Elizabethan-style roaming players doing pop-up performances made Cleveland Orchestra concert intermissions lively at Blossom Music Center in 1969. This band of performers laid the foundation for Porthouse Theatre. Starting in 1968 during Blossom’s debut season, the orchestra’s Musical Arts Association partnered with Kent State University to create Porthouse. While Porthouse’s venue was being built in 1970, the theater held its first full-length season under a large striped tent in the parking lot. In 1971, its thrust-style, 480-plus-seat theater opened, mounting “Girl Crazy,” “The Time of Your Life” and more.
While you could see dance performances, plays and operas at Porthouse in its early years, it transitioned its schedule to three musicals a season in 2012 under Terri Kent, who took over in 2000 and is now the Roe Green Musical Theatre and Porthouse Artistic Director in honor of a $1 million gift from Green.
The first Porthouse show Kent attended was a Wild West version of “The Taming of the Shrew” under director Alan Benson. “I thought that it was beautiful that it was surrounded by the Cuyahoga Valley National Park,” Kent recalls. Benson became her mentor when she was a young actor, and Kent did her first Porthouse show, “Man of La Mancha,” in 1983. “I felt like I hit the big time,” she reminisces. This summer, see “Grease” “Side Show in Concert’ and “Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon” — all directed by Kent.
Porthouse has full professional status, and all Kent State Bachelor of Fine Arts theater students must have a professional acting experience at Porthouse. Alumni have scored distinguished roles, including Alice Ripley, who won the best actress Tony Award for “Next to Normal,” Jeff Richmond, who is the composer of the “Mean Girls” musical and is married to Tina Fey, John de Lancie, who was on “Days of Our Lives” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and more.
The theater is undergoing exciting renovations, including getting a new roof and backstage upgrades. The stage is being renamed as the Joan and Rocco DiLillo Stage, in honor of their $1 million gift. Porthouse has staged more than 3,000 performances of over 175 works since its inception. Each year, more than 20,000 patrons enjoy a Porthouse show. Kent envisions Porthouse becoming a destination for theater for those in Ohio and beyond.
“We have drawn stronger and stronger students to Kent State,” she says. “They are leaving Kent State University and landing major roles in national tours, regional theaters, Broadway, cruise ships — the entire industry.” //KP
Bob Christy
Bob Christy
Porthouse Theatre
Porthouse Theatre
