Sunday, September 05, 1999
Cast of players on theater scene
Tristate troupes make great strides
BY JACKIE DEMALINE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Five years ago, Cincinnati wasn't a theatrical desert, but there wasn't much in the way of young sprouts surrounding the established Playhouse in the Park, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Fifth Third Broadway Series. Even Ensemble Theatre, at age 10, was on life support.
In 1999-2000, we're enjoying an already lively theater scene.
What happened? A lot of things: a financially stable, community-minded Playhouse; Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts' funding of smaller arts groups; more media coverage; the meteoric growth of Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival.
The importance of all of these factors can't be underestimated, but there is a testament to the theory “if you build it they will come” at the corner of Walnut and Sixth streets: Seven of the companies on this list have some kind of residency in an Aronoff Center for the Arts theater.
Two others, Ensemble and Cincinnati Shakespeare, have produced there in the past. At least one of the companies — Downtown Theatre Classics — came into being in order to perform at the Aronoff.
Here's a quick introduction to the companies helping to create Cincinnati's theater scene.
• The Children's Theatre. Artistic director Jack Louiso, 569-8080. Budget: $880,000. Entering its 52nd season.
The season comprises three week-long children's productions, usually musicals, at the Taft Theatre. In recent years there has been an annual commissioned work by local playwrights and composers. (This year's is Dirty Dinjy Daryl and the Mud Monster.)
There's also a one-week classic American drama (this year The Crucible) aimed at high school audiences at the Aronoff Center's Jarson-Kaplan Theater. Productions are anchored by professional actors.
• Cincinnati Public Theatre. Artistic director Don Wong, 221-7828. Budget: $25,000. Entering its third season.
There will be three productions this season at the Aronoff's Fifth Third Bank Theater. The theater's mission to host projects by regional theater artists hasn't quite happened. (Nobody's been knocking down their doors with ideas.)
Programming is a mix of Cincinnati premieres of large-cast major plays (Kentucky Cycle, Love! Valour! Compassion!), classics and slightly edgier work (Six Women with Brain Death).
Cincinnati Public defines itself as “semi-professional” and professional in intent. Actors are paid stipends rather than salaries.
• Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival. Artistic director Jasson Minadakis, 381-2273. Budget: $480,000. Entering its sixth season.
Known for high-energy performances by a company of 12, there will be seven productions at 719 Race St.
Titles this season will range from ancient Greece (Oedipus Rex) to mid-20th century nowhere (Waiting for Godot) anchored by four Shakespearean classics.
• College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, 556-4183.CCM encompasses three departments: musical theater, drama and opera. This season CCM will unveil its multimillion dollar “campus village” that will include a new studio theater.
As an academic institution, productions are chosen to give an optimal learning experience to students.
• Downtown Theatre Classics. Artistic director Jerry Lowe, 621-3822. Budget: $600,000. Midway through its third season.
DTC specializes in revivals of well-established, older titles, mostly musicals. Nunsense just finished a run; upcoming are non-musicals Amadeus and Wait Until Dark.
Casts are primarily non-professional with one or two professionals. Performances take place at the Aronoff Center's Jarson-Kaplan Theater.
• Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. Producing artistic director D. Lynn Meyers, 421-3555. Budget: $950,000. In its 14th season.
They're answering the phone, “Your premiere theater.” This season ETC is accounting for nine of the 1999-2000 premieres, six on the mainstage season, three as part of the Off-Center/On-Stage series in June.
Big titles for 1999-2000 include this year's Tony Award-winning play Side Man, Lee Blessing's Chesapeake andIrish import The Cripple of Inish maan performed by professionals.
• Fifth Third Bank Broadway Series, 241-2345. In its 13th year.
The series brings touring musicals, either coming from or going to Broadway, to Aronoff Center's Procter & Gamble Hall. The presenting series is owned by PACE Theatrical Group. Most of what we see here is either produced or co-produced by PACE Theatricals, which is why a title like Broadway bomb The Civil War is on the subscription series.
Also on the six-show schedule are Cabaret and Fame: The Musical.
• New Edgecliff Theatre. Artistic director Michael Shooner, 763-3844. Budget: $40,000.
New Edgecliff, named for the alma mater of professional actor/director Mr. Shooner and his partners, debuted last season and is taking its time in developing.
After an August production of All in the Timing on the campus of Xavier University, New Edgecliff will lie low until January, when it presents The Woolgatherers at the Aronoff's Fifth Third Bank Theater.
Mr. Shooner is in the midst of a long conversation with Xavier theater about making New Edgecliff the resident company on campus.
• Ovation Theatre Company. Managing director Deborah Ludwig, 369-1544 (an information line that is not updated regularly). Budget: $35,000.
Ovation debuted in 1998-99 and defines itself as “semi-professional,” although its artistic product has been shaky.
Its four-play season, including classy playwrights (Athol Fugard and Terrence McNally), the terminally hip (The House of Yes) and a classic (The Scarlet Letter) will be divided between the Fifth Third Bank Theater and the Carnegie in Covington.
• Playhouse in the Park. Producing artistic director Ed Stern, 421-3888. Budget: $7.2 million.
Forty years young this year, Playhouse will produce 11 plays in its two Eden Park theaters, the 628-seat Marx and the 225-seat Thompson Shelterhouse.
During the past few years, Playhouse has been growing in prestige and is arguably one of the best professional resident theaters in the nation.
This season will include American classics (The Glass Menagerie), Cincinnati premieres (Wit), musicals (More Smoke on the Mountain). There's also the Saturday morning children's series and intern shows at the end of the season.
• Stage First Cincinnati. Executive director Nicholas Korn, 956-8933. Budget: $120,000.
In its second season, Stage First will produce seven “world classics” at the Aronoff's Fifth Third Bank Theater. That translates to Moliere, Ionesco, Sophocles, Aristophenes, O'Neill, Brecht, Weill and — executive director Nicholas Korn, who will premiere his Alexander the Great: Part One.
Stage First defines itself as “semi-professional” and professional in intent. Actors are paid stipends rather than salaries.
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