Applause is an Emmy award-winning locally produced TV show that celebrates artists and cultural groups around Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Each week this on-air arts magazine broadcasts a fresh half-hour of features, performances, on-location reports, and interviews from the studios of WVIZ/PBS ideastream. Special thanks to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College for the use of their Steinway Piano on Around Noon/Applause.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Topics: Arts
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Welcome to this special edition of Applause as we take a look at the oldest multi-cultural theater in the county, Karamu House, that was formed in 1915 by a pair of Oberlin graduates, Rowena and Russell Jelliffe, in an area of Cleveland along East 38th once known as the Roaring Third. The so-called "Playhouse Settlement" became a gathering place where people of all races, religions, social and economic backgrounds could come together, and where the Jelliffes' produced community plays and musicals. In 1919 the Playhouse Settlement was incorporated into a Neighborhood Association. In 1927 the organization acquired an adjacent theater that was give the name Karamu, the Swahili for "a place of joyful meeting," and the name that's become synonymous with black theater was begun. Following a fire that destroyed the theater in 1939, Karamu went on to build a new facility at its present location 2355 East 89th Street in Cleveland. And leading the cast and crew these days is Artistic Director, Terrance Spivey, who joins host Dee Perry.

We'll also take a look at one of Karamu House's signature pieces, Black Nativity, that tells the story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Christ, now in production for its 28th consecutive year. Joining Dee Perry is the director of Black Nativity, Terrance Green.

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Production of Applause on WVIZ/PBS is made possible by grants from:

The Cleveland Foundation
The George Gund Foundation
The John P. Murphy Foundation

United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland, Inc.

The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.