Ensemble Theatre's D. Lynn Meyers believes the thing that could make the biggest difference to the theater scene in 2001 is - you.

        “Three hours,” she says. “If everybody in the city would just give the arts three hours this year — theater would be great, but walk through a museum or test drive the opera — that would make a significant difference for all our futures.

        “It's not government funding that will assure our future if people make the commitment. If we could get them for three hours I'm convinced 90 percent would come back.”

        Winter is a fine time to test Ms. Meyers' theory (to say nothing of being a good way to stay warm).

        Were there theater tickets in your Christmas stocking? If not, treat yourself. The winter quarter is looking very good. Here are 13 weeks of recommendations that could just make you a true believer.

        Week one — Macbeth, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, 381-2273. (Jan. 4-Feb. 11). If you follow hip, young Cincinnati Shakespeare at all, you know the rep company features a handful of “stars.” Among them is Giles Davies, who takes the title role as the man struggling with ambition and conscience. Drew Fracher directs the modern-dress version of the Bard. If you don't follow the company, now's a good time to start.

        Week two — David Cale (Jan. 8) and Closer, Playhouse in the Park, 421-3888 (Jan. 6-Feb. 4). If you love independent film for its risk, edge and off-the-mainstream subject matter, let me re-introduce you to live performance.

        Take a night off from the Esquire and head for Playhouse in the Park. Actually, plan on several cold winter nights at the Eden Park theater. Playhouse introduces its Monday night alteractive series with Obie-winning too-cool-for-school monologist David Cale — for an $8 admission! INCREDIBLE. Space is very limited. Check weekly listings; alteractive is the best cheap ticket of the winter season.

        Playhouse makes it a double hit of hip with the regional premiere of British hit Closer in the Shelterhouse. No one under 18 is welcome. While there's no graphic sex or violence on stage that would earn an NC-17 rating, Playhouse management figures live theater in an intimate space packs a punch film only wishes it had. Hence the age limit.

        Closer reunites director Charles Towers (who will be greatly missed as he departs from Playhouse for his own theater in Massachusetts) and actor Kyle Fabel from last season's The Dead-Eye Boy. Closer is about the injuries a quartet of young urbanites are willing to inflict in the pursuit of love.

        Week three — The Scarlet Pimpernel, Fifth Third Bank Broadway Series, 241-7469 (Jan. 16-28). Composer Frank Wildhorn delivers another goofy musical, but this one has great costumes. Cincinnati's own former Phantom Ron Bohmer plays our secret hero, the fop by day, adventurer by night who saves French aristocrats from Madame Guillotine.

        Week four — Three Days of Rain, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, 421-3555 (Jan. 17-Feb. 4). Another wonderful option for the Esquire/Mariemont crowd, and Cincinnati's introduction to fine contemporary playwright Richard Greenberg. The title refers to an enigmatic journal entry discovered by the adult children of architect partners. As intriguing a triangle as the current generation forms, they have nothing on their parents. A trio of actors, including Sherman Fracher, move back in time to let the audience uncover the play's mysteries.

        Week five — Dark Paradise: Legend of the Five-Pointed Star, Playhouse in the Park (Jan. 28-March 2) What can I say? Keith Glover (In Walks Ed, Thunder Knocking on the Door) fashions an Old West adventure featuring Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and a gang of vampires. Now that's bad. Sparks will fly in what promises to be an eye-popping, special-effects romp. The design team boasts Broadway credits as long as Michael Jordan's arm.

        Week six — Hamlet, Stage First, Aronoff Center Fifth Third Bank Theater, 241-7469. (Feb. 1-18) It's the cast that makes this outing with the troubled Prince of Denmark worth a look-see, bringing together veterans of most of the city's smaller companies. The title role is taken by Jay Apking, artistic director of Janus Project; Julie Tolivar takes a break from studies at CCM to play Ophelia; talented Michael Bath is also on the ensemble.

        Week seven — The Trip to Bountiful, the Human Race, Victoria Theatre, 138 Main St., Dayton (937) 228-3630. (Feb. 1-18). Lauded Cincinnati actress Dale Hodges switches to director for Horton Foote's moving drama about aging. A widow chafes at the rigid life imposed on her by her daughter-in-law and longs for freedom, dignity and peace of mind — all embodied by a return to her small Texas hometown. (Bountiful originally premiered as an Oscar-winning film in 1985.)

        Week eight — Grand Hotel, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, 556-4183. (Feb. 22-March 4). Check out the lobby, replete with an elegant jewel thief, a morose actress, an embezzler, a sassy secretary. You won't find them at your average Holiday Inn. No, only a Grand Hotel is big enough for all these grand characters. The classic film turned Broadway musical gets a rare revival at CCM.

        Week nine — Avenue X, Playhouse in the Park (Feb. 17-March 18). The a cappella musical is set against the volatile backdrop of racial tension in 1963 Brooklyn, where Italian Bensonhurst meets the African-American projects. The score features the sounds of the conflicted neighborhood — gospel, early rock, liturgical music, R&B, jazz, opera, and folk tunes.

        Road Trip Alert: Humana Festival of New American Plays begins its month-long production schedule, which is, on paper, the most promising in years under new artistic director Marc Masterson. It includes new work from Richard Dresser, Eduardo Machado, Jane Martin, Mac Wellman, former Cincinnati playwright Melanie Marnich, Arthur Kopit, and a collaboration between Charles Mee and Anne Bogart.

        Week 10 — Lucky Stiff, CCM (March 8-10). CCM revisits the first produced work by now-famous Broadway songwriting team (CCM grad) Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime, Seussical, Once on This Island). It's a musical farce about a shoe salesman, mobsters, and $6 million in diamonds all running amok in Monte Carlo.

        Also consider: Somewhere in Between, Ovation Theatre, Aronoff Fifth Third Bank Theater, 241-7469 (March 2-10) It's looking like spring, and Ovation is feeling romantic with a light romantic comedy about being young and in love in New York.

        Week 11 — Love, Janis — Ensemble Theatre (March 14-April 1). Randy Mylar (Appalachian Strings) takes Janis Joplin's letters and combines them with the songs of her life.

        Don't forget about alteractive at Playhouse. March 12 it's internationally acclaimed jazz vocalist Lisa Sokolov, whose scat (according to the Village Voice) “...weaves traces of Near Eastern, Native American, operatic and jazz styles.”

        Week 12 — Art, Playhouse in the Park (March 18-April 20). The 1998 Tony winner for best play is about three good friends and a white painting. Is it brilliant? Is it a sham? Is it art? Charles Towers directs.

        Also consider: one-time UC business student Adam Kidd Drucker is now San Francisco rapper Doseone. He comes to alteractive March 19 along with Cincinnati native Boom Bip for an evening of avant-garde hip hop.

        Week 13 — Lovers and Executioners, Cincinnati Shakespeare (March 29-April 22) and The Clouds, Stage First (March 29-April 15). Cincinnati Shakespeare tries out a “new” classic with the regional premiere of the playful Lovers, a 17th-century-inspired swashbuckler about a betrayed wife, left for dead, who returns disguised as a man to accuse her faithless husband of “murder.”

        Stage First had a hit last spring in artistic director Nicholas Korn's outrageously clever and timely translation of Lysistrata. He returns to Aristophanes for inspiration with philosophical satire The Clouds. (It takes plenty of digs at Socrates — and, sorry, late-night talk show hosts didn't invent populist satire.) If Mr. Korn can achieve the heights of Lysistrata, a good time will be had by all.

        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; e-mail, jdemaline@yahoo.com.
       

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