I have an early Christmas wish for the Regional Cultural Alliance: that its board members develop some political savvy — now.

        While COAST (Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxation) has been ear-splitting in its month-long arts attacks and its efforts to block a 71 cents per person investment in the arts by Hamilton County Commissioners, the RCA has been strangely silent in its own defense.

        Alliance board president David Herriman, tracked down in Key West, Fla., remarked that he had sent a letter to the editor of this newspaper outlining inaccuracies in COAST allegations about the RCA.

        He acknowledged that the alliance never has asked for retractions or corrections to what he calls “lies and distortions” in news stories.

        Mr. Herriman was stumped when asked about strategies. He noted there's been no effort to organize wide public support or track efforts made on the RCA's behalf.

        The alliance can't afford this naivete.

        The Regional Cultural Alliance holds the high ground — arts are good for families; they make economic sense; they help kids learn; they bring people together; they make us feel better about ourselves; they raise the standards of a society.

        The alliance, once it's up and running, would be a badly needed arts council. Its efforts would have an enormous payback, as arts councils do nationally, in community arts awareness and the health of every arts organizations.

        It could be Greater Cincinnati's first fulfilled example of regional cooperation.

        Our politicians don't believe that we care about the arts. When a group of people who have come together in the name of arts advocacy aren't advocating, it's no wonder.

        Alliance board members need to take their case to the people. Accepting membership on a working board demands more than showing up for meetings. It means committing to an idea and seeing it through.

        If COAST's attacks have proved anything, it's that arts supporters can't be complacent. Arts will always be under attack. As in any battle, if you don't stand your ground, you lose it.

        Don't take it for granted that quality arts can be maintained at current levels (which is zero from Hamilton County). Imagine how much more the arts could give back to us if we invested in them.
       

How to help
               I've been flooded with phone calls and e-mails following last Sunday's column outlining the need for a regional arts council. Your support of the arts far outnumbers the puny “30 active members” of COAST.

        My favorite response came from arts lover Elizabeth Stone, who has a Double-T answer to COAST — “Citizens Offering Arts Support Today and Tomorrow.”

        Citizens Offering Arts Support Today and Tomorrow — what a great rallying cry for everybody wondering how to combat small but loud COAST.

        The Regional Cultural Alliance board is scheduled to meet Monday. I hope they take Mrs. Stone's words to heart and take their case to the public.

        The public is ready.

        This past week, a lot of you have asked, “What can I do?”

        Several people have suggested community action, starting with a petition drive at holiday entertainments.

        What can you do? Call alliance vice president Gwen Finegan at 541-0479. Tell her you want to help and ask her how.

        Show your support of the arts by attending A Christmas Carol or The Nutcracker or Home for the Holidays or Sleeping Beauty or any of dozens of holiday entertainment by local arts companies. Take your family to a museum.

        If you see somebody looking for signatures to a petition that says something like “I want to invest in the arts in Hamilton County,” take a minute to sign.

        Remember to applaud long and hard after the show. The arts are a gift. That 71 cents is a bargain.

        Back home again: Hometown Broadway hero Ron Bohmer will take over as The Scarlet Pimpernel during its Cincinnati run Jan. 16-28 as part of Fifth Third Bank Broadway Series at the Aronoff Center.

        The School for Creative and Performing Arts grad had a stint on Broadway as the Pimpernel, mild-mannered fop by day, elusive adventurer by night in Frank Wildhorn's version of Baroness Orczy's romantic swashbuckler.

        Mr. Bohmer last appeared on the Broadway Series stage in the national tour of Sunset Boulevard, but he's been a regular guest artist with the annual local Back to Broadway fund-raisers.

        No word yet whether Mr. Bohmer will take a night off to give his stand-in, University of Cincinnati grad (Class of 2000) Aaron Lazar, a shot at the hometown crowd.

        Tickets: 241-7469.

        Pimpernel and Cinderella will participate in Kids Night on Broadway, a national audience development program that offers a free ticket to a show when accompanied by an adult paying full price.

        A limited number of tickets will be available for Kids Nights, on Jan. 17 and Jan. 24 for Pimpernel and Feb. 27 for Cinderella. Pimpernel tickets are available at the Broadway Series ticket office (Mercantile Center, 120 E. Fourth St.), the Aronoff Center box office and Ticketmaster outlets. Ask for K-Type tickets.

        Kids Night Cinderella tickets may be purchased only in person at the Broadway Series ticket office.

        Off-off Broadway: Speaking of Broadway and Cincinnati, make that off- and off-off-Broadway and Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music grad Leslie Kritzer has landed a plum. She'll play Fanny Brice in Papermill Playhouse's Funny Girl, and, yes, buzz is that it's a test for a Broadway revival. Another recent CCM grad, Kristy Cates (she was a show-stopper as Katisha in CCM's Mikado) will be off-Broadway in Boobs.

        Playwright Melanie Marnich, who spent most of the '90s in Cincinnati and has written a number of commissions for Children's Theatre including the upcoming Beethoven by Heart, will see a New York premiere of her award-winning Blur at prestigious Manhattan Theatre Club, opening April 24.

        Meanwhile longtime Cincinnati Shakespeare shining light Marni Penning will be on stage in John Webster's The White Devil Jan. 8-28 with the Liar's Club, performing in Tribeca.

        Not going to New York in January? Look for her in a background scene in Law & Order on Jan. 24.

        Minerva debut: The Butcher's Daughter, a fanciful drama with music about a sort of female Edward Scissorhands, has been selected as Janus Project's first annual women's project, dubbed the Minerva Play. Production is scheduled for late May.

        Playwright Jennifer Haley describes Butcher's Daughter as “a wickedly humorous examination of social topography as well as the lyrical exploration of one gal's corrugated soul.”

        The play had a workshop in 1999 at Seattle's Annex Theatre and a June production in Ms. Haley's Austin base. It was nominated for five local theater awards including best musical production and original script.

        She will come to Cincinnati to work on the show, which needs musicians, mask designers and puppeteers as well as actors and a creative team. Interested in participating? Call Janus general manager Kristin Dietsche at (513) 235-6597.

        Jackie Demaline is the Enquirer's theater critic and roving arts reporter. Write her at Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati OH 45202; fax, (513) 768-8330; e-mail jdemaline@yahoo.com.
       

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