Hey, Covedale, are you enjoying the arts, especially with a fine new theater?

What about you, Northside?

If you live in Cincinnati, whether it's Walnut Hills or Clifton Heights, Mount Auburn or Mount Adams, it's time to write our city officials and let them know how you feel about investing in the arts.

Expect the city's new budget around Thanksgiving, a budget that's wrestling with a $30 million-plus deficit.

For the first time in a long time, a majority of City Council members see the return on investment. They favor capital improvements in the arts downtown and in neighborhoods.

But special interest-groups are making their voices heard. So this is the time to say, "Good job, we like what we're seeing and we'd like to see more."

We like the city's investment in the new Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art and can't wait for the national and international attention it promises.

We like the support of neighborhood arts centers from Covedale to Kennedy Heights. Don't stop now. Madisonville and Corryville are standing ready.

Mike DiSalvo (left) stars with Carrie Ragsdale and Andrew Burkhart in The Credeaux Canvas at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Wednesday through Saturday. JEROME VIEH

You moved fast on the MidPoint Music Festival last month with great results. Now let's get an official downtown arts district. Promote it the way they do in Winston-Salem, N.C. Start the buzz.

Congratulations on the Vine Street Project and Over-the-Rhine Master Plan, but please consider that there's a big something missing from that telephone book-sized plan: the arts.

Arts can be an invaluable tool in rebuilding OTR. You helped save the Empire Theater on Vine Street; don't give up on the Emery. Make accommodations for live/work space for artists. It's been a godsend to turnaround neighborhoods in other cities. (Look at Cleveland.)

Arts issues tie in with everything from education to light rail. Tell our elected officials how arts spark growth, how they contribute to the big picture.

Remind them how, in a city that's been taking it on the chin over the last couple of years, the arts include everyone and have the kind of winning record our pro sports teams see only in their dreams.

City Manager Valerie Lemmie and Finance Department head Bill Moller are making budget decisions now. Don't sit back and think somebody else is doing your advocacy for you. If you care, let them know.

If you'd like some hard facts to throw around, visit City Council's Arts and Culture Committee's page at cincinnatiArts.com. Reach it by either searching for ACC.cincinnatiArts.com or going directly to www.cincinnatiArts.com , clicking "advocacy" then "Arts and Culture Committee," then "News."

Check it out even if you're not convinced. What you see just may persuade you.

Write all budget developers at City Hall, 801 Plum St., Cincinnati 45202-1979. To reach your elected officials by fax or e-mail, here's a list:

Mayor Charlie Luken, 352-5201, charlie.luken@rcc.org; Vice Mayor Alicia Reece, 352-3236, alicia.reece@rcc.org; Paul Booth, 352-4656, paul.booth@rcc.org">paul.booth@rcc.org./A>; Minette Cooper, 352-3409, minette.cooper@rcc.org; John Cranley, 352-4657, john.cranley@rcc.org;

David Crowley, 352-2365, david.crowley@rcc.org; Pat DeWine, 352-4649, pat.dewine@rcc.org; Chris Monzel, 352-3468, chris.monzel@rcc.org; David Pepper, 352-2446, david.pepper@rcc.org; Jim Tarbell, 352-3621, james.tarbell@rcc.org.

And even though December will be packed with big movie openings and holiday get-togethers, make a date to attend at least one budget hearing. It matters.

Sold out: The first event in the Enquirer's new Footlights series, an evening with local Producers stars Lee Roy Reams and Angie Schworer, knocking audiences out of their seats every night at the Aronoff Center, is sold out.

Plan to join Footlights early next year for a musical theater cabaret including a show tunes sing-along. Watch for details in January.

Busy Bat Boy: It's not hard keeping track of Bat Boy. He is, after all, on the cover of World Weekly News every few weeks. "I've been very busy," agrees Mr. Boy (a k a actor Patrick Garrigan). "I was fighting the Persian Gulf War, I was hanging with Al Gore, now I'm fighting Osama Bin Laden. It never ends."

Now he has to learn to sing and dance, somehow overcoming his ongoing tragedy of being misunderstood. What's a little blood-sucking when somebody's doing his best? "I'm always being persecuted for being different," sighs B.B.

Gosh. I thought I had problems.

Off-Broadway hit Bat Boy: The Musical makes its regional debut at the Human Race in Dayton beginning, appropriately enough, on Halloween and continuing through Nov. 17.

Mr. Boy says he's not a bit lonely for his West Virginia home - er, cave. Not with all the good times planned by Human Race. The Bat Boy Blood Drive is scheduled for Tuesday. (He says he wouldn't miss it.) The first 150 folks who register will get a free Bat Boy T-shirt.

There will be a special midnight performance on Friday (get free Bat Boy glasses!). Then on Nov. 10 there's the Bat Boy Bloody Mary Brunch in the theater lobby prior to the matinee. For information about blood drives and brunches call (937) 461-3823.

If you're not already reaching for the phone, I'll add that among the Bat Boy ensemble skewering musical comedies (from My Fair Lady to The Lion King) and sacred cows are a couple of terrific University of Cincinnati grads.

Dominic Bogart was last seen locally on stage at the Aronoff as Mark in the national tour of Rent. Tory Ross (class of 2002) was a stand-out at the College-Conservatory of Music in Candide, Triumph of Love and more.

By the way, Bat Boy hints that there's plenty of room for a sequel.

Box office at (937) 228-3630 or toll-free 888-228-3630.

It's art: Attractive Gen-Xers Get Naked. Now that I have your attention, know that Ensemble opens its Off-Center/On-Stage series Wednesday through Saturday with The Credeaux Canvas, which is all about art, forgery, get-rich-quick-schemes and other deceptions. Attractive Gen-Xers do get naked.

Featuring Andrew Burkhart, Mike DiSalvo and Carrie Ragsdale. For reservations and information call the box office at 421-3555.

Ticket change: Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati season patrons have one less special benefit to enjoy. No more ticket exchanges by phone. "We were seeing a lot of doubles," sighs Broadway spokeswoman Nancy Parrott.

Effective immediately, all exchanges are by mail, fax or in person. Call 241-2345 for information.

Irish drama: No need to tell fans of modern Irish drama who Donal O'Kelly is. Author of international theater festival hit Catalpa and Irish Theatre Award winner Bat the Father Rabbit the Son, he's an acclaimed playwright and actor.

Mr. O'Kelly, with Trinity College professor Nicholas Grene, will come to the University of Cincinnati campus this week for several events hosted by UC's Helen Weinberger Center for the Study of Drama and Playwriting.

On Thursday, Mr. Grene will discuss "The Dramatic World of Samuel Beckett" from noon to 2 p.m. in McMicken Hall, Room 130. At 3 p.m. he'll be joined by Weinberger Center director Norma Jenckes for "A Conversation on Contemporary Irish Drama" in Watson Hall.

Mr. O'Kelly will present lecture-demonstration "The Art of the Writer/Performer" at 7 p.m. in Watson Hall.

On Friday at noon, Mr. O'Kelly will present a master class, "The Personal and the Political in Creating Live Theatre," in McMicken 130, and at 3 p.m. Mr. Grene will discuss "From Synge to McDonagh: What Is Authentic Irish Drama?" in the CCM Studio Theater.

All events are open to the public. Both noontime events are brown bag luncheon seminars.

For more information call Ms. Jenckes at 556-3914.

Joining the Rockettes: Cincinnati in New York, on the road and recording: Katie Hyle, St. Ursula Academy 1999 grad, takes time off from pursuing her musical theater degree at New York University to rehearse as a new Rockette. She'll spend the holidays on stage at Radio City Music Hall in the annual Christmas Spectacular. The show opens Nov. 7.

No, Ms. Hyle isn't studying and performing says mom Nancy Hyle, but "Katie wanted to practice auditioning" and was rewarded with a job offer, one of 20 out of 400 dancers to win a spot on the line.

Ms. Hyle started dancing at 4 and her footprints can be found at most of Cincinnati's best studios. "Her dream is to dance on Broadway," adds Mrs. Hyle, who's planning five trips to New York over the next couple of months, escorting various family and friends.

McAuley High School alum Amy Miller (class of '96) has just joined the cast of the touring 42nd Street. Catch her in the chorus in Columbus from Nov. 12-17.

Opening night was earlier this week in Detroit. "I missed it," she half-moaned, half-laughed by phone. "My whole dream in life is to perform on stage at the Aronoff. That's OK, it will happen."

Ms. Miller performed with Cincinnati Young People's Theatre and Showboat Majestic ("I learned to dance in St. Ignatius dance class") before heading off to Otterbein College. She's been doing regional theater and summer stock since graduating with a bachelor of arts in theater.

She's thrilled to be in 42nd Street because "everyone in the show is a star." Her parents are coming to Columbus to see the show, and she hopes her Cincinnati friends will, too.

She offers a piece of advice for young performers. "Don't let anyone tell you you can't do something. If you have a dream and work really hard, you'll be amazed at what you accomplish."

Meanwhile, CCM grads Matt Bogart, Lauren Kennedy, Leslie Kritzer and Danny Gurwin are all on JAY Records' new double-CD cast recording of I Sing! The show about five grads trying to make it in life and love in NYC had a brief off-Broadway run in summer 2001.

Final reading: Women's Theatre Initiative wraps its fall series of staged readings at 7 p.m. Monday with Yazmina (Art) Reza's The Unexpected Man at Xavier University's Gallagher Student Center theater.

The play is an intriguing sequence of interior monologues by a pair of strangers on a train and features Dale Hodges and Paul DeBoy, currently appearing in A Flea in Her Ear at Playhouse in the Park. Mary Tensing directs. Admission $5, free with student ID. Call 604-8545 for more information.

E-mail jdemaline@enquirer.com.