Playhouse Square presented its Falco Award to James A. Ratner on December 16 during the organization’s President’s Dinner.
James first joined the Playhouse Square Board of Trustees in 1996. Over the past 28 years, he has served on various committees including the Real Estate Development (Vice Chair, 2011-2013), Nominating and Governance and the Executive Committee. In 2015, he was named Chair-Elect and followed with serving as Chairman of the Board from 2016-2019.
During his tenure as Chair, Playhouse Square broke numerous records, including number of season ticket holders, youth performance attendees and annual visitors. James also advised on key projects like Playhouse Square’s Advancing the Legacy campaign, which raised $110 million, as well as the building of The Lumen apartment tower.
The Falco Award, named for former Playhouse Square President & CEO Art Falco, honors an individual, foundation or organization in Northeast Ohio whose leadership, perseverance and dedication has contributed to the success of Playhouse Square.
Past Falco Award honorees include Tom Adler, Glenn Brown, Pat and John Chapman, Chris, Connor, the Richard J. Fasenmyer Foundation, David Frazier, Joseph Garry, Jr., Elaine Hadden, KeyBank, Julien McCall, William Miller, Jon Outcalt, Raymond Shepardson, K.K. Sullivan, Senator George Voinovich, and the nine founding members of Playhouse Square Partners: Jeffrey Cristal, Lawrence Hatch, John Marcus, Jim and Kathy Pender, Peter Rubin, Sara Stashower, Kurt Weaver, Neil Weinberger, Mark Weisman and Theodora Wolf.