The Ohio New Play Festival was formed based on a grant offered by LCCC's Roy Berko to produce new works by Ohio artists using professional Ohio artists. It frankly grew out of my desire to keep as much of the disbanded CPH resident company from starvation as possible. I produced three plays that summer before going on to form the Cleveland Actors' Theatre Company at the Hanna Theatre the following winter.

The plays were:

THE LAST DAYS OF ROUTE 66 by Ron Wilson, directed by Thomas Q. Fulton

The Last Days of Route 66 was written by Ron Wilson while a resident Dramaturg at the Cleveland Play House and guest Instructor at Case Western Reserve University where he now chairs the Theatre Department. It tells the story of two high school buddies twenty years after graduation. One has become a successful car dealer who keeps his 1962 Corvette in his showroom as a symbol of his dreams. The other is still a wild rebel who wants to take the Corvette and set off down Route 66 in one final fling. Based on its enthusiastic response in both the New Voices/New Directions reading at CPH and at LCCC as part of the Ohio New Play Festival, I chose to open the Cleveland Actors' Theater Company with it in 1989. Audience questionnaires at ONPF and CATCo both revealed that audiences felt the play was a wonderful, humorous yet touching play that recalled vivid memories, was insightful, and was performed extremely well. 99% of the audience at CATCo wrote that they would return to support CATCo because they were thrilled with the show and were eager to see more. (Where were they in June??? another story)

TREE AND BABY BEE by Robert Thomas Noll, directed by Harper Jane McAdoo

This was the story of the return of Ukranian-American Wasyl Kushnir (Bernard Canepari), nicknamed "Tree" ("I always wear green shirts in the summer...") to his family roots in the Tremont area of Cleveland. His sister Daria (Cathy Albers), his only living relative, has mixed feelings about his hoecoming as he had unceremoniously left the household in her care several years before, saddling her with the care of a demanding mother. Touching engaging, often funny, Tree and Baby Bee is an honest and real look at life and family. Mr. Noll himself grew up in the Tremont area.

MOM'S BLUE GUITAR by Jeanne Finn, directed by Wayne S. Turney

This is the remarkable true story of the magnificent O'Brien family of Buffalo, New York. Irene O'Brien, mother of eight, faces the responsibillity of caring for and seeing her daughter Maureen, victim of the rare disease Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa, through Maureen's last days. John O'Brien, Maureen's older brother, shares the disease and the play examines his reaction to his sister's impending death and his own vision of the future. The highly spirited American Catholic family responds to the demands with humor, love, faith, anger, and courage. Not a story about disease, it is rather a heart-wrenching, soul-stirring story of triumph and faith. The Playwright, Jeanne Finn, is a journalist who wrote the play at the request of the late Maureen O'Brien. Through the generous offices of an astonishing number of volunteers, we managed to get John, Irene and Michael O'Brien down from Buffalo to see a performance. John had to be flown in an air conditioned plane--which was donated for the occasion! Because of the DEB, John had to remain in a chilled room that couldn't go above 55 degrees. This was the hottest summer in memory, so we cranked the air conditioning in the theatre down to 50 degrees and pulled sweaters from costumes so the rest of the audience wouldn't freeze. John has since passed on as has Irene, but their story will forever humble and inspire me.