05-03-2025
Youngstown Playhouse to stage shows at a new downtown location
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — The Youngstown Playhouse can seat 450 people at its Glenwood Avenue Theater but next year, the playhouse will be staging shows at another location it's leasing.
Youngstown Playhouse President John Cox walked down the main aisle of what was the Oakland Center for the Arts.
'We are getting ready for the playhouse to expand,' he said.
Cox and the Playhouse have agreed to lease the theater from Ballet Western Reserve, the owners of the building.
'It just took two nonprofits getting together and talking. We all need to help each other,' Cox said.
The plan is to do two to three shows a year starting in March of next year. One show Cox suggested would play well in the theater is 'The Shark Is Broken' — the story of how the movie Jaws was made.
'I want to utilize this place more so for the youth education portion. I mean, not only is running the playhouse but as a pediatrician, the education portion for the youth is really the bigger deal,' he Playhouse used the theater last summer to rehearse Beautiful: The Carol King story. It needs work — lighting, a sound system, a video wall and a good cleaning and painting. Cox is hoping to pay for it with grants and sponsorships.
'I've had two people reach out to me and say we'd like to help. We'd like to put some money down in the downtown. We like this idea,' Cox said.
The theater is located on West Boardman Street downtown a block from City Hall in a building that long ago was the Elks Hall — but for the last 20 years has been owned by Ballet Western Reserve. The downtown location is what sold Cox on leasing the space.
'You go to Pittsburgh or New York, you see the lights and the flashing lights and there's stuff to do. It's the ambiance. The atmosphere. And I want to create that a little bit downtown,' Cox said.
The working name for the theater is Playhouse Downtown but John Cox is hoping to sell the naming rights as a way to raise money.
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