How can arts possibly matter?

        Playhouse producing artistic director Ed Stern offers these thoughts:

        “A larger-than-life thing has happened, and arts are about what is larger than life. Art can help put things in perspective.

        “And eventually we return to normalcy. If we don't, terrorism wins out — and that deprives us of something important.”

        "Crying' time: The runaway hit of the National Black Theatre Festival looks like it will raise the roof of the Aronoff's Procter & Gamble Hall for two nights in October.

        The Jackie Wilson Story (My Heart Is Crying . . . Crying) is an R&B wonder that covers almost all of Mr. Wilson's nearly two dozen Top 40 singles. Now on a U.S. and European tour, while nothing is inked, Oct. 19-20 are reserved at the Aronoff.

        The musical bio has brief dramatic interludes between raise-the-roof musical numbers that follow Mr. Wilson's life even before before his stint with the Dominoes.

        It will again star Chester Gregory II, who won Chicago's best actor award for his star turn as “Mr. Entertainment.” He is electrifying in the role.

        How is it that The Jackie Wilson Story is finding its way to Cincinnati? Thank Don Sherman and the Midwest Black Theatre Festival. He fell in love with the show at the national festival in Winston-Salem and immediately started selling the River City.

        The Cincinnati festival's April 2002 dates didn't fit the show's touring schedule, but the company decided to try Cincinnati anyway.

        If The Jackie Wilson Story becomes a lock, Mr. Sherman plans to unveil festival details during its engagement here.

        In the meantime, several Black Theatre Festival deadlines are approaching.

        Mr. Sherman is hoping to work with companies throughout Cincinnati, and he reports that he's had conversations with several groups including Know Theatre Tribe.

        Deadline for production proposals and original script submissions is Oct. 1. Auditions will be Nov. 3.

        (513) 981-0668.

        "Committed' to New York: Ensemble Theatre will pay tribute to the city that suffered the most from this week's terrorist attack by dedicating the rest of the run of Fully Committed, a restaurant comedy set in Manhattan, to the people of New York, producing artistic director D. Lynn Meyers says.

        “They picked the wrong city (to attack),” she says. “New Yorkers are more resilient than anybody on the planet.” Fully Committed continues through Sept. 30. 421-3555.

        "Merry' reincarnated: Among the “new” musicals getting a lot of ink in the national press as the 2001-02 season rolls out is Lone Star Love, playing at the Old Globe in San Diego then moving directly to Cleveland while it's crossing its fingers for a Broadway run.

        A Reconstruction-era Texas take on The Merry Wives of Windsor with a score by Jack Herrick of the Red Clay Ramblers — yup, Playhouse audiences saw it first, way back in 1994 when it was going by the title The Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas. (And a durned good time it was, too.)

        In the Know: Know Theatre Tribe's Jay Kalagayan knows who his audience is: young professionals. And, he sighs, “They can be fickle.”

        Mr. Kalagayan is going to do his darnedest in 2002 (Know is the only theater in town to run on the calendar year) to make his theater habit-forming.

        His plan — edgy work and plenty of it, including a few premieres, and a couple of appearances uptown at the Weston Art Gallery.

        The lineup:

        • Feb. 8-23 — The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged), a regional premiere by the folks who brought you the oft-produced The Compleat Works of Wllm Shakspr (abridged). (“I love the idea of doing it in a church,” Mr. Kalagayan remarks.)

        • March 15-23 — Tommy Nugent's Burning Man, world premiere of a one-man show with plenty of magic and sleight-of-hand as Mr. Nugent recounts his journey from teen-ager consumed with rage to fiery Pentecostal preacher to street magician.

        • April 12-27 — True West, Sam Shepard's tale of two brothers in Hollywood.

        • June 14-29 — Mixed Blood, one-acts by America's leading African-American, Asian and Hispanic playwrights.

        • Aug. 16-31 — Ruthless!, off-Broadway long-run crazed showbiz musical about homicidal little Tina who knows she was born to play Pippi Longstocking and nobody better get in her way.

        • Oct. 11-26 — In Perpetuity Throughout the Universe, regional premiere of a satire about conspiracy theorists.

        Audiences in the Know will notice something missing from the 2002 lineup. Local playwright Kevin Barry (In Rebel Country, Track & Field) has been a staple of every Know season. While there won't be a production there will probably be a reading of Mr. Barry's latest work in the spring.

        While Mr. Kalagayan plans to direct the majority of the shows, he is talking with two well-established names for the open slots. That should help in raising the quality of the work on stage.

        Like a lot of other theaters, Over-the-Rhine-based Know suffered through spring box-office woes. Mr. Kalagayan says by late summer audiences were coming back. “I think we've survived. We're dedicated to staying here.”

        Before the new season starts, there's the rest of this season.

        Coming up in October is the regional premiere of Chicago hit The History of Bowling, one of the rare plays that has a disabled hero. Playwright and disability rights activist Mike Ervin creates a romantic comedy about a quadraplegic who finds love in an adult phys ed class.

        Immediately on the Know horizon, RISE: Reflections on One Race, a performance of “poetry, music and spirituality” featuring the works of Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Langston Hughes, Jayne Cortez and more, will be performed Sunday and Sept. 28 at the Aronoff's Weston Art Gallery.

        Know returns to the Weston Gallery in January with a performance focusing on women poets and prose writers, program still to be determined.

        The theater will hold a benefit, Know Affair, in December.

        For loads of information about all of the above and more, contact Know at 871-1429, knowtribe@hotmail.com or visit www.knowtheatre.com.

        Phoenix takes off: Wish plenty of luck this week to Rising Phoenix Theatre in Middletown, which tries its wings starting Thursday. Season opener is the splashy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

        That's an ambitious choice for a start-up theater. Cash is tight, but Rising Phoenix is determined to match a big show to a small budget.

        The solution: “Being inventive,” director Aaron Breford says.

        He's brought the budget into his concept for the show, although the budget wasn't the sole reason for the vaudeville-esque concept. “I wanted to give a fresh take on a classic.”

        In this Forum, a dozen vaudeville-era actors are stranded with no sets and no costumes and a show to do. The result is Forum, which in fact is based on the farces of Plautus, which convulsed audiences a couple of thousand years ago.

        “There will be a lot of outrageous doubling of actors, a lot of running off and on-stage for fast costume changes,” Mr. Breford says. “People are going to eat it up and love it — or they're not. I'm scared a little, but you can't make art with no risk.”

        Mr. Breford will return to Rising Phoenix to direct and emcee the '40s-era holiday show and then move on to Stage First in spring where he'll direct the final third of artistic director Nicholas Korn's stage trilogy about Alexander the Great.

        The theater is at 2 N. Main St. in Middletown. (513) 705-4131.
       
       Contact Jackie Demaline by phone: 768-8530; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jdemaline@yahoo.com.

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