Theatrical Woes Mirror Steel's Promethean Strife

The Ensemble Theatre in Cleveland Heights began planning the production more than a year ago. Since then, bankruptcy filings and heavy losses have sapped the steel industry and that, in turn, has hurt the theater group's ability to find money for the play and send its actors and steelworker backers to promote the play to schools and libraries.

Just like steel companies facing hard times, the group has had to cut back. The cast for "Steelbound" has been scaled back from more than 30 to 22. "It's frustrating," says Dorothy Canepari, a trustee of the group and, along with her husband, Bernard, an actor in the play.

Canepari is a paralegal at Oglebay Norton Co., whose Great Lakes vessels haul iron ore and other materials to steel plants. The Oglebay Norton Co. Foundation has donated $3000 for the project, she says. Overall, the theater has raised about $35,000, from local philanthropy groups and steel related businesses and individuals. It remains about $15,000 short of its goal, artistic director Lucia Colombi says.

Colombi had expected more support from local steel-related businesses, but that's been difficult to find. "Under normal circumstances, we might have done something," says Dave Gardner of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., an iron-ore supplier that was approached for a donation. "But with all the cost-cutting, we decided not to participate." Just this week, Cliffs reported it is cutting its headquarters staff by 35 workers, or 23%.

Despite the financial shortfall, the group still plans to perform the play on schedule, beginning April 27. Plans for visits to classrooms and libraries to talk about the industry, however, may be affected.

The opening night of the play already has been bought out by the United Labor Agency, a private, nonprofit group that is helping the performance. David Megenhardt, executive director, says the agency also will sponsor a forum immediately after the performance to discuss local LTV Steel's bankruptcy situation.

"Steelbound" debuted in September 1999 in a gutted iron foundry in Bethlehem, PA. It was funded in part by a $25,000 grant from the Bethlehem Steel Foundation. Bethlehem Steel, although still headquartered in the town, no longer makes steel there.

The script is adapted from the Greek tragedy "Prometheus Bound," in which the god Prometheus is bound to a rock and tortured for giving humanity the gift of fire. In "Steelbound," the modern-day god is a former steel worker bound to a massive 27-ton steel ladle because he's unwilling to leave and accept the closing of the mill. Workers, managers, and townspeople talk about the mill's impact on their lives, says Bette Kovach, a Bethlehem Steel spokeswoman who took part in the original production. "The play recognizes the heroic achievements of the steel industry and its workers," she says, "but it also laments a way of life that is passing and looks at where we go from here."