Anyone who loves New York theater (I don't mean Broadway, I mean those great hole-in-the-wall spaces that pepper 42nd Street beyond Ninth Avenue and off lower Broadway) will get a Manhattan feeling from the new NoName Theater.

        Located upstairs in the Artery building at 913 Monmouth St., the NoName is midway between City Hall and Trixie Delight's on a block peppered with “for lease” and “for sale” signs. All the better for parking, Mr. Adams says.

        For that urban public transportation experience, there's a TANK stop on the corner. For the suburban commuting experience, Mr. Adams recommends taking the Memorial Parkway exit (it's 10th Street in Newport) off I-471, which is a couple of blocks from the theater.

        The theater, accessible by stairs or freight elevator, comes equipped with dressing rooms, a light/sound booth, a funky lobby with a purple sectional sofa and a sweet, 50-seat theater with real theater seating courtesy of Xavier Players, who are awaiting new digs.

        Now, all Mr. Adams needs is a few theater artists with dreams.

        The lobby area is plastered with NoName handbills that read “Your Theater presents . . .” “Wanted: Your Show” and “Your Show Here.”

        “I'd love to see younger people in the community doing original work,” Mr. Adams says.

        Mr. Adams has a long history in technical theater. More than 15 years ago he designed Ensemble Theatre's first show in Memorial Hall. Lately he's been working with New Edgecliff Theater.

        Opening a performing space, he says, “Has been a dream all my life. Not that I have a great artistic vision. I just want to encourage people to do things.”

        The NoName renovation started in June and went on and on, hindered by a then-out-of-service elevator. The seats and dry wall and theater lighting eventually were hauled upstairs and the fire doors installed, all with the help of Mr. Adams' son Eric.

        The NoName will debut in mid-February with a pair of one-acts (Laundry and Bourbon and TBA) to introduce the space to audiences and potential renters. Mr. Adams is hoping to charge $100 a night and $3 per ticket “but I'm flexible,” he says.

        With Shadowbox Cabaret slated to open at Newport on the Levee in August and the Southgate House a potential performing space, Mr. Adams' Newport location may not be so unlikely.

        Interested parties can call Mr. Adams at (513) 662-5654 or e-mail him at noname@zoomtown.com.

        "Incoming' experiment: Next stop, Denver. Then maybe the New York International Fringe Festival. But first, Incoming tries its wings as the latest entry in Cincinnati Shakespeare's free studio series at 7 tonight.

        Incoming is Jefferson Arca's fable about a man whose self-imposed exile high atop a mountain is interrupted when survivors of a massive, mysterious fire seek refuge with him.

        Incoming was commissioned by Denver Civic Theatre and will be produced there in summer/fall. Both playwright and producer will be in Cincinnati for the workshop.

        No reservations required. For information call 381-2273.

        East coast star: Internationally acclaimed storyteller David Gonzalez is next up in Playhouse's new alteractive series. Like series opener David Cale, Mr. Gonzalez is an East Coast Big Deal. He has performed at Lincoln Center, the New Victory Theatre, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and has appeared on TV with Bill Moyers.

        For alteractive he'll perform Run It Down, a collection of myth, original music, personal stories and poetry. The show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets $8, $5 students. Seatingis very limited.

        Intriguing collaboration: Steve Hinnenkamp, native Cincinnatian, Roger Bacon High School grad and now a successful music director and conductor in New York, has returned to Southwest Ohio for a brief visit.

        Mr. Hinnenkamp is midway through a month-long residency in Dayton where he's coaching performers for West Side Story (opening March 27). It looks like an intriguing collaboration among Human Race, Dayton Ballet, Wright State University's theater department and Victoria Theatre Association.

        His residency is supported by a grant from the Dayton Foundation's Allegro Fund, which favors interdisciplinary residencies.

        “If we're talking about developing new works here,” says Human Race's managing director Kevin Moore, whose dreams of developing new work are becoming increasingly concrete, "then we have to develop all-around performers.”

        Human Race's musical workshop series, which debuted last season, has caught hold with audiences. Mr. Moore is very excited about Mary Shelley-inspired Prometheus Dreams by the company's Patrick Vaughn and Sean Michael Flowers. It will be workshopped June 24-25 with “the goal of a fully staged production in 2003,” Mr. Moore says.

        More immediately, Human Race with the Victoria Theatre Association will open Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful on Feb. 1 at the Loft Theatre. It will be directed by Cincinnati's Dale Hodges.

        Human Race is the first area theater to announce its 2001-2002 season. (Expect Cincinnati theater announcements in March and April).

        Human Race looks to be the first theater in the area to introduce local audiences to very hot Chicago playwright Rebecca Gilman with her much-praised Spinning into Butter, about unthinking racial prejudice, and Over the River and Through the Woods by the author of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, a holiday hit at Playhouse in the Park.

        Rounding out the season are I Hate Hamlet, Seascape, last year's Humana Festival New American Play entry Anton in Show Business and Macbeth.

        For more information about Human Race call the theater at (937) 461-3823.

        Barry fined: Actor's Equity is sending Greg Brady to his room. At issue is the non-Equity The Sound of Music (which touched down at the Aronoff Center in November).

        The show starred former union member Barry Williams (seen 'round the world daily on The Brady Bunch). The union is fining Mr. Williams $50,000. Let the appeals process begin.

        Artist grants: Applications are available through Feb. 15 for the city of Cincinnati's 2000-2001 individual artist grant program. The program is open to artists, age 18 and older, working in all disciplines.

        Previous grants have supported the creation, presentation and documentation of new work; youth education projects; projects that involve the public in the creation of art; and music, dance, theater and performance art productions.

        Applications are available at the Department of Neighborhood Services (Two Centennial Plaza, Suite 700, 805 Central Ave.), Art Academy of Cincinnati (Eden Park building), Arts Consortium, Christ Chapel Arts Center, Crazy Ladies Bookstore, Enjoy the Arts, the Main Library, the Urban Appalachian Council and Westwood Town Hall.

        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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