curtain call
Cleveland stages have hosted the brightest of stars over the decades.
Although Alan Alda came to Cleveland in 1958 yearning to learn Shakespeare, he kept being cast in funny, but dopey, farces such as the British comedy To Dorothy, A Son at the Cleveland Play House.
Born in Cleveland in 1922, she didn't make her first local stage appearance until Anna Lucasta in the 1946-47 Hanna Theatre season. In 2013, a 40-foot mural of her was unveiled at Karamu House, where she performed.
After moving to Cleveland in 1908, he entered many Charlie Chaplin look-alike contests. With a mustache made from ashes, he won a 1921 Luna Park contest and went on to perform vaudeville in area theaters.
At 10, he graced the Cleveland Play House stage as St. George (he wanted to play the dragon) in a 1936 production of Saint George and the Dragon. The Shaker Heights native got his own postage stamp this year.
