by BWW News Desk | Feb. 21, 2019
Cleveland Play House (CPH), announces the World Premiere of Tiny Houses, a new comedy by Chelsea Marcantel, to be performed March 23rd-April 14th in the Outcalt Theatre at Playhouse Square. The production is directed by CPH Artistic Director Laura Kepley and is a co-production with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
Tiny homes are all the rage! Cath is ready for a big change. She quits her lucrative, fast paced job in finance and moves across the country with her boyfriend to build a 200-square-foot tiny house. Turns out that choosing a simpler life can get very complicated. Filled with lovable, idiosyncratic characters each on a quest to find a place to call home, Tiny Houses is a surprising world premiere comedy about what happens when the world shrinks.
Tiny Houses received its first public reading at the Chautauqua Theatre Company’s New Play Workshop in 2016, and was further developed in CPH’s New Ground Theatre Festival in 2018, where Ms. Marcantel received the Roe Green Award. Marcantel’s growing repertoire, including Everything is Wonderful, Airness, Ladyish, and Devour, has been produced around the United States and Canada. In addition to writing, Marcantel is an avid self-producer, a member of The Writers Guild of America and The Dramatists Guild, a recipient of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Fellowship at The Juilliard School, and has taught at at Virginia Intermont College and Emory and Henry College.
Ms. Kepley stated, “Tiny Houses is a delightful new play that comically captures the universal longing for home and family. Playwright Chelsea Marcantel explores the Tiny House movement- homes that are 200 square feet or smaller!- and fills her story with idiosyncratic, lovable characters struggling to determine what they really need versus what the world tells them to want. Turns out that choosing a simpler life can get very complicated, which makes for a surprising, charming and very entertaining night of theatre.”
Kepley continued, “The first thing that grabbed me about Chelsea’s extraordinary script was the daring dramatic proposal that a tiny house gets constructed over the course of the play. What a thrilling invitation to the design team, the director and the actors! The play is literally a labor of love and we can’t wait to begin construction!”
Kate Eastman (Cath) is thrilled to make her Cleveland Play House debut as Cath in Tiny Houses. She has previously worked with Chelsea Marcantel in workshops of Airness and White Girls Guide To International Terrorism. She has worked regionally at The Guthrie Theater (Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, BWW Regional Best Actress Nominee), Long Wharf, and Chautauqua Theater Company. Film credits include Damage, Brothers and About A Teacher. Television includes Blue Bloods, and Rx, a web pilot she also wrote. Education: Juilliard. Thank you Ali, Tom, Mom and Dad.
Michael Doherty (Ollie) is making his CPH debut! He recently closed a production of Chelsea Marcantel‘s world premiere adaptation of George Bernard Shaw‘s Saint Joan at Delaware Theatre Company. Other Regional credits include A Christmas Carol (Denver Center for the Performing Arts), The Foreigner (Utah Shakespeare Festival); The Producers (Bristol Riverside Theatre), Hand to God (Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Theatre Bay Area Award, Bay Area Critic’s Circle Award), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Theatre Horizon; Barrymore Award), Peter and the Starcatcher (Connecticut Repertory Theatre; Connecticut Critic’s Circle Nomination), Ragtime (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre), Assistance (Wilma Theater), and many more. His television pilot, Los Jarochos, won Best Writing at the 2013 Independent TV Festival. He received his BFA in Theatre Arts from the University of the Arts. He is the co-founder of CIRCL (Consortium for Interdisciplinary Research on Creativity and Learning), and is currently conducting a study what makes actors different than other people. MikeDoh.com
PETER HARGRAVE (Bohdi) is thrilled to be back in the 216 after graduating from the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House MFA Acting Program (Class of 2018). CPH credits include Shakespeare in Love, The Diary of Anne Frank, and The Good Peaches (world premiere). Peter recently made his Off-Broadway debut in The First Annual Trump Family Special at the Triad Theatre. Other Regional credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Gateway Playhouse, Texas Shakespeare Festival, Musical Theatre West, and Disney Cruise Line. My most important credit: Husband of Kat. Please visit peterhargrave.com or follow @peteyhargrave for more!
James Holloway (Jeremiah) recently appeared Off-Broadway in the world premiere of Separate and Equal at 59E59. Other New York credits include Macbeth (Theatre Row), The Men (Primary Stages), and They Think Our Favorite Color is Green (Kraine Theater). James has worked regionally at GEVA, the Tony Award-winning Crossroads, Bristol Riverside, Flat Rock Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, New Theatre, and won the BroadwayWorld Award-Los Angeles for Best Featured Actor in Broken Fences at The Road Theatre Company. Television credits include Law & Order: SVU, Blue Bloods, Sam & Cat, Grey’s Anatomy, The Newsroom, and Masters of Sex. Film includes The Roe Effect (HBO), The Cycle (HBO), and Jackson Parish (BET, Craft Award for Best Actor at First Run Film Festival). He holds a B.F.A. from the Conservatory of Acting at SUNY – Purchase College and a Master’s in Classical Acting from LAMDA. iamjamesholloway.com
Nandita Shenoy (Jevne) is an actor-writer living in New York City. She starred in the Off-Broadway production of her play Washer/Dryer at Ma-Yi Theater Company. She has originated roles in the World Premiers of Adam Szymkowicz‘s Mercy and his Marian, or The True Tale of Robin Hood, Eric Pfeffinger‘s Some Other Kind of Person, and Richard Dresser‘s Trouble Cometh as well as spending a season in the Repertory Company at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Television credits include season 3 of Netflix’ Daredevil. As a playwright, her work has been performed in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago as well as in Shanghai. She is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, the Dramatists Guild, and Actors Equity. Nandita holds a BA in English literature from Yale University. nanditashenoy.com
LAURA KEPLEY (Director) became Artistic Director of Cleveland Play House in 2013 and has directed numerous CPH mainstage productions including Sweat; The Diary of Anne Frank; Shakespeare in Love; The Crucible; Steel Magnolias; The Good Peaches (world premiere); Fairfield (world premiere); How I Learned to Drive (also at Syracuse Stage); The Little Foxes; Venus in Fur; Good People (also at Syracuse Stage); A Carol for Cleveland (world premiere); In the Next Room, or the vibrator play; My Name is Asher Lev and CPH readings of Roe Green Award-winning plays Tiny Houses; The Chinese Lady; Soups, Stews and Casseroles: 1976; Marjorie Prime and Daphne’s Dive. She joined CPH in 2010, having arrived from Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island where she was Resident Director and Artistic Associate for four seasons and Interim Director of the Brown/Trinity Rep M.F.A. in Directing Program for one. She has also directed for The Alliance Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Chautauqua Theater Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, among others. A native Ohioan, Laura received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and her Master of Fine Arts from Brown University/Trinity Rep. She is a Drama League Fellow and a recipient of the 2009-2011 National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Program for Directors.
The Design Team for Tiny Houses includes: Arnulfo Maldonado (Scenic Designer), Amy Clark (Costume Designer) Elizabeth Mak (Lighting Designer), Joanna Lynne Staub(Sound Designer), D’ARCY DERHSAM (Dialect Coach), RACHEL LERNER-LEY (Dramaturg). The Production Stage Manager for this production is JOHN GODBOUT.
Tiny Houses will be performed in the Outcalt Theatre at Playhouse Square March 29th – April 14th, 2019. Tickets range in price from $25-$97 each, $12 rush tickets for currently enrolled students under age 25 with valid student ID, and Young Professional discounts available with YP-CPH Membership. Student discounts available with valid student ID. To order single tickets please call 216-241-6000 or visit clevelandplayhouse.com. Groups of 10+ save up to 50% off single ticket prices; call 216-400-7027.
Subscriptions: Subscribers save up to 25%. Flexible season packages available. To purchase subscriptions or get more information, call 216-400-7096 or visit clevelandplayhouse.com
