June 2024
Radio on the Lake Theatre returns to the BorderLight Fringe Festival in July 2024!
Thanks to everyone who attended this year’s BorderLight Theatre Festival! Radio on the Lake Theatre was thrilled and honored to return as part of the robust and diverse lineup, which took place in July in downtown Cleveland’s iconic Playhouse Square District. Radio on the Lake Theatre presented the world premiere of The Captain, The Crew and The Creature, written by Cleveland-based playwright Luke Brett and directed by ROTLT Managing Director Caroline Breder-Watts. This fascinating science fiction thriller, a fight for survival far out in space, was an immersive audio theater experience. The audience was blindfolded throughout the performance, and the actors and sound effects artists moved around them, providing audio drama from a unique perspective.
Comments from audience members
“Such a fun piece of theatre. The soundscape was really inspiring and engaging.”
”So much fun being submersed into a modern day radio play!”
”Totally awesome!! Very creative!! Loved it!!”
“Very visceral experience while blindfolded!”
”So creative, and original. A nice exposure to something new and smart.”
”This play was outstanding!!! The actors, sound effects, and writing were out of this world!”
Photos courtesy of Elaine Manusakis
Meet the Creatives
Chennelle Bryant-Harris (Captain Braxton) is an actor, director, and teaching artist. She was a member of the inaugural Apprentice Class of 2013 at Cleveland Play House and a Great Lakes Theater Actor - Teacher. She is most proud of the work she accomplished with her inter-generational casts of students, teachers, and professional actors when she served as director and planning team member for the Cleveland Branch of the English Speaking Union’s All-City Shakespeare productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet. Favorite credits throughout NEOhio include: Life Sucks! (Pickles) at Dobama Theater, Hamlet (Laertes/Guildenstern) at Rubber City Theater, 44 Plays for 44 Presidents and Panther Woman: An Army for the Revolution (various) at CPT & Twelfth Night: As Told By Malvolio (Olivia), at Great Lakes Theater. Chennelle will be on stage next in Dobama Theater’s production of POTUS Or, Behind Every Great Dumba** Are Seven Woman Trying to Keep Him Alive.
Amaya Kiyomi (Private Burke) is a Cleveland based actor and graduate from UNC-Greensboro with her BFA in Acting. Kiyomi has frequented local Cleveland stages like Dobama, Karamu, Convergence Continuum, and has expanded her reach to Akron with Ohio Shakespeare Festival. Amaya’s favorite role so far has been Princess of France in Shakespeare’s Loves Labour’s Lost with Ohio Shakes , Emily/Viveca understudy in Kristin Childs The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin with Karamu House, and Amy March in Heather Chrisler’s adaptation of Little Women with Dobama Theater. Connect with me on Instagram! @AmayaKiyomi_
Katherine Nash (The Creature) is a performer and artist based in Cleveland, Ohio. A graduate of Indiana University, she holds a BA in Theatre and Drama with a focus in acting. Recent acting credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, (Cleveland Shakespeare Festival), Significant Other (Dobama Theatre), The Temptation of Adam (Cleveland Public Theatre), Make Believe (Dobama Theatre), 2023 Marilyn Bianchi Kid’s Playwriting Festival (Dobama Theatre), After The Blast (Convergence-Continuum), and the various iterations of Bedroom Culture (Cleveland Public Theatre). Katherine would like to express much love and gratitude towards her friends and family.
Treva Offutt (First Officer Lewis) is a visual and performing artist and has worked with many dynamic dance/theater/music ensembles including NYC’s Urban Bush Women, Belgium’s Remote-Control Productions, Ireland’s Daghdha Dance Company, Mexico’s Choro Tajin, and India’s Adishakti Theater Company. Locally, she has worked as a performer, director, or choreographer with Karamu House, Dobama, Mamai Theater, Heights Youth Theater, Ensemble Theater, Cain Park, The Musical Theater Project, and The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra. She is the Director of Education at Playhouse Square, a proud RISD Aluma, member of SAG, and human.
Luke Brett (Playwright) is a Cleveland based playwright and actor with a talent for pop-up performances that create wonder from the ground up. He has performed his own work in unconventional spaces across Cleveland, whether that meant reciting original fabulist pulp stories at a bookstore or doing a handcuffed waltz on top of a hill in Public Square for the BorderLight Fringe Festival. He’s also acted on the mainstages of Great Lakes Theater, Dobama Theatre, The Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Playhouse, and Cleveland Public Theatre. In 2019, his first full length play Unletter'd, Rude and Shallow was a finalist in the Shakespeare's New Contemporaries project at the American Shakespeare Center and most recently, his play The Skull of Elizabeth Bathory was featured at Red Bull Theater's Short New Play Festival. He adores Cleveland and life.
Here’s an article about Radio on the Lake Theatre’s Managing Director at BoldJourney.com!
Meet Caroline Breder-Watts
June 18, 2024
We were lucky to catch up with Caroline Breder-Watts recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Caroline , thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
My optimism springs from the firm belief that there are more good people in the world than bad. I have juggled many careers, tasks and family issues over the years, and have been presented with many challenges. For the past 35 years, I have been a radio host and producer, an actor, a managing director for my own theater company, a director of communications for a major regional theater company, a fundraiser, a podcaster, a voiceover artist, and a wife and mother of two children with learning disabilities. Many of these jobs have occurred at the same time. The kindness and generosity of friends and family along the way continually renews my faith in this principle.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am the Managing Director of Radio on the Lake Theatre, a Cleveland-based non-profit professional theater company specifically dedicated to the creative development and educational outreach of the audio arts. We provide social emotional learning opportunities for students in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, many of whom come from underserved communities, teaching classes in audio theater, voice acting, playwriting and podcasting. We also just completed our first class with low- and no-vision adults through the Cleveland Sight Center. Many of these students come from difficult circumstances at home and are not normally given creative opportunities, and it is a thrill to see our students blossom and thrive through these programs. One young student of ours did not speak during most of his classes, but participated in one of our programs. During the culminating event, he spoke lines from a script for the first time, and the joy on his face was wonderful for all of us.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Work hard – even if it doesn’t seem that anyone sees you. They do. 2. Be kind – always treat people with kindness, even when you are are suffering yourself.
3. Laugh!
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
My parents (who came from a much more traditional generation) always instilled a belief in me that I could do anything. Being a woman, being too young, too old or too inexperienced didn’t matter. I had the skill and the drive within me to succeed.
Contact Info:
Email: cfbwatts@yahoo.com
Instagram: @artsradio
Twitter: @artsradio
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/radioonthelaketheatre
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930) with live sound effects by Radio on the Lake Theatre!
Saturday, September 9, 2023
7:30 PM 10:30 PM
Cinematheque (Cleveland Institute of Art) 11610 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH, 44106
The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra accompanies the lesser known silent version of Lewis Milestone’s masterpiece. Mont Alto’s music will be supplemented by sound effects created live by Cleveland’s own Radio on the Lake Theatre. This screen adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s searing anti-war novel—in which German schoolboys’ heroic notions of war are dispelled by battlefield realities—is not to be missed. 35mm. 133 min. For tickets, visit Cinematheque’s website.
Special admission $20; members, CIA/CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $17. No Cinematheque passes. Film preserved by the Library of Congress.
June 2023
Radio on the Lake Theatre has been selected to perform in the 2023 BorderLight Fringe Festival in downtown Cleveland!
Radio on the Lake Theatre was thrilled to be a part of the BorderLight Fringe Festival August 3 to 5 in downtown Cleveland. The Shadow of the Clock, a “20-minute murder matter” written by local playwright and frequent ROTLT collaborator Luke Brett, was an immersive audio experience where the audience was blindfolded and the actors and sound effects artists moved around them. ROTLT staff are now hard at work refining the play and seeking out venues and partners for more performances. Thanks to everyone who attended!
An audience member at The Shadow of the Clock
Sound effects artists Justin Pollack and Lauren Anthony
Sound Effects Artist Em Beer
February 2022
Radio on the Lake Theatre and Interplay Jewish Theatre, in conjunction with the Cleveland Arts Prize Past Masters series, will release “Out of the Past: The Stories of Martha Wolfenstein”
Out of the Past: The Stories of Martha Wolfenstein is a series of recorded readings of three short stories by the late Cleveland author Martha Wolfenstein. These stories first appeared in her 1905-published collection A Renegade and Other Tales, and have been enhanced in these recordings by a sound effects design by ROTLT Artistic Director John Watts. This project is dedicated to beloved Cleveland theater legend Dorothy Silver, who had already signed on to record these stories. After her death in 2021, the artistic team decided to move the project forward in her memory. According to director Faye Sholiton, "We were heartbroken that Dorothy could not complete this project, but were deeply gratified when three extraordinary women stepped forward to bring Martha's wonderful stories to life. Martha Wolfenstein was an immense talent whose work deserved to be revived for a modern audience, and we were thrilled when Dennis Dooley of the Cleveland Arts Prize told us they wanted to include her in the Past Masters series. It's a privilege to honor both her legacy - and Dorothy's - with these recordings".
Here’s a few wonderful recent articles about the project:
Cleveland author Martha Wolfenstein
Spring 2021
Radio on the Lake Theatre and BorderLight International Theatre Festival present the world premiere of Under the Sycamores, A Secret Path Audio Experience in Cleveland’s Historic Erie Street Cemetery.
Written by Les Hunter and directed by Jimmy A. Noriega, this self-guided, site-specific outdoor audio experience invites you to choose your own path through Cleveland’s historic Erie St. Cemetery. Meet early European settlers, a Native American chief and his descendants, an early civil rights leader, a famous Beat poet, and more from Erie Street’s 200-year history. Grab your phone and your earbuds, pass through the Gothic gateway, and explore the stories that intrigue you! With performances by Leilani Barrett, Ray Caspio, Robin Pease, and Treva Offutt and photography by Dave Robar.
Jimmy A. Noreiga directing Under the Sycamores
Listen to interviews about the BorderLight Festival and Under The Sycamores:
Cathleen O’Malley: BorderLight Festival Overview
Les Hunter: Under the Sycamores
February 15, 2021
Radio on the Lake Theatre’s Inspired By... program is featured on News 5 as part of Black History Month celebration!
The final play of our current Inspired By... series, This or That, by Kendell Berry, deals with issues of race and identity in high school.
Here’s a story about the play and the program that recently aired on News 5:
Students Mark Black History Month by Sparking Conversation with Radio Plays
Playwright Kendell Berry recording This or That
January 3, 2021
Radio on the Lake Theatre is featured on Spectrum News1!
Jenna Jordan interviews Artistic Director John Watts and actors from Baldwin Wallace University
You can hear their conversation here:
Throwback Theatre Troupe Revives Radio Dramas
Baldwin Wallace student Paige Cummings records a scene for CreakerBox Radio
August 15, 2020
The City is Our Stage
Radio on the Lake Theatre was proud to be a part of The City is Our Stage on August 15, 2020. Audience members traveled throughout the Cleveland area to enjoy performances from many different local arts organizations. ROTLT performed the famous “alien invasion” scene from the classic radio play War of the Worlds.
In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, ROTLT is looking for new and innovative ways to bring theater to life. Thanks to everyone who visited us for this exciting initiative.
Left to right: Caroline Breder-Watts, John Busser and Stuart Hoffman perform War of the Worlds
September 9, 2020
LIVE!(streamed) @ Silver Hall
Radio on the Lake Theatre presents:
Double Indemnity
as part of LIVE!(streamed) @ Silver Hall presented by the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center
This free streaming series aims to highlight local and regional talent on stage while performing to an empty venue.
Watch the video here:
Double Indemnity at the Maltz
Left to right, Stuart Hoffman, Brian Pedaci and Samatha Cocco in Double Indemnity
Casey Venema in Double Indemnity
Fall 2020
