{"id":3520,"date":"2022-02-28T10:53:16","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T15:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/?p=3520"},"modified":"2022-05-23T13:24:20","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T17:24:20","slug":"a-dramatic-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/2022\/a-dramatic-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"A Dramatic Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

The Roe Green Theatre is at the heart of the Maltz Performing Arts Center\u2019s new wing. Between the front row of seats and the stage, there is an orchestra pit, making the Roe Green a suitable venue for future collaborations between the departments of theater and music. Photo by Roger Mastroianni<\/p><\/div>\n

From the time he enrolled at Case Western Reserve in the fall of 2018, Sarthak Shah<\/b> was committed to majoring in theater. (Eventually, he decided to study computer science as well, just in case a theatrical career didn\u2019t pan out.) Drawn to both acting and playwriting, Shah began taking a variety of courses and settled into the theater department\u2019s close-knit community. He performed in mainstage and black box productions in Eldred Hall, the department\u2019s home for the past 90 years. He signed up for IMPROVment, an improvisational troupe that presented weekly shows before the pandemic struck. \u201cIt\u2019s been wonderful getting to do a little bit of everything, and getting to know my professors really well,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Until last summer, however, Shah had one big unanswered question about his campus theater experience: Would he ever appear at the university\u2019s Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at The Temple\u2013Tifereth Israel?<\/p>\n

For most of his undergraduate career, the Maltz Center had been a work in progress. Phase I, completed in 2015, transformed the sanctuary of the historic Cleveland synagogue into Silver Hall, a magnificent venue for concerts, lectures and other public events. Phase II would include a new wing with two theaters, scene and costume shops, rehearsal space, a dance studio, classrooms and faculty offices. Lead donors Milton and Tamar Maltz<\/b>, along with the Maltz Family Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, initially pledged $12 million to the project in 2010, but within four years they had increased the amount to $30 million.<\/p>\n

Their generosity inspired other donors, including philanthropist Roe Green<\/b>, who in 2018 announced a $10 million commitment toward a 250-seat proscenium theater. A ceremonial groundbreaking took place a year later, with the expectation that the facility would open by October 2021.<\/p>\n

Shah was set to graduate in May 2022. A construction delay could have dashed his hopes\u2014and, in fact, one almost did. Work halted on the project in the spring of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic raised health and safety concerns. But the contractors made up the lost time, completing the expansion ahead of schedule. And last August, Shah walked onstage in the new Roe Green Theatre and successfully auditioned for a role in Tom Stoppard\u2019s Arcadia<\/i>, playing a mathematician who performs computer-assisted calculations.<\/p>\n

It was an even greater opportunity than he\u2019d imagined. Shah found himself working with director Jerrold Scott<\/b>, the department chair and Katharine Bakeless Nason Professor of Theater and Drama, for the first time. He joined a cast that featured not only current students, but also faculty member Christopher Bohan<\/b> and three alumni, two of them graduates of the top-ranked CWRU\/Cleveland Play House MFA Program in Acting. All of this came with being chosen for the inaugural production in what Shah calls \u201cone of the most modern theater spaces in the country.\u201d The whole experience, he says, was \u201clike totally starting fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Different Century<\/h3>\n
\"Katie

While Katie O. Solomon (GRS \u201816) was earning her graduate degree from the CWRU\/Cleveland Play House MFA Program in Acting, she studied with instructor Christopher Bohan. But they never performed together until director Jerrold Scott cast them in “Arcadia.” Photo by Steve Wagner<\/p><\/div>\n

Among theater people at Case Western Reserve, there\u2019s a long-standing reluctance to speak unkindly of Eldred Hall. Third-year student Mariah Hamburg<\/b>, another lead player in Arcadia,<\/i> calls it \u201ccute and quaint.\u201d Shah says it has \u201ccharacter.\u201d The late Ron Wilson<\/b>, Scott\u2019s predecessor and a key figure in the history of theater education at CWRU, once described Eldred as \u201ccharming but technically antiquated.\u201d Although his description was more candid than most, \u201ctechnically antiquated\u201d was a bit of an understatement.<\/p>\n

Actors in Eldred Theatre were unable to wait in the wings for their entrances\u2014the stage had no wing space. To lift pieces of scenery out of sight or drop them into place, students on the tech crew hauled on rope pulleys, using sandbags as counterweights. To hang lights from the ceiling, they climbed 15-foot ladders. Audience members had to sidestep audio cables in order to reach their seats.<\/p>\n

Other parts of the building weren\u2019t any more sophisticated. The design shop was one floor below the theater, so sets had to be carried upstairs in pieces and assembled onstage. Equipment in the design and costume shops hadn\u2019t been updated in decades. The black box theater was a cellar-like space without the flexibility such theaters are supposed to have; audiences sat on benches that were fixed in the same position for every show.<\/p>\n

None of these challenges kept the department from mounting superb productions and offering students exceptional learning opportunities. But its facilities were no asset to its recruitment efforts. Associate Professor Jill Davis<\/b>, the resident scenic and lighting designer, recalls leading tours for prospective students interested in technical theater. \u201cThey would look at Eldred and be pretty puzzled,\u201d she concedes.<\/p>\n

With its move to the Maltz Center, the department has entered a different century. On the stage of the Roe Green Theatre, for example, there are no sandbags. A student technician can move parts of a set\u2014anything from a chandelier to a back wall\u2014by pushing a button; motorized winches do the work, raising and lowering steel rods from which the scenic elements are suspended. Crew members step onto technical platforms above the audience section to install lights\u2014no ladders required. Eldred\u2019s incandescent bulbs have given way to LEDs that can turn a seemingly infinite variety of colors, or to halogen bulbs suited to illuminating skin tones. Audio cables are woven into the Roe Green\u2019s walls: Plug an offstage speaker into a mounted panel, and the sound board operator can activate it on cue. In Arcadia<\/i>, this system led audiences to imagine they were hearing gunshots from a pigeon hunt or music from an unseen piano room.<\/p>\n

The rest of the new wing is equally adapted to the theater department\u2019s needs. The Walter and Jean Kalberer Black Box Theatre, which hosted its first production this spring, has room for 100 movable seats. The Barbara and Stanley Meisel Set Design Studio is \u201cbright and vast,\u201d in Davis\u2019 words, with an immense doorway that opens directly onto the Roe Green stage. The costume shop includes a specially ventilated room for dyeing fabrics. Both shops have state-of-the-art machinery, and classrooms on the ground floor are technologically enhanced. Third-floor offices accommodate the entire theater faculty and staff, who until now were dispersed\u2014some in Eldred, others in Clark Hall.<\/p>\n

Visitors have responded to the distinctly modern beauty of the new wing, which was designed by DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky. Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer<\/i>\u2019s art and architecture critic, praised the addition for the \u201clean, elegantly detailed block-like forms\u201d of its exterior and its \u201cinviting, expansive, light-flooded lobbies and public spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sarthak

Sarthak Shah played opposite Katie O. Solomon in several scenes of the play. As a double major in theater and computer science, Shah had an edge in understanding his character, a mathematician doing computer-assisted calculations. Photo by Steve Wagner<\/p><\/div>\n

The Roe Green, too, has a welcoming ambience. \u201cFor as big a theater as it is, it doesn\u2019t feel cavernous; it feels intimate,\u201d Scott says. Davis notes that the architects struck a delicate balance. With its light wood walls and ascending rows of blue-upholstered seats, the Roe Green is a \u201cbeautiful house,\u201d but it isn\u2019t ornate; the stage, for instance, doesn\u2019t have the kind of \u201cfancy, framed proscenium\u201d associated with the grand old theaters in Cleveland\u2019s Playhouse Square. \u201cThat\u2019s a style,\u201d Davis says. \u201cBut these days, we want you to focus on the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Totally in Character<\/h3>\n

As Scott set about choosing a play for the inaugural production, he asked himself: \u201cWhat can we do that would be a bit of an epic\u2014something worthy of a grand opening?\u201d A classical theater specialist, he considered doing a Shakespeare play or a Greek tragedy. But to his surprise, he says, \u201cArcadia<\/i> kept popping into my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

First performed in 1993, Arcadia<\/i> has been called the 20th century\u2019s greatest play about science. And yet, along with characters such as Shah\u2019s mathematician, it also features a literature professor, a landscape architect and a historian. \u201cArcadia <\/i>covers so many disciplines in the College of Arts and Sciences, and in the university as a whole,\u201d Scott says. \u201cSo, I thought, \u2018This is an excellent play for the opening of an academic performing arts space.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamburg, a double major in theater and mathematics, says that by choosing Arcadia,<\/i> Scott attracted a broad audience to the Roe Green\u2019s debut. \u201cWe had people from the physics department and engineers come and see this production,\u201d she recalls. \u201cYou could appreciate it if you were in English, history, math\u2014anything. It was a play that a lot of people in the university community could bond over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott mentions another factor that drew him to Arcadia<\/i>. For most of the play, the scenes alternate between the early 1800s and the 1990s, with two different sets of characters. As the action unfolds, the audience discovers unexpected continuities between past and present\u2014recurrent ideas and phrases, enduring patterns of human behavior, objects retained or rediscovered across generations.<\/p>\n

\"Five

In every scene of “Arcadia,” student and alumni actors shared the stage. From left: Zion Thomas, Natalie El Dabh (CWR \u201918), Mariah Hamburg, Oliver Schumacher and TJ Gainley (CWR \u201908, GRS \u201914). Photo by Steve Wagner<\/p><\/div>\n

Scott decided to assemble a cast that would also link past and present. He recruited alumni TJ Gainley<\/b> (CWR \u201908; GRS \u201914, acting), Katie O. Solomon<\/b> (GRS \u201916, acting) and Natalie El Dabh<\/b> (CWR \u201918) to share the stage with Bohan, who frequently performs at Cleveland Heights\u2019 Dobama Theatre, and nine undergraduates. For the students, playing opposite actors with advanced training and professional experience could have been intimidating. But Scott watched them rise to the occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy opening night, the average person would have had a difficult time telling who was a professional and who was a student\u2014which is what I hoped the result of the experiment would be,\u201d Scott says. \u201cThe seasoned actors had a nuance and sophistication that the younger actors had to acquire very quickly. At the same time, the students had an enthusiasm that the more seasoned actors had to match.\u201d<\/p>\n

The members of the cast quickly developed mutual respect. Shah, who played several scenes with Solomon and Bohan, was impressed by how fully they inhabited their roles. \u201cWe\u2019d be backstage, talking about whatever, whispering little funny jokes to each other,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAnd then we\u2019d be onstage, and I\u2019d look at them, and they\u2019d be intensely focused and totally in character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning the compliment, Solomon notes that early in the rehearsal process, while she was still learning her lines, Shah had already memorized his. \u201cHe was so steadfast and so unbelievably present during our work together,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The entire cast refined their British accents with support from Professor Beth McGee<\/b>, the department\u2019s dialect coach. In addition, three of the undergraduates\u2014Hamburg, Shah and fourth-year student Adam Benjamin<\/b>\u2014were taking McGee\u2019s voice course last fall. She had them do a 30-minute warmup at the start of every class, and they followed the same routine before each performance.<\/i> One evening, while they were waiting in the Krause Family Foundation Green Room for the show to begin, they watched a live feed from the stage. \u201cTJ was up there, practicing his vocal warmup the exact way we were doing,\u201d Shah recalls. McGee had once been Gainley\u2019s teacher, too.<\/p>\n

Appearing in a theater\u2019s inaugural production is the sort of experience actors rarely, if ever, have in their careers. For the most part, Solomon observes, \u201ctheaters are very, very old,\u201d and over the years they acquire \u201ca specific energy, a specific feel\u2014literally, tactilely. The floors feel a certain way when you work on a stage that has been worked on. Doors are creaky; doorknobs are shinier than they should be, because they\u2019ve been turned so many times. There’s a smell that comes from a theater, from the lights and the excitement and the fear and the hair spray.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first time she entered the Roe Green, Solomon says, \u201cThat wasn\u2019t there yet. But by the end of the run, it was\u2014a little bit. I like to think that I get to be a part of that. I get to leave a little bit of the joy that I experienced, a little bit of the physical exertion that comes from doing Arcadia. <\/i>To live in those walls a little bit, to be there forever, makes me feel good, because I know what I’m leaving is good stuff and can support whatever comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The

Actors who had occupied two different time periods during Arcadia came together for the curtain call. From left: Zion Thomas, Angela Howell, Oliver Schumacher, Adam Benjamin, Christopher Bohan, Katie O. Solomon, Natalie El Dabh, TJ Gainley, Mariah Hamburg, Sarthak Shah, Ethan Teel and Gabriella O\u2019Fallon. Photo by Steve Wagner<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Behind the Scenes
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A stately curtain rose on the stage of the Roe Green Theatre on Arcadia<\/em>\u2019s opening night. No surprise there, you might think; how else would a play begin? But the old Eldred Theatre didn\u2019t have a show curtain\u2014stately or otherwise. When patrons arrived and took their seats, the set was already visible. Here, though, at the start of a new era for the performing arts at Case Western Reserve, the world of a play was suddenly revealed.<\/p>\n

\"Two

In the Barbara and Stanley Meisel Set Design Studio, students Victoria Cao (left) and Anna Giardina use a miter saw to cut lumber for the Palladian windows in the conservatory where “Arcadia” is set. Photo by Roger Mastroianni<\/p><\/div>\n

Arcadia <\/i>takes place in the conservatory of an English country house, and scenic designer Jill Davis<\/strong> wanted to invest the Roe Green\u2019s expansive stage \u201cwith a bit of grandeur.\u201d Her set included a trio of tall Palladian windows with graceful pilasters between them. Lexa Walker<\/strong>, scene shop manager and assistant technical director, carved the wood for these features of the room on a brand-new computerized routing table\u2014technology precise enough to execute Davis\u2019 design flawlessly.<\/p>\n

Even the stage floor acquired a certain opulence for the show. Davis and Homer Farr,<\/strong> the department\u2019s production and technical director, painted the plain wood surface to resemble decoratively inlaid stone or marble.<\/p>\n

Because Arcadia<\/em>\u2019s characters often talk of landscape and gardens, Davis provided a backdrop of the English countryside, which she\u2019d originally painted for another production. The audience could see it through the conservatory windows, where it hung two feet behind a black mesh curtain, or scrim. Visiting lighting designer Kevin Frazier<\/strong> was able to work apparent magic with these backstage properties; the scrim became invisible during daytime scenes but cloaked the landscape in darkness by night.<\/p>\n

For associate professor and resident costume designer Angelina Herin<\/strong>, Arcadia<\/em> required versatility: She had to dress half the characters in early 19th-century garb, and half in casual 20th-century attire. Students produced both styles of garments on state-of-the-art sewing machines and sergers. Supply chain disruptions almost prevented costume shop manager Rainie Jiang<\/strong> from obtaining the model of sewing machine she wanted, but she went online and found a store in Indianapolis with several in stock. \u201cWe drove out there and purchased them,\u201d recalls director Jerrold Scott<\/strong>. \u201cIf we had ordered them, we would never have gotten them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The

Costume shop manager Rainie Jiang (left) cuts out brown-paper patterns while student Clara Johnson (near the windows) sews a mockup of a costume for a character in “Arcadia.” Photo by Roger Mastroianni<\/p><\/div>\n

The new wing\u2019s advanced technology proved to be a magnet for students, including Nolan Sayer<\/strong>, who was in his first semester as a double major in theater and mechanical engineering.<\/p>\n

For Arcadia,<\/em> Sayer learned to run the sound board. Once Walker gave him his first lessons on the equipment, he came in early most days \u201cto play around with it and figure out how it worked.\u201d Sayer views theater and mechanical engineering as related pursuits. What draws him to both, he says, is \u201cthe problem solving, the elements of creativity and technical knowledge working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

This spring, Sayer is advancing to the role of sound designer for a production of Stop Kiss<\/em>, by the American dramatist Diana Son, also in the Roe Green. He says Arcadia<\/em> gave him an enjoyable start. \u201cIt\u2019s one of my favorite plays I\u2019ve ever worked on,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s such an interesting play, and really well performed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

PASSION AND LEADERSHIP<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Milton

Milton Maltz, seated onstage with Barbara R. Snyder during the dedication of Phase II of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, announced a $5 million commitment to name the facility’s Grand Atrium in her honor. Photo by Roger Mastroianni<\/p><\/div>\n

Speaking at the dedication of Phase II of the Maltz Performing Arts Center last October, philanthropist Roe Green <\/b>paid tribute to President Emerita Barbara R. Snyder<\/b>, whose dream, she said, had now become a reality. \u201cWhat we see right now was her vision. I’d like to thank Barbara for her passion, her leadership, that brought us to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The roots of the Maltz Center project date back to a 2007 conversation between Snyder and Richard Block, then the senior rabbi of The Temple\u2013Tifereth Israel. Then came negotiations, contracts and, in 2010, the announcement that Milton and Tamar Maltz had pledged $12 million to the project. As the Maltzes\u2019 aspirations for Phase II grew, so did their commitment\u2014and other benefactors joined them.<\/p>\n

\"Roe

Philanthropist Roe Green, who made a $10 million naming gift for the proscenium theater, praised Barbara R. Snyder for envisioning what the Maltz Performing Arts Center could be. Photo by Roger Mastroianni<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, 14 years after those early discussions, the entire project was complete. Snyder had stepped down in the fall of 2021 to become president of the Association of American Universities in Washington, D.C., but she returned to Cleveland to help celebrate the moment.<\/p>\n

Expressions of gratitude came from Fred DiSanto<\/b>, chair of the university\u2019s board of trustees; Frank Linsalata<\/b>, his predecessor; and President Eric W. Kaler<\/b>, who said, \u201cBarbara, I hope you understand and feel the remarkable respect and admiration and love this community has for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milton Maltz <\/b>used the occasion to announce a surprise for Snyder: His family had made a $5 million commitment to name the Grand Atrium of Phase II in her honor.<\/p>\n

As she had so many times during her tenure, Snyder quickly deflected credit. \u201cI didn\u2019t make any of this happen,\u201d she said, citing the project\u2019s many donors. \u201cAll of you made it happen.\u201d She reserved special praise for the Maltzes, recalling \u201ctheir faith in this project, their vision for what it could do for our university, for the Temple and for this community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, addressing them directly, she said, \u201cI hope we\u2019ve made you proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the time he enrolled at Case Western Reserve in the fall of 2018, Sarthak Shah<\/b> was committed to majoring in theater. (Eventually, he decided to study computer science as well, just in case a theatrical career didn\u2019t pan out.) Drawn to both acting and playwriting, Shah began taking a variety of courses and settled into the theater department\u2019s close-knit community. …Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":3683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2022\/02\/01111804\/quintet_thumbnail.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3520"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3520"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3803,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3520\/revisions\/3803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}