Clague Playhouse

In 1928, Bay Village Women’s Club (founded in 1917) established the Bay Village Players, comprised of 52 women who loved theatre. The organization owned a little red schoolhouse on Lake Road just east of Basset Road, which the women began converting into a theater. Husbands began wondering what those women were working so hard on and began helping them by building a portable stage. The women began creatively stitching a patchwork stage curtain out of scraps of silk, velvet, and even some of the husbands’ old ties. Their first play opened to a full house, and the Players soon outgrew the schoolhouse. They then began playing in larger venues, including churches, school gyms, and other such venues. In the 1960s, Bay Village Players entered into a lease with the City of Westlake for the Clague Property with the intention of converting the barn into a theater to be known as Clague Playhouse.