Blake Bowden figures Cincinnati Ballet artistic director Victoria Morgan must have been stunned by his dance scene (as a virile and ambitious new faculty member cuddling up to infamous Martha) in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? earlier this season at his home base Ovation Theatre.

        What else could have inspired her to want him to “interpret” some of the big dramatic characters in The Nutcracker, like Mother Ginger and Grandpa?

        Unless of course it's because his wife, Wendy Dorn, is the Ballet's company manager.

        Let's just say Ms. Morgan knew where to find him.

        Child psychologist by day, actor by night, Mr. Bowden points out that although he has played female roles before, most notably Juliet and Ophelia in The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged), “I've never had the pleasure of a 30-pound headdress and a 54-inch bust. This will also be my debut as a rodent.” (He'll play a Rat Soldier, too.)

        Being an actor among dancers has been a little like being a stranger in a strange land. Actors take notes. Dancers don't. “They were all making fun of me for writing things down” during the rehearsal process.

        He was also the only one counting out loud to the music.

        He claims that if you watch closely, you'll see everybody dancing to him. “After one rehearsal of the party scene, my partner said she'd do all the dancing if I did all the acting. That seemed fair.”

        All kidding aside, “everyone has been very patient with me.”

        Mr. Bowden says there's a lot of common ground between psychology and acting. “Stories are how human beings make sense of their world — and stories are the oldest forms of understanding what it means to be human.

        “The goal of an actor is to convey a story to an audience through character. The goal of a psychologist is to help a family, or, in my case, a child, understand how he or she fits into the broader "story' of his or her life. So being a storyteller is nothing new for me.”

        As a psychologist “I would recommend ballet to parents as a great option to help kids socialize, learn body/kinesthetic/proprioceptive skills as well as discipline and attention.”

        The Nutcracker continues through Dec. 26 at Music Hall, call 241-7469.

        RCA update: The Regional Cultural Alliance board huddled last Monday and here's what's likely to happen:

        Watch for them to request a postponement of any Hamilton County Commission vote concerning a $600,000 investment in a regional arts council until early January.

        Just to give this some perspective, that $600,000 breaks down to a 71 cents per person investment in the arts. Using that formula, the bill for the (current) stadium overrun comes to $60 and change per person.

        Vocally anti-RCA Todd Portune will replace Bob Bedinghaus on the commission Jan. 2, and RCA supporters will spend the next few weeks behind the scenes trying to turn him and/or Commissioner John Dowlin to the arts council's cause.

        The board has lots of likely persuasions, not least of which is the trumpeted Gallis Report, which listed arts and culture as one of the foundations upon which to build the region's growth.

        Arts and culture is probably the easiest arena in which to develop regional cooperation and collaboration, once arts pulls itself out of the quagmire of politics.

        With Tom Neyer Jr. voting in favor, how hard will it be to pull that second vote?

        Mr. Dowlin proclaims, “I'm not anti-arts!” He adds (emphatically) that he wants to see “a positive rate of return to the county citizen.” He says he's waiting for “RCA to answer my questions” that have to do with return on investment. He says not half of those questions have been answered to his satisfaction.

        Mr. Dowlin is more than a little miffed that all the arts organizations that might profit from the $600,000 investment (not directly financially but in terms of increased awareness) “are non-profit. They pay no taxes, but the city gets an (admissions) tax. What's the difference between the city's and the county's return?”

        Mr. Portune says that while he's “not philosophically opposed to arts support, and I have been a strong supporter of arts and arts funding on (city) council,” now is not the time.

        Mr. Portune says he sees his primary charge as “county spending and county debt.”

        There's been heavy buzz around town that two key players in the Regional Cultural Alliance short-sightedly threw their support behind Mr. Bedinghaus in the November election.

        Mr. Portune denies their politics have anything to do with his position on RCA funding strategy, but noted “there have been bad strategic moves in their whole approach and that raises other issues, too. Is this the best vehicle to support the arts or are there more direct ways?

        “The whole issue merits close scrutiny, and these are all issues and questions I intend to hit the ground running with on Jan. 2. I would hope to be able to have answers within the first year.”

        Mr. Portune's timeline clearly doesn't march with the RCA's. Just as clearly, Mr. Dowlin and Mr. Portune are going to take some persuading.

        As you send out holiday greetings this year, be sure to include Mr. Dowlin and Mr. Portune. Add your letters and phone calls to the efforts of the Regional Cultural Alliance organizers.

        Tell county commissioners you want more and better arts experiences for your families.

        Here. Now.

        Saving the Emery: The Emery Center has scaled back some of its dreams in favor of getting the doors open sooner. The hard-to-argue-with logic is that with the Over-the-Rhine theater dark, it has dropped off the entertainment radar screen.

        A phased plan has been approved that will get the lights turned on, action back onstage and Cincinnati in the seats, the better for the show-going public to understand why the region needs the Emery.

        Exterior work on the theater (at Walnut Street and Central Parkway) is counted as the completed Phase I. Watch for Phase II “in early 2001,” predicts Beth Sullebarger, executive director of Cincinnati Preservation Association and Emery restoration point-person.

        The first job is recruiting a campaign chairman to lead the charge to an $8 million goal.

        The new budget means persuading $500,000 from the city and $2 million from the state. That will be joined to $1.5 million each in existing pledges and historic building tax credits.

        That leaves $2.5 million to be raised in a new campaign. There's already a challenge grant waiting in the wings.

        “That's small compared to other projects,” Ms. Sullebarger says, pointing out the $100 million number being bandied for the soon-to-be-announced Cincinnati Art Museum campaign.

        Plans for an expanded stage to accommodate potential use by the opera and ballet have been set aside until those companies' long-range plans are completed.

        Phase II will keep the stage the way it is and add an elevator and restrooms, enlarge the orchestra pit, provide a new rigging system (replacing the 1912 original), add dressing rooms and a dance floor.

        Using the orchestra and first balcony, the Emery will become the 1,200-seat just-right-sized theater that could open up Cincinnati to myriad touring shows that can't play the Aronoff, where the auditoriums are too big (2,800 seats) or much too small (440 seats).

        How soon the theater could open has everything to do with how quickly the money could be raised. The project has to be completed by the end of 2003 to take advantage of the historic restoration tax credits.

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

Wrap up entertainment
Rockettes director got leg up on job as dancer
At the holidays with: Doug Pelfrey
KENDRICK: Activist takes job step further
DEMALINE: Actor steps into new role: Dancer
DAUGHERTY: Feel-good movie of Christmas season lampoons all of us
Gergiev electrifies Met Orchestra
New faces to join opera summer festival
Recordings capture spirit of Jarvi
Theater review
Get to it