Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF) alumnus, and two-time Oscar award-winner, Tom Hanks will return to Cleveland for a one night only event, entitled "Tom Hanks at the Hanna," to support GLTF’s "Re-Imagine a Classic" campaign on Monday, October 12, 2009 (6:00 p.m.) at the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare. Hanks has served as the Honorary Chair of the Festival’s fundraising efforts to re-imagine the Hanna as a new permanent home and to establish an endowment for the classic theater company since August of 2008.

Great Lakes Theater Festival alum Tom Hanks pledged his support to the Festival’s campaign to ‘re-imagine’ PlayhouseSquare’s historic Hanna Theatre as a new permanent home, by agreeing to serve as its Honorary Chair. As Honorary Chair, Hanks will lend his name, face and voice to GLTF’s fundraising efforts to secure the final $3.6M of the campaign’s $19.2M goal.

The grant was made on a challenge basis to stimulate new and increased contributions to the Re-Imagine A Classic Campaign campaign to create a permanent home for the Festival at PlayhouseSquare’s historic Hanna Theatre.

The design features an innovative "Great Room" design concept, fully flexible thrust stage and pioneering advances in theatrical technology.

Cleveland-based collaboration positively impacts the redevelopment of Downtown Cleveland, the region's economy and the cultural legacy of Northeast Ohio

The Project is pursuing "silver" certification as part of the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

Parker Hannifin Foundation Announces Generous $1.5 Million Gift

Cleveland, a city perennially desperate for something to cheer about can now let loose three hip-hip-hoorays, for Great Lakes Theater Festival, PlayhouseSquare and Tom Hanks.  The world's most bankable movie star will return to his Buckeye roots on Monday, Oct. 12, to perform "Tom Hanks at the Hanna" at PlayhouseSquare's historic Hanna Theatre as a fund-raiser for his alma mater, Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF), founded in 1962, never had a home to call their own. As one of the original tenants of Cleveland’s Playhouse Square the Fest peformed in the Ohio Theatre, a 1000-seat theatre that was too big for them. Finally, in 2005, Art J. Falco, president and CEO of Playhouse Square, approached the Fest wondering if they’d like to move into the Hanna Theatre, an unrestored theatre around the corner from, and a virtual copy of, the Ohio Theatre.
-Jacob Coakley, Stage Directions Magazine

When Noël Coward, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne wanted to tune up "Design for Living" before bringing it to Broadway in 1933, they opened the show at the Hanna Theatre in downtown Cleveland. Theaterwise, that's about as historic as it gets. Now this grand old building, built in 1921, has been taken over by the Great Lakes Theater Festival and remodeled to make it suitable for modern repertory theater. The "new" Hanna, designed by the Cleveland firm of Westlake Reed Leskosky, has been turned from a 1,421-seat Broadway-style house into an intimate 548-seat thrust-stage theater whose seating and public areas flow together seamlessly, thus encouraging playgoers to come early and use the Hanna as a meeting place. At the same time, the charmingly elaborate architectural detail of the original interior has been preserved. I can't imagine a more pleasing place in which to see a show.
-Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal

The worker’s pounding is loud — so loud that I can’t hear a word my tour guide is saying. But that’s to be expected on the stage of a theater 16 days before opening night of a new show.
-Brian Thornton, Spangle Magazine