidden Planet with Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Dr. Mauldin was previously seen as Captain Hook in the Beck Center's production of Peter Pan and in CSU Summer Stages' Rough Crossing.

We will also be presenting the farcical Chekhov in Yalta, by Jeffrey Haddow and John Driver, directed by Cleveland Playhouse Education Director Cathy Hartenstein, full of low comedy and high tragedy, this historically-informed comedy features famed playwright Anton Chekhov and Stanislavsky’s Moscow Art Theatre.

Rounding out the season is the 1977 Pulitzer and Tony Award winning drama The Shadow Box, by Michael Cristofer, directed by Everett Quinton. The Shadow Box, full of hope and heartbreak, tells the story of three very different families each facing an impending death in their own unique way. New York legend Everett Quinton is a founding member of CSU Summer Stages and has been seen in every CSU Summer Stages production except for last year's hit Dark of the Moon, which he directed.

Being the resident theatre company of CSU, much of the cast and crew is composed of CSU Dramatic Arts students and alumni. After bringing in actors, directors and choreographers from New York and California for two seasons, we have refocused our efforts on local growth, and we are proud to announce that we are the biggest summer employer of union actors in the region. A significant presence in the downtown arts scene, CSU Summer Stages presence will only expand when CSU’s Dramatic Arts’ proposed move to Playhouse Square Center’s Allen Theatre.

The shows run in rotating repertory from July 9th through August 9th, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $15 each, and discounts are available for season tickets and groups of ten or more. Free street parking is available, and parking in CSU lot S1 (East 24^th Street between Chester & Payne) is only $4, with a coupon available at www.csuohio.edu/theater.

Box office: 216.687.2109

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