Two-time Oscar Winner Tom Hanks To Lead Great Lakes Theater Festival Fundraiser 10/12

Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF) alumnus, and two-time Oscar award-winner, Tom Hanks will return to Cleveland for a one night only event, entitled Tom Hanks at the Hanna, to support GLTF's Re-Imagine a Classic campaign on Monday, October 12, 2009 (6:00 p.m.) at the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare. Hanks has served as the Honorary Chair of the Festival's fundraising efforts to ‘re-imagine' the Hanna as a new permanent home and to establish an endowment for the classic theater company since August of 2008.

Tom Hanks at the Hanna will feature a first-person exploration of non-fiction film entertainment, led by Tom Hanks, utilizing clips from his movies as well as from other documentaries. The evening will include an exclusive preview of Tom's newest project, The Pacific, a ten-part miniseries executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman and set in the Pacific theater during WWII, which will premiere on HBO in 2010. An audience-interactive question and answer period will conclude the evening's presentation.

"Great Lakes Theater Festival gave me much more than a start as an actor. In my three seasons at Cleveland's classical repertory company I learned the discipline demanded by the profession and the joy of being part of this one-of-a-kind creative art," said Tom Hanks in a recent statement.

"One of the most exciting things about Tom Hanks joining our team is the fact that he's really taking an active role," said Charles Fee, GLTF's Producing Artistic Director. "This is much more than a celebrity endorsement. This is a colleague committed to helping his home theater grow. His support of Great Lakes Theater Festival has never diminished and his interest in Cleveland as a city has continued to flourish. Beyond that it's just incredibly cool!"

Tickets for Tom Hanks at the Hanna go on sale to the general public on Saturday, September 12th at 11:00 a.m. and range from $75-$250. All proceeds from the event will assist Great Lakes Theater Festival in achieving its Kresge Foundation Challenge - enabling the completion of the Re-Imagine a Classic campaign.

The Premier V.I.P. Presentation and Dinner Package price is $250 ($150 is tax deductible) and includes premier seating for the presentation, commemorative program, postpresentation dinner with Tom at The Union Club, complimentary valet parking and a special gift. To make Premier V.I.P. Presentation and Dinner Package reservations, contact Alicia Hansen at (216) 453-4442.

The Presentation Only Ticket price is $75 ($60 is tax deductible) and includes presentation seating and a commemorative program. Presentation Only Tickets may be purchased by phone at (216) 241-6000 or online at www.greatlakestheater.org/hanks.

A member of Great Lakes Theater Festival's (formerly Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival) acting company from 1977-1979, Tom Hanks performed in nine productions over three summers. Most notably, Hanks garnered a Cleveland Critic's Circle Award in 1978 for his portrayal of Proteus in the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival production of William Shakespeare's The Two Gentleman of Verona. In addition, Hanks earned membership in the Actors' Equity Association, the professional actors' union, while working for the Festival in 1977. Tom returned to Cleveland in 1991 and 1993 to star in Coming Home and Now Playing Center, two original performance events to benefit GLTF. Since 1962, Great Lakes Theater Festival has brought the pleasure, power and relevance of classic theater to the widest possible audience in Northern Ohio. The first resident company of PlayhouseSquare, Festival programming reaches 85,000 adults and students annually.

For more information, visit www.greatlakestheater.org/hanks.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride