Dobama Theatre had been presenting short plays following 8 pm "mainstage" productions for several seasons before artistic director Joyce Casey asked David Hansen to act as the producer of a series of late-night events geared specifically to audiences in their late-teens and twenties.
[1] Called Dobama’s Night Kitchen, the title inspired by the 1970 Maurice Sendak children’s book, began in Fall, 1995.
David Hansen’s three-year tenure as artistic director of the Night Kitchen was dedicated to three models of production; the long-form improv, the collaboratively written script based around a single theme, and the new play written by a local (Cleveland-based) playwright.
Dobama's Night Kitchen also produced the first solo performance by Sarah Morton, The Eighth Wonder of the World.
Kilbane also began to introduce works not created by Cleveland-based playwrights, starting with Stupid Kids in 1999 and Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking in Spring, 2002, shortly before he concluded his four years as artistic director.