Cleveland Public Library’s Literature Department and The Friends of the Cleveland Public Library will co-sponsor a FREE and open to the public presentation and slide show by author John Vacha on Cleveland’s historic Hanna Theatre on Saturday, May 10, 2:00 p.m. in the Literature Department, on the 2^nd floor of the Main Library, 325 Superior Avenue. Copies of Vacha’s books will be available for purchase, and light refreshments will be served.

Vacha’s talk is based on his recently published book, From Broadway to Cleveland: A History of the Hanna Theatre (Kent State Univ. Press, 2007). The book follows the history of the Hanna from its opening on March 28, 1921, with an adaptation of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, to its 86^th birthday in 2007. It also provides an appendix listing some of the great actors and actresses who appeared in Hanna productions over the years, including Paul Newman, Celeste Holm, Burl Ives, Helen Hayes, Eartha Kitt, Don Ameche, Steve McQueen, and Katharine Hepburn.

Dubbed “Cleveland’s theater historian” by Plain Dealer critic Tony Brown, Vacha has now written three books on local theater. His two earlier works are Showtime in Cleveland: The Rise of a Regional Theater Center (Kent State, 2001) and The Music Went ‘Round and Around: The Story of Musicarnival (Kent State, 2004). A retired teacher, Vacha has served as an associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (Indiana Univ. Press, 1996) and as a co-author of Fine Arts in Cleveland (Indiana Univ. Press, 1994). For more information, call the Friends at (216) 623-2821 or the Literature Department at (216) 623-2821.