A Place to Call Home

Abstract

Heavy storms rained down on Cleveland the week of November 6, 1994, but clear skies greeted board members on Saturday, November 12, as they ventured to the TRW World Headquarters in Lyndhurst for a special meeting of the Cleveland Play House Board of Trustees.¹ The retreat began at 9 a.m. with Bob Blattner expressing gratitude to the many trustees who were able to attend, followed by President Bob Newmark declaring the 1994–95 season to be a “year of stabilization.”² The controversy surrounding the departure of Josephine Abady had faded over the past 11 months, and following Roger Danforth’s temporary helming of the theatre after Abady’s tumultuous tenure, Peter Hackett arrived in November 1994 from Milwaukee where he served as the resident director of the Northern Stage Company. In an article announcing his appointment, Chris Jones of Variety noted that Hackett had “never helmed an institution of comparable size,” but this mattered little to the trustees who gathered to hear Hackett speak at the retreat.³ Newmark introduced Hackett who immediately declared, “It’s important for everyone to remember that every artistic decision we make is a financial decision, and every financial decision we make is an artistic decision. This is what ‘doing theatre responsibly’ means.”⁴