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Facility to see action again
The Youngstown Playhouse building will see the site for a June 20 fundraiser.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Playhouse building will again see action — possibly even for a theatrical production — for the first time since it was abruptly closed in October.
The facility off Glenwood Avenue will be the scene of a Playhouse fundraiser June 20 in the lobby and adjacent Moyer Room.
“A Night at the Races in Vegas” will have a casino-theme with video horse racing, games, a silent auction, hors d’oevres and cash bar. Actors and actresses will offer services while dressed in costumes.
The Playhouse had already scheduled two productions for this summer at Boardman Center Middle School. The Neil Simon play “Barefoot in the Park” will be its first production since “Company” closed Oct. 4. It opens a two-weekend run July 10.
“Blues in the Night,” a musical revue, will open a two-weekend run July 31.
John Cox, who will direct both offerings, said there is a chance that “Blues” will be staged in the Playhouse, if the auditorium and stage areas are in good enough shape.
Because the Playhouse is only renting the Boardman school for its production nights and rehearsing elsewhere, Cox said he had to choose plays that have smaller casts and sets that could be transferred between buildings.
Still, the fundraiser announcement represents the first concrete sign that the Playhouse building will continue to be used by the theater company. As of a few weeks ago, when a church approached the Playhouse with an offer to become a rent-paying tenant of the building, opinion among the theater board and the public was that the 50-year-old structure would not reopen.
Negotiations are continuing between the Playhouse and Christian Revival and Discipleship Center of the South Side to forge an agreement, said Pat Fagan, Playhouse spokesperson.
When the Playhouse board closed the building in October, it put its season on hiatus and its future in limbo. A sharp drop in grants and donations, coupled with the exorbitantly high cost of heating the building, which needs extensive roof and plumbing work, were the reasons for the closing.
Earlier this year, the IRS placed a lien on the building for unpaid payroll taxes. The Playhouse has since worked out a schedule to repay the debt.
Cox, the director of this summer’s productions, is also spearheading the fundraiser, along with actor-director John Herbert, who came up with the idea. Volunteers are being sought for the event, and anyone interested is asked to e-mail Cox at docjcc1@aol.com.
Cox said he wants to turn around the public perception of the theater.
“People want to know if we are open or closed,” said Cox, a pediatrician who lives in Boardman and has an office in Canfield. “They will be able to come into the building and see that it has been cleaned up; that it’s not dilapidated. It will be a good unveiling of it.”
Volunteers have been cleaning the building, he said, removing wet ceiling tiles, plaster and other areas damaged when a water pipe burst over the winter. Cox said that specialists have been hired to clean and eliminate mold growth associated with the water break.
Contractors will also be hired to fix the leaky roof and open backed-up drains.
Cox, who has long been an actor at the Playhouse (“Barefoot” will mark his debut as a director), is taking a lead role in the Playhouse’s struggle to make a comeback.
“When I was young, it was known that if you were in a show at the Playhouse and it went over big, then you had done something in local theater,” said Cox. “I grew up here and I didn’t want to see [the Playhouse] end this way.”
He said he wants to turn around the Playhouse’s situation by getting the whole community involved. Area businesses are being contacted to support the fundraiser by “buying” horses, which they can name.
The Playhouse is taking things one step at a time, and focusing on quality, said Cox. It has not yet even discussed what its lineup will be for next season — a task that other theaters have long since settled.
Joe Scarvell is assisting Cox with the fundraiser. He has been a key player at the Playhouse since 1958, serving as both an actor and director.
Scarvell put a historical perspective on the need to preserve the Playhouse.
“I came along in 1958, when the theater was still on Market Street,” he said.
“I met the woman who would become my wife there, and we’ve been married 48 years. I’ve also met scores of people there, hundreds of people, who have like interests, and I want to be able to sustain that and pass it on to whoever comes after.”
The Playhouse’s longtime regulars owe something to the institution and the people who founded it 85 years ago, said Scarvell.
“I have a strong sense of allegiance to those who came before me,” he said.