Cleveland's late-night theatergoers can show up late for work

CLEVELAND (Associated Press)-— Some employees showing up two hours late for work soon will have the perfect excuse: A ticket stub from last night's show in Playhouse Square.

The "Late Out, Late In'' promotion, announced Monday, is meant to encourage music and theater fans to enjoy the city's nightlife, even on weeknights. The city's tourism agency organized the promotion with participating employers.

Employees need approval in advance and must provide a ticket stub to claim the time off.

"Our employees work so much overtime as it is, I think it will benefit us in the long run,'' said Tony Weber, chief executive officer of Glazen Creative Studios, whose 11 employees specialize in corporate videos. Weber said it was too early to say how much it might cost his company to allow concertgoers to arrive late at work the next day. He also wasn't sure whether the option would be limited to, say, once weekly or once monthly.

Playhouse Square in Cleveland. There are four (if I remember correctly) extant classic theaters on this part of Euclid Avenue. Many of the buildings faced demolition until one architect-planner realized that the individual theaters could be connected by creating a common lobby and infrastructure. This led to the realization that theaters could also be connected organizationally and programmatically.

"We have a fairly young staff and they work very hard and I would think they would appreciate us doing anything we can do to make it more fun for them to work here,'' Weber said. But Alan Dutka, whose market research firm National Survey Research Center employs 15, doubted the idea would catch on. "We are in business to do business, not to support the arts,'' said Dutka, who was checking on Ohio Ballet performances in the ticket lobby at Playhouse Square.

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The lesson that the Playhouse Square offers to DC is that the Downtown theaters need to cross-market and promote. While they all "compete" for attention on any given night, collectively they must market and make theater in DC a preferred choice over competition from places like Bethesda, Silver Spring, Arlington County, Strathmore, etc.

(Thank you to ArtsJournal for alerting me to this story.)