Blake Robison

The Cincinnati Playhouse opened its new theater complex in Spring 2023. We sat down with its Producing Artistic Director to talk about the connections among comedy, drama, and food.
interview by Bryn Mooth / portrait by Michael Wilson

Why do so many pivotal scenes in domestic dramas take place in the kitchen?
The kitchen is the gathering place where family conflicts and celebrations occur. So if you’re a playwright, it makes perfect sense to center a dramatic moment around the kitchen table. There’s actually a play called The Dining Room by A. R. Gurney—the whole thing takes place around the table.

What goes on behind the scenes when a play calls for food?
It’s far more complicated than you may think. At the Playhouse we perform six days a week, up to 36 performances of a show, so the actor has to eat that meal 36 times. We did a one-woman show in 2014 at the Rosenthal Shelterhouse Theatre called I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti. It’s a theatrical adaptation of a food memoir by Giulia Melucci. We built an entire gourmet kitchen onstage, and the actress made a full pasta dinner from scratch, every night, in front of the audience. There were a couple of tables onstage and if you paid a little extra you could eat the meal she prepared.

How do actors fuel their bodies for stage performances?
It’s not an easy thing to get up onstage and give even a modestly physical performance every night. Just like a professional athlete, you have to have the fuel and energy you need. Some actors just hydrate and eat a power bar before the performance because they don’t want to feel full, but if you go to the Blind Lemon or Mt. Adams Bar and Grill you’ll see a bunch of actors having a hamburger late at night.

What are you most looking forward to in the new theater building?
So many things! We are starting an arts and culture incubator and have a cohort of smaller groups that don’t have space of their own that will be able to use the Playhouse as a space for their work. I can’t wait to see what we create together. The new stage, Moe and Jack’s Place–The Rouse Theatre, is state of the art. It will give our artists, designers, directors, and actors the home that they deserve; the space is commensurate with the art that happens here.

You’re hosting dinner for three theater folks. Who is at your table?
First would be Joe Papp, the great theater impresario who started Shakespeare in the Park in New York and is a role model for many director-producers like me. The great August Wilson, arguably the greatest of all American playwrights. And then my dear friend and colleague Karen Zacarías, a contemporary playwright. She and I have made a lot of art together. We debuted her comedy Native Gardens at the Playhouse in 2016; the third production at the new theater this year is her reimagining of the great Western Shane.

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VITAL STATS
Born in: Falls Church, VA
Lives in: Columbia Tusculum
Career: Joined Cincinnati Playhouse as Producing Artistic Director in 2012. Previously served as producing artistic director at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, MD. Directing credits include productions at the Guthrie Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Folger Theatre, National Shakespeare Company, and Vermont Stage. Shepherding the Playhouse’s $50 million complex, which opens with a sold-out performance of A Chorus Line on March 16.