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The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is a regional theatre in the United States. It was founded in 1959 by college student Gerald Covell and was one of the first regional theatres in the United States. Located in Eden Park, the first play that premiered at the Playhouse on October 10, 1960, was Meyer Levin's Compulsion.[1] The Playhouse has gained a regional and national reputation for bringing prominent plays to Cincinnati and for hosting national premieres such as Tennessee Williams' The Notebook of Trigorin in 1996[2] and world premieres such as the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Coyote on a Fence in 1998[2][3] and Ace in 2006.[2]
The Playhouse facility comprises two theatres, the larger Robert S. Marx Theatre and the smaller Shelterhouse. The Playhouse is among the members of the League of Resident Theatres. In addition to a full ten-month season of plays, the Playhouse also offers acting classes and programs for children.
In 1973-1975, the Playhouse was the first professional regional theatre to be led by Harold Scott.[4] Scott was followed by Michael Murray, who was artistic director at the Playhouse until 1985. Murray, an early leader of the regional theatre movement, was co-founder of the Charles Playhouse in Boston.
The Cincinnati Playhouse was under the leadership of Edward Stern (Producing Artistic Director) and Buzz Ward (Executive Director) between 1992 and 2012. Ward had come to the Playhouse from Yale University, where he taught in the Drama Department and worked as a leader of the Yale Repertory Theatre in the late 1980s. In 2012, Blake Robison became artistic director and Buzz Ward was promoted to managing director.[1] In the summer of 2021, Ward retired.[5]
