The recommendations, all worthwhile, include artist fellowships and public art in neighborhoods and increasing funding to the many mid-sized groups that have been growing on their own for the last few years.

        Most of the recommendations were basically the same ones the CAAC presented a year ago with a lot more hoo-haa. The recommendations were politely listened to by a largely disinterested council, then put aside.

        Subtracting past and present committee members and arts reporters, Monday's session was poorly attended (fewer than 20), which might explain the subdued tone of the gathering.

        There were some very smart questions from a handful of audience members.

        Question: “Who are our champions on council?”

        Answer: The CAAC spokespersons ran down a list of six, an easy majority until committee member Don Corathers clarified (from the audience) that those council members' “sympathy hasn't been manifested in support of legislation” and that sympathy “does not support increased funding.”

        Q: “Have any coalitions been formed among midsized arts organizations?”

        A: Not that the CAAC is aware of.

        Q: “Are any organizations other than yourselves encouraging people to come out (for the budget hearings)?”

        A: “We don't know that to be so.”

        The obvious unasked questions were: Why doesn't the arts allocations committee have any of these answers? What did they learn from last year's failed attempt? What have they been doing for the last 12 months to help council members understand how important arts are to our community?

        Arts allocation committee members point out they are balanced on a very slippery slope because these are city appointments and advocacy would be a conflict of interest.

        Could be they are confusing advocacy with lobbying. Advocacy is “speaking in favor of.” They embarked down that road with last year's presentation in council chambers.

        Advocacy can consist of nothing more than regularly reminding council members — and we voters — how arts work for us on a lot of levels.

        A couple of weeks ago, the Kentucky Arts Council, holding a rare session in Northern Kentucky, hosted Tom Birch of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.

        He explained how to go about advocacy and that what works at the state level works at the local level. It isn't rocket science.

        Make sure that art by local artists is hanging on legislative office walls. Invite legislators to events. Keep them up to date on successes by telling them both the numbers and the stories behind the numbers.

        At least offer updates on the work of artists and arts groups who receive city funding to do good things in the community.

        If last week's session was anything to go by, the city's arts allocations committee can't identify their likeliest allies. They don't know whether anybody outside their own inner circle is thinking or planning or ready to help.

        They don't use their years of expertise to suggest how any interested individual or groups can take a leadership role. (The handful of people in attendance were encouraged to write letters.)

        The city's part-time arts officer Carolyn Gutjahr congratulates committee members on their willingness to take on more than the annual grants reviewing process. But the truth is, they haven't taken on anything more, at least not with any conviction or commitment.

        The committee members need to honestly assess their arts hearts' desire. What do they want to see happen? What's it going to take? Who can do it? How can they make a meaningful contribution?

        Advocacy isn't every November, it's every day.

        Director announcement: In other arts politics action, the Regional Cultural Alliance completed second round interviews with two executive director candidates in late October. Look for an announcement in about two weeks.

        In Moliere's footsteps: Talk about life reflecting art: When Stage First opens That Scoundrel Scapin/Rehearsal at Versailles Thursday for a three-weekend run at the Aronoff's Fifth Third, artistic director Nicholas Korn will be writing, directing and acting, just like the show's original author Moliere. (Well, maybe not just like.)

        Mr. Korn, last seen onstage two seasons ago when he starred as Cyrano de Bergerac at Stage First, will portray playwright/director Moliere playing one of his most beloved characters, the wily servant Scapin.

        Mr. Korn has fashioned a play-within-a-play with the double bill. Rehearsal “is about Moliere and his troupe rehearsing a play under tight circumstances, for a performance at the King's request.

        “How post-modern of Moliere, to write a play about himself preparing for a play. I make the play he's preparing for Scapin,'' Moliere's hugely popular farce about a pair of friends who fall in love with two pretty girls and leave it to Scapin to get the better of their fathers.

        For once Moliere wasn't writing in his signature rhyme, because Scapin is more concerned with knockabout comedy than word play. So Mr. Korn has translated the lesser-known Rehearsal in rhyming couplets.

        Mr. Korn isn't so much feeling post-modern as “Twilight Zone-ish” about his multi-tasking.

        Joining him onstage will be local theater vet Bob Allen and lots of new faces including Michael Ingersoll, Melissa Reeves, Ernie Roland and Stacey Slanker.

        Mr. Korn also invites Stage First fans to mark their 2001 calendars now for a fund-raiser brunch on Feb. 11, Eggs and Hamlet. Details will be forthcoming. (And Danish will be served.)

        Scapin/Rehearsal will be performed 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 26 (No performance on Thanksgiving.) Admission $15 adults, $12 students and seniors. Call the box office at 241-7469.

        Picket lines: Be prepared to cross a picket line to see Fifth Third Bank Broadway Series' The Sound of Music, opening Nov. 28 at the Aronoff.

        Local union actors are being contacted to protest headliner Barry (The Brady Bunch) Williams, who is reportedly dropping his actors union membership to accommodate this non-Equity tour.

        What's at issue for the folks who honor their union membership are little things like pensions and insurance.

        If you're wondering how a non-Equity show can play a union house, it's because the union contract is with stagehands, not actors.

        P.S. Why is the non-Equity tour of The Sound of Music the most expensive ticket of the Broadway Series season?

        “Equity isn't the only consideration (in setting price)” explained the Series' Louisville-based producer Brad Broecker, on his way out the door for a vacation in Australia.

        The last non-Equity show to play the series was last season's The Civil War.

        "Bridge' again: Tri-County Players celebrates its 40th anniversary with an encore production of The Octette Bridge Club. It's about eight sisters who meet to play bridge over a span of 20 years in the 1930s and '40s. Tri-County first presented it in 1987. Carol Mills, Sally Dowlin and Julie Jordan return from the original, as does director Lorrie Schurenberg.

        The show continues at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 19 at Llanfair Retirement Center. Call 825-0094.

        E-mail jdemaline@yahoo.com.

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