YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Playhouse plans to expand to downtown Youngstown, leasing the former home of the Oakland Center for the Arts in the same building that houses Ballet Western Reserve.

John Cox, president of the Youngstown Playhouse’s board, cited several reasons for the decision. It’s difficult for any play to sell enough tickets to fill the Playhouse’s main stage auditorium at its Glenwood Avenue building. And the tiny stage and the seating configuration in the Moyer Room make it unsuitable for some of the productions the Playhouse would like to consider.

“The downtown facility is going to offer me a 175-seat house, along with the big girl up on Glenwood with 500 seats,” Cox said. “And then we’ll have the Moyer Room, so we’ll have three different venues that we can utilize.”

He also sees it as another way to make the arts an economic driver for downtown Youngstown. There are few businesses near the Playhouse at its current location. Theatergoers drive to the venue, park in the Playhouse’s lot and then leave when the show is over.

“That’s part of the reason why I want to get down there, trying to bring business to the downtown restaurants and the hotel downtown,” Cox said.

Going to a show in the third-floor performance space at 220 W. Boardman St., which was home to the Oakland Center for the Arts from 1999 until 2015, would be akin to going to Playhouse Square in Cleveland or the theater district in Pittsburgh, he said. Patrons can have dinner downtown, walk to the theater and then go nearby for drinks or a late-night bite after the show.

The plan is for the Playhouse to use the space for some of its productions and also rent it out for other local theaters for use.

“It can benefit the Playhouse and it can benefit the other theaters too,” Cox said.

The formal announcement is planned in May in conjunction with the opening of the Playhouse’s production of the musical “Oklahoma!” as part of its centennial season. Ballet Western Reserve will be choreographing the “Dream Ballet” that is part of the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical, and its dancers will perform the number in the Playhouse production.

The two organizations also will collaborate on grant applications in hopes of raising the money needed to make some improvements in the building before Playhouse stages its first show there in the first quarter of 2026.

“With two nonprofits in an area (working together), that’s usually what the funders are looking towards,” Cox said. “We’re pooling our efforts, which is going to hopefully up our chances to get what we need.”