CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Play House has found its next co-leader. The 108-year-old cultural institution has named Rachel Fink, the current executive director at the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago, as its new managing director.
The appointment marks a homecoming for Fink, who was raised in University Heights and participated in CPH’s children’s theater troupe, the Curtain Puller, as a youth. She also interned at the theater at the beginning of her career.
“I am thrilled to be coming home after 25 years away from the 216,” Fink said in a press release. “I learned to love the arts growing up in Cleveland, from my time at Cleveland Heights High School, where my passion for arts access, social justice and inclusive, equitable practices was ignited, through my years at Case Western University. I had my earliest exposure to professional theater here, including, yes, time at the Cleveland Play House that I’m now honored to serve again. I can’t wait to get started.”
Prior to joining the Lookingglass Theatre in 2018, Fink served two years as managing director at Theatre Bay Area in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before that, she spent 15 years at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where she founded and was the director of the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre.
“We are very excited to introduce Rachel Fink as our new Managing Director,” CPH Board Chair Michael Meehan said. “The search process was thoughtful and meticulous, and considered many worthy candidates from around the nation. Just as Rachel is thrilled to come home, we are equally thrilled to be bringing her home to Northeast Ohio.”
Fink will be focused on the fiscal and operational affairs of the institution when she starts her new job this summer. She’ll work alongside interim artistic director Mark Cuddy, who has filled both roles since the departure of Collette Laisure last October. CPH has again retained Management Consultants for the Arts, the firm that conducted the managing director search, to find a new, permanent artistic director.
Both positions face challenges ahead. Founded in 1915 as America’s first professional regional theater, Cleveland Play House’s reputation has taken a hit in recent months. Leadership’s handling of a sexual assault of a cast member in January faced intense criticism, ultimately causing Charly Evon Simpson, the author of “I’m Back Now: Returning to Cleveland,” to pull the rights to the play and the director, Stori Ayers, to leave the project just two weeks before opening night. Eventually, the theater, in a letter signed by Cuddy and Meehan, admitted to “missteps,” apologized and outlined a list of measures being taken to ensure that artists feel safe and welcome moving forward.
Since the abrupt cancellation of “I’m Back Now,” the theater has staged two productions as scheduled: “Becoming Dr. Ruth” in April and “Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty: A New Sherlock Holmes Mystery,” which is now playing at the Allen Theatre through this weekend.