As we look to the first quarter of the new year, we're still caught in a recession. We're in penny-counting mode and, now that winter weather is finally here, home and hearth are looking even better than usual.

        I'm urging you to go out anyway. For the arts, success means getting people out of their homes and into museums, theaters and concert halls. I promise you'll have a good time.

        What follows is my quarterly week-by-week guide to worthy theater through the winter.

        Week one: Vagina Monologues (Jan. 1-20, Jarson-Kaplan Theater, Aronoff Center, 241-7469.) “If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?” “If your vagina talked, what would it say?” are just two of the questions playwright Eve Ensler asked a variety of women when putting together her show on accepting sexuality as part of the female experience. It's funny, it's serious, it's surprising. Not surprisingly, Tuesday's preview (when all the guys are watching football) is sold out.

        One-third of the cast changes weekly: Week One, acclaimed locally based actress Dale Hodges (Wit at Playhouse); Week Two, Oak Hills High and Northern Kentucky University grad Jenny Robertson; Week Three: Kathy Wade, best known as a jazz performer and as artistic director of Learning Through Art.

        Week two: Tim Miller in Glory Box (Jan. 14, Playhouse alteractive series, 421-3888). Mr. Miller, internationally hailed performance artist and one of the “NEA Four,” comes to Cincinnati for the first time, for one night only. (The NEA Four had National Endowment for the Arts grants pulled for not meeting standards of decency; they sued and won.)

        In funny and moving Glory Box, Mr. Miller is concerned with the difficulty of relationships, same-sex marriage and particularly the difficulties of keeping his Australian partner in America.

        Keep an eye on alteractive offerings that continue through April 1. The top price is a very nice $10.

        Week three: Arcadia (Jan. 17-Feb. 10, Cincinnati Shakespeare, 381-2273). It's the regional premiere of Tom Stoppard's wonderful mind-twister about two related plots that take place 200 years apart but play out simultaneously in the same English country house.

        Week four: Blues for an Alabama Sky (Jan. 15-Feb. 15, Playhouse, 421-3888). From Pearl Cleage, a romantic drama set in the Harlem Renaissance in which the essence of real-life Harlem legends (Josephine Baker, Langston Hughes) flavor the lives of the characters. The show is directed by Hal Scott, who returns to Playhouse for the first time since he was briefly artistic director in the early '70s.

        Week five: The Tempest (Jan. 29-Feb. 17, Stage First, Fifth Third Bank Theater, Aronoff Center, 241-7469). Director Greg Procaccino made sure there was never a dull moment in last season's Hamlet. He returns to Stage First to helm the Bard's magical tale of redemption and reunion on a mysterious island.

        Week six: Aida (Feb. 5-17, Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati, Aronoff Center Procter & Gamble Hall, 241-7469). The Broadway hit tours to Cincinnati. The Elton John and Tim Rice take on the Guiseppe Verdi original is both pop and eye-popping. Cincinnati native Kelli Fournier is the jealous princess who makes sure the hero and heroine come to a bad end.

        Also consider: Louise Smith, (Feb. 4, Playhouse, alteractive, 421-3888). Chair of the theater department at Antioch College, Ms. Smith is also a highly regarded performance artist. On this evening, she will view fairy tales from Cinderella to Beauty and the Beast through a modern woman's eyes.

        Week seven: Men on the Take (Feb. 9-March 10, Playhouse, 421-3888) and Women Who Steal (Feb. 20-March 10, Ensemble Theatre, 421-3555). Previous Rosenthal New Play Prize winner Carter Lewis (An Asian Jockey in Our Midst) grabs his second prize for Men on the Take, a shaggy dog tale about a depressed dude whose wife has divorced him (for the umpteenth time — they can't stay married), and he hooks up with her analyst (who carries many secrets).

        Ensemble presents the regional premiere of Mr. Lewis' Women Who Steal, a smart, road-trippy comedy that comfortably partners Men as it looks at love and particularly at fidelity from the female perspective. )

        Also consider: Mixed Blood: The New American Gothic (Feb. 8-23, Know Theatre Tribe, Gabriel's Corner). Know's work is uneven, but it has assigned three splendid one-acts to three smart young directors, which makes it worth a look.

        The line-up, all of which address aspects of the minority experience in America: The Dutchman by Amiri Baraka (Le Roi Jones), Eukia by Lanford Wilson) and Bondage by David Henry Hwang.

        Week eight: Dracula (Feb. 21-March 30, College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, 556-4183). CCM grads Richard Oberacker (a Cincinnati native) and Michael Lazar adapt the classic vampire tale into a lush operatic musical. They're starting to cook on the national scene. Take a first look at their first work.

        Week nine: Nocturne (Feb. 24-March 27, Cincinnati Shakespeare, 381-2273). This season Cincinnati Shakespeare has been mixing up its classical line-up with classy new work. You can find titles on its schedule at some of the nation's most highly regarded regional theaters. Nocturne is fresh from off-Broadway, a tour de force reverie by Adam Rapp about a thirtysomething guy whose life has been forever changed by his role in a family tragedy. Brian Isaac Phillips gets to flash his dramatic chops in this one.

        Also consider: Venus (Feb. 27-March 3, Miami University, Gates-Abegglen Theatre, 513-529-3200). This is the first time work by Suzan-Lori Parks reaches southwest Ohio. Ms. Parks draws her inspiration from an actual historical footnote: in 1810, Saartjie Baartman was placed on public exhibit at Piccadilly Circus (and became known as the Hottentot Venus).

        Ms. Parks explores western fascination with black female sexuality and assumption of racial inferiority. The subject matter is explicit; the production is recommended for adults.

        Week 10: Othello (Feb. 21-March 31, Cincinnati Shakespeare, 381-2273). The warrior Moor takes beautiful Desdemona to wife, and it's easy enough to poison his thoughts, for he knows the Venetians consider him of inferior race. Festival fave Giles Davies takes on the diabolical Iago, which should be fun.

        Week 11: Woman in Mind (March 8-16, Ovation Theatre Company, Aronoff Center Fifth Third Bank Theater, 241-7469). The wonderful Alan Ayckbourn probes deeper and darker in this “comedy” about a bored, unhappy wife who gets a knock on the head and starts having hallucinations that transform her everyday life.

        Also consider: Robert Post (March 11, Playhouse, alteractive, 421-3888) Mr. Post is a favorite on the touring kids circuit here but we rarely get a look at his highly acclaimed grown-up show. He's an actor, dancer, juggler and he doesn't just change characters, he assigns different roles to different body parts...

        Week 12: Ten Little Indians (March 5-April 5, Playhouse, 421-3888). Expect old-fashioned thrills and fun as Agatha Christie gathers a bunch of despicable folk in a creepy old mansion, on an island, in a storm and knocks them off poetically in keeping with a child's nasty nursery rhyme. Playhouse has demonstrated off and on through the years that it excels at this sort of thing.

        Week 13: South Pacific (March 19-31, Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati, Aronoff Center Procter & Gamble Hall, 241-7469). The Richard Rodgers centenary may be over, but the music lives on. “There Is Nothing Like a Dame,” “Bali Ha'i,” “I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair,” “Some Enchanted Evening” — all that and a Pulitzer Prize for drama as naive Nellie Forbush goes to an island paradise and tastes the suffering and sacrifice of love and war.
        Contact Jackie Demaline by phone: 768-8530; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jdemaline@enquirer.com.
       

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