Sometimes, it’s like being a parent. You have to know when to let go, even if it hurts a little. But in your heart and mind, you know it’s for the best.
In June, Karamu House, the country’s oldest African American producing theater, donated its priceless archives to Case Western Reserve University. The special collection will be housed in the Kelvin Smith Library and open to the public for serious research and to those who appreciate Cleveland’s rich arts and cultural history. Photographs, playbills, posters, actors’ bios and images, stage documents, correspondence penned by the famous (including playwright and Karamu House alumnus Langston Hughes) and more will be preserved.
Preservation is a huge, and often expensive, task. In some ways, the donation frees Karamu House, in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood, to do what it does best — respect its 106-year-old history, yet guide Cleveland’s Black and multiracial theater and cultural arts community into meaningful and changing directions.
President and CEO Tony Sias has been at the helm of Karamu House since 2015, helping make decisions that are far-reaching and visionary. A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Sias first arrived in Cleveland because he needed a residency with a regional theater to earn his master’s degree from Ohio University. He landed at Cleveland Play House.
“I had no intention of staying in Cleveland. That was 30 years ago,” says Sias, who has also been director, department of arts education for Cleveland Metropolitan School District and artistic director for Cleveland School of the Arts.
Sias calls himself “an artist inside and out.” He is a versatile director and actor who counts the opportunity to play actor/athlete/activist/singer Paul Robeson at Ensemble Theatre in Cleveland Heights among his favorite roles. Sias also has a special memory associated with his portrayal of Troy Maxson in “Fences” more than 20 years ago at Cuyahoga Community College, which was seen by playwright August Wilson.
“That production happened about a year after my father died. He was a contractor, specializing in fencing. The spirit of my father was on stage with me,” says Sias.
Sias is a businessman who has kept Karamu House not just surviving, but also “Thriving,” — the theme of the theater’s most recent campaign. He is also razor sharp when it comes to relevance. Since the pandemic began, Sias has helped craft the ideas for Freedom on Juneteenth and Freedom After Juneteenth. Both were celebrations of Black culture and looked deeper at “policing and trauma in the Black community, as well as voter rights and power,” he says.
Sias is grateful to have provided “a small amount of jobs” for actors during the pandemic shutdown. He is especially proud that Karamu House found ways to keep audiences engaged with panel discussions and interactions, even if not in person.
“Cleveland’s a great city. Karamu House is one of its treasures,” says Sias.