YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio –The Youngstown Playhouse’s new downtown venue is a year away from opening, but its potential is already in sight.

John Cox, president of the Playhouse board of directors, says the new venue will give the theater a stake in the downtown nightlife scene and provide a new entertainment option.

Located at 220 W. Boardman St., the theater is within walking distance of many bars and restaurants and would add to the nightlife synergy.

Cox foresees putting up a marquee over the entrance that would brighten up this quiet section of downtown.

But the benefits of the downtown venue could go much deeper. It could help propel the Playhouse – which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this season – with new and sustainable sources of revenue.

The downtown theater will not open until April 2026. The Playhouse has applied for the rights to present “The Lion” there at that time and will follow it with “The Shark Is Broken” in June 2026.

“The Lion” is a one-man autobiographical show in which an actor uses songs to tell his family’s story.

“‘The Shark Is Broken’ goes behind the scenes during the making of the 1975 blockbuster film “Jaws” with actors Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider.

Since the acquisition of the downtown space was made public earlier this year, Cox has spoken with four potential donors interested in naming rights and other forms of support.

The new theater is located on the third floor of the Morley building, which is owned by Ballet Western Reserve. The long-time home of the Oakland Center for the Arts until that theater moved out in 2015, it was most recently used by Purple Cat, which offers programming for adults with disabilities, and then Ballet Western Reserve, which is located on the building’s first floor. The Playhouse has entered a contract with BWR to use the theater.

The venue is in good condition with fresh paint and renovated bathrooms and does not require any major work. 

“I could spit-shine this place for $50,000 to $60,000,” says Cox.

His goal is to make the Playhouse – and theater-going – part of the downtown entertainment scene, as it is in most big cities. 

“When you are in the theater district in Pittsburgh or Playhouse Square in Cleveland, the atmosphere is fun,” he says. “With the restaurants and bars in downtown Youngstown, we can tap into that a little bit and that’s what I’m hoping to do.”

A LOOK INSIDE

From the ground-level lobby, an elevator takes patrons to the box office lobby and an adjacent reception room.

Beyond the box office is the concessions area and then the auditorium, which has 140 plush and permanent seats on a riser. Plans call for expanding the seating by up to 25 seats, Cox says.

The backstage area has ample space for storage and a shop for building props.

The space will enable the Playhouse to present plays for an audience that is large enough to turn a significant profit. Currently, most plays are presented in the 70-seat Moyer Room in the Playhouse’s building on Glenwood Avenue. The Moyer offers intimacy, but its small size limits its profitability.

“We might break even or maybe make a thousand or two,” Cox says.

THEATER EDUCATION

Plans call for using the downtown venue for other purposes, including as a rehearsal space, and – most importantly – theater education center.

Toward that end, Cox and leaders of other arts organizations, including Smarts (Students Motivated by the Arts) and the ballet, have been discussing ways to collaborate.

“We want this to be our youth arts incubator,” Cox says. “We are talking with other organizations about what we can do to help them, and how they can help us… We will collaborate with anyone who wants to collaborate.”

Smarts, which is located three blocks away, already runs a youth school for the arts that includes theater instruction. It could take over the Playhouse’s theater education arm, Cox says, and expand it beyond the stage.

“Smarts has kids who want to do set design and set building and costume design, stuff like that,” he says. “We could do a show from conception, to writing [to mounting it on stage].” 

Becky Keck, executive director of Smarts, says hooking up with The Playhouse at the new location “makes sense.”

Her school has offered free youth classes in theater, visual art, music, dance and creative writing for 28 years, and has a large staff of instructors who are active in their field.

In the current semester, it offered 37 classes and enrolled over 300 students.

“What Smarts does is about education,” Keck says. “We have a full-time education director, and the staffing and the structure. Why should The Playhouse move downtown and try to compete with what we’ve already established?”

She has met with Cox several times and they are building a framework.

“We will engage with their professionals and our teachers to build a team of theater professionals,” she says.

Such a collaboration would also have advantages in terms of obtaining grants. “Partnerships that connect resources without duplication” are attractive to funding sources, she points out.

A PART OF THE FUTURE

The new downtown venue could help the Playhouse as part of a bigger picture.

“We’re looking into the future,” Cox says. “The [arts grants prompted by the pandemic] are gone and other funding is getting yanked. How do we survive?”

To save money, Cox is toying with the idea of moving the theater’s central office into the new space, which would help it save on utility bills at its much larger main building.

The downtown space could also free up the main auditorium, which seats 450, for rentals to bands, comedians and other touring acts.

“We’ve talked with The Funny Farm Comedy Club about them putting some midlevel comedians on our main stage,” Cox says.

The Playhouse is financially sound and would like to use the breathing room to redesign its business model.

To reduce costs, the Playhouse has already farmed out its day-to-day management duties to Stambaugh Auditorium. 

Cox would now like to start an endowment that would fund, among other things, the hiring of a full-time executive director. 

“We’re sitting in a sweet spot,” Cox says. “The pendulum is starting to swing back. [But] we need someone to guide us. The board can only do so much.”

To lure an experienced professional and ensure that he or she stays happy, the Playhouse would have to offer a multiyear contract with a competitive salary and benefits, Cox says.

Pictured at top: John Cox, president of the board of directors of the Youngstown Playhouse