If you're not dazzled and amazed by what's happening in Cincinnati theater, you should be. Chicago would be happy to lay claim to this week's lineup:

        Opening tonight: Cincinnati Shakespeare's admired Giles Davies in his one-man salute to the creepy coming of Halloween, Turgid Tales of Turmoil, Terror and Tortured Souls. (7 p.m.)

        Monday: Theatre of the Mind, fresh off its triumph with Athol Fugard and Playland, returns to the Ensemble Theatre stage to continue its Windows of the World series with Michel Tremblay's Albertine in Five Times. (7 p.m.)

        Tuesday: Julie Taymor became a national name for her design work on The King Stag, directed by the acclaimed Andre Serban. American Rep (from Cambridge, Mass.) tours to the Aronoff Center for one-night only. (7:30 p.m.)

        Wednesday: Ensemble opens the regional premiere of The Countess, still playing off-Broadway. It's directed here by one of our best regularly visiting directors Michael Haney (ETC's Private Eyes, Playhouse's annual A Christmas Carol).

        Thursday: New musical comedy Everything's Ducky, hoping for a Broadway berth, tests its wings at Playhouse in the Park.

        Thursday also marks the debut of a new professional company in the region with Actor's Repertory raising its curtain in Middletown with Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. Carmon DeLeone wields the baton.

        For the incurably hip, Thursday marks the return of Saw Theater, fresh from New York, Philadelphia and Atlanta with the revised, completed, never-before-seen here art puppet epic Account Me Puppet.

        Friday: Giles Davies returns, this time as part of the roster of the Performance & Time Arts series, which begins its season of arts-in-process programs for the public at College Hill Town Hall.

        Saturday: Catch up on a regional premiere. Try The Weir at Cincinnati Shakespeare, Shakespeare's R&J at Playhouse's Shelterhouse or Polaroid Stories at Know Theatre Tribe.

        Who says Cincinnati isn't having a championship season?

        Now for some updates on those openings:

        Fringe benefits: Mark Fox was thrilled with Saw's reception on its quickie September tour. Account Me Puppet, inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost, was named Best of the Fringe by Philadelphia's city magazine. In New York, where Saw played on the fringes of the Henson International Puppetry Festival, Saw has been invited back for a three-week run at Theatre for a New City.

        Best of all, Vincent Anthony, artistic director of Atlanta's prestigious Center for Puppetry Arts, has invited Saw to be part of international puppetry biennial conference that Atlanta will host in 2002. “We'll take Account Me or whatever we're working on,” Mr. Fox reports.

        After performing at their Camp Washington home base weekends through Nov. 11, Saw will be back on the road, this time for a return visit to Detroit Institute of Art.

        Saw will hold a fund-raiser at its performing space (2823 Massachusetts Ave.) on Oct. 25. “Heaven and Hell, a Milton theme party,” Mr. Fox says lightly. There will be bits of performances, a disc jockey, drinks and dancing. Tickets $25.

        Account Me Puppet will play at 9 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Tickets $15. Information: 541-0872.

        Giles' miles: The rest of October is looking like all Giles, all the time. Cincinnati Shakespeare's Mr. Davies has been previewing his one-man Turgid Tales in Hong Kong (really!). The show is a compilation guaranteed to give you the willies, from an excerpt from Shakespeare to an American Indian poem about the coming of the white man.

        Tales continues through Nov. 1. Nevertheless Mr. Davies is finding time to do a piece he worked up at Ohio State. “I like that kind of neo-cabaret style,” Mr. Davies explained earlier this month. “It allows me to do my own creative work without having to do a whole show, to do something outside the festival.”

        Mr. Davies' piece is an artful anti-war protest. The PTA program will include several intriguing collaborations like one between jazz saxophonist Anne Marie LaCharity and dancer Mickey Morgan.

        Poet Keith Wahle will work with dancer Susan Moser. ""We'll both be moving,” he promises. “We'll select poems and movements randomly during the performance whatever comes out of my pocket is what I'll read.

        “We're hoping it will create a kind of chaos with beauty and communication at its core.”

        This is the sixth season for PTA at College Hill Town Hall (1805 Larch Ave., off Belmont Ave.) Tickets $8. Call 581-1222.

        Myers out: Actor's Rep had announced Broadway and regional Sondheim vet Pam Myers would star in Into the Woods. She's dropped out, essentially because Actor's Rep got into a time crunch getting its Equity contract. “I'd love to work with them later on,” she says. Ms. Myers will be replaced by understudy Molly Head.

        Information: (513) 727-9361.

        Fifth dimension: Regina Pugh directs Albertine in Five Times for Theatre of the Mind. She's rounded up some of the area's best actresses, including Sherman Fracher, Corinne Mohlenhoff and Mary Tensing, for the French-Canadian drama.

        Playwright Tremblay examines the character Albertine at five different stages of her life, all represented onstage simultaneously. The Albertines interact with each other and their sister as Mr. Tremblay explores what it means to discover and confront the truths about ourselves.

        Information: 421-3555.

        In other business:

        Getto resigns: Variety reports that Elissa Getto, who ended her tenure as Cincinnati Arts Association chief last spring for Connecticut's Westport Country Playhouse, already has resigned her post as CEO and executive director. The entertainment biz weekly reports that Ms. Getto will become a consultant to the theater for future educational programming and that a search for her replacement is under way.

        What if?: Christian theater group Friends of the Groom celebrates its 20th anniversary next weekend with Friends for 20 Years, a collection of short work exploring religious themes by much awarded company member Tom Long.

        The program includes Loose Connections, which won the 1998 Christians in Theater Arts national sketch writing contest and the premiere of his one-act comedy An Evening at the Starlite Lounge, set in a nightclub on the edge of heaven.

        Mr. Long says he likes to come at traditional Christian ideas from a “what if” perspective. “What if Jesus dropped in at a car repair shop? What if, in the future, grave markers were holograms that could speak for themselves?”

        Friends will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 and 7 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Lindner Fine Arts Theater at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy. Tickets $12, $10 students. Call 831-2859.

        Costumes galore: Actors Theatre of Louisville holds its annual public costume sale, just in time for Halloween. This year's big-ticket item is a Captain Hook ensemble, but there's also plenty of Hawaiian finery thanks to Humana 1999 entry Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls and goody bags of fabric at 25 cents.

        The sale is set for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday in the Victor Jory Theatre lobby on the second level of ATL's downtown complex at 316 W. Main St.

        Everything is sold first come, first served. Cash, check and credit cards accepted.

        Jackie Demaline is The Enquirer's theater critic and roving arts reporter. Write her at Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati OH 45202; fax, 768-8330.
       

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